This is from experience:
1. Have your water tested. Often sulphur water contains iron and other metals. If you are serious about rectifying the problem, you need to know exactly what you are dealing with as far as the water properties of your individual well. Armed with this information, you can avoid wasting serious money on a supposed solution that does not address all of your well's issues.
2. "Sulphur water" is usually the result of one or two conditions: sulphuric bacteria or sulphuric particles - or both.
The bacteria scenario can be solved with an aeration or reverse osmosis device. You can easily find information on the net for the FAQs of these implementations.
The sulphuric partical solution requires a different tract. (This is the situation I've had to deal with BTW). This requires a chlorination solution. In my situation, I purchased and had installed a CL2 system. Basically, it consists of a holding tank (120 gallons), a solution tank (35 gallons) with an injection pump and flow switch, and a carbon filter tank. Follow along: a: Water arrives in the holding tank directly from the well. b: The solution tank injector introduces a diluted chlorine solution into the water flow. This destroys the sulphur content. c: This chlorinated water now passes through the carbon filter, (whose job is to remove the chlorine which is carcinogenic and linked to certain cancers in humans, they would have us believe) and out to your various plumbing services.
I'm told that either form of sulphur can also shorten the length of copper fixtures as a result of scaling in the pipes.
PROS: It works, guaranteed. I test my tap water with a pool test kit to make sure the carbon filter tank is doing its job.
CONS: The CL2 systems are somewhat expensive (1800 to 2500 USD, installed); require manual maintenance (flushing, 35 ga. chlorine/water tank requires 3 ga. of bleach to 32 ga. of water and must be done by you. The holding tank must be flushed manually. The accumulation of empty Chlorox bottles is becoming a problem (HELP!).
The carbon tank's useful shelf-life is finite. Depending on your water's exact properties, I guess anywhere from 2 to 5 years, it will need to be replaced (apprx. 200 USD).
Obviously, the CONS tips the scales, however, the sulphur in our water was at a VERY high level. Bathing, drinking and otherwise general use of this water was OUT for my family. Strangely, our well was probably dug in 1938 and our 220 yo. home was often referred to as "Stinkwater Holla". We are the first family to do ANYTHING about the sulphur problem.
IMHO, introducing chlorine or bleach DIRECTLY into the well is NOT A GOOD IDEA unless you know for sure that your well has been contaiminated from an outside source. Chlorine will kill the good or harmless stuff in the well, like bacteria that eats other bacteria for instance, resulting in what's termed "dead water".
Hope this helps.
<font color="red">DISCLAIMER:</font> I'm not a chemical biologist, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night, just my experiences dealing with Stinkwater Holla and the vendor who provided my solution.
If ya want more exacting information on my CL2 situation, drop me a line.
Hope this helps. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
