Getting a rotten egg smell in your water is a common occurrence in many parts of the world. It’s not pleasant – it makes you not want to use your water at all. But what is it, and how do you remove it?

There are two sources for that rotten egg smell:

1. From your drains
2. From your water itself

To test this, get some water you know does not have that smell, like bottled water. Pour it down the sink at the tap you usually notice the smell. If you smell it, it’s sewer gas escaping from your drain. This means you have a malfunctioning p-trap under your sink or tub and need to have it cleaned or repaired, or even installed if you do not have one. If you do not get that smell, then it’s your water itself.

This could be from several sources. The smell itself is hydrogen sulphide. Hydrogen sulphide, while making a horrible rotten egg smell, is not dangerous to your health in the small quantities you get from your drinking water.

There are two feasible ways to remove it from your water supply for the average home owner.  You can use air and you can use activated carbon. I will list the ways from cheapest to most expensive.

Cheapest:

Simply fill an open topped jug with water, and put it in your refrigerator. Hydrogen sulphide is volatile in the presence of air and will eventually dissipate. This may take a while though, and you might want more drinking water sooner than that.

Very Affordable:

Pitchers with filters contain activated carbon to absorb tastes and odors in your drinking water, and that includes the chemical that makes the rotten egg smell. These pitcher filters take a few minutes to have the water percolate through, but the water coming out the other side will be smell and taste free. If you don’t want to wait, you spend a little more money and purchase a filter that attaches right to your tap to give you instant smell free water. Good examples are the PUR Pitcher and the PUR faucet filter, only $14,49 and $34.00 respectively (based on Amazon.com prices of July 2011), it’s a cheap and easy way to remove the smells. To find out more, click here for the PUR pitcher and here for the Pur faucet filter.

Whole House Smell Removal:

The above options, while very inexpensive, only take care of the water you drink and the water you cook with. Showering and washing with the rotten egg smell can also be rather unpleasant. To remove this from your entire house, you need a whole house activated carbon filter. While more expensive than the two options above, they can still be affordable with a filter and housing costing about $50 (based on Amazon.com prices July 2011). The only thing is you need to be handy with plumbing, or hire a plumber to solder this in for you. To find out more, click here to view information on the whole house carbon filter.

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