Yet Another Rotten Egg Smell Question

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FD_Man

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Hello all,

Back with a question regarding rotten egg smell from private well water.

Scenario: New construction home. Well drilled in August 2020. 5" well drilled to 156 feet. Static water at 90 feet. Very little water was used during construction as we didn't have electricity from the utility until very late in construction. We moved into the house in February 2021 and used the untreated well water for two plus weeks before collecting a sample and sending it off to a lab. I've attached the water test report for reference. We noticed the untreated water had a metallic smell, but no rotten egg smell.

About three weeks ago I installed a water softener, sediment filter, and UV light. The soft water is great. I forgot how much we missed the softened water until we had to use hard water for several weeks. Unfortunately it appears as if I solved one problem and created another. Since I have installed the water softener, the classic rotten egg odor appeared on both hot and cold. Minimal at first, then getting worse. I checked an untreated, outside hose bib and it too has the rotten egg smell. To my understanding, this means the problem originates in the well itself.

Question #1: Could the water softener system have caused the rotten egg smell? It seems doubtful give that the untreated hose bib also smells, but the timing of the smell appearing is odd.

Question #2: I plan to chlorinate the well this weekend. What are my next steps if this doesn't solve the problem, or if it only resolves the issue for a short time? I saw many threads talking about chlorination but not many that discuss the next step. What equipment would I be looking to add?

Thank you!
 

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Reach4

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1. No.
2. When you sanitize the well, also sanitize the plumbing. After the UV is going, you want to sanitize the plumbing including the WH. If you get all of the SRB, it cannot generate H2S in your WH.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index....izing-extra-attention-to-4-inch-casing.65845/ is my sanitizing write-up. I understand it is more work than you anticipated. Overkill? Maybe. I think not, but overkill is better than underkill. I think the extra work with the pH and flooding volume significantly affect the time before you need sanitizing again.

I don't know if UV reduces H2S ( I used to presume it would not, but now I don't know), but it will keep new SRB from getting past.

Very nice water, but your sulfate does give the SRB food.
 

ditttohead

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Be sure to bypass the softener and sanitize the softener separately by adding a few tablespoons of bleach to the brine tank and regenerate it.
 

FD_Man

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Thanks guys! I'm planning to start this process tonight.

I purchased the bleach & vinegar yesterday. Amazon should be delivering my Ph tester and Chlorine strips today. Fingers crossed this works and holds off the SRB for a good long while. I will report back on how it goes.

At what point in the process do I sanitize the softener? I'm guessing that I should do it after I have sanitized the well and flushed all the chlorine out of my interior plumbing?
 

FD_Man

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All done! Took a long time, but much of it is just waiting around as mentioned.

I started way too late last night.....not until 8pm after getting out of work and then having to take care of a few errands. Didn't finish the chlorination part till almost 11pm. Again, not all of it working, but lots of waiting.

Started the flushing process this morning around 7:30 and wasn't "finished" till about 1:30 when the softener finished regenerating. Again, just lots of waiting and constant checking. Took a lot longer to flush the chlorine than I anticipated. The chlorine levels dropped from 200 down to 50 pretty quick (~30-40 min) but then I spent the next 3 hours getting it from 50 to 0. I wasn't running the discharge water full bore, but not a trickle either. Somewhere in between. Maybe I could have sped up the discharge and taken less time.

The Hydrion CM-240 chlorine test strips were absolutely indispensable. Would not attempt this project without them. I have determined that my sense of smell simply cannot reliably detect the chlorine odor. Without the test strips, I would not have circulated the chlorine throughout my system fully, nor would I have flushed it completely at the end. In fact, I would like to have a lower range test strip available next time to aid in confirming the chlorine has been flushed. As it was, I was dipping one strip into distilled water and one into the discharge water in order to compare the shade of purple against a control as the chlorine levels were getting lower and lower and the coloration was tough to judge. It would be nice to have a low range to get better measurements when the chlorine drops below 10ppm.

Next time I also need to give the water heater situation more thought and maybe come up with a better plan. I have a 75 gallon WH, and a great deal of time was spent flushing that out. But I had horrible smells coming from the hot water (in addition to the cold) and wanted to make sure it was thoroughly disinfected. It seems like I could cut a lot of time off circulating and flushing if I could not deal with dilution of the 75 gallon WH.

But all in all, a success. No more rotten egg smell! Fingers crossed it doesn't come back anytime soon!
 

Bannerman

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have a 75 gallon WH, and a great deal of time was spent flushing that out.
Hot water that is less than 140F can breed bacteria. Because water above 120F can cause scalding, you would not want that temperature continuously. Periodically raising the water heater setting to 160+ maybe 2X per year will sanitize the tank internals so this could be performed while no one else will be home for several hours. The water temperature should be permitted to achieve the full xtra hot temperature for 1 hour, and if the xtra hot water is then permitted to flow to each hot faucet, it will also act to also sanitize the hot water plumbing throughout the home.

Although 140F will be sufficient, the hottest water will rise to the top of the tank so setting 160+ should ensure at least 140F at the bottom of the tank.
 

FD_Man

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Hot water that is less than 140F can breed bacteria. Because water above 120F can cause scalding, you would not want that temperature continuously. Periodically raising the water heater setting to 160+ maybe 2X per year will sanitize the tank internals so this could be performed while no one else will be home for several hours. The water temperature should be permitted to achieve the full xtra hot temperature for 1 hour, and if the xtra hot water is then permitted to flow to each hot faucet, it will also act to also sanitize the hot water plumbing throughout the home.

Although 140F will be sufficient, the hottest water will rise to the top of the tank so setting 160+ should ensure at least 140F at the bottom of the tank.

This is really good to know. This would be much faster to implement and I will add it to my toolbox for next time.
 

Charlie Bosco

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Hello all,

Back with a question regarding rotten egg smell from private well water.

Scenario: New construction home. Well drilled in August 2020. 5" well drilled to 156 feet. Static water at 90 feet. Very little water was used during construction as we didn't have electricity from the utility until very late in construction. We moved into the house in February 2021 and used the untreated well water for two plus weeks before collecting a sample and sending it off to a lab. I've attached the water test report for reference. We noticed the untreated water had a metallic smell, but no rotten egg smell.

About three weeks ago I installed a water softener, sediment filter, and UV light. The soft water is great. I forgot how much we missed the softened water until we had to use hard water for several weeks. Unfortunately it appears as if I solved one problem and created another. Since I have installed the water softener, the classic rotten egg odor appeared on both hot and cold. Minimal at first, then getting worse. I checked an untreated, outside hose bib and it too has the rotten egg smell. To my understanding, this means the problem originates in the well itself.

Question #1: Could the water softener system have caused the rotten egg smell? It seems doubtful give that the untreated hose bib also smells, but the timing of the smell appearing is odd.

Question #2: I plan to chlorinate the well this weekend. What are my next steps if this doesn't solve the problem, or if it only resolves the issue for a short time? I saw many threads talking about chlorination but not many that discuss the next step. What equipment would I be looking to add?

Thank you!
Since it was not mentioned yet.. You should change the water heater anode to a Powered Anode. My perfect water started to stink right after I replaced an old water heater.. As soon as I changed the anode it was night and day.

I too have struggled with H2S.. It ruins everything. However with the help of this awesome crew here. I finally slayed that dragon and have peace.

I run my water through a Katalox Light, then a catalytic carbon tank and fianny a water softener. My water is almost as tasty as the RO dispenser.
 
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