So my friend's rental house has a high amount of sulfur in their well-water. The landlord has tested the water, and since there isnt any formal regulation of sulfur levels, he's pretty much not doing anything. They have a filter on the tap water, which seems to help (not sure).

Their biggest concern is the shower water. No one likes showering in water that smells like rotten eggs

Has anyone had a similar experience with this before? They were looking at buying a shower filter. Lowes and HomeDepot have several of them, the Sprite Brand filters seem to be the most common. It says it helps with odor, but it seems to be talking more about Chlorine. Do you think this will take most of the smell out? Gracias T-dub

http://www.lowes.com/SearchCatalogDisplay?Ntt=shower+filter&langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&N=0

7/15/2011 6:40:23 PM

I doubt that filter will do anything at all.

I clicked on the "specifications" tab for the replacement filter cartridges. It says the filter will remove sediment but not chemicals. I'd be willing to bet this this is not a filter that contains a sorbent material like activated carbon that will remove sulfur.

It's probably just a micron-sized filter that can remove grit and some dirt. It also says it won't remove microorganisms, so that actually means it can't be a micron-scale filter. I wouldn't buy it for odor removal.

http://www.norit-americas.com/pdf/H2S_Removal_from_Air_%20rev3.pdf

I found this tech data sheet that leads me to believe activated carbon can remove hydrogen sulfide from air. It might be trickier with water, but I'm sure you can find this type of filter for your water system, probably even install at the well pump.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_sulfide Here's a link to the wiki for hydrogen sulfide, which is probably what your friends are smelling.

[Edited on July 15, 2011 at 7:36 PM. Reason : wiki edit]

7/15/2011 7:34:11 PM

rotten egg smell = H2S

7/16/2011 1:59:10 PM

http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/WQ/WQ-11.html

7/16/2011 2:15:07 PM

There's a good chance it's not actually sulfur causing the issue but rather sulfur emitting bacteria. A chlorinator may help, as the chlorine will kill bacteria, but I'm not sure how much of an impact it'll have on the smell if it doesn't have sufficient retention time. There are also carbon filters and other advanced treatment systems that would probably help, but I doubt anyone will want to spend that kind of cash.

I'd suggest chlorinating the well at a minimum. http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/aps/gpu/documents/WaterWellDisinf_2007.pdf

7/16/2011 2:36:33 PM