Smelly Water in 2019 Micro Minnie 2106DS

[trippy3]

Hello,

We have awful smelling water coming from our holding tank. We tried a diluted bleach washout once, but the water still smells bad. Maybe someone here can help us....

I have been googling...Do you think it could be the Anode Rod in the water heater? Or perhaps on internal water filter that I can not find?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
~Joy

[Morich]

A couple points to clear?
Can you describe the "smells bad"? rotten eggs or just musty, foul smelling like old pond water? Rotten eggs, makes me lean toward bad anone!

When you say it smells bad, is that on both hot and cold or only hot?
If both, it is not likely to be an anode problem as that would only involve hot water! If only on hot that comes from the water heater tank, yes, that sounds much like a worn out anode.

Possible you have a booklet for the water heater to find if you have an anode?

One way to check is to do a search for which brand uses an anode. There are two major brands and you can find which you have by looking at a label on the RV outside but under the water heater cover! Search for info on that brand and if there is no anode, you don't need to go further on that chase!
However, a very definite way to find out is to remove what might look like a simple plug. If it comes out with a big long rod on the end, you have an anode and you can look at condition. If it is almost totally eaten and gone, maybe a new fixes the problem?
Care is needed when putting it back if there is an anode. The hole is often at an angle that makes it hard to grip the anode as it extends so far out from the threads! Think of holding a nut with a foot long rod sticking out in front and all you can grip is the nut?
Careful to not force it in when cross threading it!

[trippy3]

Thank you so much Richard!


That's funny because at one point I did think it was only with the HOT water! And yes rotten egg smelling. We were camping at the beach when we first noticed the smell, so originally I thought it was just the water. But then we were the only ones with the smell.


I did try the owners manual, but nothing in there about water heaters. I will follow your advice to further research this issue!



I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge


Thanks again!


~Joy

[tinglett]

Not an expert here, but my 2019 2108DS has a 6 gallon atwood aluminum water heater. I don't expect to find an anode rod there. Or is there one? I didn't think aluminum needed one.

[Morich]

a search for info says two brands use anode rods. Suburban and Atwood both use rods.
But it is often a pretty easy DIY project if you have some tools as it is just pretty much a big plug somewhere larger than an inch that show on the outside when you get the cover open. When you unscrew that plug, there is a metal rod about an inch thick and maybe a foot long.
If you unscrew it and pull it out, it may look like rats have been chewing on it. Or if it is gone too far. it may break off and leave part inside the tank.
That last part is not good because you need to fish around inside the tank with something like a wire to snag the part and pull it over to the hole and out.
I try to replace it before it gets to the breaking stage because I'm no good at fishing when they don't bite!
How's your luck fishing when you can't see the fish and there're not biting??

Next hardest part is holding the rod while it sticks out in the tank and getting the threads to catch like they should.

Best of luck in the tricks!

Check for size but this might be an easy one to find ? I think they are all pretty much the same but that's guessing!
https://www.walmart.com/ip/RV-Water-...erId=101004333

[tinglett]

Here's what mine looks like. I know you can't see everything, but I haven't spotted anything that looks like a traditional rod (except the nylon drain plug which really is a drain plug ). I'm guessing the OPs looks like this, but maybe Winnebago mixed and matched that year.






Maybe it's hidden behind stuff that needs to be removed? Dunno. Or it's right in front of my eyes...which is pretty likely these days!

[Morich]

No, if they have the same as you and have the plastic plug, there is not likely to be an anode rod. We jumped to being a bad anode due to rotten egg smell but that may be too much jump!
I see you have a Dometic which is not one that uses an anode rod, so you should NOT see one. I like your type better as draining can be done much easier if we don't have to fight to get the awkward rod held just right to avoid cross threading.

Looking at yours and their's which is so close to year, make, model, the jump to being a bad anode may be a clear miss!
But that was based on their report of rotten egg smell from hot water? There's room for error when we each talk about smells, etc.

Any chance it was a smell from old water that had not been drained from the tank in too long a time? Really old water that is just stinky after any chlorine died out?

Maybe the OP can give us a report when they find what's true?

[tinglett]

Yeah, and oops for some reason I said Atwood and of course mine is Dometic.

BTW, I bought a 24mm socket and a socket T-handle to remove that drain plug. It makes it super easy to drain! One of my best purchases for maintenance I have to say...

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by Morich

a search for info says two brands use anode rods. Suburban and Atwood both use rods.

My Atwood water heater, and as far as I know all others, do not use an anode rod.

There are some small number of folks that think adding one to their Atwood water heater couldn’t hurt and maybe it might help. Even though Atwood clearly says they are not needed and the heaters are delivered with a plastic drain plug in the aluminum tank.

Here’s the response from eTrailer from some one else’s question:

[creativepart]

When getting that screenshot for the post above I happened to find this person with the same problem as the OP and here’s the answer from eTrailer:

[Eagle5]

Originally Posted by trippy3

That's funny because at one point I did think it was only with the HOT water! And yes rotten egg smelling. We were camping at the beach when we first noticed the smell, so originally I thought it was just the water. But then we were the only ones with the smell.
~Joy

Hi Joy,
From the sounds of it, you have a bad fill hose. As you are the only ones noticing the smell with the camp water, both in the hot and the cold lines of your trailer, the only thing remaining is your hose.
This is the hose I am using now. It is a little stiff, but it meets the safety requirements:
Camco TastePURE 35-Foot Premium Camper/RV Drinking Water Hose NSF Drinking Water Safe Certified
Thanks, Eagle5
P.S. I just sterilized my fresh water system, and updated my procedure (post #26).
It might not hurt to re-sterilize your fresh water system once you get a new fill hose.

[Morich]

Reason for me to jump to it being a water heater problem was that they felt it was hot more than cold. But the anode is one that may just be causing confusion. One of the biggest problems we have currently is how easy it is to get bad information when we go to the internet.
I seem to have fallen into that trap as I did a search of what brands used and anode and got two brans, one of which seems to not be correct!
I should know by now that we can't trust any single source for totally reliable. Many are totally bogus!
Just plain old water can have a bad smell. to some it can seem like rotten eggs but many of us don't spend much time smelling rotten eggs, so descriptions may vary!

Lots of variables to sort but if there is no anode, that plenty of reason to say it is not bad!!
I would first suggest taking a look at what has been done and maybe doing a thorugh cleaning as a first step.

[eatSleepWoof]

Originally Posted by Morich

One of the biggest problems we have currently is how easy it is to get bad information when we go to the internet.
I seem to have fallen into that trap as I did a search of what brands used and anode and got two brans, one of which seems to not be correct!
I should know by now that we can't trust any single source for totally reliable. Many are totally bogus!

There's a popular saying in the computer science world, "Garbage in, garbage out."

That is to say, when you search for "which water heater brands use anodes" (or similar), that is an absolutely garbage search request, which will give you garbage results.

The same brand (manufacturer) can have different models that use or don't use anodes. The same brand can sell different products in different regions. The same brand can use different products in different model years. There are too many possible variables for a search like that to provide anything BUT garbage results.

The internet has plenty of phenomenal, highly accurate information, if you understand how to look for it. Similarly, you need to share proper, important details when asking a question, or you're going to get garbage answers. (Well, you'll get garbage answers anyways, on any platform, and need to be able to understand them for what they are.)

(As far as I'm concerned, in this day and age, every high-school kid should be attending a semester-long "how to use a search engine without being an utter idiot" class.)

---

OP - Look at your specific trailer, not in some brochure or manual, but PHYSICAL trailer, and find the model number of the specific device (water heater) that you're interested in, and then go look up that SPECIFIC model's manual to find out what it does or does not have.

The first thing I would do in your case is close all water taps, open up all windows, turn on fans and ventilate your trailer until the smell is gone. Then do a systematic, source-by-source search to 100% identify where the smell is coming from. Only THEN can you start looking for a solution.

Open cold water in a single sink, let it run for 5 mins, check for smell. If no smell, close it, open the hot water in the same sink, repeat the process. Close the hot water, go to another sink, repeat the process. Check the sinks (and shower) themselves, too. Check UNDER the sinks, where the p-traps are.

We recently had a 'sewage' smell in the bathroom area, and it was coming from the grey water tank, through the sink and/or shower. I poured half a cup of bleach down each of those drains, rinsed down with hot water, and then filled the grey water tank to just over 2/3 capacity. Let it sit for 5-6 hours, flushed it. No more smell.

[carpedatum]

I have had this problem. I found it equally mysterious the first time it happened - we were at the campground, the water coming from our faucets stank (a sulfuric smell), and I was pretty stumped for a little bit.

It was indeed the hot water heater. Mine (a six gallon Dometic gas/electric on a 2327TB) does not have an anode rod. It does have a nylon drain plug, which can be removed with a 1- 1/16 socket. So now I keep that socket onboard, along with Camco Water Heater Tank Rinser (their part number 11691).

While I've read all kindsa stuff on the internet about the issue, the core of it seems to be that bacteria can breed in a hot water heater and that will generate the smell. I drain and flush mine now before and after every trip, and every time I sterilize the fresh water holding tank.

[Morich]

Sulphur water is one common name when we have wells that have various degrees of "bad water". There are bacteria that live in bad wells and live on the iron content, if I remember correctly.
That can leave us confused if we have filled with well water from a source which is not the best or on the edge of "bad well".
If they are aware, they can do a bleach treament to clear the bacteria in what used to be known as "bad wells", but it takes some experience with the reasons for the bad smell and there are a lot of folks who have grown up with thinking the bad well was just nothing they could do anything about!

The problem is that the water is safe to drink, just not very pleasant!
But if we put it in our holding tanks and water heater and store that bacteria and water, the bacteria can multiply quickly. A nice dark spot at just the right temperature for bacteria!
That smell can make us think we have a water heater problem, when it may actually be due to the water we put in it!

To sort the question of which is the problem, we need to drain, sanitize, and refill the heater with water known to be "good water" and then see if we still have the problem.

Some info I found in a search :
Chlorination
Disinfect the well and plumbing system with a strong chlorine solution. You can hire a licensed well contractor to do this, or you can try these steps:
Remove the well cap and pour a 50:50 mixture of chlorine and water into the well. You can also alternate pouring fresh water and chlorine.
Attach a garden hose to the outdoor faucet and place the end in the well. Turn the hose on full force to circulate the water and rinse the well casing.
When you can smell chlorine, turn on the cold water taps in your kitchen and bathrooms until you smell chlorine from them, too. Then flush the toilets and let the water stand for at least 8 hours.

[tinglett]

This reminds me to post a picture of my "water heater drain plug wrench." This is for the dometic, but I'm sure the idea would work for any. Just get the smallest socket you can find that fits, in my case it's a 24mm, and a cheap T-handle socket wrench. You can see how snazzy it works in the photo and makes it easy-peasy to drain the tank and get the plug back fast. Pull the relief valve open to drain it real fast, and for sure ONLY DO THIS WHEN THE WATER IS COLD! (obviously) Just be careful not to run your water heater when it's empty. I can only imagine that's a bad thing.

I got these parts from amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081PR8Q5C
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OO4QOS

[Bobn1957]

Originally Posted by tinglett

Here's what mine looks like. I know you can't see everything, but I haven't spotted anything that looks like a traditional rod (except the nylon drain plug which really is a drain plug ). I'm guessing the OPs looks like this, but maybe Winnebago mixed and matched that year.






Maybe it's hidden behind stuff that needs to be removed? Dunno. Or it's right in front of my eyes...which is pretty likely these days!

The plastic plug on the lower left indicates to me that there isn't an anode in your tank!

[Truckman]

Just went through smelly was yesterday, thought it was hose so dumped the water out that was in hose and no smell. Pulled the water filter inside wet bay and it had some smell to it. We washed out filter canister, then added about 1/2 cup bleach to it and ran through line, replaced the filter and we haven't smelled anything since.