Water treatment
Getting rid of the rotten-egg smell in well water
End the rotten-egg smell with oxidation and filtration chosen for your source.
Hydrogen sulfide gas gives well water a smell like rotten eggs. It can come from the ground itself, from sulfur-reducing bacteria in the well or plumbing, or from a water heater whose magnesium anode is feeding bacteria. The cause matters, because the fixes are different.
A quick test tells us a lot. If the smell is in cold water too, the source is the well. If it only shows up on the hot side, the water heater is the suspect and sometimes swapping the anode rod for an aluminum or zinc type, then disinfecting, is all that is needed. When sulfur is truly in the supply, we use an oxidizing filter, aeration, or chlorine feed followed by carbon, sized by how much sulfide the water carries.
Sulfur often travels with iron and manganese, which can foul sulfur media, so we test for them and plan the sequence together.
How to narrow it down
- Smell at every cold tap: likely the well
- Smell only from hot water: likely the heater
- Blackened silverware or tarnished copper
- Smell worse after the water sits unused
- Slimy buildup in toilet tanks or fixtures
How it works
What happens, step by step.
- STEP 1
Find the source
Cold versus hot, at the well versus inside the house.
- STEP 2
Disinfect first when needed
A well or heater disinfection to rule out bacteria.
- STEP 3
Install treatment
Oxidizing media, aeration or chlorine and carbon, whichever suits the sulfide level.
- STEP 4
Service
Backwash and media checks on a regular cycle.
Check the water heater anode
If only the hot water smells, the cheapest fix may be an anode swap and a heater flush rather than a whole treatment system.
Questions
Common questions about sulfur and odor removal.
Do not see yours? Call (800) 696-9355 and ask.
Serving towns including Alfred, Alton, Arundel, Ossipee, Berwick and more.
Is sulfur water unsafe?
Will a carbon filter fix it?
Why did the smell start suddenly?
Not sure what is in your water?
Start with a test. We will explain the results in plain language and only recommend what the numbers support.