OT whole house water filter-sulfur issue

Anyone have experience with filtering incoming household water for sulfur? Want a large enough filter to do the entire house and not have to change often. Any suggestions?

I have a whole house filter and use charcoal elements. Well water has a slight sulphur smell, but it got much less when I changed the storage tank inlet to drop onto the water and aerate as it comes in. Before it would run down the inside wall of the tank and no aeration was happening.
I want to remember the filter I have uses standard 2 1/2"x10" elements, there is also a 4 1/2" x 10" one that is also very common. I have a 4 1/2" and was going to swap it out but the small one has a clear bowl and an on-off valve built in, plus it fits better where it is mounted.
If you use a clear bowl be sure to keep in in the dark or algae will grow due to the light. Mine is outside, so I use the bottom of a pair of levi's as a sock for it, easy to slide down to check for sediment. It gets changed every couple years.

I have very little to add as it's been years ago, but we had a cabin in a remote area with a well and the water was horrible, mostly the sulfur smell. I vaguely recall that to alleviate the smell required chemical dosing (pump) of some sort, there was not a filter that would simply remove it. The equipment to dose and remove the sulfur was not cheap either. A new well was dug to an extreme depth that provided crystal clear, stink free water.

Stuart

Sulfur filter is the same as the iron one. I'm talking about a machine similar to a water softener. The same filter takes care of both, sulfur and iron. I have one installed to serve the entire house (our well water carries a lot of iron). It has media they call "green sand". The cylinder holding the media is about 4 1/2' high and 10" in diameter.

When I bought the house, it had a mechanically controlled iron filter. The filter worked fine, but in a few years the bed had to be replaced/replenished: it was plugged and restricted water supply too much. Culligan Water Company that serviced the unit convinced me to buy a new digitally controlled filter with a separate air compressor (Culligan Super-Cleer). It was a nightmare. I had to call company to service it four-five times a year (mostly, replacing one of the main internal valves and some other parts). A few years ago I got sick of it and asked Culligan Water to take it back and replace with an older version that had mechanical control (Culligan Super S). It works perfectly. You set it up to automatically backflash the media and treat it with Hydrogen Peroxide periodically. Make sure the filter intake and output are large (1"), it makes a huge difference in terms of minimal flow restriction.

P.S. My water comes from the well and pressure tank into a large mechanical filter to get rid on particulates (a lot of rusty slime settles there instead of plugging green sand). Then it goes through the above mentioned iron/sulfur filter into the water softener.

I have a service contract with Culligan that fully covers the iron filter service and parts plus delivery of 10% hydrogen peroxide and salt for my softener. If I didn't have the contract, the digital junk would bankrupt me. My current older model didn't require any service after installation 4-5 years ago.

Mebfab said:

Anyone have experience with filtering incoming household water for sulfur? Want a large enough filter to do the entire house and not have to change often. Any suggestions?

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Sulfur was so common, coal-seam areas of PA & WBGVA, "back in the day", folks simply got used to it.

Seriously. One can, and we did. Whole school systems full of kids, even. Human brain sorta "switches off" the repugnance, and yah no longer notice the odor.

Stuart's way is the most sensible, long-term.

Find an outfit that knows the local soils geology, has done it many times.

Drill a new well, generally to and THROUGH a well-known rock formation, and nicely "cased" to the rock it needs to penetrate to the other side of. Three hundred feet and a bit for my last one. Needs a decent downhole pump, of course.

Water quality was great. Fine sand & silt filter, slow accumulation, infrequent change-out.

No significant fuss nor expense thereafter.... once we bought a far better pump than the first two (Sears-Roebuck) we had rather foolishly cheaped-out on.

Mebfab said:

Anyone have experience with filtering incoming household water for sulfur? Want a large enough filter to do the entire house and not have to change often. Any suggestions?

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I have a private well and from hit and misses in the past, I’ll say 1st thing is to get a proper water sample to your local lab. You’ll be doing it anyway, so do it now and don’t go the try it and see what happens route with filtration guesses. Whatever the results are you can easily DIY it with a good suppliers advice. I lucked out with Pentek, found them on Amazon.

I have a whole house filter that requires no maintenance that is probably 15 years old. It is a granular carbon charged unit with automatic back-washing re-generation type. I fought with the replaceable filters for years before breaking down and getting the one that I now have.

There are numerous ones available if you do a web search. Of course my rotten egg smell may not be a bad as yours. If the disposable filters work satisfactory for you then, one of the automatics should work as well. They range in price from $500 to $1500 depending on your flow rate.

tmt said:

I have a whole house filter that requires no maintenance that is probably 15 years old. It is a granular carbon charged unit with automatic back-washing re-generation type. I fought with the replaceable filters for years before breaking down and getting the one that I now have.

There are numerous ones available if you do a web search. Of course my rotten egg smell may not be a bad as yours. If the disposable filters work satisfactory for you then, one of the automatics should work as well. They range in price from $500 to $1500 depending on your flow rate.

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This sounds great, thanks for heads up.
Like this?
5600 Backwashing Filters – Pure Water Products, LLC

again...things are sketchy now as it's been awhile but as I recall, the sulfur/rotten egg smell is not a particulate that can be removed by a filter, it must be chemically attached to something that can be removed by a filter. This takes a process that's not real simple..not as simple as a filter of any kind.

Stuart

atomarc said:

again...things are sketchy now as it's been awhile but as I recall, the sulfur/rotten egg smell is not a particulate that can be removed by a filter, it must be chemically attached to something that can be removed by a filter. This takes a process that's not real simple..not as simple as a filter of any kind.

Stuart

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Correct. Older pre-regulations "Big Coal Country" days, MANY surface-streams were flowing enough mine waste "sulfur water" for long, long years on-end to kill vegetation and stain rocks.

Well water had the lesser load only because the nastiness was really slow-flowing, got diluted, and had been encountering millions of tons of other soils underground, the odd chemical reactions removing MOST of it.

"They said" the sulfur-water wasn't even a health-hazard, and pointed-out that natural sulfur "springs" and hot spa's had been visited for health benefits - or so they claimed there were - since pre-Roman times.

Rotorua, New Zealand, the hot sulfur water is geothermal, right AT many of the homes and several restaurants and arranged to cook meals, every day! Pop the ingredients into a zip-lock baggie or three, drop into a metal box next to the house, come back later and a whole meal is ready to eat.

But... plastic passes the chemicals! Sulfurized corn on the cob, anyone?
BTDTGTTS! Screw THAT for "delicate flavour"!

Back in Appalachia, folks who could afford it bought from delivered bottled-water services. The less- affluent saved plastic jugs and went and filled up a family car trunk load or three every week by hand. Cooking and drinking water was all we covered. Baths and laundry just endured it, as piped.

thermite said:

Rotorua, New Zealand, the hot sulfur water is geothermal, right AT many of the homes and several restaurants and arranged to cook meals, every day! Pop the ingredients into a zip-lock baggie or three, drop into a metal box next to the house, come back later and a whole meal is ready to eat.

But... plastic passes the chemicals! Sulfurized corn on the cob, anyone?
BTDTGTTS! Screw THAT for "delicate flavour"!

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It's not just the ground water that stinks there, but the whole region. Curiously enough the water in the larger lakes is quite normal to taste and smell.
I understand the sulphur smell in water is caused by a range of organic and inorganic sulphides; where iron sulphide is present the majority can be removed by spraying it within a concrete tank where it oxidises and drops out as ferric hydroxide. Low tech but effective bulk treatment

Greenwud said:

It's not just the ground water that stinks there, but the whole region. Curiously enough the water in the larger lakes is quite normal to taste and smell.
I understand the sulphur smell in water is caused by a range of organic and inorganic sulphides; where iron sulphide is present the majority can be removed by spraying it within a concrete tank where it oxidises and drops out as ferric hydroxide. Low tech but effective bulk treatment

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That works.

Concrete-lined vs glass-lined water-heater tanks were a common option in Appalachia in my youth. A Blackheath (London) flat I rented from an old mate serving C&W elsewhere for long years had a large, unpressured, solid COPPER tank serving the "night storage" system hot water. Copper is highly biocidal by nature.

Back on the farm. our cisterns (springwater fed) were concrete and periodically drained, cleaned of mud, (walk-in size) and re-limed with "whitewash".

Same again the roof collector (rainwater fed) cisterns all over the Cable & Wireless island "cable station" outposts. Those, one ALSO boiled the water. Birdshit thing. At least until the classical "F1 overseas staff" bag of uber-immunities had accumulated.

IOW - it is not uncommon that the materials of storage or distribution played an at least low-level chemically active role in the water supply, not just that of an uninvolved neutral conduit or container.

See also Zeolite, diatomaceous Earth, and a lot more for tricks of the trade learnt no LATER than the era when one of the more important public roles that Rome assigned was to a properly trained-up professional "Acquarius".

The Long Shadow of Antiquity: What Have the Greeks and Romans Done for Us? - Gregory S. Aldrete, Alicia Aldrete - Google Books

You may also want to check/replace the annode of your hot water heater and disinfect the tank as well. This wouldn't be a permanent solution it's just another contamination source that's more noticeable when using the hot water like when taking a shower. I'm now on a well and am grappling with hard water issues too. Would appreciate reading any/all contributions to this thread.

thermite said:

That works.

Concrete-lined vs glass-lined water-heater tanks were a common option in Appalachia in my youth. A Blackheath (London) flat I rented from an old mate serving C&W elsewhere for long years had a large, unpressured, solid COPPER tank serving the "night storage" system hot water. Copper is highly biocidal by nature.

Back on the farm. our cisterns (springwater fed) were concrete and periodically drained, cleaned of mud, (walk-in size) and re-limed with "whitewash".

Same again the roof collector (rainwater fed) cisterns all over the Cable & Wireless island "cable station" outposts. Those, one ALSO boiled the water. Birdshit thing. At least until the classical "F1 overseas staff" bag of uber-immunities had accumulated.

IOW - it is not uncommon that the materials of storage or distribution played an at least low-level chemically active role in the water supply, not just that of an uninvolved neutral conduit or container.

See also Zeolite, diatomaceous Earth, and a lot more for tricks of the trade learnt no LATER than the era when one of the more important public roles that Rome assigned was to a properly trained-up professional "Acquarius".

The Long Shadow of Antiquity: What Have the Greeks and Romans Done for Us? - Gregory S. Aldrete, Alicia Aldrete - Google Books

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Likely the concrete tank for iron staining water was used locally because it was cheap and durable, initially built on site and later precast.

Copper hot water heaters "cylinders" are still common here for low pressure service, it is only with mains pressure cylinders that glass lined tanks have become established. Copper certainly solves any Legionella issue.

Other interesting thing about Rotorua and district is the vast deposits of zeolite and certainly some of the artesian systems connected to and from the Rotorua lakes are the cleanest water around- a total contrast to the toxic muck that comes out of the geothermal areas; Mercury and arsenical compounds are a real issue for drinking water in these catchments.

A water test is a good idea. Sulphur smell is usually iron, feasted on by bacteria that produce the smell. The iron can be dissolved or held in suspension. Two different treatments.

I did a system for my inlaws a few years ago. They had iron, the suspended (easy to treat) variety. A 20 micron particulate filter, followed by an iron filter, then an activated charcoal filter, did a good job of removing the iron and the smell. All Pentek in 4.5"x20" filter bodies. At their concentration and usage, the activated carbon filter needs to be changed every year and a half.

A note on buying filters - don't buy from filtersfast. They were the slowest of all the suppliers - 3 weeks to get a filter. ( While the renters were going crazy.)

The iron filter is rated for up to 3ppm iron, so may not work for you. Another reason to get a water test....

If you have an iron problem the sulfur is likely related to that. I had a significant iron problem and also got periodic issues with a sulfur smell/taste, as well as the metallic taste of iron. I put in one of the "air injection" iron filtration systems with the "katalox light" media and our water is now some of the best I have tasted. I was previously running iron levels of 0.8 ppm and manganese at 0.12 ppm and the filtration fixed all of that. It does backwash every 5 days or so (settable). Some of the other iron systems need to be backwashed every 1-2 days.

Doesn't "reverse osmosis" work there? We have a lot of manganese in our water, and it stains everything, and if it sits in the pipes for a few warm days, you have to open a window and let the water run for awhile to get rid of the sewer smell. I "rent" a system for my shop from one of our local water companies (similar to "Culligan") for $17 / month which removes all of that, and the water is great. This system does about 3-1/2 gallons/day, but they have whole house versions...

26 years ago I had a part time job building sulfur water treatment systems. A close friend had a patented system that would remove sulfur in excess of 100 ppm without chemicals. It used compressed air at 100 psi and a special nozzle to atomize the water from the well followed by a sand filter with a backwash timer. For high sulfur there were 2 stages. The first was a large fiberglass tank filled by the existing well pump with atomization vented to the atmosphere followed by a second pump and a second closed tank under pressure with atomizer and them the filter tank. This was followed by a water tank with a de-air valve. For water less than 20 ppm the first large tank and pump was omitted. The sand filter backwash timing depended on the sulfur content. As I recall at 20 ppm a backwash was recomended every 2 days.
After a house fire in 1995 we had to drill a new well and hit sulfur at 7 to 10 ppm. I built a single stage system for us. Backwash is once each week and a dedicated air compressor for the water system.
The outfit I worked for went out of business through no fault of the technology but they hired a new sales guy who thought he could improve the system and make it more affordable by skimping on quality components. He was wrong. The details of the patent is probably still on the patent office website.

Bob
WB8NQW

We used water from our irrigation well for years. It was high in iron and H2S. we had 2 black poly plastic 2500 gallon cisterns. Filled the first from the well, besides stinking it was 113F degrees. Both cisterns had vents. The iron oxidized and settled out and the H2S dissipated through the vent. Transferred the water from tank to tank about every 10 days. With this set up we used no filter and had very clean tasting water.
In the old house we used a whole house filter and changed it about once a month. Depended on how much the water company let escape into the pipes.

Green sand filter, similar to water softener, recharged with potassium permanganate. Removes iron and sulfer.
Mine is ancient, manual recharged, 1/2 cup of potassium permanganate every 3 or 4 week.