Trojan Boat Forum

The water from my marina is well water or something, no clue what... but it has an AWFUL smell to it. Like Hydrogen Sulphide.. either way, what I need to do is EMPTY my water tank and go to a different marina and fill up better water.

I have tried everything in the book to remove the smell from the water but I am just not comfortable with my marina water and want to pump it out... any ideas would be appreciated as I dont know where to get a pump with two hoses that will fit inside the inlet hole..

Thanks much

Throw a quart of bleach in the tank and then pump it out using your water pump and out a sink. Just don't run the pump much more than 20 minutes without giving it a break.....
Note use true bleach not the one modified for laundry... The disinfectant style.

Are you sure you are not smelling the water from your hot water tank. This odour will come from this source when the hot water is continually heated and not used. Very smelly.

Its surely the water... my water pump is way in the back.. so difficult to get to

vickyb wrote:Its surely the water... my water pump is way in the back.. so difficult to get to

You mis-understand... open the sink tap and pump it out of the tank that way using your water pump.

After putting 7 gallons of RV antifreeze in my tank last fall (that is what it took to get pink RV antifreeze to drain out) it was nasty this spring. Put 10-15 gallons in and a gallon of bleach. Let it set for an hour or two. Dumped that combo and filled with 10-15 gallons of water and 1/2 gallon of vinegar to neutralize. Been fine ever since.

A couple of other ideas. When you drain your tank before putting in the liquid bleach or tabs, turn off your water heater and drain it as well. You'll actually have to open the spigot on the bottom of the hot water heater and open a sink hot water faucet for it to drain. It can take 30-40 minutes to drain but don't forget to turn off the power to the hot water heater or you will burn out the element. When its drained, close the spigot and treat and rinse the system as described before.

if you have a home style hot water heater, it could also have a magnesium anode. This is there to stop internal corrosion of the tank. however, if you have high levels of rust or sulfer in your water, it will stick to this rod and make it stink. When you heat the water in the tank, its like making stink tea. So, you will need to remove this rod and plug the hole. Most are a 1/2 or 5/8 hex cap on the top of thank that you can remove and replace with a plug. Make sure you remove all pressure from your water system before you remove this plug or you could bet burnt by the hot water blowing out of the opening when you remove the rod.

I've helped dozens of boaters fix the smell issues and its always the bleach treatment and or removal of this anode that solves the problem.