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foul odor in well water faucet

oakman15 | Posted in General Discussion on June 2, 2009 05:32am

I suddenly have a foul odor/taste in my kitchen water from the faucet. I had it tested by a chemist a six months ago and he said it was good enough to bottle and sell. Suddenly, I have this odor. There is salt in my water softener.

I did some detective work and I THINK it is only the kitchen, not the bathrooms. It has happened with the hot and cold water. It seems to dissapate if you run it for 20 seconds.

It is right above our old hot water heater. Maybe that has something to do with it. Our septic system is two years old.

Any ideas what can cause this?

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  1. DanH | Jun 02, 2009 05:59am | #1

    Lots of things can cause it. "Iron bacteria" is often blamed, and supposedly the fix is to "shock" the well with chlorine.

    As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
  2. DanH | Jun 02, 2009 06:02am | #2

    You can also get the bacteria going in a water heater (it's reported), though I don't know how that could affect your cold water.

    As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
  3. Varoom | Jun 02, 2009 06:23pm | #3

    Get your water tested again by your water treatment company, especially for iron, as I presume your bad odour is sulpher (smell of rotten eggs).

    For us, the sulpher would bloom in the hot water tank but was not noticible with the cold water.

    The temporary solution was to add a cup of bleach into the sediment filter whenever the sulpher bloomed.  That would usually work for a month before it came back.

    Turns out our iron filter (potassium permanganate) was malfunctioning, so that got fixed.  The water treatment guys also intall an air admittance valve before the inlet of the iron filer, which assists the filter in removing the iron content.  Both of these fixes have solved the problem.

    The only hassle with the air admittance valve is the noise it makes when the water is running (it sounds like water spraying out of a pinhole leak, which took a few weeks to get used to) and it does add air to the pipes, so there is an occassional burp of air when you open a faucet.

  4. User avater
    popawheelie | Jun 02, 2009 08:02pm | #4

    One more thing. It is a common practice for the cold water on your kitchen faucet to bypass the softener. So you get water at the cold side of the kitchen faucet right from the well.

    You sacrificial anode in you water heater can be part of the problem. Take it out or change to Magnesium?

    The iron eating bacteria will bloom in warmer water and will bloom in pipes that aren't flushed as often.

    You tend to smell it more in certain areas. When warm water hits the kitchen sink or when warm water fills the laundry tub. Your nose is right above them.

    From what I've gathered, there is no way to kill all the bacteria. It lives in the soil surrounding the well. You can shock the whole system but it will return eventually.

    There is a well chlorinator that doses the well on a continuos basis.

    Our last house was on a well with this stuff. I got tired of dealing with it.

    "There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."
    Will Rogers

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