Bleach in Well?

   / Bleach in Well? #1  

s1120

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2000
Messages
1,720
Location
Columbia county NY
Tractor
87 Ingersoll 444, 84 Ingersoll224/'44 GreavlyL/60'sGreavlyL/49 Ford 8N
Has anyone ever heard of dumping a bottle of bleach into your well?

We have a well that was closed up, but not capped off, around 15 years ago. See picture. We are hoping to be able to put it back into service again for the new house without having to drill a new one $$$$. We have talked to the well guy who says he can bring it up to code etc. as long as the water and flow test OK. Since it was never capped, someone from work suggested pouring a bottle of Clorox bleach in to kill any cooties before having the water tested. Any pros and cons to this idea? I can't see any harm in it....


Michele

18-29691-tractor.gif
18-30376-Paul.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 8-59983-Well-pipe2.jpg
    8-59983-Well-pipe2.jpg
    163.5 KB · Views: 273
   / Bleach in Well? #2  
We used to get our water from a 200 yr old 20' dug well (stone lined).

Occasionally, depending on time of year, I would chlorinate it using "Shock It" or some such pool additive for killing algae, etc....

Water from tap would smell chlorinated for a day or two, but if you do it right it doesn't taste chlorinated.

Also, we would have the well tested each year to be safe (cost about $60 for a full test from our state).

Bill
 
   / Bleach in Well? #3  
I moved seven times in eighteen years with my previous employer (petroleum pipeline on easct coast). The company I worked for purchased my home fot eh majority of these moves. One condition of sale was a water quality test. The professionals who tested these wells all suggested pouring a gallon or two of bleach in the well whenever it failed, or on a yearly basisi to keep bacteria in check. One told me that even one dead cricket that has fallen into the well can conataminate the water and send the levels high.

I routinely pour a gallon of bleach in the well yearly. I then rum all the faucets in the house UNTIL I can smell bleach. Then I let it set in the pipes all day. (the pipes will colect bacteria also). I then turn all the faucets in the house on and let the water flow until I no longer smell bleach. We cook and drink bottled water for a few days until the taste is back to normal.
 
   / Bleach in Well? #4  
Michele,

What your asking about is called shocking the well. Our driller had us do it for a new deep well here at camp. This is what I was instructed to do and the info I got:

Dump 1- 2 gallons of bleach down the well for only a few hrs, never more than overnite then flush it out. . Cleans off impurities and loosens deposits. I drained the water outside using the garden hose.

In a cased well the water will turn black as coal tar /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif from iron/maganese reacting with the bleach. There will also be a bleach smell in the water. Keep flushing till it runs clean and the bleach smell is gone.

In this situation I ran the submersible pump only about a 1/2 hr at a time letting the well recharge in between. This well isn't very deep. Less than 200'.

DFB

18-30366-dfbsig.gif
 
   / Bleach in Well? #5  
Same basic idea as "shocking" a pool. You put a high enough concentration (> 10 PPM chlorine to water) to kill any bacteria that may be down there. You should probably get it checked first to see if it's even needed though. Once the water is pumped out (with the chlorine in it), the water returns to normal.

The GlueGuy
 
   / Bleach in Well? #6  
My well has some salt in it,I bought a Kenmore counter top water distiller,this will take germs/salt and just about anything out of water.It is great for drinking water,it makes a gallon in about 6 hours,we use are well water for everything but drinking.We use the distiller for our drinking water,you cannot make your drinking water any cleaner or purer than with a distiller.These little Kenmore brands are small enough to set on the counter top and plug into your 110 outlet,and turn off automatically when all of the water is distilled out,the water just drips out of the distiller into a plastic bottle that comes with the distiller.They have a one year replacement warranty.I have had a couple I had problems with and I take it back to Sears and they always replace it. They cost around $120. I have a family of 6 and we use two distillers so the one won't have to run 1 distiller 24 hours a day. If you have a well and the quality of the drinking water is in question,a distiller is a good inexpensive solution,not to mention not having to deal with the bleach smell.I have experimented and even gotten water out of a mud puddle and it takes all of the impurities out. We just use the well for everything but drinking. It has worked great for us.
 
   / Bleach in Well? #7  
Michele

My well driller poured bleach down my brand new well when he dropped the pump in. Made the water pretty stinky, but it definitely killed the cooties. The bleach will go away after you run the well for a bit.

SHF
 
   / Bleach in Well? #8  
Michele, I used to work in potable water analysis, and have advised people on this and have done it on my own well, too. Make sure the bleach stays in the well for about 24 hours. When you pour it in, try to pour it so it comes in contact with the whole well casing. Move it around. After 24 hours, make sure that you run every faucet and hose bib that your well is contected to. You want that heavily chlorinated water to come in contact with every pipe in the system to make sure that you kill any bacteria throughout the system. If you miss even one faucet or hose bib, any bacteria in it can recontaminate the whole system. Let all the faucets and hose bibs run until you no longer smell bleach.
You may have to repeat this procedure several times, before you get clean lab results, but it usually works.
Good luck!!!

Rich
 
   / Bleach in Well? #9  
the state health dept here recommends using bleach to clean the pipes and water prior to having a water test just like previously discribed. from what i have found, only clorox should be used, the other companies put in some sort of chemical that should not be used in drinking water; i checked on this when clorox and purex were about the only options..i think purex is since gone..also, i called clorox a couple months ago because i had bought some bleach with no odor. ACCORDING TO THEM, if you can smell it, it is older and weaker. "fresh" clorox has no odor. you can call the 800 number on the bottle to verify this, that's how i got my info..each bottle has a date of manufacture on it..anyway, i have a clorinator on my well, and i kept adding clorox till i could "smell" the bleach, and never got to that point, but the water sure tasted Badbadbad. thats when i called the company and backed off on the amount in the clorinator.
heehaw
 
   / Bleach in Well? #10  
Yes it is normal to pour bleach down a well the property I bought already had a well drilled per the Health Dept. I put a gallon of bleach down the well ran the outside faucet until the bleach smell goes away.
 
 
Top