Oil smell in hot water heater

jrprusak

Plumber used liquid wrench to remove my anode rod in my water heater. Now my hot water has the smell of the liquid wrench and wife is not happy. Running water is not removing the smell. Is there a non toxic flush I could use to flush and remove this smell?

EBEBRATT-Ed

It should dissipate shortly

Larry Weingarten

Hi, You could add some baking soda to the tank and let it stew for some hours. Then, drain it down fully and refill. See if that helps.

Yours, Larry

Ps. This is why I never use solvents or oils with domestic hot water. 😏

EdTheHeaterMan

We all make mistakes. File this under Off Topic

There was an old plumber's trick to stop water from trickling past an old valve, when you are trying to get it hot for solder to flow. Stuff the pipe with rolled up bread and push it in as far as you can. Then quickly solder as the bread absorbs the small leak. I did that to install a new valve on a water heater inlet. Once the new valve was installed, I could shut off the water and complete the rest of the job.


After the new water heater was installed and everything was done, I opened the valve and water filled the tank. No Problems!


2 days later the customer called me in utter distress, They thought there was some sort of bacteria in the new water heater that must have been there from the factory. I went to the job right away and saw this white puffy growth floating in the water sample they had. After thinking about it for a minute, I told them there is no problem. That was bread I must have used to repair a leaking valve. Their old water heater valve service valve to the meter were both passing and this was the easiest way to solve the problem, without calling them for additional work authorization to repair those two valves.


Not my best day as an installer, the customer was not impressed.

jesmed1

EdTheHeaterMan said:

We all make mistakes. File this under Off Topic

There was an old plumber's trick to stop water from trickling past an old valve, when you are trying to get it hot for solder to flow. Stuff the pipe with rolled up bread and push it in as far as you can. Then quickly solder as the bread absorbs the small leak. I did that to install a new valve on a water heater inlet. Once the new valve was installed, I could shut off the water and complete the rest of the job.

Another funny variation on that story. A plumber used that trick as you did. The customer later called back to say his faucets were leaking. Turns out the plumber used whole grain bread with seeds in it. The seeds got stuck in the cartridge-type faucet valves.

Moral of that story is only use white bread with no seeds!

hot_rod

jesmed1 said:

We all make mistakes. File this under Off Topic There was an old plumber's trick to stop water from trickling past an old valve, when you are trying to get it hot for solder to flow. Stuff the pipe with rolled up bread and push it in as far as you can. Then quickly solder as the bread absorbs the small leak. I did that to install a new valve on a water heater inlet. Once the new valve was installed, I could shut off the water and complete the rest of the job.

Another funny variation on that story. A plumber used that trick as you did. The customer later called back to say his faucets were leaking. Turns out the plumber used whole grain bread with seeds in it. The seeds got stuck in the cartridge-type faucet valves. Moral of that story is only use white bread with no seeds!

Wonder Bread, no crust. Maybe that is why they call it Wonder

jesmed1

hot_rod said:

Wonder Bread, no crust. Maybe that is why they call it Wonder

And Wonder Bread sounds better than Plumber's Bread.