simpsomatt
Member
I have a water heater in my barn that gets very little use. I usually turn it off if I know I'm not going to be using hot water for a while, but recently I left it on and barely used for a long time. Now my hot water stinks like sulfur. The Google machine tells me that the most likely cause is bacteria that grows in warm water if it sits too long. That seems reasonable. Now I'm looking for a reasonable solution.
It looks like the obvious first step is drain and flush. I saw some posts saying that won't help, because once the bacteria is there flushing won't get rid of it, and the only solution is to replace the heater. I figure flushing is easy and can't hurt, so I'm going to do it.
Would it help any to leave the tank empty for a while to try to wipe out any leftover bacteria? I realize that even an "empty" tank is going to be dark and damp, so that might not help.
Another suggestion is to crank the temp up to 140, as that will kill some species of bacteria that thrive at 120-130. That seems easy enough, so I'll probably try that.
Any other uncomplicated things I could try?
It looks like the obvious first step is drain and flush. I saw some posts saying that won't help, because once the bacteria is there flushing won't get rid of it, and the only solution is to replace the heater. I figure flushing is easy and can't hurt, so I'm going to do it.
Would it help any to leave the tank empty for a while to try to wipe out any leftover bacteria? I realize that even an "empty" tank is going to be dark and damp, so that might not help.
Another suggestion is to crank the temp up to 140, as that will kill some species of bacteria that thrive at 120-130. That seems easy enough, so I'll probably try that.
Any other uncomplicated things I could try?
