My water stinks. Smells musty. I installed a Whirlpool water softener mid February of this year ('23) and it's smelled ever since.
So here's the story: we live on a farm in southeast PA. Our well is 60' deep with the water table around 10'. Two houses supplied from the same well.
One day I thought I'd bless my wife by installing a water softener. Found one on FB marketplace for $200, Whirlpool model whes40, new, never installed, found out later that it was about 15 years old, never installed. Installed softener carefully following the installation manual. Completed all steps without any issues. When I first put the water through it, the water ran yellow, and quickly got very dark for a while. After about 10 or 15 min it lightened up and eventually became clear again (is this normal?). The water hardness changed right away, but we also got a musty smell right away. Did a little research and put bleach into the brine tank (directly into the salt actually, because i didn't know better) and ran a regeneration cycle. Afterward I flushed the water for about 30 minutes. No change to the smell. A couple days later I did it again, just as before, (this time I put the bleach down the brine tube) flushed it and again, no change to the smell. Did a water test and the result came back that there was bacteria in our water. Ran the water for hours on end multiple times to try to flush the softener clean. Seemed like it worked, but each time the smell came back. Bypassed the softener, drained the water heater, and ran the water for a long time again to flush the treated water out. Again it seemed to work at first, but the smell returned.
Through all this, the water in the other house was not affected.
Fast forward to April and we decided to try to sanitize our system by shocking the well with bleach. Used about half a gallon of bleach in the well and ran all the faucets and appliances until I smelled the bleach everywhere. Had to replace our well pump the next day, so weren't able to flush it out for a few days. Smelled bleach in the water for most of a week. Again, the musty smell returned as soon as the bleach wore off. Bypassed the softener (and haven't turned it back on since) to see if the smell would clear up that way, drained the water heater again, and ran the water to clear out the lines. The smell reduced, but never went away.
Now, last weekend, May 13, I shocked the well a second time, this time with a 10% sodium hypochlorite liquid pool chlorine. Used 1 quart diluted into 2.5 gallons of water poured down the well and ran the water for about 30 minutes, then another quart diluted into 2.5 gallons poured down and ran the water til I could smell the bleach. Let it sit till noon the next day (about 13 hours). Now, a week later, we had no smell on Friday, but Saturday the musty smell was back.
I'm at my wit's end. I don't know what to do.
Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.
So here's the story: we live on a farm in southeast PA. Our well is 60' deep with the water table around 10'. Two houses supplied from the same well.
One day I thought I'd bless my wife by installing a water softener. Found one on FB marketplace for $200, Whirlpool model whes40, new, never installed, found out later that it was about 15 years old, never installed. Installed softener carefully following the installation manual. Completed all steps without any issues. When I first put the water through it, the water ran yellow, and quickly got very dark for a while. After about 10 or 15 min it lightened up and eventually became clear again (is this normal?). The water hardness changed right away, but we also got a musty smell right away. Did a little research and put bleach into the brine tank (directly into the salt actually, because i didn't know better) and ran a regeneration cycle. Afterward I flushed the water for about 30 minutes. No change to the smell. A couple days later I did it again, just as before, (this time I put the bleach down the brine tube) flushed it and again, no change to the smell. Did a water test and the result came back that there was bacteria in our water. Ran the water for hours on end multiple times to try to flush the softener clean. Seemed like it worked, but each time the smell came back. Bypassed the softener, drained the water heater, and ran the water for a long time again to flush the treated water out. Again it seemed to work at first, but the smell returned.
Through all this, the water in the other house was not affected.
Fast forward to April and we decided to try to sanitize our system by shocking the well with bleach. Used about half a gallon of bleach in the well and ran all the faucets and appliances until I smelled the bleach everywhere. Had to replace our well pump the next day, so weren't able to flush it out for a few days. Smelled bleach in the water for most of a week. Again, the musty smell returned as soon as the bleach wore off. Bypassed the softener (and haven't turned it back on since) to see if the smell would clear up that way, drained the water heater again, and ran the water to clear out the lines. The smell reduced, but never went away.
Now, last weekend, May 13, I shocked the well a second time, this time with a 10% sodium hypochlorite liquid pool chlorine. Used 1 quart diluted into 2.5 gallons of water poured down the well and ran the water for about 30 minutes, then another quart diluted into 2.5 gallons poured down and ran the water til I could smell the bleach. Let it sit till noon the next day (about 13 hours). Now, a week later, we had no smell on Friday, but Saturday the musty smell was back.
I'm at my wit's end. I don't know what to do.
Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.
