The house is almost finished. I need to get my water taken care of before we move in.
The 6" well is at 72 foot deep with a static water level of 19 feet. The pump is located in the well and is capable of 25 GPM. There is plenty of water. The well company says I could easily pump over 50 gpm with a stronger pump. The line from the well goes under the house and up the basement floor in the mechanical room. This is a house of 5 people. There are 4 full bathrooms and one 1/2 bath. 2 dishwashers. The master bathroom has a large shower with 2 high flow shower heads. It's a house with me and a bunch of girls. I'd like to keep as much flow as possible so several people can shower at the same time if possible.
When the water comes out of the faucet it looks clear, but it has an awful smell of rotten eggs. The brand new white toilets (based on recommendations from this forum, all 5 are Toto Ultramx II, BTW) have a film in the bottom of the bowl. It appears kind of tan yellow. I should have taken a picture to post here... Let me know if that would be helpful.
My propane distributer (Hicks Gas) also does water softeners. I had the guy come out and look at it. They sell water-right systems. He looked at the toilet bowl and immediately said I have tannins. He flushed the toilet and wiped his finger on the bowl and easily wiped off the tan film. Said, "yep, you've got tannins." I'm not sure what to think about this guy because I've read tannins stay suspended in the water, not settle on the bowl. I also mentioned the importance of water flow for multiple showers throughout the house. He suggested a 1.0 cu. ft. tannin/iron system that has some sort of chlorine generator built in and a 30,000 grain water softener. I told him I didn't think these systems were large enough to allow enough flow. He said there is "no restriction in flow the water just goes in one side and out the other." I've lost faith in this guy.
I took a water sample to the Illinois Water Survey at the U of I. They are slow. I only have some preliminary results on a few items. They said these results should be very close to the final results. pH 7.5, Iron 1.07 ppm, Ca 115.8 ppm, Magnesium 57.6 ppm, Hardness 526 ppm (31 gpg).
The well was supposedly chlorinated when it was first drilled and cased. It then sat unused for a year. When it was connected to the house I got a charge for chlorination. There were no faucets in the house at that time so I know they didn't run chlorine through the house plumbing. I'm wondering if just chlorinating the well really good could possibly eliminate the smell. Probably just temporary, right? Sure would be wonderful if that's all it needs...
So, I'm considering DIY with either a flow based chlorine pellet dropper at the well head or a proportional flow chlorine injection system going into a static inline mixer. Either way, combined with a 2.5 cu. ft. Fleck 5810XTR2 backwashing carbon system and a 2.5 cu ft. Fleck 5810XTR2 tannin water softener.
What do you guys suggest?
The 6" well is at 72 foot deep with a static water level of 19 feet. The pump is located in the well and is capable of 25 GPM. There is plenty of water. The well company says I could easily pump over 50 gpm with a stronger pump. The line from the well goes under the house and up the basement floor in the mechanical room. This is a house of 5 people. There are 4 full bathrooms and one 1/2 bath. 2 dishwashers. The master bathroom has a large shower with 2 high flow shower heads. It's a house with me and a bunch of girls. I'd like to keep as much flow as possible so several people can shower at the same time if possible.
When the water comes out of the faucet it looks clear, but it has an awful smell of rotten eggs. The brand new white toilets (based on recommendations from this forum, all 5 are Toto Ultramx II, BTW) have a film in the bottom of the bowl. It appears kind of tan yellow. I should have taken a picture to post here... Let me know if that would be helpful.
My propane distributer (Hicks Gas) also does water softeners. I had the guy come out and look at it. They sell water-right systems. He looked at the toilet bowl and immediately said I have tannins. He flushed the toilet and wiped his finger on the bowl and easily wiped off the tan film. Said, "yep, you've got tannins." I'm not sure what to think about this guy because I've read tannins stay suspended in the water, not settle on the bowl. I also mentioned the importance of water flow for multiple showers throughout the house. He suggested a 1.0 cu. ft. tannin/iron system that has some sort of chlorine generator built in and a 30,000 grain water softener. I told him I didn't think these systems were large enough to allow enough flow. He said there is "no restriction in flow the water just goes in one side and out the other." I've lost faith in this guy.
I took a water sample to the Illinois Water Survey at the U of I. They are slow. I only have some preliminary results on a few items. They said these results should be very close to the final results. pH 7.5, Iron 1.07 ppm, Ca 115.8 ppm, Magnesium 57.6 ppm, Hardness 526 ppm (31 gpg).
The well was supposedly chlorinated when it was first drilled and cased. It then sat unused for a year. When it was connected to the house I got a charge for chlorination. There were no faucets in the house at that time so I know they didn't run chlorine through the house plumbing. I'm wondering if just chlorinating the well really good could possibly eliminate the smell. Probably just temporary, right? Sure would be wonderful if that's all it needs...
So, I'm considering DIY with either a flow based chlorine pellet dropper at the well head or a proportional flow chlorine injection system going into a static inline mixer. Either way, combined with a 2.5 cu. ft. Fleck 5810XTR2 backwashing carbon system and a 2.5 cu ft. Fleck 5810XTR2 tannin water softener.
What do you guys suggest?
Last edited:
