Well water - Page 1

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Posted: 7/11/2017 9:29:43 AM EDT

Last couple weeks our well water has been getting a strong "bad" smell. Can't describe it. A friend installs water filter systems and tested it. No bacteria but the pH was 5.5 and was pretty hard.

I'm trying to get our landlords to install a filtration system but I'm not sure that would help the smell. Fortunately I've got a ton of water for cooking/drinking but taking showers isn't always very pleasant.

It doesn't seem to make my wife and I smell.

We've been getting a ton of rain lately and live 20 feet from a swamp.

Any insight? I think it's just because the water table is so high.

Posted: 7/11/2017 9:37:02 AM EDT

[#1]

Tagged for well interest. I got no answers.

I have a well and the water is very rusty. I use it only for irrigation.

Posted: 7/11/2017 9:48:33 AM EDT

[#2]

Needs a little bleach or pool chlorine to shock and kill the Iron Fixing bacteria.

Posted: 7/11/2017 10:10:41 AM EDT

[#3]

Iron bacteria could easily be in the water heater.

Could be sulfur in the water. Safer, but nasty smelling.

Posted: 7/11/2017 11:44:46 AM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Quoted:
Tagged for well interest. I got no answers.

I have a well and the water is very rusty. I use it only for irrigation.

View Quote

Same here. Technically, the water is Ok to drink; however, within about 30 or so seconds after contact with the air, it starts to look and smell "rusty". I've heard that issue can be remedied and perhaps some day I will do that. For now, we use the water supplied by our HOA. Fortunately for us, the guy who works on our HOA water is a stickler for doing things the right way and the water is fantastic.

In terms of bleaching a well, I've heard that dumping some bleach down the well is a very temporary approach. Having said that, I've also heard that there are bleach dispensers that can be mounted to a well that will dump a predetermined amount of chem down the hole. I am somewhat skeptical about that.

Posted: 7/11/2017 11:53:32 AM EDT

[#5]

Whole home filtration and reverse osmosis system on well. I never have that issue. Look into it.

Posted: 7/11/2017 1:00:37 PM EDT

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:

Same here. Technically, the water is Ok to drink; however, within about 30 or so seconds after contact with the air, it starts to look and smell "rusty". I've heard that issue can be remedied and perhaps some day I will do that. For now, we use the water supplied by our HOA. Fortunately for us, the guy who works on our HOA water is a stickler for doing things the right way and the water is fantastic.

In terms of bleaching a well, I've heard that dumping some bleach down the well is a very temporary approach. Having said that, I've also heard that there are bleach dispensers that can be mounted to a well that will dump a predetermined amount of chem down the hole. I am somewhat skeptical about that.

View Quote

We have that iron issue. Its dissolved iron, and like you said, it doesn't oxidize until it contacts air. A water softener gets rid of 95% of it, and only the toilet shows light staining. Before the softener, if you filled the tub, it was like a bunch of really dehydrated folks filled the tub with piss. Could not see more than 6 inches into it. Of course, the softener runs every other day to deal with it.

For water for cooking/drinking, we use a double bucket gravity system. The water has time to oxidize and rust in the top bucket before filtration, and it is easily filtered out once it does that. The water we drink and cook with is crystal clear, and stays that way.

Posted: 7/11/2017 5:20:14 PM EDT

[#7]

There was a dead fucking rabbit in the well.

I got it out. I put in 2 gallons of bleach

Fucking construction guys working on the house next door left the lid off for a few days. I thought they were working on it. Our 2 houses share one well.

I'm now running all my faucets. Hopefully spreading the bleach around.

Should I pour more in ?

Posted: 7/11/2017 7:04:20 PM EDT

[#8]

Quote History

Quoted:

There was a dead fucking rabbit in the well.

I got it out. I put in 2 gallons of bleach

Fucking construction guys working on the house next door left the lid off for a few days. I thought they were working on it. Our 2 houses share one well.

I'm now running all my faucets. Hopefully spreading the bleach around.

Should I pour more in ?

View Quote

I would bleach it a few times over, then have it tested before using ANYTHING out of that well, testing hot and cold faucets from multiple places in the house.

Not only does your well need decon, your ENTIRE plumbing system.

Consider yourself on a boil order. Don't mess with the nasty bugs that a decaying rabbit can put in your water.

Posted: 7/11/2017 7:27:10 PM EDT

[#9]

Nasty... 2 gallons may not be enough. I would probably run a hose back to the well to dump back into the well and just let that bleach water circulate. Hard to determine what kind of dilution you would be getting but I would keep putting it to the well until you can smell it pretty good out the faucet then make sure everything gets good contact time.

Posted: 7/11/2017 7:31:36 PM EDT

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:
Nasty... 2 gallons may not be enough. I would probably run a hose back to the well to dump back into the well and just let that bleach water circulate. Hard to determine what kind of dilution you would be getting but I would keep putting it to the well until you can smell it pretty good out the faucet then make sure everything gets good contact time.

View Quote

I had to step out side the house smelled so strongly ?of bleach.

I'll do some more I guess. Probably time to rotate my stock anyways

Posted: 7/11/2017 8:16:18 PM EDT

[#11]

Props for doing all what you done. You can also use hydrogen peroxide in well you leave it in over night then flush easier on well casing and other reasons. Your a tenant and you mentioned HOA, well I would not be touching any of this shit and the fact your well was open and had a dead rabbit in it they would have a set time to have it fixed or lawyer up. Sharing a well- are there back flow preventer on those lines? technically if your neighbor does not clean his lines out to exactly as you will you not achieving 100%. Take it for what it is worth-if that were a public use well you would be boil water no showering with open wounds etc etc etc.

Posted: 7/11/2017 8:28:59 PM EDT

[#12]

Here's a more entertaining threadGD thread

Posted: 7/11/2017 8:41:07 PM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:
Props for doing all what you done. You can also use hydrogen peroxide in well you leave it in over night then flush easier on well casing and other reasons. Your a tenant and you mentioned HOA, well I would not be touching any of this shit and the fact your well was open and had a dead rabbit in it they would have a set time to have it fixed or lawyer up. Sharing a well- are there back flow preventer on those lines? technically if your neighbor does not clean his lines out to exactly as you will you not achieving 100%. Take it for what it is worth-if that were a public use well you would be boil water no showering with open wounds etc etc etc.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:
Props for doing all what you done. You can also use hydrogen peroxide in well you leave it in over night then flush easier on well casing and other reasons. Your a tenant and you mentioned HOA, well I would not be touching any of this shit and the fact your well was open and had a dead rabbit in it they would have a set time to have it fixed or lawyer up. Sharing a well- are there back flow preventer on those lines? technically if your neighbor does not clean his lines out to exactly as you will you not achieving 100%. Take it for what it is worth-if that were a public use well you would be boil water no showering with open wounds etc etc etc.

Sharing a well is generally not a good idea. You might end up with dead animals in there..... oh wait.

Sharing a well- are there back flow preventer on those lines?

I think I saw "rental" somewhere in this. That means in general use the cheapest shit possible and cut every corner you can. I've seen plumbing work on commercial rentals that was cheap as all get out. A guy visiting used a shower at our old gym after training. He evidently turned the valve too hard, it broke off, water gushing everywhere. I found an access panel and we got inside there, not a damn ball valve to shut the water off any frickin where in site. Really? Flood a bathroom for the lack of a $2. ball valve? About an hour later the drunk owner showed up as we were trying to shut the water off at the street. That was the ONLY way to cut water to the shower.

People cut corners big time on rentals.

Posted: 7/11/2017 8:52:24 PM EDT

[#14]

Quote History

Quoted:
Sharing a well is generally not a good idea. You might end up with dead animals in there..... oh wait.
I think I saw "rental" somewhere in this. That means in general use the cheapest shit possible and cut every corner you can. I've seen plumbing work on commercial rentals that was cheap as all get out. A guy visiting used a shower at our old gym after training. He evidently turned the valve too hard, it broke off, water gushing everywhere. I found an access panel and we got inside there, not a damn ball valve to shut the water off any frickin where in site. Really? Flood a bathroom for the lack of a $2. ball valve? About an hour later the drunk owner showed up as we were trying to shut the water off at the street. That was the ONLY way to cut water to the shower.

People cut corners big time on rentals.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
Props for doing all what you done. You can also use hydrogen peroxide in well you leave it in over night then flush easier on well casing and other reasons. Your a tenant and you mentioned HOA, well I would not be touching any of this shit and the fact your well was open and had a dead rabbit in it they would have a set time to have it fixed or lawyer up. Sharing a well- are there back flow preventer on those lines? technically if your neighbor does not clean his lines out to exactly as you will you not achieving 100%. Take it for what it is worth-if that were a public use well you would be boil water no showering with open wounds etc etc etc.

Sharing a well is generally not a good idea. You might end up with dead animals in there..... oh wait.

Sharing a well- are there back flow preventer on those lines?

I think I saw "rental" somewhere in this. That means in general use the cheapest shit possible and cut every corner you can. I've seen plumbing work on commercial rentals that was cheap as all get out. A guy visiting used a shower at our old gym after training. He evidently turned the valve too hard, it broke off, water gushing everywhere. I found an access panel and we got inside there, not a damn ball valve to shut the water off any frickin where in site. Really? Flood a bathroom for the lack of a $2. ball valve? About an hour later the drunk owner showed up as we were trying to shut the water off at the street. That was the ONLY way to cut water to the shower.

People cut corners big time on rentals.

While I don't disagree agree my landlords lived here before they had kids. It's slowly falling into a swamp but anything I want to fix/repair/replace I send a text, get a thumbs up, then take my time and expense of next months rent. They don't even want to see receipts.

It's a cheap house untill we can move South or west

Posted: 7/11/2017 9:12:11 PM EDT

[#15]

Quote History

Quoted:

While I don't disagree agree my landlords lived here before they had kids. It's slowly falling into a swamp but anything I want to fix/repair/replace I send a text, get a thumbs up, then take my time and expense of next months rent. They don't even want to see receipts.

It's a cheap house untill we can move South or west

View Quote

10-4.

Posted: 7/11/2017 10:10:05 PM EDT

[#16]

I would be in good communication with the neighbors, offer to help them flush their system if need be. Like others said, if their lines are still contaminated, you loose.

Posted: 7/12/2017 6:01:24 AM EDT

[#17]

Quote History

Quoted:
I would be in good communication with the neighbors, offer to help them flush their system if need be. Like others said, if their lines are still contaminated, you loose.

View Quote

Good point, didn't think about that. I'll let them know.

There's no one living there. Just construction

Posted: 7/12/2017 7:32:53 AM EDT

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:

There was a dead fucking rabbit in the well.

I got it out. I put in 2 gallons of bleach

Fucking construction guys working on the house next door left the lid off for a few days. I thought they were working on it. Our 2 houses share one well.

I'm now running all my faucets. Hopefully spreading the bleach around.

Should I pour more in ?

View Quote

Don't over do the bleach. I had to repair a broken line coming into the house and used 1 gallon of bleach. It took forever to flush it from the well. Probably over a month and that was running the garden hose up to 10 hours a day. It also took a couple days to start showing up at the faucet on a pool test kit. I almost poured another gallon in. Glad I didn't.

Posted: 7/12/2017 9:55:12 AM EDT

[#19]

Sounds like you pretty much have the run of the place then.

I would look at the plumbing coming out of the well and see where you could add a one way valve(s) where needed. You may have to flush the other house as well. Shared wells are nutty depending on how they plumbed everything.

Any idea how long Peter Cottontail was actually in the well? Fresh, dead and whole is a good bit different than weeks old, rotten and pieces.....

Posted: 7/12/2017 10:29:00 AM EDT

[#20]

Just a little over 2 weeks. I explained it a little more in my gd thread.

It was in one piece but it wouldn't have stayed that way much longer.

Posted: 7/27/2017 1:10:17 PM EDT

[#21]

Quote History

Quoted:
Nasty... 2 gallons may not be enough. I would probably run a hose back to the well to dump back into the well and just let that bleach water circulate. Hard to determine what kind of dilution you would be getting but I would keep putting it to the well until you can smell it pretty good out the faucet then make sure everything gets good contact time.

View Quote

This is what a well company told me to do at our church. We were not using the well enough and some bacteria was growing in it. I circulated the water until it really smelled like bleach and then opened all the facets until it got bleach water. 1 gallon non scented.

How about an update?

BTW how deep is the well?

Posted: 7/27/2017 2:34:29 PM EDT

[#22]

One Gallon of unscented Bleach for every 100' of well depth.
Use a 1" X 10' PVC pipe and funnel at the well head if you have to clear your pressure switch and wiring at the top of the well pipe
Use water from your outdoor hydrant and run it back into the pvc/funnel set up until you smell bleach indicating that the bleach has circulated throughout the well
Let it set for a day and then run water throughout the system by turning on your indoor faucets and hydrant until the bleach is cleared from the well and you no longer smell it

Rinse and repeat if you need to.

Have the water tested at your local county health department. They have sample bottles and specific directions to follow to collect the sample.

It's not hard but you want to do it right. Usually cost 10 to 20 bucks.

You should have test results back within 24 hrs.

Always check the well head to make sure it is sealed. Sounds like construction crew were a bunch of knuckleheads.

Posted: 7/29/2017 10:48:59 PM EDT

[#23]

Have you always had a lot pH water? Chlorinate the well and all plumbing first and install a pH correction system. You may need to install about $3,000 to $4,000 worth of equipment to treat water if the smell persists. This will involve a chlorine injection system, a large retention tank plus a pH correction tank with a mixture of crushed marble and special additive (usually used for pH below 6.0). You may be able to inject both Chlorine and PH correction solution at the same time and avoid installing a pH correction tank.
Low pH water can have a lot of metals dissolved in it. It will damage your water heater and all steel and copper plumbing.
Also check your water for nitrates. Lowes sells basic water sampling kits.
Iron bacteria can cause low pH in water.

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