Shocking or disinfecting a drilled well?

Moved in 1.5yrs ago to my new house. Water tastes great but if left running long enough has an off smell. I dont think this has ever been done here and I know if I do it wrong I can be looking at replacing the pump. The link below seems to be the norm I have read everywhere with one exception. Before I follow the steps in the link I will pour a diluted batch of water and bleach into the well and let in run out for about an hour before recirculating back into the well to rid it of all the crap and not clog the pump. Any other tips or tricks?

http://www.nwhealth.org/pubs/EH-58.pdf

Thanks!!

 

Cold water not just hot water ?

 

Yea unfortunately its both so its coming from the well.

 

Have shocked mine a couple times
good for the well.

Also I have a filter & put chlorine in it, run water in every pipe & let it set about an hour,
kills any bacteria inside the pipes, shower heads etc....

Water comes out pretty ugly colored.
Makes me feel like I did good

 

We have the same issue with our well at the cabin. First 2 years... perfect. Now, bacteria from iron builds up and we have to shock the well with the diluted bleach. Not so much fun flushing it out when you have to pump by hand... having a seldom used well doesn't help.

 

Whats the smell like. If it is like rotten eggs, you might be having a sulfur issue. Very possible considering you mentioned a lot of iron also. If thats the case, look @ filtering it or start running it more. My drilled well is 247' breaking out of canadian shield bed rock @ 186'. With just the wife and I using it lightly because we both work, we went thru a period of heavy sulfur smell. Found the solution was to put alot more water thru the system which disappated the smell.

 

Yeah, it can have a sulfur smell. We use a Simple Pump which lets us push through a filter. Haven't tried it yet with the filter, but I have the hoses all plumbed onto the filter and can now hang it on the well when using it. The filter is supposed to work for the iron issues as well as the getting the bleach too. We'll see. The problem may be that it's a pain to pump water through the extra resistance of the filter...

 

Mine doesnt have a sulfur smell, Im pretty sure its just a dirty system for me.

 

My water smells like the thermal features at Yellowstone park. I have a very high amount of iron, and the iron eating bacteria are the cause of the smell in my case. Shocking the well works for me for a few months, but it always comes back. I installed a greensand iron filter a couple years ago and that made a big difference. I still get some smell occasionally, but nothing like it used to be.

 

I have had to disinfect my well twice since I came here in 2006. Once when I had to have my well pump replaced(in 24 inches of snow), and another about a year later when I discovered that the well installer did not seal it properly.
I do not dilute the amount of bleach I am using, but that is what was recommended to me. Also, it is a good idea to try to get some along the sides of the well pipe too.
It is a messy, nasty job, and since I have a lot of iron in my well(I could start a foundary with that stuff), my water looks like mud during the process. I ran the hose until it smells like bleach, then waited 24 hours before draining off. I recall I ran the hose out to the driveway, trying to avoid the lawn and such, for maybe 20 minutes or a half hour. Then I went to work, and ran it again until I couldn't smell chlorine. did the same to the inside taps, (don't forget to get chlorine into the toilet pipes too!) then turned the softener and neutralizer back on. I use a sediment filter for the iron, and I had put a fresh one in before chlorination, and pretty much clogged it up by the time I was finished, but even if I hadn't, I would have tossed it.
I think the residual chlorine takes care of what is in the brine tank of the softener and mineral tank of the neutralizer. I know that chlorine "melts" the resin in the softener if you don't turn it off beforehand.
Anyway, I screen my water every spring, and I seemed to have passed the audition this year again

 

Firebroad nailed it, missed this post earlier.

Have shocked mine twice in 7 years. I use 2 gals of straight bleach and let it sit overnight, the longer the better, 12 hours minimum. Then just crack the furthest outdoor hose and check every 30 minutes.

The stuff that comes out of the first set of pipes you crack indoors is downright disgusting.

 

That is that part I heard you need to be most careful with.. From what I heard you can destroy your pump if you go too strong with bleach right off the bat so first you go with a weak mix run it out for an hour or two then go with a stronger mixture and recirculate then let it sit 12hrs +

Question... when I start this process the first thing I do is shut down the furnace and empty the DHW correct?(oil fired indirect) then once I have bleech to all faucets in the house then it fill back up so it has the weakest mixture? Then Finally let it all sit for 12+ hrs? (smell is in hot and cold water)

 

Good question reckless, I just shut down the burner without emptying. I'm not so sure it matters with all that water in your well that you get much of a difference in dosage. It take me hours (let's say 4) to get the smell out of the system. I'd think the initial dosage is all the same so that 10 minutes the furnace isn't exposed makes no difference. I could be wrong, just thinking out loud here.

 

i dont have a water softener or filter system to worry about but what i have been doing when we get sediment in our well water is drop a couple pool chlorine tablets into the well. seems to settle it right down and the chlorine dissipates rapidly.

 

From what I hear if you get the wrong tablets you could be in trouble.....

 

Sometimes I just water my lawn if the water gets a bit 'stinky'. My house has underground sprinkling, but I rarely use it. If the water gets that gnarly smell to it, I'll fired up the sprinkling and water each zone for a half hour. Six zones later and the water smells a bit better. For a while.

Here's a handy link about well disinfection that I've read in the past.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/deq-wb-dwehs-wcu-disinfectmanual_221334_7.pdf

 

I get iron algae that will eventually clog the veins for the well so I have to chlorinate mine every few months. The driling company that put the well in that has been around for years told me how to do it. 1 qt of white vinegar to lower the PH so the chlorine is more effective then 3 gals of bleach. I will sometimes run some into the house to clean the pipes but not always. I have great water but if the veins clog it will pump the well dry. A couple times I forgot to stay on it and they clogged. The fix is then to treat with iron out and then you really have to flush the well to get everything out but it does the trick, it will then produce like the Nile river.

 

how so? just curious.

 

Iron smells, sulfur smells, and manganese has a smell too. It is hard to differentiate between sulfur and iron bacteria when it is just a moderate case.

I have a community well so couldn't shock it but you can remove anything from the water after the well. I installed a manganese oxide filter to remove iron and a sulfur smell, plus staining. Works great.