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Camper trailer has terrible smell - think it's the water

A

andy r

Member
Took a couple grandchildren camping on Friday night. Hooked up to the water at the county park. I must mention that my wife accidently turned on the switch to the electric water heater well before I ever had the supply hose hooked up and pressure to the camper. Don't know if that contributes to the smell or not. Would that have burnt the electric element out causing the smell? She thought that she was turning on the electricity for the lights. Water heater heated on gas just fine. Anyway throughout the evening and the next morning there was a bad smell which I think came from the water and not the sewer. On the sewer side the camper containment tanks were empty, plus I had ran water into all of the traps. Seems like when we ran water there was this rotten burnt smell to the water. There is some mention to sulfur water. I don't know anything about it, how it occurs, or how to get rid of it.

Also, if the electric element did burn out how are they generally fixed on a camper water heater? Are they like a house electric water heater. Can't seem to find the element. Thanks a lot.
 
My guess is the hot water and not necessarily anything you did or didnt do. We have experience this too. Our unit has an Atwood water heater that uses an aluminum tank and NO anode. The Atwood heaters do not use an anode as they instead use an aluminum. Tank. Ive never had one but a suburban brand wh uses a steel tank and they do use a consumable anode. in our case I think its just something about the aluminum tank. If we run enough water (quite a bit) it will clear up. My suggestion is try and post this on the various RV forums, you will find quite a few others have similar stories. On this forum John T is a seasoned RVer and an excellent resource on a multitude of subjects. My guess is he will also chime in. Good luck.
 
A burned element can have a smell, but it would only effect the hot I would think, and it would be a hot electrical smell.

Possibly it was something in the water you connected to. Sulfur gives it the rotten egg smell. Especially if the line is seldom used and you were the first.

I would flush everything with fresh water, maybe add a splash of bleach and flush it again.

The element is replicable. If you can find a make and model of the water heater, look it up online, there will be a breakdown. It's likely a standard low wattage 120v element.
 
Little or no water in a tank when power is applies can/will burn out the element and yes it can make a bad smell just like when I wire gets hot and melts the insulation you smell it
 
I would check your water heater anode first then drain & flush all water lines with known good water.
 
Three issues usually account for rotten egg odor in rv water supply. Minerals in water,wrong anode and burnt heating element. I'd say yours is burnt element. Just follow electric wires to find the element.
 
Rotten egg smell can be from the water, and amplified be hot water. My well water does that from time to time. The cure is to dump some cheap, plain bleach in the water, let it sit for one to two days, then flush. This also gets rid of black algae and some kinds of bacteria.
 
The electric element in the hot water heater was turned on without being full of water accidently by my wife. That certainly could have burnt out the element. I guess I could test the heating element just like a house water heater with an ammeter. The smell could also be the fact that I didn't completely drain the water heater when we used it on Father's Day. I did drain the water storage tank underneath, but the water heater might not completely drain. Found a bunch of information on stinky water in RV's online.
 
I have had 2 campers and Father-in-law had 2 and none had a water heater with anything electrical.
 
Well, if the electric heater element burned out, that's easy enough to figure out. Just see if it will heat water with the gas switched off. And if it's burned out, that might not be your wife's fault; if the heater was full of water it shouldn't matter if the supply was hooked up. But if the heater was empty, it's guaranteed to be blown.

Changing out the element on an RV heater shouldn't be any different than any other water heater; you have to get access to the element, unscrew it and screw a new one in. I think most RV water heaters have only a single element.

To get the smell out, you need to sanitize your water system. Drain the heater and water tank, then pump in some Clorox or pool chlorinator using one of those pumps for RV antifreeze. Fill the system with water, and run water through all the fixtures until you smell bleach. It would be a good idea to tow the trailer around the neighborhood a bit to slosh the bleach solution around in the water tank and heater. Drain everything out and flush with fresh water.
 
There you go. If you left water in the hot water tank, thats the source of the smell. Its from the anode. I made that mistake after our first trip. My wife turned on the water on the next trip and stunk up the whole camper. Smells like rotten eggs. Drain the tank and run fresh water through everything. Itll be fine. I doubt there is anything wrong with the heater.

This post was edited by MJMJ on 07/26/2021 at 03:50 am.
 
> Never saw a camper with an electric water heater, unless is was a park model, or a fancy one.

Most these days are dual propane/115vac. It seems like most campgrounds have a hard time supplying even 20 amps, so we seldom use the electric element. You can turn on both heat sources to quickly heat a cold tank.
 
In the camper supply books they did not even have a water heater that could be used on electric. So what year camper is it? Must be a newer unit.
 
(quoted from post at 18:10:19 07/25/21) Never saw a camper with an electric water heater, unless is was a park model, or a fancy one.
Click to expand...

I have a cheapo 2008 with electric & propane hot water. Control switches are on the tank level /on board pump switch panel by the sink.
 
Do the simple first, drain the tank and try fresh water. Leaving the water in the tank almost always causes the rotten egg smell. No sense spending time and money on an element thats fine.
 
Made that mistake with our RV when we first got it. You can by one at most home supply stores that will fit, but it will be slightly less in watts. Can't tell the difference in our hot water. 1 part house hold bleach to 10 parts water is good formula to shoot for. Pour bleach into fresh water holding take and then fill with water. Open each faucet one at a time and let run until you smell the bleach. Don't forget the shower or tub. I let mine set 24 hrs and then drain holding tank and refill with fresh water and repeat process until you no longer smell bleach coming from faucets. Remember if you fill water heater with bleach water you will need to flush lots of water through it to get all out. Most water heaters are either 6 or 10 gallons.
 
> Remember if you fill water heater with bleach water you will need to flush lots of water through it to get all out. Most water heaters are either 6 or 10 gallons.

Just drain the water heater by removing its plug, fill with fresh water and drain again.
 
Yep, thats all it takes. And dont stand in front if the plug as you remove it, in case theres still pressure in the tank. It can shoot out of there like a rocket.
 
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