Water odor problem at only one sink

[builder10]

My house has six and one-half bathrooms with a hot water recirculating system. There are two sinks and two dishwashers in the kitchen. Hot water at one sink flows immediately. Hot water at the other sink, which is used all the time, takes about one minute. The water at this sink has a slight hydrogen sulfide odor. There is no odor at any other location in the house, and hot water flows immediately at all other locations.

The well water in this house has a high iron content. I am told by water treatment experts that the water contains an iron eating bacteria which gives off the hydrogen sulfide odor and is harmless. In order to get rid of the odor, I have installed a water treatment system consisting of a chlorinating system and a carbon filtration system. Everything works great, except for the main sink in the kitchen.

When the house was being built, the plumber ran the supply lines to the troublesome sink on the mud room ceiling. Since the ceiling only had a height of 7', I asked him to run the pipes thru the floor joists. He begrudgingly complied, but may not have run the third recirculating pipe from about 10 feet away. I will have to pull the mud room ceiling down in order to check this. Could the recirculating system in this area be stagnating and causing my problem? This problem is starting to drive me nuts!

[geniescience]

....two sinks ... in the kitchen. Hot water at one sink flows immediately. Hot water at the other sink .... takes about one minute.....

A recirc system puts both sinks on the same circuit (loop) and not on separate runs, right? And the two sinks are a few feet apart, right? Then how can it take an extra minute? Weird.

You can probe into a drywall ceiling without ripping it apart. Start with swizzel sticks, move up to shish kebab sticks, and then graduate up to a few drilled holes. The biggest hole is for your eyeball and the other holes are to let light in.

You'll be able to figure out what pipes are up there and patch up with plaster in no time.

david

[Terry]

The first thing I would do is replace the flex connector for the kitchen faucet.

I had a customer that used bottled water because of bad taste from the kitchen faucet.

I changed the supplies, no more bad taste.

It's worth a try at least.
I like Aquaflo

[dubldare]

Chlorinate entire plumbing system.

http://www.hotwater.com/bulletin/bulletin22.pdf
http://www.hotwater.com/bulletin/bulletin23.pdf

[builder10]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I am going to try each one.
I will post the final solution when it is achievied.
Thanks again!
builder 10

[Peanut9199]

I had a customer a few months back with a Kohler kitchen faucet with a strong odor and taste problem. She brought it in and it was coming from the supply tubes aswell, replaced those and the problem went away.

[Plumb or Die]

Just wondering what kind of supply tubes, and why the bad odor/taste? From deteriorating plastic absorbing the waters impurities, or what? Educate a fellow plumber on this one please. And thanks.

[DeeKay]

I had a similar problem for a while. Finally figured out that it wasn't the water, but the foul gunk in the trap and drain. It apparently would get stirred up by the water inflow and release the odor for a while.

Just another idea....

[CentralTXPreacher]

I recently put in a new faucet in our master bath that has double sinks that needed replacing. Since we are soon to be redoing our bath, I purchased a cheap one as my wife has not yet determined the finish she wants on the faucets we will be putting in. The problem I've noticed is that on the new faucet, it has been used for about a month now, emits a faint odor like that of a rotten egg or sulfur. The other faucet on the other sink does not. It seems to happen when you first turn it on and it does it both on hot and cold. The shower also does not emit an odor. Only this faucet does. Does anyone have an idea what it could be. After a while of running the water it will go away.

Thanks for your help in solving this problem!

CentralTxPreacher

[Terry]

Change out the water supplies to the faucet.

[CentralTXPreacher]

Terry,

When I put it in, I changed out the cut offs and I put in brand new supplies. Should new ones have this problem.

Thanks,

CentralTxPreacher

[Terry]

Some new ones do.
Think about it, if ever other faucet and tap in the house is fine, then what have you got to lose by changing them?

One of my customers had been buying bottled water because the taste was bad from the kitchen sink. Everywhere else it was fine. They noticed it after their son in law had installed a new sink and faucet.
It took a while, but finally they let me change the supplies, and now they are back to drinking tap water.

Copper and galvanized don't change the odor or taste, but plastic can.
There are plenty of vinyl and braided hoses with plastic liners out there.