I was having a bad smell from my well water si I had a test done and a water system put in. while the man did the test we found the smell was in the hot water only he told me it was the anode rod by the way this hot water heater was about 2 months old. So I had them put in a culligan system and I changed the anode rod and flushed the tank. Here it is about 4 months later and the smell is slowly coming back. Any ideas of why this is happening also the culligan man said with this system I could just cut out the anode rod and it would be fine. He told me that when he came out to do the water test but I said to myself I got to take the first 1 out so why not replace it. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated

I have seen bacteria in the water heater cause such a smell. Adding bleach, soaking and draining twice did the trick. When the guy was testing the water did he test for bacteria?

Hi Don,

You said, "also the culligan man said with this system i could just cut out the anode rod and it would be fine"...

I'm afraid to say that this is VERY BAD ADVICE, so you did good by replacing the anode rod. This advice will only lead to premature failure of your water heater... not advisable, for sure!

Tell me, is softened water now feeding into the water heater? If so, then in my experience, this is causing your issue in and of itself! Here, softened water should feed the cold water to the house, but it should not feed the water heater... leads to issues with the anode rod.

Check out this link for more info.:

Hot water heater anodes and rust protection (http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/WHRpages/English/Longevity/water-heater-anodes.html)

I'm sure you can find more information if you Google it, too!

Just FYI, OK?

Mark

Hi Don,

You said, "also the culligan man said with this system i could just cut out the anode rod and it would be fine"...

I'm afraid to say that this is VERY BAD ADVICE, so you did good by replacing the anode rod. This advice will only lead to premature failure of your water heater...not advisable, for sure!!

Tell me, is softened water now feeding into the water heater? If so, then in my experience, this is causing your issue in and of itself! Here, softened water should feed the cold water to the house, but it should not feed the water heater...leads to issues with the anode rod.

Check out this link for more info.:

Hot water heater anodes and rust protection (http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/pages/WHRpages/English/Longevity/water-heater-anodes.html)

I'm sure you can find more information if you google it, too!

Just FYI, OK?

Mark

The system is at the well so all feeds have conditioned water

If you Google water softener and hot water systems/anode rods you will see that this is not recommended practice! Not only does feeding the hot water system with softened water cause issues like you are having, it also uses up the resin/salts in the softener system at twice the rate (or so), so only costs you more money in the long run!

Be clear that this advice really does depend on the hardness of your water, and the PH of your water. In some case, softened water will NOT cuase issues with anode roda. However, it definitely sounds like your water is going to be a major problem for you in terms of the anode rod/smell. Have you looked into replacing the magnesium anode rod with a ZINC anode rod? That may help here...

Here's another article (in addition to the one posted above):

http://www.hotwater.com/lit/bulletin/bulletin61.pdf

If you google water softener and hot water systems/anode rods you will see that this is not recommended practice! Not only does feeding the hot water system with softened water cause issues like you are having, it also uses up the resin/salts in the softener system at twice the rate (or so), so only costs you more money in the long run!!

Be clear that this advice really does depend on the hardness of your water, and the PH of your water. In some case, softened water will NOT cuase issues with anode roda. However, it definitely sounds like your water is going to be a major problem for you in terms of the anode rod/smell. Have you looked into replacing the magnesium anode rod with a ZINC anode rod?? That may help here...

Here's another article (in addition to the one posted above):

http://www.hotwater.com/lit/bulletin/bulletin61.pdf

Thanks.. The smell originally started after a new hot water heater was installed and before the water system was put in and the anode rod wasn't ate up but had a white milky build up on it