Is Your Water Heater Tank Stinking? Get the Solution

Stinking water heaters is disgusting for every one of us. You thing it is because of cleaning and wash the tank very often, but you get it back again. This happens because of the presence of the anaerobic bacteria in water that react with aluminum and magnesium sacrificial anodes and emit smell like rotten egg. If you have called plumbers or handymen, they might have advised you to remove sacrificial anodes from water heater. Never do that, because anodes prevent rusting and removing them will lead to the short life of water heaters. Furthermore, it will void the set warranty and you cannot claim if the device fails.

As a temporary solution you can try out cleaning method. Drain out some water from the tank and pour some hydrogen peroxide into it. Leave for some time and replace all the fittings you opened for cleaning. Then allow it to flow out all the water from the tap to completely empty the tank. You see, smell vanished.

However, if you want permanent solution, you can replace the standard magnesium or aluminum anode rod with an aluminium/zinc alloy anode. Here, key ingredient is the zinc that resolves the problem. This will neither void the warranty for the water heaters, nor will it reduce its life.  Moreover, these are cost effective solution as these anodes cost quite low. This is an apt solution if you are staying in a place where water contains anaerobic bacteria.