Constant pressure well shock

[donb21]

My daughter just moved into her first home and it has a constant pressure well. The water has a rotten egg smell and people have suggested that she change the water heater anode, change the inline water filter, fix the chlorinator on the water softener, and shock the well. She done everything except shock the well.

The well has a secondary seal (constant pressure system), so she can't just drop in chlorine. Someone told her it's a two man job and needs special equipment. Can anyone point us to some instructions on the shocking procedure?

 

[Reach4]

http://www.moravecwaterwells.com/index.php/maintainance/disinfection-and-testing is my favorite procedure.

Get some high range pH paper such as Hydrion Cm-240 Chlorine test 10-200 PPM.

A suggested enhancement would be to add paper to test for pH that can test in the 5.5 pH region well. For that I like Hydrion 5.5 to 8.0 test paper that is often used for saliva or urine measurement. There are calculations that can estimate how much vinegar to add to a given diameter and depth well to bring the water down from a known pH to 5.5. The problem is that some acid will be consumed and the pH will be higher than calculated.

I don't understand the secondary seal part. What diameter is the well casing? How about a photo of the top of the casing.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[donb21]

Thanks for the info, we'll order the test kits. She'll take pictures and I can post later today; she's in Indiana and I'm in Ohio, otherwise I'd get them myself. She said that when she took the cover off, it's not an open pipe, it has some sort of seal on it and people told her that's a sign of a constant pressure system. We'll find out when the pictures come through.

I read through the link you gave. Good stuff, but it sounds like I need to figure out the system type first (she described the pipe to be 6"). By the way, how would we figure out the specs on the well (water depth and well depth), would it be recorded somewhere?

 

[Reach4]

Regarding getting specs on the well, one source would be to ask the well company who's name is on the well cap or on the pressure tank. The county may have records too. It varies.

If there is indeed a 5 or 6 inch casing, there would be room for chlorine pellets (about 3/8 or 5/16 inch diameter) to be dropped past the pump. That makes getting chlorine to the bottom of the well faster. I have a 4 inch casing, so I had to use only liquid; I allowed more time for water to circulate.

Hopefully the casing is out of the ground around a foot, with a well cap, rather than being in a pit. So if she sees something after lifting the well cap, it could be a hanger for the pitless. It could be something else. As long as there is room to drop pellets and/or pour bleach and water, this should not be that hard. If pellets are going to work, you would want to get pellets too. Bleach is easy to get of course. The vinegar in a big jug can be a little harder to find but smaller bottles are readily available. You can alternatively use muriatic acid, but that takes a lot more care. For sure you would want pH paper, and you would have to allow more time for the pH to stabilize to see if you want more. Vinegar is such that adding too much won't make things get way too acidic. It's kinda self limiting.

I have a powered anode in my water heater. I ordered that before I decided to get the iron_sulfur backwashing filter. If the other steps of chlorination and anode work do not handle the sulfur smell well enough, consider a backwashing iron+sulfur filter. That goes right after the pressure tank in the order of things. You still want to do the sanitizing in any case.

 

[Cacher_Chick]

If it is really a well seal, and she removed the bolts from it, that means the nuts just fell into the well. I hope it really is a 6" well or she may have just caused herself a lot of problems.

 

[Craigpump]

Nuts dropping in the water could be the least of her worries, if the lower plates dropped, then everything maybe trapped in the well...

 

[donb21]

It took a while to get the pics. From the looks of it, I don't think she actually did anything. I'm not sure what I'm looking at...is there more to take apart?

 

[Reach4]

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/how-to-remove-paulus-water-tight-seal.51364/

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4842060.pdf appears to be the patent.

I am thinking that knurled cap in the center (item 47 of figure 1 of the patent) would allow access to insert chlorine. I am not adept at reading patents.

 

[donb21]

Thanks for the links...that helped. She received the test kits and got:

Hydrion Cm-240 Chlorine Dispenser 10-200 PPM Test Roll Plus Extra Roll Plus
-Strip did not change color, stayed white = 10 parts/million

PH Test Tape Dispenser Hydrion Papers Strips made for Saliva or Urine Testing - Range is in .2 Intervals and from 5.5 to 8.0 - Check Body for Alkaline or Acid Environment - Approx. 100 Tests!
-Ph = 6.6

I'm not sure what the tests are telling us...do we need to shock the well?

PS - If we do shock the well, it looks like the knurled plug on top of the well cap needs to be unscrewed.

 

[Reach4]

That chlorine test paper was just for the shocking/sanitizing process to know how much chlorine is in the water that is recirculating and to know if you need to add more during the process. It would be very surprising if the chlorine in the well was not zero before treatment.

I was under the impression that you already knew you wanted to shock the well and was trying to figure out how. Yes, I believe the well should be sanitized.

I am not happy to see that the water is already acidic. It probably does not need treatment for 6.6 but I am not sure. Somebody may have info on that. Adding acid to temporarily make the water acidic for sanitizing is something different.

 

[Smooky]

If I was going to chlorinate it I would probably try to use the little round recess that is labeled “CHL. K. O.” It might stand for Chlorine Knock Out. If that was a no go, I would loosen the three nuts and try to remove the seal.