Sanitizing Your Well and Piping System Using Some Bleach and Time Management Skills!

Many people are unaware that the odd smell and perhaps even taste in their well water is potentially being caused by a small harmless bacteria that lives in the soil all around us. This is an Iron bacteria that thrives on molecules of iron.

How does this affect the well water taste and smell? The taste of the water is metallic, and there will be a little bit of a rotten egg type funk? Then this procedure can definitely help you! It is wise to collect a sample of the water before, during, and again after.

These Iron loving Bacteria can be found in many well water systems which have iron in them. The bacteria thrive in a heavily coated pipe wall where they have everything they need to survive. This "Bio-Film" can contain iron and iron bacteria. With a shock treatment in your well you can have the smell and taste gone in a day.

Sanitizing your well and piping system with a bottle of bleach and some skills! I have been working on water for over 20 years now, and sanitizing your well periodically is absolutely necessary!

There are a few precautions to follow but the following listing is my tried and true recipe for bleaching any standard well casing. Also will discuss how to make sure it is saturated through the whole piping system and also that the toilets are flushed at least once during this process.

First thing to do is a sketch of the system starting at the well with any specifications you can get your hands on. It helps to know how much casing is there, and how many feet of water are in the well and the piping layout. Need to identify any hose or faucet connections that are directly off of the primary incoming well water line. These will be untreated by any softener or any other treatment equipment.

With a septic system you have to be careful to not send a huge slug of bleach into the septic system. Also you must clear away any and all chemicals that would react with the bleach if it were accidentally spilled. Of most care is to avoid at all cost any cleaning products with Ammonia in it.

First thing I do is get the well casing cap off the pipe. Next you need to get your system ready to flow fairly constantly by opening one of the taps that do not run through any softener. If you can not locate that then simply bypass the softener and go to the well head with your bleach. Only pour the bleach into the well when the pump is running as this will send more of the cleaning solution into the house piping system.

With water line taps open to the farthest point of the house and keeping an eye on the smell at any of your open taps. Start by pouring half of your gallon and a half jug of bleach directly into the well, directing the flow away from the wires and well pump. Close each of them once you reach a strong bleach scent. Now that the remote water taps are smelling like bleach you will need to close them off and now condition the hot water tank as well.

With at least one hot water tap open to the farthest point in the house, take the rest of your bleach and pour it slowly into the well. Once you get a smell of bleach in your farthest hot water tap then it is time to make sure that the bleach water is at each and every tap and toilet. Next run cold and then hot water until the bleach can be smelled at every tap in the house including any water hose fittings outside.

Once you have a bleach smell at all of the remote water taps then you can begin to clean up for your next step which is to allow the bleach to soak in the piping and hot water tank for at least 8 and up to 24 hours. Once you are done with the contact time period of at least 8 hours it is time to flush the piping. Starting with the closest taps to the well pump inlet into the house flush each fitting with the bleach water until the smell is gone from the water fountain.

Flush first the cold followed by the Hot. The flushing may take a while and you should see some dark brown or reddish colors come out of the piping. This water may be cloudy for quite a while once this is working.

It is very important to try and run as much flow straight to the ground instead of it going straight into the septic system. Once you are completely flushed allow the system to sit idle for 30 minutes and check the system one last time for bleach smell starting at the tap closest to the well pump. You have to get the smell down to almost nothing then it is okay to use the water wherever and however you want.

Finally document what you just did and make sure to tighten the well head cap. Next schedule the quarterly return visit so that this treatment can become a regular thing. Next cleaning may only require only half of what bleach we used here today!

if you have any questions about this procedure please contact me here at AC-Yahoo!