Shock Water Well

Stmar

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What procedure and kind of bleach/chemical do you use to "shock" your water well? I need to do mine and need some info on what precautions to take with a water softener and reverse osmosis drinking water unit. May do the water heater and pressure tank while I am at it.
365' well, pump set at 250'
pitless adapter
6" pvc casing
3/4 hp submersible pump
water flows from well head, 300' give or take, through a 1-1/4" pvc pipe to the pressure tank, an inline water filter, water softener then into the house system.
 

85Hokie

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bleach is the best answer .....
but the "quantity" of it is the secret!
You want a ph of 7 ish and a ppm of chlorine at 1 or 2 ppm,
so measure that first - chlorine should NOT be higher than 4 ppm.
 

KeithG

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When I had to sanitize my well after a new pump was put in the
installer said to pour bleach (from local store) into the well and run
the water until you could smell the bleach. Once you smelled the
bleach turn off the water and let sit over night.

The next morning run the water until you did not smell the bleach
any more. You could use any water spout to run the water (i.e.
inside or outside).
 

RCW

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What's the static water level - - i.e., how far below grade is water level without pump running?

Ballpark is fine.......greater than 100', 10 feet, artesian, etc.....

I would take the RO off-line - sometimes disinfection breaks stuff loose that could gum it up.

Softener could stay on, but maybe bypass it if it's been a long time since it was last shocked. (Softeners run on chlorinated city water all the time).

Like the other guys said - household bleach is 5.25% available chlorine. Mix a cup or two in a 5 gallon pail of water. Then pour that down the casing.

Turn water on in several locations in house until you smell it, including flushing toilets (cleans out tank). Turn it off and let sit couple hours. If you can't get a smell, add more bleach as before - - - Just don't get carried away with the amount. Won't hurt anything, but can take a while to flush back out.

Flush it out an outside hose bib if possible. Be careful with laundry for a couple days, especially whites!!

This can scour things out, including iron/manganese bacteria (harmless), and water can be discolored at first.

Will return to normal shortly.

If you have a local health department or Extension Service, they should also be able to walk you through it.
 
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Stmar

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If I recall static is about 100'.
Talked to the driller doing a new well across the street and he suggested doing a clean out where they pull the pump and clean the system, ballpark cost would be $1000. Would shock the well the day before. Has anyone had this done?
 

RCW

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What is the problem with the well?

You don’t need to pull the pump to do a disinfection. In fact you need the pump to do it correctly.

I was a health department guy that helped lots of folks through well problems many years ago. Did many disinfections for older folks that couldn’t do their own.

Again, I want to know what got you here, and maybe I can help better.

Problem is I know upstate New York wells. They might be different in Minnesota. So far, I haven’t heard anything foreign to a normal routine that should be done every couple years here.


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North Idaho Wolfman

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If I recall static is about 100'.
Talked to the driller doing a new well across the street and he suggested doing a clean out where they pull the pump and clean the system, ballpark cost would be $1000. Would shock the well the day before. Has anyone had this done?
Well driller is just trying to make money! :rolleyes:
There is 100% absolutely no reason to pull the pump unless it's failed or has sucked sand. ;)
 

RCW

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Well driller is just trying to make money! :rolleyes:

There is 100% absolutely no reason to pull the pump unless it's failed or has sucked sand. ;)

Yep.

I misspoke Minnesota — Stmar is Wyoming.

I would still like to know the problem. I have no idea about Wyoming geology, but I can turn that $1,000 to $7 pretty quick.


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Stmar

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Thanks for the input. No real problem with well, just a lot of red/iron which seems to be worse certain times of the year. It has been a while since I have shocked the well and when I got the new softener this winter the installer suggested shocking it when the weather got better. Talked to the driller as he was working a new well and truthfully I had never heard of "cleaning" an existing well, so appreciate the info from forum members RCW and NIW. I do have an inline 5 micron filter before the softener.
 

RCW

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No problems, just routine maintenance - that's great. Iron, manganese, sulfur can all be worse certain times of year. Not uncommon.

Sometimes, a well can plug with fines, etc. Can happen to both rock and gravel wells. A driller can drop a packer into to the well and surge it real hard with water while raising and lowering the packer. Helps dislodge the fines and restore at least some of the capacity. Not usually done on a house well, but common with bigger systems.

Not the case here....wonderful!

I might bypass your 5 micron filter also, or pull the cartridge when you disinfect....same idea as the RO and softener - just avoid gumming things up if it gets stirred up.

Good luck!
 
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Stmar

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On the subject of "fines": Wife complained that the hot water fill for the washer was not flowing like it should. Took the fill hoses off and sure enough the fill valve screen was clogged. Cleaned it out and solved the problem, pain to clean but wife is a perfectionist so she kept at it until it was spotless, lol.
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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Thanks for the input. No real problem with well, just a lot of red/iron which seems to be worse certain times of the year. It has been a while since I have shocked the well and when I got the new softener this winter the installer suggested shocking it when the weather got better. Talked to the driller as he was working a new well and truthfully I had never heard of "cleaning" an existing well, so appreciate the info from forum members RCW and NIW. I do have an inline 5 micron filter before the softener.
I'm lucky to have a well that does not have the iron and sulfur content others around me have, we have just a little, But what I do have is very very fine blue sand/clay.
We have a solid state filter right now, and it's worked good for years in the trailer, but it does pass some of it along.

I'm setting up a multi stage filter system (house is being built) that uses 3 filter cartridges, 10, 5 and 1 micron carbon.
The 10 micron should catch 95% of everything coming in and 10 micron filters are cheap in bulk, the 5 micron will be for normal water use, and the 1 micron carbon block after that will be for the hydronic heating system, and refrigerator for ice and drinking water.
 

johnjk

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Our well went in last June. Depth is 80' and flow is around 30gpm. My water is so hard, it is off the charts. Metallica tasting and some rust stains. Running a softener and a RO system for drinking. The shock instructions I got were from the local health dept. They wanted 2 gal of bleach poured down the sides of the casing to kill anything that may have gotten on the pipes or introduced by drilling, then using a garden hose connected to the drain fitting inside the house before the pressure tank and rinse the sides of the casing for at least 30 min. After this, run the pump until you have no bleach odor in the water. I ran the pump for around 5hrs and thought I was good. A few days later, I had the softener guy show up to do the test and give me a quote. Chlorine in the water was off the chart. I ended up letting it run for 24hrs and at that point I still had trace amounts of chlorine, but they could do their tests. Health Dept came back at that point and did their water quality test and gave me a clean bill on the well. I was told any time I pull or replace the pump I should shock the well and if I don't have to get in the hole, do it every 3-5yrs.
 

skeets

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We have good water, bad thing is it is harder than an old wores heart,, water tanks are good for about 5 years before the load up so bad it sounds like an old coffee pot, and yeah I drain them like 6 months and unscrew the valve and use a coat hanger to get the gunk out,, unbelievable
 

RCW

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The shock instructions I got were from the local health dept. They wanted 2 gal of bleach poured down the sides of the casing......
2 gallons is a lot, but you really shock a new well with HUGE chlorine concentrations.

For a routine treatment, the smell test is enough. Quart or less in most cases, mixed in 5 gal pail of water.

You can recirculate through a hose bib and garden hose to the casing. Not normally required in my book, unless there's a bunch of iron bacteria in the casing. Been long time since I did this stuff....forget details with age...
 

RCW

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This is the source I used to figure out how much bleach to use:
https://youtu.be/MZJ6FxK6cwk

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That's a great tutorial. Such things were not available when I was in that business 20 years ago.

I would just not advise such a high concentration for normal maintenance.

My theory has always been hit it more frequently with a much smaller concentration.

I don't remember ratios...a lot was SOTP/ballpark calculation....but guessing ~25% of what they recommended in the video.

JMHO.
 
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RCW

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But what I do have is very very fine blue sand/clay.
I've seen places where that fine sand/clay was actually dead iron/manganese bacteria....but was usually white.....damn stuff would finely coat the bottom of a tub and be powdery when dry, didn't stick to anything, unlike lime.

Look in your toilet tank....tells if you have a biomass working....harmless, but a PITA....:(
 
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