How many times to bleach well?

[cobraman]

I have been living in this house over 20 years. Just in the last year water started smelling like sulfur. Found the source to be water heater, replaced. Read about bleaching system. Did the bleaching and it is better but still there. Is the correct course of action is to re bleach until it is gone from the system? If I run the outside faucet (source from before water softener but after storage tank) water is perfect, no smell and taste great. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fixitron]

To answer the title question, you usually only need to bleach a well or tank once. Bacteria can produce a slime that will somewhat protect them from bleach. Is your chlorine strong enough? Use only a fresh container of bleach (the sodium hypochlorite decomposes even in an unopened container, but decomposes much quicker once opened).

From your description it appears that the source of the Hydrogen Sulfide smell is sulfur bacteria in either your water heater or your water treatment system. For the water heater, the steps should be:

1. shut cold water inlet and drain several gallons of water from the tank (open a hot water faucet to relieve vacuum);
   
2. pull the anode rod and inspect; have a replacement ready that is not conducive to the bacteria;
3. chlorinate the tank by pouring about a gallon of bleach into the anode opening (unless it is a side anode) or similar opening; open cold water inlet and flush water to each hot faucet in house until you smell chlorine and then close faucet; let it sit at least for an hour,
   
4. then drain the tank; install new anode rod; refill tank and flush each hot water faucet.
   
5. Turn the aquastat for your water heater up to at least 10 degF and let it sit for at least a few hours (CAUTION- water is now a severe burn hazard!). Then turn aquastat back down (preferably to 120 degF)

If the source is the water treatment system, contact your water treatment company.

Test your well water for Coliform bacteria and common inorganics.

 

[cobraman]

Thanks. The water heater was replaced and the anode rod was removed right away. I did bypass the water softener the first time and plan on including it the second time. I used 1 Gallon of bleach with a little of 200G in the system.

 

[RS]

Just a word of caution, I bleached our well once and it loosened up so much scale it stuck the pump! I replaced the pump because it was over 20 years old, but later took it apart and cleaned it out and it ran again.

 

[Jeff Handy]

The anode rod is frequently a big part of the smell and taste problem.

It should be a zinc/aluminum rod.

And if the problem is new, then as advised it could be because your plumbing pipes and water heater are colonized with bacteria that cause that smell.

The advice in several posts above me is good.

You don’t smell sulfur as much on a cold faucet, because the water heater is a big part of the problem.

There are MANY previous threads on here about this same subject, do some searching.