Well Water Smell Hell

[xwraysmith]

Needing some advise. We purchased our house in Colorado 3 years ago and a new well was dug. We live in southern Colorado in an area that was mined for coal. Smell was awful ... still is... We purchased a water filtration system to the tune of $4000+ That worked beautifully for about 3 months...we called the company for service and they replaced the media...to the tune of $1000. That lasted about another 3 months. I finally received instructions on how to change the media myself...but found out the media is the crazy cost. Instructions they gave me Tank 1: 1.5 cf of media Katolx Lite, 25lb undergravel Tank 2: 1 cf activated charcoal, .5 cf mixed media...

The well feeds into a cistern, then to the house. We don't have a aerator in our cistern which I've been researching...but I'm very ignorant to these things. Retired..but learning. I bought some Well Safe chlorination treatment...(pellets) but in reading cautions...it says it can cause residue to kill your pump..(HELL) I don't need any more problems.

Some neighbors that have been here a while say after many years it finally went away. Other neighbors on other sides of the area, recently dug a new well, with no smell! (DAMN)

We do not drink it. We bath, wash clothes, etc. but the smell permeates the house something terrible. If we are having guests over I make a rule that we don't bathe, wash clothes, etc

I appreciate any information you can give me. (Yes I'm looking for a cheap quick fix...a girl can dream)

 

[Reach4]

I understand that you have an H2S smell. What other things are going on?

I think H2O2 injection can deal with H2S, and as a prelude to Katalox Light, it should help a lot.

For cheap and fast, try sanitizing your well. I don't know how long the effect will last. But since things are warming up, you may want to consider it.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ is my well sanitizing write-up. It uses liquid chlorine bleach, vinegar, and more. Fast is relative. I would allocate maybe 26 hours, but I am slow. You are not doing stuff all of the time yourself. A lot of the time, you are recirculating.

One thing to watch for with KL: it needs a fair amount of backwash GPM. Figure maybe 8 to 10 gpm for a 10 inch diameter tank. Multiply that by 1.44 for a 12 inch tank. When you changed your media, was it clumped up? If you backwash KL at a sufficient rate, I expect the rate will be too high for carbons.