2003 270FV odor when hot water is turned on.

bobber56

II have a 2003FV and when I turn on the hot water valve in the sinks it smells horrible! does any one know how to fix this?

wellis

I would guess this is from water just sitting there w/o flushing or use. Water gets a very rancid odor when it sits.

Had a similar issue on my sailboat in the Bahamas when I filled up w/o and added chlorine.

You need to flush it real good. First I'd fill it with heavily chlorinated water or even white vinegar(this is what I used). Take a ride and let it swish around in the tank, then drain and flush till clean.

Always add chlorine or a fresh water treatment to your water. It's a little extra work, but drain when not used.  

Good luck.

Liberty44140

Agree, you need to clean out the tank with a chlorine or vinegar. We add the RV water treatment found at Walmart to our freshwater tank to keep things clean and I empty the tanks if they have not been used in 3 weeks or more. You need to either use the tanks at least weekly or treat and drain every few weeks. If not it will smell horrible at the faucets. 

Stodge

I made the mistake of not flushing my water heater out enough after winterization.  When the pink stuff got hot it stunk like crazy.  I put a quart of bleach into the water tank, took the boat out to "stir" it and flushed out the system.  Took a couple cycles to get the stink out.

Cableguy Greg

Flushing the system is key. I use the RV tank treatment as well, but I flush the system with fresh water via the city water hookup each time I go to the boat early in the season. The admiral doesn't like the smell at all.

Trashman

that vomit smell!!    I took a chlorine tab and crushed it into a few small pieces and dropped a few down the fill tube.  
mine was bad when I bought the boat and i flushed with a good amount of bleach at first. I now put a few little chunks of pool tablet in the fill tube at every fill. we dont drink the water so it just keeps it fresh enough. 

redlightning

flush mine at the beginning of each season.  pour 1/2 of a bottle of bleach in fresh water tank.  run all faucets until i smell the bleach.  let it sit overnight.  Flush the tank 3 times with fresh water.  all good for the season.  I think i read about this method on this forum.

wellis

redlightning said:

flush mine at the beginning of each season.  pour 1/2 of a bottle of bleach in fresh water tank.  run all faucets until i smell the bleach.  let it sit overnight.  Flush the tank 3 times with fresh water.  all good for the season.  I think i read about this method on this forum.

Bleach works great, but the smell......vinegar smell goes away so much faster and IMO cleans and disinfects just as good.  

Dream_Inn

I agree with wellis!  Bleach is very harsh on gaskets/seals.  Vinegar is the way to go!