Hot water tank smell

Dahlia duo

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Hi there
First time out this year, have filled up with water and put the hot water on, we are getting a smell as it heats up, there are no air locks in the system. This smell is like when you boil the kettle dry, wonder if I could de scale it. ?? Had this last year too. The boiler is a trauma trumatic c-6002. Thanks
 
Wait for someone who knows for sure but sounds like you may need to bleed the system to fill the tank to me. I don’t know though as I have a calorifier system
 
If your sure it's not got any air in system and had same last year I'm thinking it's probably just drying out if it cured it's self last year
 
Sulphur-reducing bacteria, which use sulphur as an energy source, are the primary producers of large quantities of hydrogen sulphide. These bacteria chemically change natural sulfates in water to hydrogen sulphide. Sulphur-reducing bacteria live in oxygen-deficient environments such as deep wells, plumbing systems, water softeners and water heaters. These bacteria usually flourish on the hot water side of a water distribution system

Hydrogen sulphide gas produces an offensive "rotten egg" or "sulphur water" odour and taste in the water. In some cases, the odour may be noticeable only when the water is initially turned on or when hot water is run. Heat forces the gas into the air which may cause the odour to be especially offensive in a shower. Occasionally, a hot water heater is a source of hydrogen sulphide odour. A nuisance associated with hydrogen sulphide includes its corrosiveness to metals such as iron, steel, copper and brass The odour of water with as little as 0.5 ppm of hydrogen sulphide concentration is detectable by most people. Concentrations less than 1 ppm give the water a "musty" or "swampy" odour. A 1-2 ppm hydrogen sulphide concentration gives water a "rotten egg" odour and makes the water very corrosive to plumbing
Hydrogen sulphide may be controlled by conducting a shock chlorination / disinfection.

To shock chlorinate the system do this
1 drain system
2 remove any cartridges and filters and reconnect system
3 wash system through with detergent and water.
4 flush all traces of detergent from system
5 fill tank ¼ full with and high strength Calcium Hypochlorate (HSCH) at the rate of 80 grams per 1000 litres. HSCH is readily available and is used for cleaning swimming pools. Read the instructions on handling and mixing.
6 fill the tank and leave for 48 hours
7 Empty into a sewer system
8 Refill with drinking water and leave for 30 minutes
9 Empty again and install new filters
10 Refill with clean drinking water.

You may think this is overkill but it should sort any problems

To remove low levels of hydrogen sulphide with NO bacterial problems, install an activated carbon filter. The filter must be replaced periodically to maintain performance
 
I don't know how old your van is or perhaps more important how much use heater has had. Ours had very little use before we acquired it and the heating did smell for perhaps a couple of years
 
Hi
There's always one, Clive your the man. Thank you very much for your post, that's just the sort of answer I was hoping for. Thank you.
 
I'm not sure when you are getting the smell. If it is when you are running the water from a tap I have not experienced that but, if no water is being run then we had a burning smell which I attributed to dust and grease used during manufacture being burnt off the heating unit. We also had the same when we first used the space heating system on our last two vans.
 
As I have solar heating for all my domestic hot water and don’t use mains supply but use our bore hole I do suffer from this problem the only answer I have found is to put a bottle of hydrogen peroxide into the tank every few months then flush,problem cured.
 
Our trauma combined boiler had a distinct ‘heating up the hot water’ smell, apparently because there is no fan on to vent the space in this mode, unlike when the central heating kicks in. I’ve seen a mod to fit another fan to the boiler jacket to vent in hot water mode. This, of course may not be your problem...
https://www.caravantalk.co.uk/community/topic/123347-truma-combi-6e-burning-smell/#comment-1468326
http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk...e-Matters/Truma-Combi-4E-Heater-Smell-/24458/
 
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I think you will find that with the c6002 the smell is normal. Our van is 10 year old and we still get the hot plastic smell when boiler is on for hot water only.
 
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