Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Well Water & Filtration Systems

Settling into a new (to me) house. Has well and septic, the well is at about 70 ft and was drilled in 1984-ish. Knew it had hard water and some iron going in - very common in the area which is in close proximity to river bottoms and wetlands on one side, Ag land on the other.

Anyhow, in addition to the hard water and iron we've got some pretty strong sulfur smell and poor taste in the well water. Definitely stronger in the hot water but it present in cold water from the tap as well.

So far I've drained and backflushed the hot water heater, with not a ton of change in smell levels there. We are getting a softener regardless to remedy the hard water, I installed an iron filter inline with the main line from the well and it seems to be doing the job. To my knowledge I've got 2 options to address the "rotten egg" sulfur smell - one being shocking the well and the other being a whole house filter system including a KDF filter.

Anyone with a similar scenario gone through this? If so what did you do to address the sulfur and are you satisfied with the choice? If you chose to shock the well do you do it yourself or hire it out? Seems to be straight forward enough but maybe I'm wrong.

I had a Culligan guy come over and test the water and go through his pitch this morning - his recommendation was an HE 9 softener w/ KDF filter (if that means anything to you). Obviously Culligan is about the most expensive route to go but it was a starting point numbers-wise.

Lay it on me.

Bypass all of the treatments that are currently on the system then pour a gallon of plain old ordinary bleach down the well. Then run all of the water outlets in the house till you can't smell bleach anymore. Then see how long it takes for the sulfur smell to come back. If it's biological, it may never come back. If it's chemical, as in sulfur dioxide it'll come back right quick.

The sulfur smell is a bacteria, chlorine treat your well. Had the same problem with my place by Algoma, WI. Easy enough to do it yourself if you want to.

Both of the above are correct. Look up methods for chlorine shocking a well. Rather than 1 gallon I usually recommend 1 cup of bleach down the well. Run the farthest tap until you smell chlorine then run the others to complete treat the system. Let sit over night and then run to clear.

Try the bleach first, I'd pour 2 gallons down the tube and wait 3-4 hours...then purge the water thru all outlets till bleach smell is gone.

If you're using gallons of bleach. Flush a much of the system out an outdoor spigot onto the ground. Otherwise you risk killing all the bugs in your septic system.

Maybe. Some bacteria do create the sulfur smell, but some areas have sulfur in the ground and the water. When that happens, you need some kind of device to remove it.
A few years ago we were looking at a house in Weiser, ID. We found out that the area has some pretty nasty sulfur tasting water. It's in the ground.

for a water softener system watch out for what the additive is. when i bought my place 20 years ago i put in a potassium system and potassium was 5 bucks a bag and it used 3 bags a month. fast forward and potassium was 25 bucks a bag. i ended up getting rid of it and other than some streaking on glassware in the dishwasher, i haven't noticed a difference. hot water heater is going on 10 years old and still working fine and no problems with faucets or anything. yet.

Had a place in Missouri that had strong iron and sulfur in the water. Turned out the well had a "tank eliminator" the well. It was a rubber tube that inflated with pump pressure that then pushed water to the house. The rubber has developed a small leak and water was running down the pipe into the water. Changed to a regular type pressure tank and the water issue disappeared.

So, you may want to check for water leaks somehow running down the well.

yep.

The sulfur in my folks well is H2S. Hydrogen Sulfide.

Never had much luck getting that out.

You get used to it.....or you dont.

is the H2S concentration high or low?...because effectiveness of different removal methods varies accordingly.

http://www.purewaterproducts.com/articles/hydrogen-sulfide

some methods will use aeration followed by a carbon filter,
but depending on what process and the PH of untreated water, water may need to be pre-treat to alter PH level
for most effective sulfide removal.

This. Too much bleach is bad for the bacteria that does the work in your septic system.

Hey, he's Wisconsin. 3 days of beer drinking will flush that septic system!

If you do kill the septic (or just run a lot of that chlorine in and you are uncertain), just have it pumped, flush a bit with fresh water, add bugs after a few days of use gives them soething to eat. Bugs available from the pumping co. Here at least. Since our ground temp is pretty cold, they recommend adding bugs at intervals, especially if the system is intermittently used, as is the case of my home place on the Kenai. Our septic guy recommends once a month for regular use, tho that may be marketing...

We pump our septic systems every 2-3 years anyway- and so should everyone. Might be longer time line in warmer climes. Or shorter, depending on other factors.

Replace the water heater, get rid of the anode rod on the new water heater. Add filters and softener.

ETA have the water tested before buying softener and filter, take results of the test along with you when you get quotes on the new equipment.

If it's hydrogen sulfide from the local "wetlands", the only option I know of is a bigassed carbon filter. I've been out of the water game for 20 years now so things have surely changed.

Shocking the well is the place to start as that might be all that is needed.

Using too much bleach can cause bacteria to become encapsulated making them resistant to the chlorine in bleach. More important than concentration is contact time.

Mix 1/2 gallon of unscented bleach in a 5 gallon bucket of water. Pour this into the well.

Using a garden hose, run water back into the well for 10 - 15 minutes AFTER you can smell bleach in the water coming out of the hose.

Open each tap in succession starting with the one closest to the pressure tank and moving to the farthest.

Leave the system set for a minimum 2 hours - overnight is better.

Run water through an outside hose away from lawn, garden, etc. until the bleach smell is no longer present. Then purge inside taps.

similar issue discussed in this thread few months ago:
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11720630/1

The Clorox Bleach trick worked for my well when I lived in the sticks. I made sure to pour it so it got the inside of the pipe wet. I don't know if it was necessary, just told to do it by the County Agent. Then I let is sit overnight.
I put Rid-X in the toilets a few times a week for about a month. The bleach didn't kill it off though.
The Co. Agent said to do bleach before I reported it officially or they'd have to mark the house uninhabitable until the test were concluded and the fix incorporated.

Bottled water worked for the day or two I needed it.
I doubt you have volcanic activity or coal mines in WI.

EditL I think I mixed a gallon of bleach to 3 gallons of water, but it's been over a decade so not sure anymore.

Well written and proper, this. Kudos on addressing, "encapsulation" common with over dosage.

Re-circing the washdown in the casing ABOVE static level is SOP in AWWDA manuals, and as well, ADWR (Az. Dept Water Resources.),....THAT is where the worst growth can be taking place.

It's not the QUANTITY of bleach,....it's the TIME within which smaller (saner) quantities are used.

I use bleach damn sparingly, and when possible avoid it entirely,.....Colloidial Silver's a WAY better choice, with bleach running a distant second.

.....moving right along,....don't even THINK of bringing spray equipment in to clean, or "rinse out" in your tub, or mud room sink,.....a friend managed to get a very SMALL amount of biphenytrin into his septic tank at it just KILLED the sucker, right now.

GTC