Hydrogen peroxide fixed my water system smells 1989 32' Southwind

[jyro]

I had the rotten egg sulfur smell from the hot water heater as well as a smell while driving from the grey water system. I drained the water system and hot water heater, bought 4 quarts of hydrogen peroxide for .88 cents each and added all 4 to the clean water tank. I refilled with 8 gallons of water. I turned on the water pump and let it fill the water heater and let the water solution fill all the pipes. I let that sit for about a hour. I filled the water tank 1/2 full and let the pump run through all the system dumping into the grey water as well as the sewer system through the commode foot valve. all the Hydrogen peroxide ended up in the tanks and then I drove around to mix it up some in the tanks. I drained the tanks as well as the clean water tanks and the hot water heater refilling several times to eliminate the peroxide. After I was done I had to clean all the faucet strainers, I have never had such good water flow and now with no smell while driving either. CHEAP fix.

 

[ArdraF]

Don't you just love it when an idea actually works?!?  Good job.

ArdraF

 

[denmarc]

Curious...
Why do you think you had to clean all the faucet screens?

Edit:
I gotta rephrase. What I was trying to say is maybe all the agitation from the draining and refilling stirred up sediment and distributed throughout the system. Glad the sulphur smell is gone. I sometimes have the same problem myself. Never heard of using Hydrogen Peroxide though. A baking soda solution usually works just as well after a good cleaning. Assuming sacrificial element in the WH (Suburban) is in good condition.

 

[Mopar1973Man]

Nice... Another good idea to put under my hat... Thanx!

 

[jyro]

Curious...
Why do you think you had to clean all the faucet screens?

the peroxide broke loose that much stuff in the water system

 

[denmarc]

Will keep in mind. Might come in handy. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[eaglestar]

The sulfur smell in water systems is usually caused by bacteria (remarkably known as sulfur bacteria). They often appear in low usage private wells and the treatment is disinfection. The usual advice is using bleach poured down the well, followed by drawing a lot of water to clear it out. Peroxide is an effective disinfectant (and less potentially toxic than bleach) so it makes sense that it would solve the problem. BTW, years ago my father had a problem with sulfur smell in his hot water. Turns out he was keeping the temp down to save energy and created a culture incubator for the bacteria. When he turned the temp up to 120 it killed all the "bugs" and stopped the odor.

Ray

 

[jyro]

no well water in this case, I tried bleach first and it didn't do the trick.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Since bleach is a much stronger oxidant than peroxide, I suspect the difference was in your procedure rather than the chemical used.  It doesn't take much chlorine to kill off the organisms, but it has to reach them to do any good. Thoroughness is more important than the strength of the solution.