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Hi All,
Just moved into a house with well water. There is a terrible smell of sulfur in the hot water.
I did call the local water/well company in and they replaced the anode in the water heater as well as "dropped a few bleach tablets in the tank".
However, two days later, I still smell the sulfur, especially in the upstairs taps. Is this a matter of just needing to give the solution more time?
Also, the water company did not drain and refresh the hot water heater tank, could this be part of the problem?
I am having the same problem in new house, only it is confined to just one bathroom, and we don't have well water. I can't figure out what it might be but haven't had time to address the issue yet. I find it's worse when water is first run.
I'm thinking it could be the drain. I'm only finding the problem in one bathroom, and it's mainly on the first run of the water. I haven't tested whether it's only hot or cold, but it happens when I run both at the same time. I'm going to assume it's the drain and try that first. Haven't had time to pursue this yet, but if I find any answers I will post them.
Does your water itself smell, like if you collect some in a cup and smell it in another room?
Where we used to live, we had a sulfur/methane/swamp smell to our well water. The well was over 350 feet deep. The water tested fine for everything by an independent testing lab (no fecal coliform, or other naughty stuff). The well pump people said there was ferric iron in the water. It would produce a black slime inside the toilet tank...not attractive, but not dangerous in anyway.
We used a whole house charcoal filter, and it helped greatly to reduce the odor. There was one tap upstairs, at the end of the line and when we first turned on the cold water, it stunk for about 30 seconds, but then it cleared up after running it for awhile. Made brushing your teeth in the morning kinda dicey. Also, we would pour a bottle of bleach down the well once every year or two, and then let it run in all the faucets until we smelled bleach and then we'd turn them off and let the bleach sit in the pipes (copper pipes). We'd use bottled water for a day or so, and then let the water run and flush out the system.
Our own well does that from time to time - shocking the well is enough to take care of that. (We probably need to shock it every year to year and a half.)
One of our rentals is on a well in an area that that has problem water - the water won't kill you (in fact, you'd probably live to 120 if you drank it without treating it) it's just not what people like to smell coming out of the tap. It requires not only a water softner, but a whole house iron filter PLUS about a gallon of bleach sucked through the system once every 3 weeks.
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