Shock the well - no where to pour it

[Mickey_Fx]

Have had a sim problem for a number of yrs but no odor. Did what Jim and a couple other suggested. I drilled a hold in the side of the well casing (sticks up about a ft above pumphouse floor) used a tube and funnel to get the clorine down the well. All of a sudden a couple months ago it all cleared up. Don't know why as I've not used any clorine in several yrs but I'm not questioning it.

The concerned I see is the depth of your well. Pouring a few oz of clorine bleach in the well and how it's going to find its way 400' down to the pump and below. Maybe your water level is also quite deep so depth from static water level to pump isn't so far.

 

[Egon]

Putting a line into the pump outlet will not help because of the check valve at the pump.

You need access to the casing for a place to pour the chlorine.

 

[WayneB]

If you can get a hole in the side of the casing then you should be able to find liquid chlorine and hook up something to slowly pour it into the well casing. I have purchased liquid cholorine from my pool chemical supply store. I think it is 15% cholorine. I think if it was me I would check with someone in the pure water supply business.

I recently added filtering and UV disinfection system. The company I ordered from was the Ohio Pure Water Company. their website is Ultraviolet Disinfection, UV, Sterilight, Trojan, UV Pure, Hallett, Upstream, UV lamps, UV quartz sleeves, uv light

You might give them a call and see what they suggest.

Wayne

 

[Obed]

We shocked a shallow well at our last house using regular Chlorox from the grocery store. That's how our county's website said to do it. We didn't have the access problem that you have. We first closed the water intake to the water heater to prevent chlorine from getting in the heating tubes and fouling the heating tubes. We poured the amount of Clorox recommended by the county's website into the well casing. Our well had a water spigot connected to the water outlet pipe just outside of the well casing. We connected a short water hose to the spigot and ran water through it and back into the well casing until we could tell the water coming out of the hose had a noticeable amount of chlorine in it. We then sprayed around the inside of the well with the chlorinated water coming out of the hose. We let the well sit idle for 24 hours. After 24 hours we ran water through a water hose to the ground continuously for several hours to dilute the chlorine. Then we used the well water in the house as normal.

We loved that well. We had the best tasting water and didn't have to drink chemically treated water coming from lakes that have city sewers flowing into them. Unfortunately, where we now live the well water has a high iron content so we're on city water.

 

[SpringHollow]

Sorry, I could not easily find my information but I did a web search and found this link:

Manderson Well Drilling

Below is a quote from their disinfection page.

Ken



P. H. Verses Chlorine effectiveness An article from Ground Water Canada September 2003, (Written in Wisconsin), goes into detail on how chlorine products, bleach included, raises the PH of the water. The higher the ph the less effective the chlorine is. Chlorine is 100% effective when mixed in water with a ph of 5.5.
When mixed in water with a ph of 9, the chlorine is only 2% effective. If you mix up a solution that is 200 ppm chlorine in water with a ph of 7.1, the ph will raise to 9, making the chlorine only 2% effective. Too much chlorine can actually defeat the purpose.
In an article from the magazine National Driller Dec/ 2004, 典he Water Well Disinfection Manual for Michigan State advices using 1 gallon of White Distilled Vinegar in with each 100 gallons of chlorinated water. The vinegar helps keep the P.H. of the solution down.

 

[charlz]

The PH buffering chlorine is pretty common in swimming pools as well. My in-laws pool in Vegas needs almost constant acid added to keep the PH down so the chlorine will work... especially after a windstorm puts a bunch of dust in there. Muratic acid is what they use but I am thinking vinegar sounds a lot better in a well

 

[SpringHollow]

Vinegar (acetic acid) is better than muriatic acid for 2 reasons: it is much safer to handle and it acts as a buffer (muriatic acid is hydrochloric acid (HCl) which is a strong acid with no buffering capability). If adding the vinegar at the recommended dosage does not drop the pH low enough, then I would be tempted to use muriatic acid to continue to lower the pH. Once the acceptable pH is reached, the vinegar will help hold it there.

Ken

 

[Alan L.]

The last time I checked Ph it was about 9, so that will definitely be a problem. Even the city water 5 miles away drawing from a much deeper formation has a ph of 9.

 

[SpringHollow]

Even if your pH was low, adding the chlorine jumps it up. Our county has seen a huge improvement by adding the vinegar.

Ken