Funky water out of the hot water heater

Peg_O_My_Heart

Would like to pick your brains on this one.  I have noticed the hot water has a funk to it.  Any ideas on how to condition the water and what to use?

aero3113

Cycle water through to clear out the hot water tank with fresh water. Put some bleach or pieces of chlorine pool tab in the tank. Run the water again till you can smell the bleach and let it sit for a couple days. Should be good after that. 

Peg_O_My_Heart

Thanks for the response.  How would I get bleach or tabs into the hot water heater?

aero3113

Once you put the bleach in your tank just turn on the hot water. Once you do that it goes through the hot water heater.

Peg_O_My_Heart

Thanks again for the quick response.

aero3113

Glad to help 👍

YYZRC

Bleach worked great for me! Got rid of the rotten egg smell. 

Black_Diamond

Takes only a couple table spoons of bleach in the tank. 

If you ran pink antifreeze in the hot water heater that will make the water smell and taste horrible. 

Aqua_Aura

I actually just recently discovered Bleach granules basically looks like a bunch small bearings. Makes it really easy to put about a tablespoon in to keep the tank fresh especially over winter. 

trip_n

we run a couple bottles of vinegar through both the fresh and holding tank beginning of season
rinse good
use hot water
i also mix with baking soda and run through the head and shower pump

Willhound

Mai reason I never put antifreeze through my heater. Just drain it. A half a cup of bleach l about every second or third fresh water fill up  and never any issues.

Aqua_Aura

After figuring out my water system more this year I will definitely be draining my hot water heater instead this year. 

GMSLITHO

I use the vinegar in the spring ,when I winterize I drain the heater then run the pink anti freeze through the system ,after it’s full I go around to the faucets and drain it out whatever is left won’t freeze and the rest is air 

Willhound

Aqua_Aura said:

After figuring out my water system more this year I will definitely be draining my hot water heater instead this year. 

Yeah, just pull the two lines and join them and you can run through both sides of the rest of the system by pulling the feed line from the freshwater tank and sticking it in the jug of punk stuff. That way nothing in the freshwater tank either and the pump does all the work.

Black_Diamond

Since we are on the hot water topic. I swapped in new lines to mine from the engine (whole other story lol). Anyways on one end a length of what I assume is the liner of the heat exchanger was past the copper tube extension and seems like it might be plugged as I could not even poke a screwdriver more than an inch. This is still the original one from new (2003) and guessing it might be replacement time?  Any experiences with the Attwoods or Kuuma’s?  The Isotemps look nice but are 2x the cost. 

aero3113

Go with stainless when you replace it. They aren’t much more money. I think it’s the only good thing the previous owner did on my 330. You won’t have to worry about the case rusting out.

rasbury

Aren't the lines just rubber hosed?

Black_Diamond

I was referring to the heat exchanger in the hot water heater that gets heat from the engines. Probably should have been more clear on that one!