Sulphur smell from well

[Alexander Dobert]

Hello,

A friend of mine has a small vacation house that gets its water from a well. When he first bought it and had the well tested, it was found to have a lot pf bacteria that create sulphur hydroxide. That in turn creates a very eggy smell to the water. He and his kids don't drink the water and have been told that other than the smell, it's perfectly safe. I suggested getting a whole house filter system to deal with the smell, but am not totally sure what kind of filters he would need. I was think of a two or three stage filter, depending on how much room he has for installation. Ideally it would be an iron and magnesium filter, a sediment filter and then a charcoal filter. If only two, then the iron/magnesium filter and the charcoal filter. Does that sound correct? In a perfect world, they would get rid of the smell and be able to drink from the tap, but I think their main goal is just to get rid of the smell. And lastly, in addition to the filters, would it make sense to also add a UV light or is that unnecessary/overkill?

Thanks and any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Howie A B]

I had this problem and treat it with chlorine injection and a terminox filter from budget water. It will filter all the nasty chemicals you mention including the chlorine. it is just another thing that requires maintenance but it does the job well. I would recommend going with a stenner pump instead of what they offer, i had one (two actually) and did not have good luck with them. One other thing, the water tastes fine and is totally save to drink.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Change the water heater anode, to aluminum/zinc anode.
Then sterilize the water heater and plumbing with bleach, you can find how-to videos on Youtube.
Have the well bleached by a pro, or you can find videos to show that process also.

 

[Alexander Dobert]

Change the water heater anode, to aluminum/zinc anode.
Then sterilize the water heater and plumbing with bleach, you can find how-to videos on Youtube.
Have the well bleached by a pro, or you can find videos to show that process also.

Is that bleaching something that needs to be done regularly? Or is is a one and done kind of thing?

Thanks

 

[Howie A B]

For me, bleaching the well and plumbing only lasted a short while. The solution I mentioned above has worked well for over 10 years.