Stinking Water

[garden gal]

We recently installed a new pump in our well. Since then, the water has had a bad taste/smell. We didn't go any deeper with the pump. Could the problem be in our very old pressure tank?

 

[Speedbump]

What does the odor smell like?

Did you pump the well off after installing the new pump?

bob...

 

[Sponsor]

 

[garden gal]

We had a plumber install the pump. I don't know if he 'pumped off'.
The water smells and tastes like sulfer. Would a 30 year old air pressure tank cause this?

 

[Speedbump]

Chances are he didn't.

If it is indeed sulphur, it can be removed several ways. There is chlorine and charcoal. I don't like that solution. Then there is the aerator tank with another pump and bladder tank. Then you should have a chlorinator to sanitize the water in the open vessel and them a charcoal filter to remove the chlorine. (This is usually not done though)
Then there is the system I sell that removes the sulphur under pressure using your pump.

The weird thing is, why did it start smelling after changing the pump? There is nothing that changing the pump could do to induce sulphur into your water. It is naturally occurring, some people have it some do not.

You could have a bacterial problem. That can smell very much like sulphur. And if the plumber laid your pipes on the ground when he pulled the pump and didn't chlorinate the well before putting it back in service, that could be the source of the bacteria. Do you have a dog? Or does your neighbor have a dog that frequents the area where your well is?

bob...

 

[garden gal]

Thanks for the quick reply. A rep with our extention office told us about the bleach idea. He told us to pour 2 gallons of bleach down the well, open all the faucets until the bleach entered the pipes. After the bleach had been in the pipes for overnight, then to run water till the bleach smell left. This seemed pretty drastic to us but it may have to be our next step. The area that the well is located is about 25 ft. away from where I have my bird feeders. Surely that wouldn't contaminate the water?

 

[Bob NH]

Two gallons of bleach sounds like gross overkill. You didn't say how big the well is. The recommended amount is 3 pints per 100 gallons of water in the well. http://www.water-research.net/shockwelldisinfection.htm

Two gallons would be the amount that you would use for a 3 ft diameter dug well with 10 ft of water in it. A 4" well with 100 ft of water would require only about 1 quart.

I assume you know but some don't: 1 gallon = 4 qts = 8 pints

 

[Speedbump]

After you pour the bleach into the well, pour at least 5 gallons of water down the well, getting the water to wash down the casing. Otherwise the bleach will start eating the casing, droppipe etc.

bob...

 

[garden gal]

Well, we are going to try it. Will follow your directions.

 

[Speedbump]

Good luck,

 

[Gary Slusser]

I'm not a fan of shocking wells.... Shocking a well can create expensive water quality problems, problems with the pump, drop pipe and cable and you should not run the chlorinated water through any type of water treatment equipment like a softener etc. because that ruins resin etc.. By-pass them and sanitize them later in a proper manner.

Sad to say that extension offices and gov'mint agencies usually get things a bit wrong... like 2 gallons of bleach; you may end up with bleach in the water for a couple weeks. BUT, to determine how much chlorine is needed, you have to know (most) of the demand for chlorine. Iron and manganese 'use' chlorine when the chlorine oxidizes them. Bacteria and biomass places more demand for/on chlorine. That is Total chlorine.

If there is not enough Free chlorine (total chlorine minus the demand) after the demand (use) then there is no disinfection capabilities remaining and you need more chlorine BUT... chlorine raises the pH of the water and with higher pH, chlorine loses its disinfection capabilities. So more is not better.

It takes roughly 3-5 ppm of chlorine to oxidize one ppm of iron, slightly less for each ppm of manganese and less for H2S, and no one can know how much demand biologicals require. So, you test for Free chlorine until you get 1.5+ ppm coming out of the well.

Running the chlorinated water into the plumbing and the letting it sit there for multiple hours.... the required contact time is usually 20 minutes. Plus, there's the demand thingy again and once chlorine is used, it can sit there in the pipes for days and do nothing but make the water smell of bleach.

So... every 30 minutes, run all cold water faucets for say 10-15 seconds each. If you have sufficient Free chlorine in the well, then you are flushing the spent chlorine out of the plumbing and replacing it with potent chlorine. Repeat the 30 minute thing for a few hours and then run off the well with a hose somewhere you don't want vegetation to grow; or don't want to kill grass etc.. Depending on how much iron, the water may stain things a rusty orange.

 

[garden gal]

After reading all of your advice, we have decided not to do the bleach.
We have decided to trade out the pressure tank. It is about 30 years
old and is an air pressure system. How would you compare a 33 gal. Well-rite
tank with a 10 gal. drawdown to a Clayton-Mark 40 gal. tank with a 16.3 drawdown? Both tanks are about the same price. we have looked at the well-rite as far as the type and design of the tank, but we don't know anything
about the Clayton-Mark. Thanks

 

[Speedbump]

Clayton Mark was one of the worst bladder tanks on the market and I would be surprised to find out they are still being made. I was under the impression they went out of business years ago.

Well Rite is a very good tank.

bob...

 

[Bob NH]

The drawdown figure for the Clayton-Mark tank is an example of "Figures don't lie but liars can figure."

The "standard", if such a thing exists for tanks and drawdown, is for a 30 to 50 psi system, for which the drawdown is pretty close to 30 percent of the tank volume, so the Well-Rite number is pretty good.

You just put in a new pump, so you should know the Gallons per minute capacity of the pump. You should get a tank that has a drawdown at least equal to the GPM capacity of the pump. I use a little different "rule of thumb", which is to get a tank with an actual volume of about 5 times the capacity of the pump, which has a drawdown of about 1.5 times the capacity of the pump.

The price on a 40 gallon tank from Grainger, which may not be the lowest available, is $249.

Don't let yourself be confused with the "pseudo size" number that some manufacturers put on tanks, which are often 2.5 to 3 times the actual size. You want to work with the actual volume and when someone quotes a drawdown, ask for the pressure range and make them show you the table in the literature. You probably want to stick with the 30 to 50 psi table for comparisons.

 

[Speedbump]

There is two ways of identifying bladder tanks, one in their actual capacity then there is the equivelency as compared to a galvanized tank. I use the latter.

On my bladder tank page there is a chart that shows a few popular tanks with their total capacity and their equivelency to galvanized tanks.

bob...

 

[garden gal]

Thank you all so much for all the info. We had to do more research than we thought we would need to do. Usually, we just take a "professional's" word. Now I know that is not always the best. You have shown us a better way to take care of ourselves and our property. Again, thank you.

 

[garden gal]

We have done more research. You gave us the ranger catalog as a source for the well-rite pressure tank. We finally found one at our local Farm Bureau office, where as members, we get 10% off. But, the well-rite tank is not in it. Grangier has a brand called Clayton. Do you have any feedback on this brand? I need to decide something soon, tired of hauling drinking-cooking water from our other well. By the way, the Clayton-Mark tank is being sold through our local Ace hardware.

 

[Speedbump]

Believe me, you don't want a Clayton Mark tank. I can't believe they are still in business. Unless they made some major changes in their design. They are not even available in my area any more. Most of them didn't last a year, let alone the 5 years which they were warranted for.

They are made by Flexcon who makes the Well Rite. I sell the H2 Pro, same tank different label.

bob...

 

[garden gal]

I told you wrong. Grainger sell a Drayton pre-charged pressure tank for 147.00. Do you know anything about this brand? Also, saw your ad, will go back to it later. Thank you.

 

[Bob NH]

Dayton is the "house brand" of Grainger like Craftsman is a house brand of Sears. Grainger is a large and reputable industrial products seller that sells pretty reliable equipment, including a lot of recognized brands. I use Dayton brand equipment when it fits the bill and have not had any problem with it. I don't know who makes the tank.

In addition to being a good place to buy some products, Grainger is a good place to do price comparisons. They have good prices on some products, and not so good on some others, but I have not found any problem with their quality.

 

[Speedbump]

They sell several different brands of tanks just like they do pumps, motors etc. They put their name on some of them and some they don't. There are a few tanks out there that are just plain not any good, and they sell at least one of those brands.

bob...