Hello all, I live in Houston and my water comes from the city. I just bought a house that was built 2 years ago. I have a problem with the smell/taste of the hot and cold water throughout my entire house. My water smells musty, similar the musty/algae smell of a fish tank. The smell is extremely strong, it fills the whole room if you turn on a shower or bath. It is the water, not the drains, that smell. You can take a glass of water outside and it still stinks. The water out of the hose outside has no smell.

I have a water heater and a water softener. The water softener works properly and softens the water effectively. I tried putting bleach in the softener and regenerating. I tried bypassing the softener and turning on all faucets in the house for an hour or so. I tried increasing the temp on the water heater to max for several hours and turning on all hot water faucets till the water heater was empty. Nothing worked, the smell didn't even go down a little bit.

The carbon filter in my refrigerator completely removes the smell/taste. The previous owners put a carbon filter under the sink that connects to a separate tap next to the sink's main faucet. They must have never changed the filter on it because the water out the separate faucet that's supposed to be filtered stinks. They also left a refrigerator with filtered water out the door that they must have never changed either because that water also stinks. I haven't tried changing the filters yet, I just think it's weird that they don't change their filters. Just a note: I don't want to cover up the smell with filters, I want to find the problem and fix it. Especially considering the raw water is odorless.

If anyone has any idea what could be causing this or what can be done to fix it I would be forever grateful. Thanks

Edit: I forgot to mention, an extra bathroom was added upstairs sometime after the house was built by whoever the original homeowner's hired. The sink, shower and toilet function properly.
Also, I do not know exactly when the homeowners moved out before we moved in. They were probably out of the house for a month before we moved in. The utilities stayed on for sure but the house was not in use.



Edited 1 times.

We don't know how long the house sat idle before you purchased it....
Have you considered taking a "clean" sample of the water to your provider to test? Does the odor disappear after a period of time? Do your neighbors have the same issues?

Best Wishes

I worked in Beaumont, Texas City, and Galveston years ago. Taking a shower in the motels, the water smelled like dirty feet. I don't know if it was related to the heat, but it was ripe.