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I just had my (dug well) water tested and everything is fine except the Total Coliform reading. The E coli reading is fine. Can I shock it with bleach? I need to use it for a while until I can afford a drilled well. I probably will just go buy a water cooler and fill the jugs at the town office for free! I have been using bottled water from the grocery store but thats a lot of plastic to deal with!
Yes dump a gallon of bleach in it let it sit for a few hours then run it until you no longer smell bleach. Thats how the used to do it when I worked on new houses with dug wells.
If you follow the directions on the link, make sure you turn off power to your water heater before draining it. Then refill the water heater and vent it BEFORE turning the power back on. If you forget to do this your water heater will burn out.
Most people just turn off the cold water flow to the water heater before shocking the well. Putting chlorine into the heater can corrode the heating elements and cause the heater to fail.
I just had my (dug well) water tested and everything is fine except the Total Coliform reading. The E coli reading is fine. Can I shock it with bleach? I need to use it for a while until I can afford a drilled well. I probably will just go buy a water cooler and fill the jugs at the town office for free! I have been using bottled water from the grocery store but thats a lot of plastic to deal with!
What's a water cooler worth these days? A couple hundred?
Why not invest that money in a UV sterilization unit and then you'll have safe water running through your entire house.
Whole house UV units run about $400, are easy to install and are virtually maintenance free. UV sterilizers kill all viruses, bacteria, cysts, etc without adding chemicals to your water. When you finally get a drilled well, you can simply add the UV unit to that inflow pipe and be assured that your water will be safe to drink.
If you choose to go the UV route, be sure to spend an extra $30 for a 5 micron filter to put between your pressure tank and the UV unit. It will keep any sediment from reaching the sterilizer and will extend the life of the quartz sleeve inside the unit.
Last edited by Cornerguy1; 05-07-2011 at 08:49 PM..
What's a water cooler worth these days? A couple hundred?
Why not invest that money in a UV sterilization unit and then you'll have safe water running through your entire house.
Whole house UV units run about $400, are easy to install and are virtually maintenance free. UV sterilizers kill all viruses, bacteria, cysts, etc without adding chemicals to your water. When you finally get a drilled well, you can simply add the UV unit to that inflow pipe and be assured that your water will be safe to drink.
If you choose to go the UV route, be sure to spend an extra $30 for a 5 micron filter to put between your pressure tank and the UV unit. It will keep any sediment from reaching the sterilizer and will extend the life of the quartz sleeve inside the unit.
I agree with this solution. Bleach shocking is definitely the cost-effective way to do it, but who won't know if/when the bleach shock is no longer effective and your coliform levels rise again (withougt re-testing). Between re-testing and the time/effort it takes to shock, you may as well install a system that will fix the problem regardless of what is going on in the well.
UV is a good idea and thanks for the link...not as expensive as I thought. I am searching for a solar powered unit so I won't have to us CMP to run it.
( it's not a new well....at least 5 or 6 years old and done by an ameture)
Well, I found a dealer for solar powered units.....yikes! $1500 to $5000.....too rich for my blood.
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