FAQs on smells & odors in drinking water:

This article series gives a catalog of methods for removing sulfates or hydrogen sulfide from drinking water. This article describes water treatment methods to remove sulfates, hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), sulphur odors or rotten egg smells from the building water supply.

FAQs on Best Treatments for Sulphur Smells in Water

Discussed here: Water sulphur odours or rotten egg smells: diagnosis and cure. How to get rid of or treat stinks, smells, rotten egg odor, sulphur odors in water.

How to diagnose the cause of rotten egg sulphur odors in drinking water, Are there health risks associated with some water odors?

Water treatment systems to remove sulphur odors are available from water treatment companies. What you need to cure a sulphur odor depends on the duration (seasonal versus all year), cause (water supply versus piping or water heater), and severity.

On 2018-03-20 by (mod) - when sulfur odor is from both hot and cold taps

When you are getting the odor in both cold and hot then we may need to disinfect your water tank or add a treatment system. In that case I would start by having the water tested for sulfur content and for bacteria.

I would indeed try draining flushing and disinfecting the following:

• The well if you're on a private well - see WELL CHLORINATION SHOCKING PROCEDURE
• The water pressure tank if you're on a private well - drain the water tank, then shock the well
  
  also see WATER TANK CLEANING CODES STANDARDS
• The water softener if one is installed - see WATER SOFTENER CLEANING & SANITIZING
• The water heater - see WATER HEATER DEBRIS FLUSH

since a common cause of sulfur odors in hot water would be a bacterial contamination there.

If sulphur odors persist in the water supply you may need a sulphur odor treatment/removal system installed at your home.

In that case see WATER ODOR TREATMENTS, CURES - SULPHUR

You should not need to buy a new water heater.

On 2018-03-20 by Rosalind

I have a strong Sulphur odor when I turn on the hot or cold faucets after they have been off for awhile. My gas water heater is 10 years old and never been drained or cleaned.

This problem has only been occurring the last year.

Do I need to buy a new water heater or just have a plumber disinfect it? Is there a way I can clean it myself to rid the Sulphur odor?

On 2018-01-25 by (mod) - hot water still smells after installing a new water heater anode

Tena

You'll want to drain and then sanitize the water heater.

On 2018-01-23 14:18:19.520393 by Tena

We changed the anode rod in hot water heater but hot water still smells bad. What else can we do?

On 2017-06-25 by Pat

Faucets in summer homenhave been off for a while. Odor comes when turned on. Inhave allowed the faucets to run for a while and the odor is no longer there. If there anything else you think I should do.

On 2017-05-06 by (mod) - If the well water does not exhibit a sulphur odor but other water in the building does

David:

If the well water does not exhibit a sulphur odor but other water in the building does, I'd look for bacterial contamination in a water heater tank or (less common) water pressure tank.

If you try sanitizing those you'll need to drain them completely and refill them to flush the bleach solution.

Cures for a water odor problem should not require replacing the equipment; rather we ought to try to find and clean the odor source; else we may find the problem again in the new equipment.

On 2017-05-06 by (mod) - IF a sulphur odor returns after disinfection or sanitizing

Anonymous:

IF a sulphur odor returns after disinfection or sanitizing then I suspect the odor is in the water supply (or perhaps in a bacteria-infected water heater tank (cylinder, calorifier, geyser).

OR the odor is coming from another source.

In that case see WATER ODOR TREATMENTS, CURES - SULPHUR

On 2017-05-06 by David

Ok checked the water coming directly from well and water doesn't stink.4 months ago replaced waterheaters do I need to flush it

...

I flushed my water softener,cleaned tank very well,installed new filters and added bleach as required,softener is 10 years old and my water stinks is it time to replace unit

On 2016-12-04 by Anonymous

Same issue as tara, very troublesome, today i bleached the water lines for aprox 6 hours. I done this by bypassing rainsoft system an put the clorinating i jection line in clorox bleach and ran all the taps.

Purged the lines and there was no smell. Few hours later im smelling the smell come back. Does any one have any idea to resolve this issue. Thank

On 2016-11-01 by Anonymous

Ok so bleached uv canister smell went away for a bit....smell is back but once water is run for 5 min smell is gone..the smell is in hot and cold faucets. Could it be the pressure tank or hot water tank?

On 2016-10-25 by tara

Thanks plumber told is to soak uv canister in bleach as it is 10 years old and that may be where the water is picking up the odor.

Do you this water heater could be faulty if smell is in hot and cold taps? I will let u know tomorrow of outcome of bleach in uv canister. I thank you for your help.

On 2016-10-24 by (mod) - Sulphur in the water supply or bacterial contamination are common odor sources

Sulphur in the water supply or bacterial contamination are common odor sources;

If well water doesn't smell and house water does, I'd sanitize the water piping, water tank, and water heater tank.

On 2016-10-24 by tara

Any guess on the culprit of odor in the water? We brought up a bucket full directly from welland it didn't smell. Hot and cold water smell coming out of all taps

On 2016-10-23 by (mod) -

Tara:

Probably not. A UV light system, if it is working, might kill some bacteria but it won't remove sulphur nor most other odor sources from water.

On 2016-10-23 by tara

My well has a uv light system...we have had smelly water for the past 2 weeks. We now just discovered uv bulb was burnt out. Will replacing the bulb and filter help with the smell?

On 2016-06-01 by (mod) -

Search InspectAPedia for SEWER GAS ODORS

On 2016-05-31 by JS

Please help. I live in an apartment building. I am on the 5th floor (top). Above me is the rough deck and where the AC units are.
I moved in here in September 2015.

It is a new building but it has become well known that the entire building was built very very shotty.
I first smelled a rotten egg smell in September and it happened a handful of times.

Over the winter months I did not smell it or it was very very rare.
Now, over the past several weeks it is worse

While it is intermittent it is way more persistent now.

I have had the maintenance guys up here and they have cleaned out and checked - garbage disposal,p-traps, toilet bowl, dishwasher, cleaned some debris from AC.
My thought is that it has something to do with the heating/AC.

There is no gas in here. I have electric stove and the AC/Heat is the forced air with vents in the ceilings type of things.

I am beginning to get worried as I am reading that sulphur can be dangerous and I am breathing it in everyday now it seems. Right now I can smell it too.

Can anyone help? I am about to reach out to my own HVAC people to get more help.

Thank you!

On 2016-05-22 00:57:26.214975 by mike

Can you freeze well water to get rid of the smell

On 2016-04-08 17:01:07.435029 by (mod) -

Common treatment methods use "green sand" filters or exchange tanks (potassium permanganate) or other chemical treatments, or chlorinators followed by a charcoal filtration system. - per the article WATER ODOR TREATMENTS, CURES - SULPHUR.

For a home water system a water softener can also remove modest amounts of sulphur.

A simple cartridge filter, even one claiming to remove odors, is not likely to be cost effective for household use - you'll be replacing it too often. in my opinion

On 2016-04-08 by Jack

Is there a filter that can be placed where water comes in and goes out to stop sulfur odor?

On 2015-06-30 1by (mod) -

Shawn,

Aside from the sulphur odor treatments and solutions given in the article WATER ODOR TREATMENTS, CURES - SULPHUR, for very low levels of sulphur odor, a charcoal filter may be sufficient.

On 2015-06-30 06:04:51.341840 by Shawn

does any body know a water filter system that will remove the sulphur smell from a residential domestic water service

Question:

we have a new pressure tank with a bladder. we also have a rotten egg smell in our water. I read on your web sight that a snifter valve would eliminate that. I wonder if it would make sents to put the bladderless tank in ahead of the bladder tank. Thanks Joe ps. your wed sight is very good. - J.M. 1/18/2014

Reply:

J.,

A snifter valve (SNIFTER & DRAIN BACK VALVES ) is a device that adds air to a pressure tank system where a submersible pump and a bladderless pressure tank are installed. It has nothing to do with the elimination of a sulfur odor or rotten-egg smell in water. IF the odor is in incoming cold water I agree that it's probably originating in the well, and that a treatment system may be what's needed.

I suggest taking a look at either or both of these two articles

• WATER ODOR DIAGNOSIS - SULPHUR
• WATER ODOR TREATMENTS, CURES - SULPHUR

A second question arises from your note: I don't have a clear picture of what water equipment you have installed, but it sounds a bit odd to have both a bladderless water pressure tank and a bladder tank on the same system unless the bladderless tank is a large water quantity storage system (as we might have on a well with a poor water flow rate.

see WATER STORAGE TANKS, LARGE

Perhaps with more details about & photos of your system I could comment further.

Comment: getting rid of sulphur by outgassing stored cooled water

(Sept 7, 2011) Doug said:
I fill water jugs and put them in the refrigerator to cool. This will rid the water of the sulfur odor. I store several and have excellent drinking water and wonderful water for tea at all times.

Question: smelly water softener odors

(July 28, 2014) Marc said:
We have dealt with sulphur smell issues in the past and always got them resolved, whether it was coming from a water heater or an isolated supply line.

The situation we are now dealing with involves a new water softening unit that is in a garage (away from sunlight or heat).

1-2 weeks after install they began having the odor develop. It affects the whole house on both hot/cold supply. If the unit is in by-pass, the odor goes away.

They are on treated municipal water. Any info on the subject would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Reply:

Marc

A good place to start is with the water softener that may have become contaminated (e.g. with bacteria)

See

inspectapedia.com/plumbing/Water_Softener_Cleaning.php

for some suggestions. It may become necessary to sanitize the water heater too but try the softener first.

Question: rotten egg smell after installing new water softener

(Mar 15, 2015) Anonymous said:

We put in a brand new water softener for the first time because we have well water and now we have the rotten egg smell that we never had before. It gets really bad in the spring and of course is strongest in coming from the hot water.

We had the well shocked and that didn't help one bit. We then had replaced the hot water tank and still smells. We are at a loss.

Reply:

Anon

CHeck for

1. a contaminated softener or brine tank - bacteria can cause odors

2. sulphur in the water supply - take a sample ahead of all of the water equipment

3. a deteriorated water heater anode

For detailed guidance see SULPHUR & SEWER GAS SMELL SOURCES in ARTICLE INDEX .

...

Continue reading at WATER ODOR TREATMENTS, CURES - SULPHUR or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• SEWER GAS ODORS - home
• WATER ODORS, CAUSE CURE - home
  • CHLORINE SOURCES in DRINKING WATER
  • WATER ODOR DIAGNOSIS - SULPHUR
  • WATER ODOR TREATMENTS, CURES - SULPHUR
  • WATER SMELLS or ODORS, OTHER
• WATER POLLUTANT SOURCES

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WATER ODOR TREATMENTS, CURES - SULPHUR FAQs at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

Or see this

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to WATER TESTING

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