Treating Well

[jay3534]

bought a place with a 190 foot well , submersible pump and need to know what I can use other than Clorox to treat the well which has set idle for about 2 years. I am told Clorox will hurt the plumbing.

Thanks

 

[Soundguy]

chlorox will NOT hurt the plumbing. besides.. it won't be inthe plumbing.. it will be in the WELL.

ever hear of chloronated water? maybee drinking water in cities?

um.. POOLS?


In the county I live / work in. if a well fails testing. standard procedure is a shock treatment, then runthe well for a period.. then retest.

lastly. Whoever told you the chlorox would hurt the plumbing.. loose them and find a new source of info. they clearly do not understand all involved.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Jay,

My well is 625' and I shock it once or twice a year. Clorox will work fine but it has a tendency to "hang" in the water and not dissipate over the entire depth. It may take a couple of days of normal use before you smell the chlorine at your tap.

A granulated type chlorine will work better as the weight will help sink some of the chlorine to the bottom. I have used a type of pool shock chlorine and it works as good as the Clorox.

Another source wound be a well driller in your area. He should have small bags of the chlorine they use to shock wells. However it will most likely cost a little more.

 

[oosik]

Shock treating your well - properly - WILL NOT hurt the plumbing, It may temporarily cause "rusty water" because the chlorine will cause some of the rust in the well to break loose. Standard shock treating will put chlorine in your well/ plumbing for a short period to disinfect both. Check with the local Health Dept - I'm sure they will have a handout on the procedures for shock treating a well.

 

[Professor Marvel]

What we do is pour Clorox into the well then run the water through the hose until it smells of Clorox saturation. Then run the hose back into the top of the well for a while so that it mixes the Clorox around and the inside of the well casing is washed down by the bleach water. Put the top back on the well and run the Clorox water into every sink or water outlet in the house and then let it sit in there for a while so it cleanses all water passageways in the house. After leaving it sit run the water until the bleach smell goes away. I run mine out a hose so I don't bleach the septic system and ruin the bacteria that eat the bad stuff. It seems to take a while for the bleach smell to go away.

 

[speedbump]

The only thing that hasn't been mentioned is to pour plenty of clear water (without bleach) down the well to wash the bleach off the pipes and wire in the well. Bleach will eat metal. Pellet feeders spit a chlorine tablet down the well from the top every so often. I worked on a well that used to have a pellet feeder. There was only half of the 4" casing left, the tablets had eaten the other side completely to ground level.

 

[randy41]

maybe its a location thing but i've been living here for 20 something years and never shock or add chlorine to my well. the water has been tested to be bacteria free recently.

 

[speedbump]

[QUOTEmaybe its a location thing but i've been living here for 20 something years and never shock or add chlorine to my well. the water has been tested to be bacteria free recently.][/QUOTE]
I can't speak for all the states, but that'a the case with most wells. Not surface water wells, but deep wells. Bacteria is usually not a problem.

 

[tcartwri]

It's peace of mind and easy to do. Have a look at your wiring at the same time. ( with the power off.... )

 

[SPIKER]

Already mentioned, pour 1 gallon of bleach into a 5 gallon bucket add water and then pour diluted bleach into the well. There is a formula as to how many gallons of bleach per size/depth of well should be used (do a search on-line sure ones is out there as a rule of thumb.)
Run hose out and back into well until bleach water is coming out of the hose per smell. Use the hose to wash the casing down real good so the bleach water comes into contact with the casing as best you can. shut down the hose and run the fixtures in house (all of them including flushing) to get bleach water into them.

It is best done late at night or early in AM and leave the bleach water in the pipes 24+hrs, DON'T DO LAUNDRY . It will not harm the PIPES/FIXTURES, it can cause some rubber deterioration in rubber seals in toilets but for small amount of time it is going to be there overnight or all day it is fine. The reason I suggest 24 hours of bleach in well/lines/fixtures to be sure it kills it off any and all bacteria.

On my well it calls for 1 gallon of bleach from when I looked it up long time ago, I don't use it all that often in winter (cabin) so spring it gets 2 gallons and sets for a few days with it in everything.

FYI the "Pool Shock" stuff should normally NOT be used some of it is bleach based others are not and can be poisonous (more so than the bleach.) If you use the bleach based pool shock it is not as effective as it is timed lower release or drops to bottom of well and does not mix well to give a SHOCK to kill everything at once.

After the 24+ hours as mentioned run well till bleach is gone out away from septic thru hose in driveway.

Mark