We live in MN, in a house built in 2008 (and our water heater, installed in the basement, is about that vintage).
For the past few weeks, I'm detecting a smoky smell from the hot water out of a 2nd-floor shower. I don't think any other hot water outlets show this (as far as I'm aware now).
This typically happens after a couple of minutes into a shower, and lasts as long as the hot water runs. The smell can best be described as an old-timey campfire, with all the smoky smell but none of the actual smoke. There's no sulfurous or other similar "bad" smell… if anything, this is a very comfortable, let-me-stand-here-for-another-hour-and-feel-cozy kind of smell.
The water heater is your average run-of-the-mill gas-fired unit, and I haven't done any preventive maintenance to it in the past six years. Not broken, so never had to fix anything.
What could cause this out-of-place smell in a relatively new house?
Best Answer
Okay, I needed to replace some damaged caulking in this shower stall, and this smell disappeared right after.
I'm thinking some mold (or mildew, or any other fun guys that like to grow in shower stalls) gave off this smell when heated.
As to why this needed re-caulking: I turn the shower to "hot" and turn it away from the shower stall door, towards the inside (cold water splashing on a person as soon as you wake up isn't Minnesota nice). This spray hits the vertical seam between two pieces of shower surround and eventually takes some caulking with it. Add this abuse up over several months and it's time to go to work.
Thanks for reading.