Well water chlorination system

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Traveller

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"If the sodium hypochlorite will be diluted and stored after the consumer receives it, the pH must be higher than the 11.86 pH since dilution will decrease the pH of the solution. However, in practice this should never be a problem due to the amount of excess caustic in the sodium hypochlorite from the producer."

I have found over the counter bleach to typically be between 12.0 and 12.2 pH; hardly what I would call "excess caustic".
 

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http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/cact/c120/limitn.html says
Chemical reaction equations give the ideal stoichiometric relationship among reactants and products.
However, the reactants for a reaction in an experiment are not necessarily a stoichiometric mixture. In a chemical reaction, reactants that are not use up when the reaction is finished are called excess reagents. The reagent that is completely used up or reacted is called the limiting reagent, because its quantity limit the amount of products formed.​

So the term "excess" seems to be a term of the chemistry art meaning that part that is not consumed in the initial reaction, rather than meaning excessive. I think every reagent in a reaction is classed as either limiting, stoichiometric, or excess. Excess in this case does not mean unwanted or non-useful, if I read correctly.

One other consideration comes to mind. When you want the chlorine to react to something, you don't want it to be too stable. For continual injection into the water, I think there is probably a 99:1 or more dilution. In my particular case, the solution is only diluted about 1:1. So I don't want my solution to be too stable. My solution is only injected for 4 minutes during regeneration, and it is not put into the treated water.
 
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Traveller

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http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/cact/c120/limitn.html says
Chemical reaction equations give the ideal stoichiometric relationship among reactants and products.
However, the reactants for a reaction in an experiment are not necessarily a stoichiometric mixture. In a chemical reaction, reactants that are not use up when the reaction is finished are called excess reagents. The reagent that is completely used up or reacted is called the limiting reagent, because its quantity limit the amount of products formed.​

So the term "excess" seems to be a term of the chemistry art meaning that part that is not consumed in the initial reaction, rather than meaning excessive. I think every reagent in a reaction is classed as either limiting, stoichiometric, or excess. Excess in this case does not mean unwanted or non-useful, if I read correctly.

One other consideration comes to mind. When you want the chlorine to react to something, you don't want it to be too stable. For continual injection into the water, I think there is probably a 99:1 or more dilution. In my particular case, the solution is only diluted about 1:1. So I don't want my solution to be too stable. My solution is only injected for 4 minutes during regeneration, and it is not put into the treated water.

Sodium hypochlorite bleach is made by the following formula, combining sodium hydroxide with chlorine gas.

Cl2 + 2 NaOH = NaOcL + NaCl + H2O

"Excess caustic" means the volume of NaOH added is carefully controlled to a) achieve the concentration of NaOCl desired and b) leave enough remaining NaOH in the solution to keep the pH of the solution over 12 when finished reacting, thus stabilising the NaOCl and preventing its decomposition.

When storing sodium hypochlorite, you want it to be as stable as possible right up to the moment it is injected into water, at which point the reduction in pH is almost instantaneous and the hypochlorite becomes the very reactive hypochlorous acid.
 

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When storing sodium hypochlorite, you want it to be as stable as possible right up to the moment it is injected into water, at which point the reduction in pH is almost instantaneous and the hypochlorite becomes the very reactive hypochlorous acid.
I really appreciate your posts on this. I bought the food grade sodium hydroxide. I have the scales to read amounts. I bought the cheap pH meter and buffer solution. I took pH readings, added NaOH, and took more readings. I firmly believe that what you say would be very useful to those injecting bleach solution into their water.

That is not the way I use it. In my case, the solution is drawn in during the regeneration every 3 days. The dilution is only about 2.5x rather than the 100x or more typical of injecting into the water stream. A little further dilution may happen, but not much. Once injected, I want my bleach active. Will my dilution be enough to activate fully stable bleach? I doubt it. I thought about splitting the difference (adding maybe 5 grams of NaOH instead of 18 grams), but I have decided to not add the alkali at all. Much of my thinking is that things are working so well, I hesitate to change how I do it.

If I were injecting into my water that will go through the faucets, I would add the NaOH as you prescribe. That is the topic of this thread, and my system was not. Still, I found your info to be of interest and worth looking into even for my system.

My diluted solution I measured at only 9.1 pH about 21 days into my 33 day refill schedule. Too low for really good stability, but it is not so far over into the curve that it decomposes very quickly.

I was thinking up dual solution tanks and a system that would draw a mix of bleach solution plus acid solution. That would be ideal, and would really activate the stabilized bleach mix.
 
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Traveller

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I really appreciate your posts on this. I bought the food grade sodium hydroxide. I have the scales to read amounts. I bought the cheap pH meter and buffer solution. I took pH readings, added NaOH, and took more readings. I firmly believe that what you say would be very useful to those injecting bleach solution into their water.

That is not the way I use it. In my case, the solution is drawn in during the regeneration every 3 days. The dilution is only about 2.5x rather than the 100x or more typical of injecting into the water stream. A little further dilution may happen, but not much. Once injected, I want my bleach active. Will my dilution be enough to activate fully stable bleach? I doubt it. I thought about splitting the difference (adding maybe 5 grams of NaOH instead of 18 grams), but I have decided to not add the alkali at all. Much of my thinking is that things are working so well, I hesitate to change how I do it.

If I were injecting into my water that will go through the faucets, I would add the NaOH as you prescribe. That is the topic of this thread, and my system was not. Still, I found your info to be of interest and worth looking into even for my system.

My diluted solution I measured at only 9.1 pH about 21 days into my 33 day refill schedule. Too low for really good stability, but it is not so far over into the curve that it decomposes very quickly.

I was thinking up dual solution tanks and a system that would draw a mix of bleach solution plus acid solution. That would be ideal, and would really activate the stabilized bleach mix.


Just out of curiosity, are you saying you are adding 2.5 parts water to one part sodium hypochlorite and then storing this product??
 

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Just out of curiosity, are you saying you are adding 2.5 parts water to one part sodium hypochlorite and then storing this product??
No. I use one gallon of bleach into a 15 gallon solution tank. Top with water.

The 2.5 would be the (water+solution from the injector during the 4 minute BD cycle) divided by the solution drawn during BD cycle in the regeneration of my media.

I am not sure how this 4 minutes of diluted bleach affects the media. I think the iron and H2S gets oxidized, by dissolved oxygen that is in the water, in the media during the preceding 71.6 hours of service, and the chlorine oxidizes some residual that did not get backwashed away during the 10 minute backwash that preceded the BD cycle. But the chlorine does not have long to come to life and do its thing. The chlorine is washed away during the rapid rinse, and then the filter is brought back into service.
 
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Eduardo Correa

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So it has been a few years later, 6 or 7 tubes replaced, roller assembly replaced once and need to be replaced again now, several latches and the duckbill replaced, and that is just since the last post (2017). After reading the above responses, I am wondering, is using stenner pump chlorination system the best way to disinfect my well water? I am actually planning on moving the entire system from one wall to another to make room for basement renovations, and now would be a great time to find an alternative, hopefully easier manner to disinfect my well water. Any advice is greatly appreciated !
 

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So it has been a few years later, 6 or 7 tubes replaced, roller assembly replaced once and need to be replaced again now, several latches and the duckbill replaced, and that is just since the last post (2017). After reading the above responses, I am wondering, is using stenner pump chlorination system the best way to disinfect my well water? I am actually planning on moving the entire system from one wall to another to make room for basement renovations, and now would be a great time to find an alternative, hopefully easier manner to disinfect my well water. Any advice is greatly appreciated !
Why do you want to continuously disinfect your well water? Is there something wrong with your deep well?

Can't you just sanitize your well every year or three?

Most people who are doing continuous chlorine injection are trying to treat for iron or H2S or something.
 

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When I last tested my raw well water, it came up with coli form. We have several horse and cow farms in the area. My water is also very hard and does contain iron. I submitted my water results to Ohio Pure Water company, and my system is what they recommended. I assumed I was injecting bleach into my water to disinfect it from bacteria. It may be time for new water tests, but i am confident nothing has really changed much in the area.
 

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In my non-professional opinion, most positive coliform tests from deep wells where the casing extends above ground is due to the sampling technique.

However the chlorine treats the iron, and lets it settle out. So you want to have treatment for your iron somehow, and that can be chlorine.
 

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So it has been a few years later, 6 or 7 tubes replaced, roller assembly replaced once and need to be replaced again now, several latches and the duckbill replaced, and that is just since the last post (2017). After reading the above responses, I am wondering, is using stenner pump chlorination system the best way to disinfect my well water? I am actually planning on moving the entire system from one wall to another to make room for basement renovations, and now would be a great time to find an alternative, hopefully easier manner to disinfect my well water. Any advice is greatly appreciated !

Eduardo - I'm in the same situation. The maintenance and issues with this system (I also have a Stenner pump) are just too many where I would not expect the various parts to break down so often. Did you find a workable alternative? Thanks!
 
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