Black smelly water

[Jaxx]

When I turn on my faucets, it really, really stinks and the water is black!! Please help!!

[JRTJH]

It sounds like your fresh water supply system is contaminated. I would completely drain your water system, refill it with fresh water, purge all the faucets and lines by running them until they are clear, then add about a quart of Clorox bleach to the fresh water tank, run each faucet until you smell the chlorine. Then let it sit for about 24 hours. Drain the fresh water tank, refill it and purge the bleach out of the water lines by running each faucet until it's clear. If I were you, at this point, I would refill the fresh water tank, add more bleach, run each faucet again until you smell chlorine, and let it sit for antoher 24 hours.

Then purge the system, refill the fresh tank and then see how it is.

My guess is you filled the fresh tank with non-chlorinated water somewhere along the line, something started growing and recently the growth "bloomed".....

It's not the end of the world, just get it clean and then try to keep it that way.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

[Jaxx]

Thank you, thank you, thank you !! I have printed off your suggestions and just as soon as it warms up here (Nebraska) I will try what you have suggested!! Thanks again!! :)

[FullTimer]

Yep, if you hold fresh water in the tank, I recommend draining it, should be a drain under the tank and bleaching and refilling every 3-4ish months or so. On my old trailer, a four seasons one with tank inside, before winter hit, I would make sure it was bleached, drained and refilled, in case other campers water lines broke and the water quit. Glad I did this several times for that reason.

When you bleach it, add the unscented plain bleach and fill it all the way up, then turn off city water, and run the pump, then run each faucet, hot and cold, until you smell the bleach. I sometimes, after doing this and turning the pump off and turning city water back on, will leave the fw tank full for a day or two, if the weather is above freezing, to allow the bleach to really work. Then drain it and refill it with straight city water.

Just to add, it's possible to get bacterial growth in a HW tank, using only electric, so to negate this, kick on the propane, it tends to heat to a higher temp, at least mine does, and use that for a day or so. The extra higher heat seems to kill the bacteria, and then go back to electric. You'll notice an odor in the water, kind of sulpherish when this needs to be done. Bleaching the lines and tank mentioned above also kills this bacteria.

Here's a step by step with the ratio of bleach and water. http://rvbasics.com/techtips/sanitizing-your-rv-fresh-water-system.html