Anyone fix sulphur smelling well water?

i have well water that has a sulphur smell to it in the sink and showers... cold and hot so not just the water heater anodes gone bad.
i had the system checked out for $99, the took a few water samples.
then they suggested a whole house filter for $300 that WON'T solve the smell.
i called about the SMELL! i need that fixed. i don't think a whole house filter is a good idea (i.e., $$$$) do i really need filtered water in my shower and toilets? i figure, just a the drinking faucet sources..

so, anyone tackle the sulphur smell themselves? thanks much!

 

move to an area where a volcano is not about to erupt, either that or call in a preacher to excorsise the house of evil spirits, do you live in Salem, by any chance?

 

no but i strongly suspect witches.. thanks!

 

Could be a couple of reasons for the sulfur smell and both have to do with sulfur. The first may be bacteria that metabolize organic compounds that have filtered into the subsoil and give of hydrogen sulfide as a by-product. The other possible cause (besides the volcano) may be related to local geology. If the bedrock in your area has any sort of sulfide minerals (like pyrite) there may be bacteria that are using these minerals as an energy source and also giving off hydrogen sulfide as a by-product.

You could flush your well with chlorine and then live with a chlorine smell for many years (and the sulfur smell will eventually come back). I have a sulfur smell in my water. Some days its really bad, others not so bad.

Heating the water drives of the hydrogen sulfide gas. Also, for drinking water if you let the water stand in an open jar for a few hours the gas will leave the water.

Up to you if you want to filter your drinking water. Do you know what sort of bedrock is under you? Is it limestone or shale. Both of these can contain sulfur minerals especially if they have lots of fossils or have veins of metals like zinc or lead (like in Wisconsin). Precambrian slates are also sulfur rich.

 

i'd guess limestone.. it's all over Indiana! even our crushed stone and clean stone is all limestone.. ! thx!

 

You're welcome.

Very likely some sulfide mineral or minerals in the limestone. Probably pyrite (iron sulfide) but some lead and zinc ores occur in the limestones of Wisconsin. You might want to check your well water for those metals and a few others. If you've got lead or some other heavy metal a filter might be a good idea.

I'm on Precambrian slates that are loaded with pyrite. The glacial sands here (Minnesota) contain fragments of the slate and with that pulverized pyrite and even arsenic (but very small quantities compared to some places).

 

http://www.amazon.com/Brita-Chrome-Faucet-Filter-pack/dp/B000094Y1I

 

Good old oxygen can get rid of a sulfur smell. If you were to pump your well water into a couple of holding tanks and pump air into the tanks it should clean up the smell. (I think) So maybe before you buy a holding tank try putting some of your well water in a pop bottle and run some air through it from a fish pump over night and see if it makes a difference. Cheers!

 

We've got a whole house filter and an undersink filter for drinking water.

just changed those filters $14.00 for the whole house. $25 for the undersink
do it quarterly.

Don't know about the sulfur, our prob is rust. but the filter couldn't hurt
and would probably reduce the problem a great deal as well as protect against other stuff.

The Whole House unit ran me $78.00 in Home Depot, installed it myself.
The under-sink was the same.

Good Luck

 

Whole house filter would be a carbon bed, taste & smell filter, it should be the type that back washes itself out with a timer in the control head, you would rarely have to replace the bed of carbon granuals, just buy salt for the brine tank that is part of the back wash system.

 

why not just get a different water tank or a different supply

 

I would suggest either activated carbon, reverse osmosis, or cation exchange (good ole brine tank water softener).

 

You could inject o3 ozone into your holding tank if you have one it would get rid of the smell and give you constant water pressure as a plus. ozone generators can be relatively cheep compared to other options.