Water odor

[KEVMAR]

Our new to us 43 president when I turned in the water during the
Survey and terrible odor was detected almost like maybe sulfur?? How do I get rid of the smell ? Thanks

 

[kchace]

Hydrogen sulphide can cause that and it's moderately common. Since you don't know the quality of the water, I would suggest draining it completely and going through a water system commissioning. I believe Peggy has posted the steps.

Ken

 

[caltexflanc]

Who was your surveyor? It should have been a survey "fix it" item, or did you negotiate a lower price because of it? Do you know how long the water has been in the tank? Regardless you need to completely flush it, including the water heater, which can be one source. Check the anode on the water heater too. Then a light bleach treatment (see archives) and another flush. Then re-evaluate.

 

[KEVMAR]

Surveyor never mentioned it although I had turned it on in front of him alot of money for a mediocre survey ..
I did not see Peggy’s post or where can I find it

 

[timb]

i had problems at the lake with well water smell after a week in the tank. filtering during filling fixed it .
i haven't had a problem where we are now but i have a filter after the pump . maybe a flush and fill then the chlorine in the city water will take care of it . check that anode as mentioned above .

 

[wpc691]

https://www.krwa.net/portals/krwa/lifeline/1503/076.pdf

I’ve posted before, a couple of years ago I think, about Desulfovibrio Spp contamination in water tanks. If that’s your problem, your water may also look a little gray from the insoluble iron sulfide the bacteria produces from iron sulfate. Change the anode in your water heater, do the bleach flush described in many places (don’t shortcut the dwell time), refill with city water (well water is a bad idea), then maintain .5 ppm free chlorine in the system. Check with pool test strips, and add a little bleach diluted in a gallon of water as needed (calculations available in many places; don’t wing it, high chlorine isn’t a good idea for the life of many components). If you’re not using the boat, run each fixture a few seconds every day to pull fresh water into the lines.

Now that I think about it for a minute, it might have been the Hatteras forum that I posted that in, so nothing in the archives here.

 

[HeadMistress]

Surveyor never mentioned it although I had turned it on in front of him alot of money for a mediocre survey ..
I did not see Peggy’s post or where can I find it

If you have my book, it's on page 59...if not, it's somewhere in the archives here...or we can do it the easy way: Send me a PM that includes your email address (no way to attach anything to a PM) and I'll send it to you.


--Peggie

 

[ben2go]

If you have my book, it's on page 59...if not, it's somewhere in the archives here...or we can do it the easy way: Send me a PM that includes your email address (no way to attach anything to a PM) and I'll send it to you.


--Peggie

Where is the best place to get your book?

 

[HeadMistress]

There's a link to it on Amazon in my signature...just click on the title )my publishers idea)--which is a little misleading, cuz although it does deal with every source of odor on a boat and how to cure, or better yet PREVENT 'em, it's actually a comprehensive "marine toilets and sanitation systems 101" manual that explains the laws, describes all the types of systems and how they work, and will help you learn how to operate and maintain your system to prevent 99% of problems instead of having to cure 'em. And as we all know, prevention is always cheaper and easier than cure!


Thanks for providing me with an opportunity to post a shameless plug for it!

 

[FF]

"I would suggest draining it completely"

Folks building or purchasing a new boat should be able to specify a 2 inch fitting at the bottom of every water tank to speed draining.

Otherwise rinsing a 100G+ tank with the usual 5GPM FW pump is a PIA.

 

[timb]

"I would suggest draining it completely"

Folks building or purchasing a new boat should be able to specify a 2 inch fitting at the bottom of every water tank to speed draining.

Otherwise rinsing a 100G+ tank with the usual 5GPM FW pump is a PIA.

i pumped mine out and the pump quit working about 200 gallons in . i let it cool off an hour then finished . now if i want to drain it .i do it in stages .

 

[JohnEasley]

If you have my book, it's on page 59...

KEVMAR: Our still-fairly-new-to-us boat had the same hydrogen sulphide smell when we would first turn on the water after returning to the boat from being away for a week. We followed the instructions on page 59 (well worth ordering the book from Amazon) this weekend and the water already tastes better. It takes time to go through the steps so you'll have time to do other things during the process. We managed to wash the boat from top to bottom, stopping occasionally to complete the next step in the sanitation/commissioning process.

John

 

[wkearney99]

Otherwise rinsing a 100G+ tank with the usual 5GPM FW pump is a PIA.

Ding! Ding! give that man a prize. Yeesh, it takes foreeeeeeeever to drain my pair of tanks. Upside is I've got a spigot in the engine room, so I can at least attach just a regular garden hose and have that go straight overboard instead of taxing the pumps that drain my sink/shower sump boxes.

 

[ben2go]

There's a link to it on Amazon in my signature...just click on the title )my publishers idea)--which is a little misleading, cuz although it does deal with every source of odor on a boat and how to cure, or better yet PREVENT 'em, it's actually a comprehensive "marine toilets and sanitation systems 101" manual that explains the laws, describes all the types of systems and how they work, and will help you learn how to operate and maintain your system to prevent 99% of problems instead of having to cure 'em. And as we all know, prevention is always cheaper and easier than cure!


Thanks for providing me with an opportunity to post a shameless plug for it!

Thank you and you're welcome.