Smell from the hot water

Here’s a new problem we just encountered.  I think I have an idea of what to do, but wanted to get some advice.

Ellen has on several occasions talked about the smell in the bathroom.  On some occasions, I have decided it was time to fill up, dump and then recharge the toilet with the chemical, and it has seemed to take care of the problem.  On the weekend of June 21-22, however, Ellen went to the campground with our daughter and another mom and daughter while my son and I had a Cub Scout activity, and she complained again about the smell.  Well, last weekend, it was Ellen’s turn to go to the Cub Scout campout so my daughter and I went to the campground alone.  Well, there was an unpleasant smell, so I filled up, dumped and then recharged the toilet with the chemical.  Now the toilet smelled fine, but I could still smell something unpleasant around the sinks.  It occurred to me that perhaps the gray water tank needed to be cleaned up or sweetened, so I began thinking of what to put down the drain that might help reduce the smell, if that’s what it was.  Well, when we were washing dishes, I finally figured out that the smell was coming hot directly from the gray water tank, but from the hot water itself (as confirmed by my daughter’s incredible nose.)  What I think may have happened is that when I winterized (or flushed out) the system, I may have gotten RV antifreeze in the hot water tank.  While I have a bypass for the system, its only as good as the person using it, and anything is possible.  Our dealer cautioned us about this two years, ago, saying that when you get the antifreeze in the hot water tank, it can give that sulphur kind of smell to the water, but I really thought I had avoided the problem.  The next part of my theory is that we continue to smell the hot water long after the dishes are gone because of the trap under the sink:  if smelly water is used to wash the dishes and is still in the trap it’s going to continue to smell.  When I did dishes this last time, I rinsed in cold water, and didn’t smell a thing.  

The question is: what do I do?  I certainly don’t want to do anything really drastic like take out the tank, but shouldn’t the smell have gone away by now?  If I took out the anode rod and let the system, air out some, would that help?  Should I replace the anode rod in case that somehow contributes to the problem?  Or is just running a little cold water or water and baking soda into the traps a good enough fix, at least for now?  All you owners who are really handy with these things, I could use your help!

Hi there -

Have you flushed out the hot water tank itself?  I don't know for sure about TM (I STILL haven't bought mine  ) but on most rigs you remove the anode rod, then flush the tank by inserting a special "hot water tank flusher" attached to a hose.  These are available at any RV supply place like Camping World.  Flush water thru the tank until it runs clear.  This should actually be done yearly at least as a part of maintenance, according to a class I took on the subject.

As far as the traps smelling, you might want to just flush a little baking soda down after you use hot water, just in case?

Well, the action I took was to remove the anode rod and drain out the how water, then put a mild bleach solution into the fresh water tank, and flush that through everything, as I thought I had done earlier this year.  The difference was that I didn't let the bleach sit in the lines and hot water tank (I had put the new anode rod in by that time) for at least two hours to kill everything in there.  And believe me, there was stuff in the hot water tank that I'm happy to have out of there.

After the solution did its work, I flushes fresh water th
rough the system until it was nice and clear.  Certainly the most important thing I learned was about leaving the bleach solution in long enough to work.