Foul odor & taste in water

[Darrell Terry]

Recently stayed at Riverbend RV Park in Harrisburg,OR while having coach serviced.
The HydroHot system was serviced as part of the maintenance.
 I now have a foul odor and taste when using Hot water from HH system.
Cold water does not give off the odor/taste.
I either fouled my inline water filter from connecting to Riverbend's water source or I am getting
antifreeze from HH system into water supply.
Has anyone else experienced foul odors/taste with water after staying at Riverbend?

Darrell Terry
2004 Beaver/Monterey

[Ron Langdon]

Darrell, have not stayed at Riverbend, but noticed an odor in bathroom hot water. Only in bath and only with hot water.

[Roy C Tyler]

 Ron
If you have a Surburban hot water heater, change the anode rod.  The foul smell can be noticed when the rod expires and needs changing.

[Ron Langdon]

Thanks, Chuck, but why would this be specific to the bathroom sink? Unless the ht water is "activating" something stuck in the drain? The aroma would be coming up rather than out of the faucet?

[Joel Ashley]

I'd put hot water from the bath sink in a cup where you can take it from the room and isolate if it smells or not, Ron.  If so, unscrew and check the screen on the faucet tip as a first easy step;  after that, your guess is as good as mine.  Darrell, I'd think contaminate from AquaHot fluid would provide a unique smell.  I'd certainly hope it wasn't an exchanger perforation, but others more familiar with AquaHot internal engineering would have to speak to whether fluid could actually find its way into a hot water line.  

If the water in the cup doesn't smell or taste, Ron, I'd remove and clean both the P trap under the sink and the drain plug core.

Joel

[Tom and Pam Brown]

Drains would not cause water out of the faucet to taste bad.  It has to be either contamination from aqua hot or the lines.

I do not have an aqua hot so limited knowledge on its function. Is the water discolored?

[Dick Simonis]

If the problem is hot water specific and it's true with all the taps than either the HW heater got contaminated or a containment is in the water that possibly out-gasses with temp.  Take a large pan of cold water and heat it on the stove top and give it a sniff test as it getting hot.  If it passes the sniff test than look at flushing/cleaning the the HW heater and lines with a bit of vinegar followed by a light dose chlorine.

If the problem is tap specific than you know where the problem is.

[Orman Claxton]

Darrell
Check your filter,
I see no reason the smell could be coming from the HH.
I have had a strong odor and taste that went away after changing the carbon filter

[neil omalley]

Orman: what carbon filter?

[Orman Claxton]

Sorry, Guess I should have explained, I have a carbon filter installed in my water system.
A system we have not discussed...yet.

[Bill Sprague]

Many of us have some sort of canister filter system.  The cartridge can be selected for a variety of purposes.  Carbon is used in some to remove city water supplied chlorine.  I prefer not to use carbon filters because I think the chlorine has a purpose.  It should stop, or at least slow down, things that may grow in the on board water tank.  I do have a self installed 3M Filtrete system at the kitchen sink for drinking water.  Although I bought mine at Lowe's, this is what it looks like at Amazon.  http://www.amazon.com/Filtrete-Under-Sink-Standard-Filtration-3US-AS01/dp/B001DVWAVW/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_y

[Darrell Terry]

Thanks for the comments, Not sure if I picked up bad water at Riverbend or if freezing temps caused my issue. I noticed that the instructions for the Hydro Life filter stated to "NOT" allow the filter to freeze.
While at Riverbend the temps dropped to 18 degrees and everything froze. The filter was only 1 week old but I replaced and no longer have the odor/taste issue.

[Edward Buker]

My guess is that when the filter froze the filter element was destroyed. The pore size in the element were probably enlarged or torn and the carbon containment portion could have possibly cracked. I think the result was that you were getting essentially unfiltered water and the new one corrected that.

If you have that situation again perhaps you can add a valved Y coupling to your incoming water hose assembly inside the bay door with a short section of hose leading back outside. You could leave that extra y valve outlet cracked open enough to create a small trickle to keep things from freezing up.  This Y arrangement and draining the water back outside keeps you from worrying about filling your grey tanks.

Later Ed

[Lee Welbanks]

I have just left the water bay faucet trickle on real cold nights, added a 3 ft piece of a washing machine hose to the outlet and just let'er run.

[Gerald Farris]

Lee,
That bay is heated if your Aqua Hot is running. Therefore, if you leave the bay open enough to let the faucet drip, you are increasing your chances of freeze damage.

Gerald