Well Water

[jeepit]

Well water starting to get a sulpher (rotten egg) smell. Not over powering but it is there.
What is procedure to correct this?

 

[GHarman]

How deep is your well?
Some are stuck with redrilling at another location.
My Uncle had that situation and got their water from a different drill hole at a different depth.
It is here where I live, also. Our well is shallow but with heavy minerals in the water.
A business, about one mile from here has a deep well that reeks of sulfur and carrys heavy minerals that create flowstone in a very short period of time where ever the water drips or leaks.
GregH

 

[Bill Stockard]

Is the smell in your hot water? If so it's a reaction of harmless bacteria in the well water with the anode rod in your water heater. We had this problem at our former home that was on well water and it occurred after we had been away in a RV trip for several weeks. Hydrogen peroxide from the drug store or household bleach injected into the water heater will usually cure it. Peroxide is safer to use, however. Some may suggest removing the anode rod, but that will shorten the life of the tank.


Bill

 

[BarryG]

We have that problem at work that Bill mentioned and we are on municipal water. We had to spend about 6k for a chlorine injection system to clear it up since the municipality didn't see it as a problem Have been told it is a bigger problem with low flow as in low use lines, hot water is worse as the temp allows the bacteria to grow more. Then to top it off the bacteria dies and their little floating carcasses add up and next thing you know the water turns grey to black and now it not only smells bad it looks bad. Had to have the water lines shock flushed with chlorine and replace the water heaters in the building. If the injection tank goes to long without somebody refilling with bleach within a couple months it comes back and then I have to go in the back and rag on the folks who are supposed to keep their eye on the tank. While as Bill mentioned it is harmless bacteria most people don't want to drink smelly water and they darn sure don't want to drink grey or black looking water.

 

[jeepit]

Water on the cold side smells. Not noticeable on the hot side.

 

[fest3er]

Our well water here has lots of iron. We had an iron filter installed years ago. Then some years back, we started getting the sulfide odor. The solution was to inject air into the water (really, have the water fall through air in a pressurized tank). This causes the sulfur compound(s) to coagulate and be removed by the iron filter.

 

[hcole]

Well, I could be wrong but here in eastern North Carolina we have that sulfur smell in our water and the municipalities here just aerate it. This is done by passing it over baffles similar to the old timey chillers that air conditioners used to dissipate heat, It can smell so bad it will gag you but with a little aeration it's gone. Try this. Put some water in a container and use something like a blender to mix it and make it bubble. Make sure the the container is open at the top. It should only take a few seconds to remove the smell.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Our area was a mining town many many years ago, they didn't know or really understand what was going on with the chemicals that they were using at that time. When we had our well put in our only requirement was WE WANT WATER YEAR ROUND. One of our Nephews did the drilling he hit good water at 500' but he wouldn't say what it would do just before winter, Penny told him to keep digging, he went to 850' pulled the drill bit out of the casing and water shot out at least 30' in the air and kept coming. I asked what did you do hit a water main? :-laf He's been drilling in this valley for 30 years and said he's only seen that 2 other times on the other side of the valley, He had told Penny he would guarantee year round water at 1000' She said keep on digging. He did capped it we did the rest of the house and Im a germ a phoebe, We tested the water it was good to go from the states standpoint. NOT ME I wanted more, so I put in a whole house filtration system, NO SMELL, NO TASTE, NOTHING BUT CLEAN WATER.

Last year we won a well pump and I didn't have lots of water pressure at the barn, so we had our Nephew come and drill another well at the barn, We installed the hand operated well pump and I wash up in it and drink in it with no taste to it.


Your bad taste can be filtered out, you just have to get the correct filters to do it. Others have had your problem and put the filters on and TASTE BAD NO MORE.

http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/wh...-knowledge-base/removing-rotten-egg-smell.htm

 

[JR]

Hey BIG, is that a Rain Soft system In the picture?
We bought one when we were living at our old house to improve our well water, it was a great system. I actually brought it with us when we moved but this house already had a system and it's been good enough I've left it alone.

 

[Hoefler]

If it is a rotten egg smell, you have iron algae. Simply chlorinate your well, it will fix it.

 

[BIGNASTY]

If it is a rotten egg smell, you have iron algae. Simply chlorinate your well, it will fix it.

If your well water gives off a strong rotten egg smell you most likely have a problem with hydrogen sulfide gas in your water supply. Hydrogen sulfide gas is produced when sulfur-bacteria breaks down sulfur compounds and this process can be found in groundwater, water distribution systems and water heaters. This form of bacteria has the ability to turn sulfate and organic matter such as vegetation into foul smelling hydrogen sulfide gas particularly in warm environments. Below, we discuss several methods you can use to determine the level of your contamination and how to best treat it correctly.


Around here in the fall is when lots of folks have the egg smell, leaves and vegetation decay in the rivers and leach into the ground water and starts to rot.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Hey BIG, is that a Rain Soft system In the picture?
We bought one when we were living at our old house to improve our well water, it was a great system. I actually brought it with us when we moved but this house already had a system and it's been good enough I've left it alone.

JR I cant remember what the names of the different tanks and system parts are, but Rain Soft sound familiar, Penny has skin that doesn't like the minerals in the water. So most of that is for her, Just above the white cylinder you can see a black filter mount with a blue filter cartridge below it. That and two others are what cleans the water. First one removes all the BIG **** and the second is a filter that removes parasitic organisms it also has a UV sterilization unit to kill EVERYTHING, the third is a filter that removes ALL chemicals and minerals from the water. I change EVERYTHING one time a year it cost about $200 buck for all the filters.

The upside to this is that white unit on the upper left of the wall is a tank-less water heater, its as clean as the day we put it in, those things aren't cheap, the wife's fridge has a water filter for the water (that tastes as good as any bottled water) we have yet to replace the filter. The lines in the house are clean, shower heads are running like the day they were installed. So it pays we think.