My friend is living in a place with a well and the water smells of rotten eggs. I have heard mentioned on FHC about well shocking. Is there any reliable articles on the internet about this I could send her? I did a quick search and there seems to be a wealth of information but I would like recommendations from some of you that have been through this process.
That sounds like sulfur which is what we are dealing with at my parents house which we are gonna sell. If the hot water smells worse it’s probably sulfur. I guess whatever smells gets worse when heated. I put a gallon of bleach in the well and ran all the faucets until I smelled the bleach and let it sit for a few days. The smell was gone for a while but came back a week or so later. If I was going to live in that house I would put bleach in the well each week and drink bottled water. I have yet to figure out what a permanent solution would be because it seems expensive.
I've bleached my well twice, I use 2 gals and we have a fairly shallow well (<100'). It sits in the pipes for 12 hours as I live here and need water. It works wonders. Should mention I have lived here for 13 years and the house is about 35 years old. My guess is original owners never did this. I drink my water, cook with it, and shower. We have a softener system but no other form of filtration besides the one in the fridge. When the times comes, I'll buy 2 gals of bleach and do it again. Jack Straw up the dose and do it again. If there is still a bunch of black nastiness coming out, then it's still doing it's thing. Probably an older house?
Sorry Woodwidow my process.... I start after everyone has showered and I can be without water. Dump the bleach down the well cap. Run a garden hose and start it running. I put the water back in the well and I rinse the pipe inside as to get any bleach into water and off pipe. When you smell a Strong bleach smell from hose, stop running the hose. They key is strong, it reminds me of walking into the pool area at the YMCA. Go into house and the furthest faucet from well turn on. Run it until you get a Strong smell of bleach, turn it off. Repeat this at every faucet working backwards from furthest away from water supply. Let it sit for as long as practical. Now run a garden hose again, off your grass, and let it run until the bleach smell is gone. This takes a really long time, I'm talking over 4 hours for me, could be longer for you. Back to the faucets, start from furthest and let it run. Black grossness will flow. Run it until clear and no smell. Repeat for remainder of faucets. That's my process.
We've had to shock ours twice since purchasing the house, should do it again this year. Our place it seems to occur occasionally, then clears up. Not sure why If I'm remembering correctly, was told it was some type of bacteria that feeds on the iron in the water.
We used to have to bleach hot water tanks for water odor issues. We used a chlorine test kit after flushing to make sure the levels were low and safe. Chlorine levels were lower than what you would find in a swimming pool.
At work we just use the rule if you can smell the chlorine coming out of the tap it’s too strong. Chlorine will dissipate in a few days anyways.
I have this issue with my water. All I did was put a charcoal filter on my water system right at the softener outlet. Havent had the issue since.
My well was put in with the house build in 1975. I still have the original pump. This past fall, I had the water tested and found bacteria. No e coli. We bleached it twice but the problem persisted. Finally installed a pre filter and UV light. That stopped the problem. Now the water tests are normal. Make sure to test the water. No sense of chasing a problem until you know what it is caused by, not just the symptoms.
