Water heater issue

Woody said:
I think I'd get in the bilge and open the hot water tank drain. Get rid of all the stinky water in one shot, otherwise you have to run a lot of gallons through it before you could say it's full of fresh water.
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As an fyi -most of the tanks thats I have seen are a round tank inside of a square cabinet. The drain also sits up a bit in the cabinet, meaning even when ‘drained’ its still holding 2 gallons of stuff in the bottom. The mfr has probably done enough testing to ensure that even if that much remains and freezes, it wont crack the tank. Still agree its the easiest way to drain the tank if you dont mind climbing down there and have easy access.

Atleast the hot water tube curves up inside the tank, reaching the top - and the cold line curves down towards the bottom.
 
Ok here is my update.
Last night son and I went out there to drain tank, refilled 1/4 of it and added bleach. We ran just the hot water side on the faucets until the strong bleach smell.
Went out there today to drain through the hot water side again. We did turn on the water heater a bit first and again it got nice and hot. Turned off and drained the beach mix out. Certainly no more egg smell at this point. We filled it up 1/4 again and left. That is where we are at now. Probably stop by tomorrow again to do the same.
I did notice today when draining today that a bit of brown water came out for a minute then back to clear. Wondering if that is rust or nastiness?
We will see how it all does this weekend. So far so good
 
Almightys said:
Ok here is my update.
Last night son and I went out there to drain tank, refilled 1/4 of it and added bleach. We ran just the hot water side on the faucets until the strong bleach smell.
Went out there today to drain through the hot water side again. We did turn on the water heater a bit first and again it got nice and hot. Turned off and drained the beach mix out. Certainly no more egg smell at this point. We filled it up 1/4 again and left. That is where we are at now. Probably stop by tomorrow again to do the same.
I did notice today when draining today that a bit of brown water came out for a minute then back to clear. Wondering if that is rust or nastiness?
We will see how it all does this weekend. So far so good
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I think you need to be careful not filling the water heater. If the element is not in the water it will burn out. I would keep the water heater full when it is turned on. I do think what you just did will get rid of the smell. Good Luck to you.
 
Gord said:
I think you need to be careful not filling the water heater. If the element is not in the water it will burn out. I would keep the water heater full when it is turned on. I do think what you just did will get rid of the smell. Good Luck to you.
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So always curious on this. I typically run the hot water for a few minutes before Turing on the heater. If I have a steady flow of water, does that mean it is filled?
 
It does in my book. Make sure no gurgling, spitting etc...
 
Turn on the cold water first. Get any air out of the system and let it run for a few minutes to flush out the dock hose and the lines in the boat. Then turn on the hot water and let it run for 5min at minimum. This will help flush out the hot water tank, getting new water in there. Then turn on the hot water tank to heat up that fresh water.
 
Almightys said:
So always curious on this. I typically run the hot water for a few minutes before Turing on the heater. If I have a steady flow of water, does that mean it is filled?
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If you don't blow the lines out you should be good all season. I had a problem when I use to trailer my boat and would winterize for the winter. Then when I would get it out of storage the first thing I would do was plug the cord in to charge my batteries. One year the breaker for the water heater was on an I burned out the element. We don't forget our mistakes
 
Gord said:
One year the breaker for the water heater was on an I burned out the element. We don't forget our mistakes
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Yikes! Same for the RV. My OCD-self created a step-by-step for anytime our gear goes onto shore power, primarily for that one reason. I do forget my mistakes (on occasion).
 
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