lisa67

So have finally moved into new house...hurrah. We are on well water and have that yeuchy sulphur smell thing going on. I've heard that if you put a gallon of bleach into your well and then run all taps and showers for 15 mins it gets rid of the smell. Can anyone verify that this is the right thing to do please ?

Ray

No ..you now spend $10k having a special system put in ...

fatbrit

Grab your drinking water from the "Ice & Water" place in the strip mall. The sulphur in the water will clear your skin blemishes up wonderfully if you wash in it. No need to buy spot cream ever again.

Tracym

You can chlorinate the well, which does fix the smell - sometimes - sometimes for a while.

However, you have to determine if you have a septic system. If you do as you descrribed, you might kill off the septic field.

As I have a septic system, when I had my well chlorinated, I had to run the taps outside into the yard for about 8 hours. Then I could use the water in the house.

You also have to be careful not to run chlorine through things that don't like it - such as any water filters, and perhaps water softener.

If you do decide to chlorinate the well (probably not a bad idea) I would suggest you get someone to do it, or look up some detailed instructions. I'm afraid I don't know quite all the details - just a few of the disasters that can result (because I had them ).

danfan

Oh me too!

My well water is dark dark orange & stinks to high heaven. It's just the nastiest thing ever.

A one-off chlorine dump helped us for about 2 days before it all came back & it did nothing for the huge amount of metals in our water. We were all still puking despite the chlorine in the well so we had someone in to test for different things and found some nasty crap in there.

We installed a $6,000 filtration system because the bacteria levels were so bad - one of the worst being iron bacteria that literally creates lumps of slime in the water that flop out of the tap & float in your glass of water. Nice. If we just bleach it, the iron & rust reacts with the chlorine & we get orange clothes out of the washing machine & rusty water to wash in.

So our water goes through chlorine, charcoal, salt, something to remove the iron & a couple of others. I think we have 6 or 7 tanks in the garage now.

In addition, for days when we have power cuts and the system stops, we have to whack the water heater up to 150 degrees to kill the bacteria that's got into that tank or when we take showers we come out smelling of poo.

And yep, it screws up the septic tank too (I've had some lovely days this year cleaning up a basement of sewage) so you've got to make sure the chlorine filter is set right and blah blah blah.

Dan725

Bloody hell, sounds frightening! Pleased we're on the mains....

Tracym

I found after the initial uproar (I too had orange fuzzy water that grew) things settled down and behaved just fine. Just had to beat it into submission.

Sarah

That reminds me of my sister in law who came back from her hippy doctor saying her cramps were being caused by mold in her bladder......maintenence blokey gets in the water tank a week later to fix something and comes out saying theres a field of mold growing all at the bottom of the tank....ewww

thinbrit

Pouring bleach in to your well is not going to help.

You can install a reverse osmosis system, or try digging a new well.
Our property has two wells, yet only one is used. The ranch was built 18 years ago, and we are lucky that one of our 'neighbors' was here when they built the property. According to her the owners had the first well dug and when they hit water they said to keep on drilling, wanting a deeper well as they thought it was better - this was against the advice of the well company; the next pocket of water was nasty stinky sulphur water! They paid the company to dig a second well, and stopped at the first spring they hit.
We use our well water untreated, and it tastes great. We keep the second well offline with a large valve, and could use it temporarily should the main well develop a fault.

You are not going to get a quick fix to your problem, you are going to have to live with it, or spend a considerable amount of money to put it right. First decide what you want - whole water system fixed, or just your drinking water. You can fit under the sink reverse osmosis systems for around $500, however if you do this you are still going to smell like a stinky fart after you take a shower LOL. Treating just a few taps is cheaper than the whole house.

lisa67

Thanks for all the advice guys.
Our water actually tastes and looks fine we just have the odd rotten egg smell once in a while. and we certainly don't smell of poo when we come out of the shower..phew
The well was only dug a year ago so I'm tempted to let sleeping dogs lie rather than risk upsetting the aerobic sceptic system.

snowbunny

Please get the water tested! What works to treat one well may not work for another. Getting some numbers now can also help you track any problems over time, since the well is relatively new.

Check out:

http://www.tgpc.state.tx.us/WaterWells.htm

and

http://www.texasgroundwater.org/

Your local groundwater authority should have info regarding testing.

Titchski

And then the month after you do, the city comes along and tells you that city sewer and water is coming through at the cut price amount of $20,000, after previously (ie, 120 days earlier) telling you that your area won't be getting sewer and water for 8 - 10 years :curse:bastards:curse::curse:arseholes:curse::curs e::curse:***ts:curse::curse::curse::curse:

goatherder

back in Oz a smelling well (bore) means that the water table has dropped enough that you are getting the crap at the bottom.

I'd never drink it personally or wash in it for that matter. We had it at home and it stained the side of the house (used it for watering the garden / lawn).

I'd buy a tank and hook it up to your roof.

Tracym

Lots of well water here can smell - and be perfectly safe.

I had iron, and then iron bacteria - looked awful, but was perfectly safe. Chlorinated the well - and then a water softener and and Iron filter took care of it just fine.

tonrob

From the title of the thread I thought you'd had asparagus for dinner last night.