Questions about Home Plumbing Problem 1

[nornrich]

All,

I've got a problem that I've been scratching my head over for the past 6 months. My family and I just recently moved into our new home. I put the plumbing system in myself and it is your standard CPVC/PVC network coming from a well that we drilled. The well goes down 500' and the pump hangs at 485 feet. Prior to installing the hot water heater I noticed a sulfer smell to the cold water. I am running the well water through a charcol filter and into the hot water heater. Now the hot water has an even more pungent smell of sulfer. Someone has said this smell is the result of iron rich water containing bacteria that get into the system and to protect themselves they group together and create a mucus covering and the sulfer smell is the byproduct. I tried to dump clorine down the well to kill the bacteria and this took the smell away, but in about a month the smell was coming back. Anyone else have any knowledge of this problem and if so what are some possible solutions short of dumping clorine down the well once a month?

Regards,

Rich.....

Richard Nornhold, PE
ampdesign@earthlink.net

 

[1969grad]

Take a water sample to your local health department and see for sure what is in the water. Then you can decide what treatment methods to use. I understand that the cost is small for this service.

 

[Eltron]

Check out these two links:

http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/groundwater/pdfs/MDH-HS_SB.pdf

and

http://muextension.missouri.edu/explore/qa/water0002.htm

They are very informative and should get you where you need to go.

Hope that helps.

 

[PUMPDESIGNER]

1969Grad got it right, get the water tested.
There are both iron and sulfur bacteria, as well as simple elemental sulfur compounds involved.
In our area we have simple sulfur compounds, which we deal with by means of evaporation. Water is dropped into a tank full of wiffle balls, as water percolates through the tank, air is blown into the tank from the bottom up to whisk away the sulfur fumes, works very nicely.

If you have bacteria (either type), then chlorine will usually do the trick. One method is chlorine tablet feeders, which drop chlorine tablets to the bottom of the well, controlled by either flow or timed release with a simple timer to adjust frequency of the tablet drop. I have heard good reports of this method.

Couple of Links:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b795/b795_8.html

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/floods/pdf/foodwater.pdf

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1865.htm

http://www.health.state.nd.us/wq/gw/pubs/disinfec.htm

PUMPDESIGNER