Assessing and Resolving Rare Well Water Odors

At Mike Zimmerman Well Service LLC, we’re proud to be a full-service water well company. We’re not just here to install your well and wave goodbye – we’re also on hand for well pump service and repair, well rehabilitation services and any other areas you need assistance with when it comes to your water well.

Like with any other source of water, strange smells coming from well water are always concerning to you as a home or business owner. Luckily, however, these are both rare when you use a well system and often simple issues you can correct for little to no cost or hassle. Here are some of the odors that might be possible, plus what to do if you happen to encounter them in your system.

assessing well water odors

Musty Odors

If you smell a general must, often coming from the hot water tap when you turn it on, this is usually a sign that there’s too great a level of iron content in your water. This isn’t a health risk at all, though iron-heavy water may not taste as good to some people. If this is the case for you, and you want to remove this odor and/or taste, you can simply install an iron filter and/or use chlorine to get the current high iron levels down.

Smell of Sewage

In some cases, such as if you smell odors of sewage or plumbing runoff, the issue might be a buildup of bacteria in a drain area, or within unused home appliances. Gas will build up in the drain for a variety of reasons, but then will be forced out when the water is turned on.

To check if this is the problem, fill a glass of water from your tap. If it doesn’t smell, but your drains do, you need to clean the drain system itself.

Chlorine Smell

This is one of the rarest smells, almost never appearing in well systems. It is not necessarily an indicator of bad water supply, and may take place if you’re near a public pool’s water supply that’s been faultily built. If this happens to take place for you, we’ll help you with a specialized filter to remove these odors and any chlorine damage.

Rotten Eggs Aroma

The rotten egg smell is putrid, but it’s also sure-thing sign of just one possible intrusion: Sulfur. Sulfur bacteria may enter well water in a few different ways, often due to a lack of oxygen or chemical reactions in groundwater near the well.

If sulfur is an issue for your well water, there’s a simple solution. Just install an aeration system that dissolves sulfur bacteria, or a chlorine injection that will clear the sulfur content from your supply.

Fishy Smell

This smell is due to organic materials that have made their way into water, increasing certain elements. Like iron, these elements are not harmful to you, but can be removed using carbon filters or reverse osmosis systems if you’re tired of the smell.

For more on dealing with rare odors that may come from well water, or to learn about any of our well water installation or maintenance services, speak to the pros at Mike Zimmerman Well Service LLC today.