Question for you. My well water smells like rotten eggs. I don’t know what happened, it did not start to smell until recently. This summer its been very not and we started noticing rotten egg odor in our cold well water. Even sprinkling on the lawn leaves a bad smell around the house.
We have iron (2.4 mg/L) and hardness 9 grains/gallon. I don’t know what our pH is, but it is around 7 to 7.5 I think. We use a water softener, and it works OK on the iron, but the bad odor is driving us crazy.
We have a little sediment, not bad, but I have to change the whole house filter at least once a month.
What is the best way to deal with this type of smelly well water?
John L.
Texas
John,
Thank you for emailing. One very effective low-cost way to treat water such as this is by using a Pro-Ox Air Charger in front of your existing water softener. This will eliminate hydrogen sulfide gas (rotten-egg odor) up to about 5 parts per million.
If the odors are severe you may need to do chlorination or Peroxide injection in addition to a Contact Tank.
The Air-Charger Iron Filter System is unique as doesn’t use any chemicals during the backwashing process. Instead, how it works is as the water passes through the air-pocket any Iron, Manganese, and Sulfur odors are oxidized for filtration by the Pro-Ox media.
Pro-OX Manganese Dioxide media is an NSF Certified natural high purity medium which utilizes an oxidation-reduction reaction and filtration process similar to Greensand but at a much higher level of performance. Pro-OX has a much higher surface area, is much more porous than Greensand, and also lasts much longer (usually 10 + years) compared to around 5 years maximum for Greensand and other filter medias.
We have an easy to follow guide on removing odors which details the various options, including using aeration, chlorination and hydrogen peroxide.
These systems are fully automatic and use the reliable 5900e control valve for dependable filtration with minimal maintenance requirements along with being quite a user-friendly in operation.
One thing you can use is a low-cost optional Spindown filter which would be installed upstream of the Iron filter. This will protect against sand/sediment from entering the Control Valve and cause unwanted problems.
You can also use this to shock the filter/house with chlorine from time to time as will help with odor buildup as well as improving the filters cleanliness.
This uses a mesh screen thus no filter cartridges that need constant servicing. Simply flush the valve for 10 – 20 seconds as needed and done.
The following will show images, a brief description of each, system cost, warranty specifics, along with product links for more information. This is sized for a home with 3 – 3.5 bathrooms, however, smaller and larger sizes are available.
For chlorination systems, a simple set up is to inject the chlorine before your pressure
I hope this information helps and finds you well, should you have any questions or require additional documentation simply let me know. Thanks again for contacting us to treat your water, I look forward to hearing from you.
Questions? Call us toll-free 888-600-5426 or email us!
