Q and A: sulfur in well water and baking cakes in jars

1. Re: The jar bread or jar cakes. Wendy Dewitt has a great food storage booklet you can locate by searching for “Wendy Dewitt Everything Under the Sun PDF” She uses an egg substitute made from unflavored gelatin and water. I think she said it is the eggs that keep it from storing well, so it stores much better with this egg substitute recipe. Don’t know that I’d store for years, but I think it will store for several months. The rest of the PDF is very informative also. You can see some food storage videos she has done on youtube that are very informative also. Hope this helps.

2. We have 2 wells on our property and both a quite deep. We had this problem in our home and it was taken care of with a small piece that allows air into the pipes under our house, installed in our pipes. No more smell. We do have a standard filter and an ultra violet light also installed to keep our water as clean as possible. The other well is attached to a trailer we use as an office. It has a filter also, but nothing that allows air into the pipe. That water does smell. The filter staying clean helps, but does not eliminate the smell. If possible, ask a plumber about it, and get a standard filter from Lowe’s installed. The light is expensive and has to be replaced periodically, but to me it’s well worth it, and over the long haul, it beats buying bottled water. Our home water is wonderful now, and my daughters who have city water, miss it.

3. Hi, I don’t like that sulfur smell either, and i agree with getting a water test done. They are about $50 for a potability test, and I would also test for Radon in the water, another $50. Then you know what you have to start out with.
   It just so happens we had the same issue with our place up near Watkins glenn Ny. The water could be left out overnight to drink it, but still smelled when you brushed your teeth and took a shower like rotten eggs.Not to mention the bathroom smell all the time when guests came over from out of town. We fixed all of this with a Radon water mitigation system. It just happens to work with sulfur also.It cost about $1500 but there was NO smell when we finished. A filter system with actual filters will do no good, the water needs to airate in a container just like the other systems described before with the nozzle and tank. The thing about the system I describe is it is all self contained with a fan to the exterior to get rid of the smell, that sulfur mineral smell has to go somewhere. This is just some professional advice from a guy that deals with this stuff everyday. Good luck with your Homestead, we love the lakes region.

4. I would begin by having the water tested by experts. Once you have the report you will know exactly what you’re dealing with.

5. My sister-in-law has the same problem. She uses her water for everything. However, she has put a PUR waterfilter on her kitchen facet. She will use the waterfilter for drinking and cooking water. She has no problems doing it that way and changes the filter when needed.

6. My friend has a well here in North GA. When the filter that goes on to trap sand gets “full”, the water starts to taste like sulfur. We change the filter for her, and the taste is gone. It also seems to effect the inside water pressure, too. As the filter gets to where it’s not filtering so well, the water also runs slower in the house. When the filter is changed, she also has better water pressure. Her filter is inside the house, under the sink, but the pipe coming from the filter branches and feeds the whole house. My well in north FL had a filter on it too, but it was where the water came out of the well, just before it branched to the house.

   So, if I were you, I’d look for at least one filter and change that. It’s a cheap fix and the old owners should be able to tell you where the filter(s) are. If they don’t know or say there aren’t any, I’d check with the well drilling company. Filters need to be attended to, but a lot of people don’t know that. It’s not normally a big project, but rather a “round to it”. And the ones I know of are easily accessed. For some filters, all you need to do is rinse them out/off and replace them from where ever you got them. Some need to be replaced outright, with a new filter. But I don’t think they cost very much. There should at least be a sand filter somewhere to keep the dirt and grit out of the water. There may also be other filters. Old owners are the best bet – even if you have to go through whomever you used to close because you don’t have contacting info for the people yourself. Never hurts to ask.

   Assuming your water heater is electric, after replacing filter(s), turn off electricity to the water heater (so you don’t burn out an element!). THEN, turn off water to it and drain it (garden hose usually fits on a spigot on the bottom of the heater. Just run the hose outside so it gravity drains, or into a bucket if it’s too cold to leave the door open for about 10 minutes. After draining it, close the spigot and remove the hose. Make sure the spigot is not dripping water. Open the valve and let the heater refill. Next open all the spigots in the house and let them run until they quit spurting/blowing air. When the water is running well through the pipes and the spigots are no longer spurting, close them all off and THEN turn the power back on to your heater.

   You should now have better-tasting water. And water heaters need to be emptied and refilled once or twice a year. Helps keep sediment from building up and rusting the bottom out or coating the bottom element.

7. I lived in South Georgia for years while in the Navy, ALL the water smelled of sulfur, including “City Water” UNLESS it was ran through an aerator (Spelling?). Our solution, that was what the City and most people “On Wells” were using, was to have the well pump connected to a cistern with a spray nozzle, and a second pump from the cistern into the house. It seemed to work quite well in removing the Sulfur odor. However another place I lived the problem appeared only in the hotwater and was solved simply by hooking a garden hose to the water heater and flushing the sediment from it about once a year. Turn the heater off and use the water to wash the car or on the garden to prevent wasting the water.

8. My folks in the county had the thing with iron ore in the shallow water wells in the Northwest Texas sands. The shallow water iron will also cause a pinkish stain on your clothes if your well is not deep enough or you don’t use some kind of bleach or whitening agent. The water is of drinking quality but not the best to taste. You can put a water filter on the water coming into the house and filter all the water you use, however, this is the most expensive route. You can get a Berkey water filter system and filter your own drinking water you cook with or drink. The sulfur won’t stain your cloths, usually just the iron. Then you can have the Berkey to use if TSHTF scenario occurs that all the Preppers think will come about. My family also has a Berkey and filter they use on their Coop Water that they have to pay the high $$ for. To me, the Coop Water is great because is comes from a deep community well but they don’t like any cholrine taste in it so the Berkey filtered water really tastes great. We just built our storage building/shop on the old family property and are starting on a small house. We are going to drilll a well that is alittle deeper than the old wells so we don’t have the iron ore taste. Can’t wait until we are in our little slice of secluded heaven!! Good luck on your homestead. You will love it. We already raised chickens from chicks and are getting fresh eggs now. They are as wonderful as Jackie has said they would be, but I couldn’t really imagine just how wonderful that would really be until we had our first totally free-range, off the farm eggs. We bought a Fainting goat and are going to get her breed the next time she comes in. I going to get a Jersey cow to have a pair this spring so we can milk and have a meat calf. I have big plans for when we move, but I am sure that reality will set in and I will eventually get most done but it will be a process that will take alo longer than I would like.

9. My husband and I have a Well Service business. The two things to help are sunlight and oxygen. If there is any way to have the water spray into a tank or cistern with the sun hitting the spray, that will help tremendously. It will also oxygenate the water. For livestock tanks we have 2 tanks set up. We spray from the well into the first tank and after it is full, it overflows into the second one. All the heavier “stuff” settles into the first tank and the second is usually good to go. You are blessed you do not have the rust that usually goes with the sulfur smell. Pouring bleach into the well every 6 months or so will help too. We usually do it at night and let it set til morning. You have to be sure to flush out the bleach after an application or it can cause problems with your laundry, houseplants, etc. Hope this helps. :)

10. When I lived in Slidell, LA., the water from the public water system smelled like sulphur or worse. We eventually learned to keep a pitcher of the tap water in the refrigerator and the smell went away and it was quite good to drink. I think it just has to sit a while or overnight.

11. some friends down the road from us 1/2 mile, got a very huge tank that they set in their basement and ran the water in to it from their well and piped the smell outside and just let it set. in a little bit, a few days, the smell and taste was gone and they used the water fine.

12. It could be the magneisum rod in the hot water heater, we had an electric water heater, the water smelled awful. We shocked the well, I thought the well was to close to the septic tank. we thought of all sorts of things finally drilled a new well in a few days the water smelled I called our rural water company and ask about the water quality where we lived, and was told that everything was fine with the water. then he told me about that rod in the water heater and that it sometimes reacts somehow with the water causing the odor. its found at the top and runs down inside and is removable with no damage to the heater. hope this helps you it sure is cheeper than a new well. Maybe this will help you

13. hi Cathy, I grew up in the centralvalley of CA and our town was and still is known for its’ ‘rotten egg water’ personaly it has never bothered me though after a long abscence it is rather noticable for a few days, others are much more sensitive, i suppose, you can install a filtration system to fix the problem -i think they are 1-2000 dollars for a whole house system, or perhaps make your own using activated charcoal (?) I have no idea how to do this or even if charcoal would work…also there are filters that use salt..

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