Smelly fresh water

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mattonthesea

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Smelly fresh water!

Today I went to make a cup of tea only to find that the water had a vaguely hydrogen sulphide smell.

History:

-new flexible tank fitted and not used until I bought boat back in May.
-used for two week trip in June with no problem.
-hardly used except for occasional cup of tea since (working on her)

-emptied tank yesterday and flushed through (flush tasted fine)

-today it smelt but not as bad

The entire line is plastic except for the feeds to the sink which are copper
One hand pump (?copper bits) and one electric pump
one (faulty) compression tank

Any thoughts on the source of the contamination and how to neutralise it?

Matt
 
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I get a bit of sulphide smell early in the season when drawing water via the foot pump at the galley, which doesn't come via a filter on the main tap. After the boat has been in use, this is not evident, so I assume the smell comes from water lying stagnant in the pipe or tank. Our tank is 250l and we deliberately use a lot of water for washing and showers to keep the tank fresh.

If you only have a limited capacity and leave the boat often because you are not fortunate to have retired yet, I would fit an in-line filter at the galley, as I did on our previous Sadler 29, and aim to get plenty of water going through the system. Flushing, as you have done, is a good idea, and Milton-type disinfectant at the beginning of the season. We happily drink our tank water filtered.
 
mattonthesea said:
Any thoughts on the source of the contamination and how to neutralise it?
Click to expand...

Boat water tanks really need some treatment, either regularly or at least now and then. Chandlers sell water treatment tablets (Aqua Clean, etc) which you add to the tank. Or you can use bleach - buy the very cheapest supermarket "value" bleach (about 30p a bottle) which won't have extra ingredients in it. Superchlorination of contaminated tanks requires 50 ppm of chlorine, which is 100mls bleach to 100 litres water. Allow it to work for an hour or so, then flush.

 Water storage for long periods needs 0.5 ppm chlorine which 1ml per hundred litres. This quantity is safe to drink. Some people will suggest using Milton, this is essentially bleach at a higher price.
 
When my water went off, I found that the water in the tank seemed OK, but the pipes were horribly contaminated. So many boats have decades old water pipes, it's not surprising they promote a taint to the tast of the water! Yes, flush and treat the tank, but also change all the pipes you can and brush out any that you can't. A pull thru' with a small bottle brush on the end can be quite effective.

Rob.
 
Today I went to make a cup of tea only to find that the water had a vaguely hydrogen sulphide smell.

Any thoughts on the source of the contamination and how to neutralise it?

Hi Matt. Hydrogen sulphide (rotten eggs smell) is a waste product of anaerobic bacteria. You say your potable water system has been modified in the past. The mods may have left 'dead legs' where your disinfectant cannot reach?

I would advise you give your system a thorough examination. Follow all the plumbing. Any plumbing that has no current purpose should be blanked off and made as short as possible.

Good luck.
 
I imagine you must have something decaying in the system or in a tap spout so that's not good for your health. Clean tap heads and any filters in the spout and remove any shower head and soak in sterilising liquid.
Empty the water tank not forgetting to rum the hot tap to empty the hot water calorifier. Refill with added sterilising liquid (I use Milton or the supermarket own brand version as its cheap enough - £1.40 for Wilkinson home brand) or whatever you prefer . Pump the treated water through to all taps and leave to stand for a couple of hours or overnight.
Empty the treated water via the taps and refill with fresh water and empty again. There might be some residual chlorine smell which might linger for another tank refill or two.
In the meantime don't drink the tank water !
 
Empty the tank and put in one cup of bleach per 40 gallons of water then fill the tank, run the taps/shower head to clean the pipes. Leave it for 12 hours then empty the tank, fill it and run the taps/showerhead.
 
I find that my flexible tanks develope a slimy coating over time. If possible, remove them for a good flushing. If not easy, 3/4 fill them with a bleach solution and go for a sail to slosh them about, then fill and empty a couple of times. Don't forget to treat the filler pipes, these are difficult to clean but can be horribly contaminated.
A tip I was given was to add white vinegar to remove the taste of chlorine. It works but then the water tastes of vinegar. Not sure which is preferable.
 
mattonthesea said:
Smelly fresh water!

Today I went to make a cup of tea only to find that the water had a vaguely hydrogen sulphide smell.



Any thoughts on the source of the contamination and how to neutralise it?

Matt
Click to expand...

One of the silver stabilised hydrogen peroxide treatments might be effective. It would at least avoid the unpleasant chlorine taste that result from being a little heavy handed with a hypochlorite or dichloroisocyanurate treatment.

For a badly contaminated system sterilisation with thin bleach at the rate suggested above, or with NaDCC, may well be the only effective remedy.

Occasional dosing with Milton fluid or similar, at the rate of 5ml / 10litres should keep a cleaned system sweet
 
My last boat got a slug of thin bleach in its Plastimo bag tank when the kettle smelt faintly of mushroom before but not after the boil point.
This boat has a filter lurking in a locker, never changed it but water sweet.
 
By the way - it’s been said before but........... for drinking the chief officer and I don’t use tank water. We carry a 5 litre container or two and refill from a mains tap . There is usually water available where we moor but accept is not necessarily the case for everyone's circumstances. The containers start life as 5 litres water from the supermarket and they usually survive a year.
In fact we turn over plenty of water so should not really be too concerned about tank water. I didn’t add any sterilising treatment this spring but had done so the year before when the boat was new to us and had been standing unused. It is my usual habit to leave the water tank empty from November and flush a full tank of water through in late March.
As with most things associated with boats I think regular use of everything is better than doing nothing and probably prevents faults developing.
 
Well, on inspection I discovered that the systme has an 'Aqua filter' in it. Too far away in the locker to see much more that that. I've never thought about using one; is it an opinion thing?
 
mattonthesea said:
Well, on inspection I discovered that the systme has an 'Aqua filter' in it. Too far away in the locker to see much more that that. I've never thought about using one; is it an opinion thing?
Click to expand...

If that's the Jabsco-type thing with a charcoal filter cartridge, you're supposed to replace the cartridge every season or so.
 
Must admit we use the cheap 3l bottled water from supermarkets. Don't even use it in the caravan either. I know it can be made safe, especially once boiled but it always has a hint of plastic about it. We use the onboard for washing etc. The boat gets pretty warm when not in use in the summer, it can't do the water a lot of good in storage for that amount of time. If I could flush it and then refill every trip then I would use but we don't have easy access to water facilities. I take it on board in a 25l container and fill up by hose whenever we can.
 
mattonthesea said:
Well, on inspection I discovered that the systme has an 'Aqua filter' in it. Too far away in the locker to see much more that that. I've never thought about using one; is it an opinion thing?
Click to expand...

They are very good, but do need replacing every year.

Our first boat had been neglected and the water from the tanks tasted pretty horrible. We replaced the tanks and got into the habit of putting purifying tablets in on every refill - the water tasted clean, but chlorinated. We fitted a Jabsco filter and it removed the chlorine taste. Since then we have maintained this regime on all the boats we've owned and we have never had any trouble with our water supply. We did forget to change the filter this spring and my wife started complaining about the flavour of chlorine - a new filter fitted and it is back to normal.
 
maby said:
They are very good, but do need replacing every year.

Our first boat had been neglected and the water from the tanks tasted pretty horrible. We replaced the tanks and got into the habit of putting purifying tablets in on every refill - the water tasted clean, but chlorinated. We fitted a Jabsco filter and it removed the chlorine taste. Since then we have maintained this regime on all the boats we've owned and we have never had any trouble with our water supply. We did forget to change the filter this spring and my wife started complaining about the flavour of chlorine - a new filter fitted and it is back to normal.
Click to expand...

You'll see it mentioned in other threads about water filters, the King of water filters is the General Ecology, which claims to filter out to virus level. I have one, and haven't carried bottled water aboard since I installed it...
 
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