How do rotten eggs smell like

They feed on sulfur and produce hydrogen sulfide gas as waste. When the gas dissolves in the water, it gives it that characteristic odor of spoiled eggs.

Even if the smell is horrible, those bacteria are not dangerous for your health. Another common cause is the chemical reaction between your water which has high levels of magnesium content and the magnesium anode rod in the water heater tank. In some cases, the chemical reaction can be stopped by removing the anode rod. However, we don't recommend that since the water heater won't have any protection against corrosion. The water heater will corrode faster and cost you a lot of money when it starts leaking.

No matter what causes this rotten egg smell in your water , the best thing to do is to replace the magnesium anode with a Corro-Protec anode. The Corro-Protec anode will solve the rotten egg smell in just a few hours. When a Corro-Protec is installed, the current used by the rod to protect the tank automatically kill the bacteria that create the smell. Corro-Protec has developed an impressed current anode for hot water tanks. Instead of using a sacrificial magnesium anode rod to protect the tank, the Corro-Protec anode is made from titanium and uses current to prevent corrosion.

That same current stops the rotten egg smell in your hot water by killing the SRB bacteria. If the smell is coming from a reaction with your magnesium anode rod, the Corro-Protec will stop the reaction with remaining magnesium sediment inside the water heater.

The Corro-Protec system includes a power supply rectifier and a titanium anode rod. Once the rectifier is plugged into a V outlet, the titanium anode sends energy into the tank, which completely stops corrosion , reduce hard water stains and stops the rotten egg smell. While extremely high levels of hydrogen sulfide can indeed be harmful, even deadly, H2S is one of those chemicals that can be detected by the nose at an extremely low level. A sudden onset of a strong odor may cause for concern.

Hydrogen sulfide rapidly fatigues the sense of smell, so while your nose is a good early detector, it cannot be relied upon over time. The Department recommends that bore water or any water that contains more than 0.

This is based on protecting the aesthetic quality of the water smell and taste and is not related to health. At high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide in water, emissions of the gas may pose a respiratory risk to health under unfavourable conditions such as prolonged large scale irrigation close to residences. Exposure of the public to hydrogen sulfide in WA is nearly always just a nuisance or amenity issue. If people are made aware of this then anxiety and resentment are likely to be reduced, as are some of the odour-related indirect health effects such as headaches.

Direct health effects from exposure to environmental sources of hydrogen sulfide are only likely in very rare cases. These are likely to be confined to sensitive groups such as some asthmatics and the effects are likely to be minor and temporary. If the smell of hydrogen sulfide is strong or you are concerned about its impacts on your amenity or health, you can reduce your exposure by:.

If the hydrogen sulfide is being generated by human activities then appropriate management of those activities may help address the problem at source. For instance industrial emissions might be dealt with through process or engineering controls such as containment or filter ventilation. When bore water is contaminated with hydrogen sulfide it is sometimes possible to treat the bore with an agent which removes iron from the water and therefore interferes with bacterial activity which happens to generate the gas.

Use of hydrogen sulfide impacted water for irrigation purposes has the potential to release considerable amounts of gas, as mentioned above. Methods for reducing odour impacts include the following:.

For some of these measures consultation with the Department of Water external site may be necessary if there is a possible conflict with watering rosters. If the hydrogen sulfide is the result of sea grass deposition and decay then usually it only acts as a nuisance. Deposition occurs on some beaches during winter in particular and often is removed naturally by subsequent storms.

Prolonged accumulation can generate an odour problem for nearby residences or passers-by especially if the deposit is being disturbed or when there are light onshore winds. The only real fix here is to replace your drywall, which is a major bummer.

From gas leaks to off-gassing drywall seriously?! So just remember, the person who first smells a rotten egg in their home and acts quickly and accordingly , is, in fact, not a rotten egg. And that is at least an encouraging irony. Wondering what to clean this summer?

A room-by-room spring cleaning checklist that will have your home spotless. Get that smoke smell out of your house now with our 20 tips, featuring DIY deep clean methods — plus our favorite odor eliminating and neutralizing products. Use this guide to make sure you do it the right way. Search text field.

This is serious, so take three seconds to get over the initial shock and call your utility company or the fire department immediately.