"Rotten egg" smell in the well water

Just catching up on this thread.. been busy moving into the place!

What we've noticed is that the water itself does NOT smell. If you pour a glass of water and move away from the tap, and smell the water, there is absolutely NO odour. So the gas is coming from the pipes.

A relative on the wife's side of the family checked it out a few days ago and he thinks it may actually be methane gas from the septic backing up into the plumbing/pipes due to possibly poor plumbing. Is this possible? He is an electrician an not a plumber but he built much of his own house and has a good understanding of plumbing.

I just don't know if I should be calling a plumber, a water specialist or someone else.. Smell persists and I still think it smells more like rotten egg than septic methane. So does the wife...

I'd hate to spend thousands of dollars on a fancy system if it's a simple solution. If it's a matter of adding some bleach to the well, what harm can that do? I think we are going to at least try that first..

Thanks and keep ya posted...

Oh, and it's a drilled well, not dug.

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Originally Posted by gassyplumber

I just swapped the anode in my hot water tank. All of a sudden my hot water stunk. Had a magnesium changed to aluminum all fixed.

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Good tip! I went to Home Depot last Friday and picked up an aluminium anode for $15. Removed the magnesium anode, poured a wee bit of bleach down the hole and installed the new anode. So far, so good. No smell. Time will tell how long this will last as we are now in the spring thaw.

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Originally Posted by Splaker

Just catching up on this thread.. been busy moving into the place!

What we've noticed is that the water itself does NOT smell. If you pour a glass of water and move away from the tap, and smell the water, there is absolutely NO odour. So the gas is coming from the pipes.

A relative on the wife's side of the family checked it out a few days ago and he thinks it may actually be methane gas from the septic backing up into the plumbing/pipes due to possibly poor plumbing. Is this possible? He is an electrician an not a plumber but he built much of his own house and has a good understanding of plumbing.

I just don't know if I should be calling a plumber, a water specialist or someone else.. Smell persists and I still think it smells more like rotten egg than septic methane. So does the wife...

I'd hate to spend thousands of dollars on a fancy system if it's a simple solution. If it's a matter of adding some bleach to the well, what harm can that do? I think we are going to at least try that first..

Thanks and keep ya posted...

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by impact

Good tip! I went to Home Depot last Friday and picked up an aluminium anode for $15. Removed the magnesium anode, poured a wee bit of bleach down the hole and installed the new anode. So far, so good. No smell. Time will tell how long this will last as we are now in the spring thaw.

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What impact said. I would try that before spending oodles of cash for a purification system. I doubt it's your septic system backing up,but,when was it last pumped out? Check that out,too.

Well we have narrowed down the smell to just the hot water! Could swear we smelled it in both cold and warm but it seems that it's just the hot water. So we called the water heater rental company (Direct Energy) and they are coming this morning to check it out.

Will let ya know what happens!