Treating well with hyd-peroxide?

[Rustyiron]

Our water gets a sulpher smell now and then, I've been pouring a little bleach down the (drilled) well when this smell developes. Checking this out on the web, there seems to be a solution using hydrogen peroxide (not the drug store stuff) that is sort of pricey. Does anybody have any experiance with this? Note; our water smell is both hot and cold, not water heater related.

 

[jonnyc1999]

Mine is the same way. I haven't found a solution yet other than what the water purification guy wanted me to buy. It was some sort of air bubbler system that dissipates the sulfur gas, but it was too pricey for me at ~$2000!

 

[edlegault]

Pump the water into a holding tank and then bubble air through it? Maybe? So the bad entrapped gas dissipates? I am just guessing.

 

[The kid]

Our water gets a sulpher smell now and then, I've been pouring a little bleach down the (drilled) well when this smell developes. Checking this out on the web, there seems to be a solution using hydrogen peroxide (not the drug store stuff) that is sort of pricey. Does anybody have any experiance with this? Note; our water smell is both hot and cold, not water heater related.

To rid your water of sulphur gas, iron and other elements it has to be treated then filtered. I have some land in rural Tennessee. My well has sulphur gas, iron and limestone. To to remove this several filtration items are needed. Water is pumped from the well and into the house. Pressure is controlled with a blatter filled pressure tank to maintain certain amount of pressure. When pressure drops a pressure switch is activated to pump water. Once pressure is restored the switch cuts off the pump.

Now for the treatment. When the pressure switch is on and the well pump is pumping, at the same time a chlorinator is injecting chlorine into your raw well water. The raw well water goes into a 150+ gallon holding tank. The chlorine reacts with the impurities and turns them into a solid.

Now for the pricy part. You need a two stage filter, first being a resin filter with an automatic backwash. Next the water passes thru a charcoal filter with an automatic backwash. You will need a a salt brime tank to hold salt saturated water to be used during backwash cycles. The salt neutralizes static in the resin glass beads and releases the trapped solids it filtered. Most places sell the Salt pellets used for water softeners. Depending on water demand would warrant how often you backwash. If the above is installed properly, you will have odorless tasteless near pure water. We had a Culligan system and it worked well. Every five to six years new charcoal and resin needs to be rebedded in the tanks to assure best filtration.

Some people do the above on city water due to hardness. Having soft water is a luxury, because it doesn't take much soap, your skin feels softer and dishes are spot free.

Take a water sample to your state agriculture and have them test it for content. If your handy with plumbing you can install the filters yourself. Years back it cost us 5 grand for the filtration system from Culligan. Prices I'm are not that high now, because more companies make systems. Do have your water tested. Sulpher is very corrosive. -robert

 

[sixdogs]

When we lived in Maine we would get the water tested by getting a test kit and sending--I think--to Augusta. Price was cheap. Along with the analysis will be suggestions to cure the problems and a phone number to call for questions. They actually know what they are talking about.
Western Maine water has those smell issues and we had similar problems in the central area. We fixed it with a whole house water filter and charcoal filters with smell-removing capabilities. Cheap and easy and we do the same thing in Ohio today. Be sure to plumb a bypass around the filter and buy a second filter housing in case you break the first.

Total cost for the filter and housing was maybe $50, copper pipe to plumb and a filter every month or so @ $10--but we use a lot of water. Treating without testing for bacteria not a good idea. Oh, test for radon while you are at it--everyone in ME has some. You'll likely find some MTBE as well, that government gasoline additive that is in everyone's well, is a known cancer cause and the state made itself immune regarding it. OK, sure.

 

[Alien]

I haven't used it myself but you can buy food grade Hydrogen Peroxide at rural supplies. (they may have to order it in). It can be used to treat soil and many other things and is certainly not harmful if used correctly. At last quote it was around $150 for 20 litres from memory. Helps oxegenate the soil so I guess it does that to the water therefore getting rid of the bacteria and smell. You can dilute it.

 

[techman]

In our last home we also had sulfur, and iron, in the water. I installed an iron and sulfur filter. It looked like a small water softener. The regen cycle used potassium permanganate, in a separate tank, which was used in the filter as an oxidizer. The filter backwashed and the backwash water contained the iron and sulfur as a solid. Fully automatic, timer driven, like a softener. When I bought it in the late 70's for about $ 400 at Grainger. They no longer carry it, but others do. They are called "green sand" filters. The new ones seem to use air as the oxidizer rather than potassium permanganate. Check out: Affordable Water Softeners and Purifiers

paul

 

[Lava Rancher]

My water has the Sulfer gas as well. We have an ozone bubbler in our holding tank which has been 100% effective. I purchased the house with the system inatallwd qnd hqve the original reciept. Nowhere near 2000$. Look online. Purewater or similar brand.

 

[CBW1999]

You have to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL using H2O2. A lot of people do not realize that the "drug store" strength is about 3% which is fairly weak as a sanitizer. Peroxide used for swimming pool sanitation is about 27%.

I've had experience using it in swimming pools and it is an awesome sanitizer without the woes of Chlorine based systems. I've also had the experience of getting it on my skin and quickly having a chemical burn!

I don't think it would do anything to dissipate the sulpher issue- it has been well covered about filtering being needed. Although I like the idea of H2O2 for sanitizing a well- In the concentration needed, I would be worried about its corrosive effects on the system parts.

There are a number of companies (reliable) on the web that sell systems at a reasonable price IF- you are able to install yourself. I have issues with acidic water and a need for fine filtration. Based on my research for these problems- I only need to spend about 1500.00.

never hurts to check it out. The companies I have looked at are:
Discount Water Filters, Cartridges and Drinking Water Systems
Residential Well Water Treatment, Iron Filters, Acid Neutralizers, Chlorinators
Water Filters, Water Treatment systems, Water Distillers

 

[mikim]

I bought my system for sulphur & iron from cleanmywater.com. $1500 now and I installed it. Been 6 years so far. They have a lot of stuff on their website so surf carefully and make sure you're getting what you need.