Nasty water smell (well)

[Bill]

I know this is not necessarily specific to mfg. housing, but there's some pretty knowledgable people on here juust the same. Our well water has a very strong sulfer-type odor, and it's particularly strong from the hot water. I chlorinated the well heavily before we moved in (about 2 months ago). I also installed a new water heater and Water Boss water softener. What do I need to do to get rid of this nasty odor in the water?

[rmurray]

Probably a water filter....In our area..a filter costs about $200 plus filter maintenence over time..

[Bill]

Murray, what kind of water filter is that? Most of the standard "whole house" filters I've looked at in Home Depot & Lowe's are less than $40. I've seen more expensive ones, but they are drinking water filters, not whole house filters. I've been thinking about installing one of these, but didn't know if it would do any good or not, since the Water Boss supposedly has a built-in filter.

[Charlotte]

Is it possible that the well water will always taste/smell like this. When I was a child my father had a well drilled and we were never able to get rid of, you guessed,the sulphur smell. All we ultimately used the water for was to clean the dairy barn with, tasted and smelled too bad for else.

[Tom]

I would try and post in the forum at www.plbg.com They have some very knowlegeable folks over there concerning plumbing. This subject comes up quite frequently. Tom

[Bill]

Thanks for that link Tom, I'll give it a try. I certainly hope this is not a permanent problem. I'm GUESSING that chlorinating (sp?) the well will take care of it as it did previously, but we'll see.

[Mac]

Don't know if this will help with sulfur, but we have lots of dissolved iron in our water, enough to clog two whole-house filters in series, in a month. We purchased what is essentially a water softener timer and tank, but filled with charcoal, from an outfit in Indiana. The timer allows backflush (though not a lot of iron comes out). The charcoal has lasted over two years so far. The initial cost was about $400, if I remember correctly; charcoal refill is about $70.
I'll try to find these guys' name - believe they were in Renssalaer, IN.

[Bill]

Interesting Mac... We've got a lot of iron in our water as well. Is the unit you installed an "iron filter" or something different? I know that iron filters are similar in operation to that of a water softener, in that they have a regen process. I was hopiing to not have to add another large tank-type device dut to space limitations.

[Dave]

Live in a new mfg home community with 49 homeowners so far and about half have this same problem in varying degrees. The unique thing is we all draw our water from the same well. As you can imagine we have had all kinds of testing done and the water meets all required standards. Most owners indicate that after a short running of the water the odor disappears. In some cases the problem has gone away with time. I felt that there were some indications that the water standing in the home plumbing might be the reason it goes away after running. We have cases where the odor is in the kitchen and not in the bathroom. Some of the homeowners are experimenting with filters (located at the sink) and I have not been given any positve feedback yet. If a solution is found I will let you know.

[Mac]

This is a single tank with a timer on top; stands about 5' tall, a bit over a foot wide with the inlet/outlet pipes attached. The regen part is just a nightly backflush - a third line comes out, drains away. There isn't a second tank. There may be smaller tanks available that might need re-filling sooner. This filters our whole house. The only disadvantage is that we don't have an icemaker... when in regen mode, some raw water gets in. We still have a bit of dissolved iron, but not enough to turn anything orange. When we moved in, the dishwasher was coated in bright orange from the previous owner's setup.