Water Smells of Sulphur

Sometimes our hot water starts to smell bad - like sulphur or rotten eggs. This is due to a harmless bacteria that starts to interact with the anode in the water heater during periods of inactivity. You can read more about it at the CleanWaterStore website.

We have developed the following procedure to treat the problem. It takes about 10 minutes to perform, once you are familiar with it, and then needs to sit idle for about an hour. On rare occasions, it may need to be done twice.

1. Go to the water softener corner of the garage-Northeast.

2. Coming out of the wall and going to the water softener, you will see three valves. Turn the two valves on the right and left sides clockwise so that the handles are perpendicular to the pipe - off. Turn the handle of the center valve counterclockwise so that is aligned with the pipe -on. All handles will be horizontal as shown in this picture:

This keeps the water on to the house while bypassing the water softener and the filter.

3. Place a large bucket underneath the blue filter to catch all the water that will inevitably come out during the following steps.

4. Press the red button on the top of the filter to release the pressure. Water will spray and drip out while you do this. Continue to press and hold until pressure is released and water stops coming out.

5. Locate a filter wrench on the bookshelf to the right. White or black with a large hole on one end that fits over the filter and a handle on the other end. Put the wrench on the filter by sliding up from below, and turn to the left - clockwise as viewed from above. You have to push pretty hard. Once loosened, remove the wrench and continue to unscrew by hand while keeping one hand underneath to support the filter body when it comes off. Watch the label - it takes 3-4 full rotations.

7. When fully free, lower the filter body away and take to the sink. Dump the water out of the filter body while keeping hold of the filter inside. Inspect the filter to see if it is used up - replacements are in a box nearby on the floor. Water flow is from outside to inside so there should be a white inner ring if there is still useful life.

8. Inspect the o-ring and re-lubricate if necessary using silicone - also in the box of filters. Center the o-ring on the top of the filter body. If the o-ring is damaged, there should be spares also in the box.

9. With the filter in the body, fill the filter body about 1/2 way with hydrogen peroxide, aka Neutrasol, stored on the top of the bookcase.

10. Re-install the filter body, filter, and O-ring to the filter head on the wall.

11. Slowly turn the valves to their previous positions - all vertical.

12. Turn on hot water at the faucet at the sink by the window and leave running for several minutes.

13. Press the button on the filter-head and hold down while air escapes until water begins to spray out. If filter makes a moaning sound, repeat the air-bleeding.

14. Turn off the faucet after about a minute or two. That should be long enough for the hydrogen peroxide, H2O2, to make it to the water heater.

15. Try not to run very much hot water for the next hour, giving the H2O2 time to do its work.

Done ✅