Shallow well with no head

[Robby DeNicola]

I purchased a home a few years ago with a shallow well in the basement. Recently my tenants have been complaining about a "sulfur" smell in the tap water. The well has high iron content which is handled with a simple paper filter, but I suspect the smell is iron bacteria. I have a properly a few miles away that has the same issue. I paid someone to chlorine treat the well at that location and the problem was solved. The problem I have here, is the shall well has no well head. There is just a pipe sticking out of the concrete slab in the basement. As far as I can tell there is no way to get any chlorine into the well. Any ideas? Do I need to dig up the concrete to access the well head? Or is there even a well head to be accessed? See the attached to see what my setup looks like.

 

[Reach4]

I purchased a home a few years ago with a shallow well in the basement. Recently my tenants have been complaining about a "sulfur" smell in the tap water. The well has high iron content which is handled with a simple paper filter, but I suspect the smell is iron bacteria. I have a properly a few miles away that has the same issue. I paid someone to chlorine treat the well at that location and the problem was solved. The problem I have here, is the shall well has no well head. There is just a pipe sticking out of the concrete slab in the basement. As far as I can tell there is no way to get any chlorine into the well. Any ideas? Do I need to dig up the concrete to access the well head? Or is there even a well head to be accessed? See the attached to see what my setup looks like.

1. Never use a paper (cellulose) filter on non-chlorinated well water. Use polypropylene or polyester. They can be pleated, and look like white paper when new.

2. I have a writeup that is written for deep wells with pitless adapters. Looking at your picture, I don't see how you could adapt that to your well setup, because, as you point out, there is no way to introduce sanitizing solution below the check valve at the floor. If you ever re-do the well, and put a tee in there that gives access, you could adapt the process. https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ Most people us a simpler process, but need do it more often.

There are ways to treat the water to remove H2S and more. If the H2S is mostly on the hot water, there are ways to deal with that. When you flush the WH, you might see some black sediment as the first stuff out of the drain valve.

Maybe you could unscrew the check valve, and put a bronze, brass, or stainless tee there with a cap on the straight side. Then the check valve would go on the side port ("bull") of the tee. Get rid of the galvanized elbow in the process.

I am not a pro.

 

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[Valveman]

Looks like a brass check valve sticking up through the concrete. Not going to be putting anything down from there. You will need to find where the well actually goes down and maybe you can detach the pipe and add from that point.

But if you are smelling rotten eggs it maybe because the pressure tank is waterlogged. Add some air to the tank and see if the smell goes away.

 

[Robby DeNicola]

Thanks for the replies. Sorry about my previous description. The iron filters are polypropylene, as you mentioned they do look like paper. I actually had that tank replaced this past year, this is an old photo, so i doubt the tank is waterlogged, but I will have them check it. I will also take a look at the fitting right at the floor. If it is indeed a brass check valve, I should be able to take that off, treat the well and then replace the check valve correct? It looks like it needs replacing anyway.

 

[Reach4]

Thanks for the replies. Sorry about my previous description. The iron filters are polypropylene, as you mentioned they do look like paper. I actually had that tank replaced this past year, this is an old photo, so i doubt the tank is waterlogged, but I will have them check it. I will also take a look at the fitting right at the floor. If it is indeed a brass check valve, I should be able to take that off, treat the well and then replace the check valve correct? It looks like it needs replacing anyway.

You need a check valve, but you may be able to reuse this existing one. If you in put that tee, you could have access for future. Use pipe dope and ptfe tape both to prevent a vacuum leak.

 

[Valveman]

Yes if you can remove the check valve you can probably treat the well from there by chasing it with enough water. I am pretty sure your tank is waterlogged. Mixing air with water gets rid of the sulfur smell. There doesn't look to be any kind of air maker on that tank, so it will get waterlogged every couple of weeks or so. I would get a compressor and leave it sitting there so I could add some air every week or two. I do believe you have an air volume control half way up the tank, which should let out any excess air.

 

[Reach4]

I like the compressor thing. If you buy a compressor, get one with a cfm or scfm number --even if that number is only one. Even 0.6 scfm would be better than one with no scfm or cfm rating. If you get one that only says "250 psi", it would be very very slow. "Gallons" doesn't matter for this purpose, but it would if you wanted to run a small pneumatic tool like a nailer.

 

[Robby DeNicola]

Thanks again guys. I actually have a Wellrite WX-203 tank installed currently. You can see it in the background of the linked video. https://photos.app.goo.gl/wvijmaZBMmE71HL7A Here is a closeup of the check valve. Looks like they should be able to get it off and chlorinate the well and replace it. I'll also have them install the Tee as suggested so I can get access again if needed. Thanks so much for all the help!

 

[Bannerman]

The hydropneumatic tank shown in the initial photo, caused air to be in contact with the well water. That air contact was a simple and effective method to oxidize sulfur in the well water that entered the tank, greatly reducing or eliminating the odour from the water flowing to house fixtures.

Because the new captive pressure tank separates air and water using a synthetic rubber diaphragm or bladder, there is no longer oxidation occurring, so you are now forced to address the sulfur odour using other treatment methods.

Chlorine is a sanitiser and also an oxidizer so you are now planning to address the cause of the odour while still in the well. Sometimes, that technique will be temporarily effective, requiring shocking the well again at some point(s) in the future. A further option will be the installation of treatment equipment to oxidize or remove the cause of the odour on a continual basis after the water has entered from the well.

 

[Valveman]

Yeah you are working off the WX203 tank and the hydro tank has no air in it. That is why the smell has returned. The smell will keep returning because it grows in the well. If you do not add air to the hydro tank regularly, which you can make automatic several different ways, you will need to shock the well on a regular basis. Seems much easier to me to just use the air in the hydro tank to eliminate the smell?

 

[Robby DeNicola]

To be honest I never had well water until I purchased a few investment properties a few years ago so I'm a bit of a novice at this. But basically what you are saying is that i replaced an old leaking tank (hydro tank was removed, it is no longer there) that took care of the sulfur smell with a new tank, which now doesn't handle the sulfur smell? Great. What other alternative do I have besides shocking the well? Is there like an aeration system I can use, or an aeration tank? Can I aerate the water in the WX-203? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Valveman]

You can use the Sulfur Eliminator to aerate the water in the well. You can use a Micronizer to aerate water before going to a pressure tank. However, the air added by a Micronizer will not have a place to get out off a bladder style tank and will blow a glass out of your hand at the sink. Usually with a micronizer there is a softener or a non-bladder tank with an AVC or air volume control to let out the excess air.

It is very common for people to switch from a hydro tank to a bladder style tank and then find out the hydro tank was important in keeping the rotten egg smell away.

 

[Robby DeNicola]

Alright so I contacted 4 different well guys and none of them want to do this work for me. 1 guy said he's concerned that if he tries to remove the check valve he will break the well pipe. Any ideas?

 

[Valveman]

Like I said, I think anything you do to shock the well will need to be done again on a regular basis. I would just hook up an air over water tank and some way to automatically add air to the tank and be done with it.

 

[Robby DeNicola]

Thanks for all the help guys. I went ahead and re-piped the system. Since the sand point well is small shallow well, I used a cup of bleach poured down the tee, flushed about 20 gallons of water behind it and then filled the WX-203 and drained it back down the well a couple of times and let it sit a few hours, then pumped about 4-5 tanks until the chlorine smell was not completely aggressive. The rest of the plumbing was sanitized by running some bleech water through the iron filter housing. We'll see how long it lasts. Thanks so much!