Friday, March 5, 2010

rv water tip.

To those followers of mine out there who are becoming full time rvers soon or who just have a camper that they use during the summer months, here is a water tip...

A while ago we noticed that our hot water starting to smell. At first it wasn't that bad, but then it got worse. It smelled like perm solution or as Tiernan thought "eggs". Yeah, not something you want to smell everytime you do the dishes or take a shower! The shower was the worst because you were breathing it in too, it was disgusting!

We kept putting it off though to figure out what it was because, well frankly, we had no idea what to do or where to start. Maybe if we just ignored it, it would go away?? Well, it didn't and it only got worse.

Sulfer smell...and bad. After finding some stuff out online and talking with Nathan's friend, we thought we had a pretty good idea of where to start.

Before leaving for church, we shut off the water and the water heater to let the water cool off a bit. (Remember that little switch that needs to be flipped...yeah, that one. Just needed to be turned off.) Then when we got back, Nathan pulled the plug outside and let all the water from the hot water tank drain out. Once it was out, we pulled out the anode rod out and rinsed it off. (The anode rod is a little tube-like thing that the 'icky' stuff in the water will 'eat' instead of the lining of your tank...yeah, it's a good thing!) There was still almost the whole rod left, so we knew that we didn't need to replace that.

Nathan did notice some chucks of stuff draining out of the tank, so once he turned the water back on, he left the plug out, letting the tank rinse out a bit. We also changed the filter we have outside on our hose since this water is nasty out here...bright brown, nice huh?! Then he put the plug back in, filled up the tank, turned the water heater back on, turned on the faucets to let the air in the tank release and after a minute or two, we had hot water that didn't smell!!!!

Whoo hoo!! Problem solved!!

Sooo, if you have stinky hot water, it might be as easy as draining your hot water tank!

We are just learning all the time around here!

Oh, and another thing we keep learning...yeah, it's taken us awhile...is that we have to remember to flip the switch (yeah, that one!) if the propane runs out during the middle of the night if we want to take a shower that has more than freezing cold water. I learned that the hard way (again!) the other day. I had to settle for washing my hair in the sink with cold water before leaving.

One of these times we won't forget!!

Hope that helps someone! :)

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