Water Softeners and Air Filtration Systems - Water smells

I have a new well (Aug 06) with softener and acid neutralizer that were installed early Dec 06, and everything has been great until now...Our water has recently started to have an odor - I hear people describing it as rotten eggs.

My question is: Is this likely to just be the well quality changing or can it be that the Softener or AN need cleaned or something.

I have read that I just need to install a carbon filter - is this true - and if so can I install it on a verical pipe? Any advice on types or makes of carbon filters.

Thanks for your advice,

First, before you do anything in adding equipment, make sure the odor is coming from your cold water side. If not, then the problem is to be solved by approaching the water heater in most cases.

Carbon can take care of most odor problems, including hydrogen sulfide, but it has a limited shelf life. understand the problem thoroughly before attempting to solve it.

What kind of AN do yo have? What is you pH? Hardness? Do you have copper piping?

Andy Christensen

The smell definitely comes from Hot and Cold water. We smell it in the shower and when we use the garden hose. We only drink the water from our fridge door which has an internal carbon filter and it doesnt smell.

"What kind of AN do you have?"
A 10x54 tank with Fleck 5600 SE control and Calcite/Corosex

"What is you pH?"
The first well test last Aug was 6.8, then 2 months later 6.5, then Dec'06 6.0. Thats when I got the AN.

Hardness?
Something in the region of 8 gpg

Do you have copper piping?
Most of the house is PTEX - just small amount from the pressure tank to the main cold water PTEX line, and around the boiler.

We also have(had) 4ppm iron - the water softener takes all this out, and we have no staining of any fixtures any more.

Actually, I've just thought could I have dirty softener resin - I've not used Ironout yet as I'm not sure what to do with it. Would this smell?

Odor causes can vary greatly with intensity and frequency depending on any of a large number of circumstances.

The acidity in water has change significantly over a short period of time. I makes me wonder how shallow your well is. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the primary cause for carbonic acids to form. As it enters the ground and is NOT neutralized due to the absence of calcium carbonates in the soil, it enters your home with a low pH. This also explains your hardness, which, although not soft, is not as hard as many other locations with pH levels 7.0 and above.

It sounds like to odor is coming from the well due its detection in the cold water hydrant. Odors, if caused by hydrogen sulfide, can change depending on the season and even on the day's particular climate conditions.

Carbon is an effective means of ridding odors including sulfur odors. However, carbon can become exhausted rather quickly if a means is not included to prolong its usefulness. Some kind of cleansing or regeneration methods would make it more efficient--longer lasting.

Since the odors are gases, normal filtration will not work. Sulfur is often removed via a greensand filter, aeration, chlorination/dechlorination or by using hydrogen peroxide or ozone gas. KDF media has some success at certain levels. There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

It is good that you are not using copper and acidic water can cause serious damage to piping leading to corrosion and pin-hole leaks.

Let me stop here for now and post any further inquiries later, if you wish,
Andy Christensen, CWS

Ok - I have more information that I hope someone can help me with. I was concerned that the conditioning system was not working right and that also maybe the water quality had changed since last August, so I had I had our water re-tested before and after my softener and AN:

Untreated: pH 6.4, Hardness 60, Iron 3.1, Manganese 0.09, Sodium 9.6, Turbidity 10.7

Treated : pH 8.0, Hardness <1, Iron 0.08, Manganese <0.01, Sodium 1.1, Turbidity 1.2

So, this gives me some confidence that my untreated water is still roughly the same as my original test in Aug 06, and that it is being 'fixed' by my treatment system apart from the H2S.

I just had the company back out that supplied and installed my softener and AN, and they told me that I would need to replace the softener for a KDF based softener and this would cost an additional $3,800! This is on top of the $2,500 that I already paid for the existing softener and AN! They are offering an Aquachamp system.

I just cant afford to spend this much. Also, absolutely no-one else on my street has the sulfide smell - all new construction with new wells in the last 9 months.

The H2S is from both hot and cold taps and we still notice no smell form the water in our fridge door that goes through a carbon filter inside the fridge. This filter is 9 months old and is still working fine.

I see from the internet that there are radial flow carbon filter cartidges by Pentek (RFC20-BB) that can be installed in a 20" big blue housing, and they have very low pressure drop @ around 1psi.

My question now is - do you think the cartridge will last any length of time as my treated water has low iron, low particulates etc. Is it worth the $200 to install it and see if a carbon filter removes the H2S?

I also see cartridge filters with KDF - but cant find our anything about the pressure drop characteristics of these.

Could just shocking the well solve the problem in the short term?

Absolutely do not exchange your softener for the KDF version. No way! The KDF will be effective at reducing hydrogen sulfide smell....for a while. Then you will be calling them back and they will not be able to help you unless they re-bed the KDF.

First of all, KDF-85 is made up of a mix of copper (85%) and zinc ground up into a course media. It will rest on the bottom of the softener tank and WILL not fluidize during backwash due to its extreme weight. As water seeks the path of least resistance, channels will develop in the media and will exhaust portions of the media and other portions will be left unmoved and eventually solidify. To get the KDF to lift during backwash, you would need so much force that the resins would piston to the top of the tank and would not properly regenerate.

Absolutely not! We have seen how these units fail after a relatively short period of time.

KDF is a wonderful media if used properly.

If you do use carbon to fight H2S then you should have a backwashing filter with a timer or demand valve placed after the softener. The larger thetank, the better equiped you will be to fight the odor. The is a certain amount of contact time required to remove (convert) the odor. There are also chemical and aerator systems that work effectively.

Some prefer to place it before, but I feel the cleaner the water going into the filter the longer the unit will last. It all really depends on the system as a whole. There are other ways to deal with sulfur depending on how many PPMs you are testing.

Hope this helped,
Andy Christensen, CWS