Unpleasant Smell in Hot Water (Megaflo System)

Usually a smell in hot water in a unvented cylinder is a bacterial growth.
But, also the sacrificial anode in the tank can wear away & cause a funny taste to the water, not sure if Magoflow have them.

 

We went down that road, megaflows don't have a sacrificial anode

 

I take it as it is only six years old that the pipework is plastic?

 

Its not a plastic smell, and its not there all the time where if it was the pipework I would expect it to be....

 

Copper kills bacteria, that's why I asked

 

I've had this issue before - problem was flexi tap connectors.

Another plumber had fitted ones throughout the property not suitable for use with drinking water.
After going round the house and changing them all - the problem disappeared!

Issue would be that the rubber material inside the flexi somehow reacted with the water. Don't ask me why, I don't know, but it fixed my customers problem.
Hope this helps.

 

That's a very good point, the flexi's they should be WRAS approved.

 

http://www.screwfix.com/p/sink-waste-with-plug-chain-12/77140

I was fitting one of these today and the smell that came from the old overflow unit was humungous and I immediately thought about this thread....

I don't think it's the hot water that's smelling at all - it's the bacteria in the overflow that gets agitated, and some becomes vapour whenever the hot taps are run, no vapour is created when cold water is run, hence no smell.
The pieces of the smelly water jigsaw would seem to fit into this theory for me anyrode.
At just £3.49 for a new one, it's well worth a shot.
In fact anything with an overflow incorporated into it will collect bacteria like nobody's business.

Tappy,

 

Banging my head against wall here....no resolve, no solution. If you have the same problem could you let me know where in the UK you are? Town/city will do....just curious about locations.

 

Appreciate your point of view but which overflow unit are you referring to? We have this in two properties, one is a house with three bathrooms, kitchen and downstairs toilet. That's 12 hot taps including showers. The smell is present from every hot tap. Admittedly it smells when you fill the sink but it also smells when you fill a glass.......

 

As a sort of test you could fill a glass of hot water then take it outside the house and give it a good sniff outside the house to see if it smells, don't smell it until you get outside though.

All of the fixtures that have interregnal overflows have the potential to stink.

You could try bleaching the built in ones, but I would recommend re-placing the sink/bath ones if they are easy to do.
You could fit just one at first, as a trial.

I'm just trying to apply a bit of logical thinking to the problem.
Tappy,

 

oj17UK

Did you ever get a resolve to this problem? Eight months on and its still as bad. Worse when we leave the house empty for a week or two. Sadia Heatrae couldn't help, our water company don't want to know cos its hot water, even the local council put their hands up and said "waters nothing to do with us"

 

Not sure what else we can do to help...

Have you got the correct expansion vessel fitted?
Possible leak in the heating coil in the cylinder?

Post some pics of your system, we maybe able to spot something

 

There is no pressure drop on dial, so I presume no leaking coil. The odour come directly from the tap/showerhead when running hot water, so it's not a waste-trap issue.

jb56 - my area is Grantham, Lincs.

 

Expansion vessel on the cylinder - what colour is it?

 

Bright red. See attached photos for layout. All original equipment since installed 2009. (Bovis new build)

 

That's for the heating, but don't worry it's fine because the mega -flow has an internal diaphram.

 

Well I'll keep you posted, finally managed to get my local water company to agree to come and inspect. Heatrae Sadie debunk anything that appears in a forum and have been no help whatsoever and because they (allegedly) have never heard of this problem so it doesn't exist.

 

I've always been of the opinion that it could be the diaphragm that is causing the problem. Smell only apparent when there is hot water in the cylinder. If the cylinder water runs cold after being away or if the boiler is turned off experimentally to let the tank turn cold, there is no odour from the water coming from the hot taps. Sadia Heatrae are adamant that it can't be an internal corruption of the diaphragm....but they would say that, wouldn't they?

 

jb56 - I bet the water company finds nothing, but good to eradicate a possible cause. My local neighbours (all with similar equipment fitted at the same time via Bovis) say they have no hot water aroma problem.