Well sanitization questions. Horrible odor.

[Nap42585]

I've got a strange odor from my water. It's hard to describe, but, it's somewhere between moldy basement, and death. It comes and goes, hot and cold water, but sometimes is really, really bad. I've tried sanitizing the well twice. But the smell comes back after 2-4 weeks or so. However, I've since learned that the business next door SHARES my well. The owners of the business used to live in the house, but became rather successful and rent out the house now.

My questions are, anyone know what this smell could be? And, since I didn't run the chlorinated water through the businesses pipes, could it be that whatever contamination was still present in their pipes, and is working its way back into the houses plumbing? Or is this unlikely? I'm getting them involved to work out a time to chlorinate again so we can run it through their pipes as well. I'm also getting a lab water test done. And a well company to inspect.

Perhaps I didn't sanitize correctly, as I just did once, should I have done a second sanitization shortly afterwards? Or would it be safe to do very small amounts of chlorine over time, if we're not drinking the water? Also, I have a water softener, and was told I needed to bypass the softener during the process, as the chlorinated water could damage the softener system. But if there's a contamination, it would be in the softener as well, no? And turning it back on is re-contaminating, and takes a few weeks for the smell to become noticeable again?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Twowaxhack]

When is the last time you had your water tested by a real lab to see what’s in your water ?

 

[Nap42585]

When is the last time you had your water tested by a real lab to see what’s in your water ?

I've rented for 4 years, hasn't been tested during my occupancy. I've scheduled a bacterial and partial chemical test with the health department. I suspect I'd want to test for other organic contaminants (mold/algae/etc) but that didn't seem to be an option through them.

 

[Valveman]

You really can't treat the water for anything until you know what is in the water. Smell from a water well is usually Sulfur, rotten egg smell.

 

[wpns]

If you are renting the house, then it’s actually the landlord’s problem. so work with them to make sure thry do a proper sanitizing of the well, and all of the pipes connected to it. Not sure of the process you followed, or the calculations that you did to determine how much sanitizer you need, or how long you left it in the well and the pipes to kill everything off, but you might want to revisit all of those steps.

 

[PerplexedPlumber]

Being a rental, it is the landlord's problem to solve. There can be other issues than sanitizing the well that cause this odor, such as iron-sulfur bacteria present in the lines that can be difficult to eliminate. If steel plumbing fittings are in contact with the water, iron from those will support these bacteria. Another issue could be that the anode rod in the water heater needs to be replaced. This sounds like an unusual arrangement, and hopefully the plumbing is up to code with backflow retrictors. This is a solvable problem, and it may or may not be expensive to resolve.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Ecoli aka poo-poo

 

[mutti_wilson]

I have a bit of an egg smell in my house. Highish iron content. I have a whole house 3 stage filter system and use a reverse osmosis filter on the kitchen sink for drinking water and that has fixed my issue. When we first built the house the anode rod in the reacted with the water something fierce. It was eaten away in a few weeks and the water spit and spat and smelled horrendous. I replaced it with an aluminum rod and solved that problem.

 

[Twowaxhack]

I have a bit of an egg smell in my house. Highish iron content. I have a whole house 3 stage filter system and use a reverse osmosis filter on the kitchen sink for drinking water and that has fixed my issue. When we first built the house the anode rod in the reacted with the water something fierce. It was eaten away in a few weeks and the water spit and spat and smelled horrendous. I replaced it with an aluminum rod and solved that problem.

It was making hydrogen sulfide gas. Yes it’s very flammable

 

[wpns]

I have a bit of an egg smell in my house. Highish iron content. I have a whole house 3 stage filter system and use a reverse osmosis filter on the kitchen sink for drinking water and that has fixed my issue. When we first built the house the anode rod in the reacted with the water something fierce. It was eaten away in a few weeks and the water spit and spat and smelled horrendous. I replaced it with an aluminum rod and solved that problem.

Well water? Might be time to sanitize the well