please help fixing the foul water smell

[dibloff]

Moved in last year. House was built in the 1940’s and had 3-4 owners in the last 30 years. The plumbing is a nightmare. No crawlspace under the house. Has black iron, PVC and maybe some copper pipes.
Water stinks. Has well and septic. Has a 4” well maybe 100’ deep. Bleached it. Used 1 pint of 1.2% bleach in a 4 gallon bucket. Worked for a couple days, then the smell came back.
Lived with it for a few months, and further investigated, tried to understand what is going on. Found a good source online, which described that one has to determine what smells? Hot water? Cold water? Drain? I determined it’s only the hot water. Bleached the well again. Bypassed the water softener, and shut off the reverse osmosis system’s valve. I used 1 quart of 6.5% bleach in a 4 gallon bucket this time. Poured it into the well, and re-circulated for 5 minutes. Then opened all cold and hot taps until bleach can be smelled. Left it sitting there for two days. It was OK for about 10 days then the hydrogen-sulfide smell came back again. hot water tap only.
Decided to replace the anode rod. Hoped it’ll help. Drained the water heater (gas) and removed the anode rod cap. The cap only cause that’s all that there was. The rod was completely gone. Inserted a new magnesium rod (bump on the cap). Re-pressurized and enjoyed it for a week. Foul smell is back and it’s worse than ever.
Decided to put hydrogen-peroxide into the water heater. Drained the water heater again and opened the cold inlet so it’ll churn up the sediment, but there was not much. Removed the anode rod. Poured in one pint of hydrogen peroxide solution through the anode rod hole, re-pressurized, let it sit for a day. Incredibly the smell did not come back for 2 weeks – but it is getting worse by the day.
The water was tested when we moved in, but there were only two items in the report: coliform bacteria was present and e.coli was absent. There was no test for iron.
So this is where I’m at now. I’ve got a few more ideas, like cleaning the water softener and replacing all the plumbing for copper.

Anyone has any other ideas?
Thank you for any help, and thank you for reading.

 

[packardv8]

Sorry to hear you've bought into such an unlivable situation. I don't have the answer but your bleach and hydrogen peroxide treatments obviously are temporary and have scant hope of a permanent fix. The chemicals are just masking what has already happened. When they're flushed trough, whatever the cause is still there and working again.

Suggestion - it's unlikely your well would be the only one in the county with this problem. I'd canvass the neighborhood for miles around asking do they have the smell and what have they done to eliminate it?

My guess is you're going to have to consult a specialist and pay him for some fairly expensive treatment equipment. Hope I'm wrong and the solution is quick, easy and cheap.

jack vines

 

[dibloff]

Jack. thank you for the response. I'll try interviewing the neighbors.

 

[SHR]

dibloff - Stop with the useless chemicals already. You are doing a tremendous amount of useless work in order to solve a basic problem. Your smell is only in your hot water - the problem is not your well, it is your water heater. Your problem was already answered on one of the other forum you multi-posted on.

"Very common problem. Usually easy to fix. Original magnesium anode rod wrong for your water. Putting in a magnesium anode rod was the worst thing you could do in your situation. You made it worse instead of better. Remove the magnesium rod and replace with an aluminum anode rod. As long as all of the original magnesium rod has disintegrated already, your foul smell should go away. The smell is almost always caused by a bad chemical reaction between the magnesium in your anode rod and the chemistry of your well water."