aerator question for sulfur smell

Sorry to be clueless but my water "service" providers are not very forthcoming with information. I am trying to find out what exactly does what in my system. Let me try to describe what I see:

Looks like a hose coming from outside... I'm guessing, the well... spliced into the line is a 4" or so plastic fitting with a dial on it gradated from

90deg "closed" to 0 deg. "open"... then the line goes to a tank that says "Well Mate water pressure system tank"... this tank has a cap on the top, with a small hose emanating from the cap and apparently going to an outside drain. from there I am pretty sure it goes to a pump, then the softener, then splits off to the hot water heater, or cold directly to the house.

Once the softener "service" people came while my wife was here... after disabling and draining the pump, they took the cap off the Well-mate tank and cleaned something inside it... the word "micronizer" appears on the bill. Clogged with iron I think.

I also had the hot water heater "service" people come and remove the anode from, and chlorinate, the hot water heater. But after a few weeks the sulfur smell is starting to come back. It has always been only in the hot water.

At any rate, is either the plastic inline dial thingy, or the well-mate thingy (or both I suppose) an "aerator"? I *never* smell any sulfur smell in that area of the basement. I have the dial thing set at 45 degrees to be safe, since I don't know whether "closed" for example is max aeration, or none, or some other thing altogether.

If part of this is an aerator, wouldn't it make more sense for it to be after the hot water, since that's where the smell is? And if the micronizer clogs with iron, shouldn't we have it after the softener?

Again, sorry for the non-technical nature of this. I am trying to learn what I can since the pump company and the water heater company only seem interested in pointing fingers at each other and requiring endless testing, at my expense of course.

TIA for any help.

Steve L.

Reply to
S.L.
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Google can help, but I had the same problem and never did find a definite answer. I changed to an aluminum anode, and that did the job so far -- except at ONE faucet, which smells for the first 5 seconds I run the water.

Reply to
Robert Barr

"S.L." wrote

You have an air injection system. But what you don't mention is a filter to clarify the water after the aeartion. This type system is used for oxidation of 'sulfur', iron and maganese. It treats all the cold water. A hot water odor only problem is due to sulfate and sulfate reducing bacteria in the cold water getting into the water heater where the SRB, and possibly manganese reducing bacteria thrive and inter act wit hthe annode rod in the heater. Turning up the temp of the heater to 140 usually stops the problem by killing the bacteria. Removing or replacing the rod with a different type can also. Sanitizing the heater can work but doesn't always and when it does it may have to be done on a scheduled basis.

You shouldn't have moved the setting on the venturi/Micronizer, or fiddled with anything else with knobs, dials or loose screws. lol It is responsible for the volume of air injected into the water to do the oxidizing. Without enough oxidation is incomplete. If you have 'sulfur' in the cold water and don't get it all out, it will cause odor in the heater also.

A much better type of aeration is an air pump system. They don't cause clogging of the plumbing as an inline venturi system does. And the tanks used with injection systems usually don't allow for draining them periodically as thye should.

Gary Quality Water Associates

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Reply to
Gary Slusser

I don't believe there is a filter. Once when the pump was drained, the water was very, very rusty looking. They allegedly cleaned something inside the pressure tank but I am at a loss as to what that would have to do with the smell.

We have had the anode removed. I will try turning the HW temp up a little at a time (there is no temp setting, just a dial.)

responsible

I agree! The people I was paying to fix the problem should be making these adjustments, or at a minimum, explaining to me what the various items do. Since that isn't the case I am left to fiddle. As I said in the OP, the venturi is only marked "open" and "closed" but there is no indication which of those values corresponds to "max aeration." For all I know, the venturi itself may be clogged. I'm guessing based on your comments that max. aeration would help suppress the SRB's. I'm also guessing the venturi is supposed to cause hydrogen sulfide to outgas from the water and dissipate by being vented out of the pressure tank, is that the principle?

Well, you gave me a few clues to go and pursue. Thanks much.

SL

Reply to
S.L.

Not having a filter means any iron converts to rust and it.will deposit in the pressure tank which it would with a filter too due to it being installed after the pr. tank and rust will collect in the plumbing too. You should drain and then flush the pressure tank from time to time. Aeration or the filter won't kill bacteria.

The venturi is made by Hillenbrand or Water-Right maybe. Search for Micronizer and see if you can't find some paperwork on the model you have. I think Max is max open or max aeration. You adjust based on a percentage of the well pump run time. Sometimes as high as 45% to 70 % IIRC and I probably don't. Yes the venturi and all the plumbing past it clogs up with rust if you have iron.

The guys that service it can't be responsible for blockages.... and adjusting it doesn't clear them.... it's inherent to the type of system.

Aeration for H2S cause it to convert to a particle, usually black.

Test the temp of the hot water with a cooking/candy thermometer.

Gary Quality Water Associates

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"S.L." wrote

Reply to
Gary Slusser

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tmichunter wrote: Steve,

I work for a water filtration company and quite often, the sulfur smell is due to a bacteria associated with iron. The bacteria, called hydrogen sulfide bacteria, is not harmful to the health, but as you said, the smell is aggravating. You can use a filtration media to get rid of it and the iron content to prevent any further clogging in your system that is caused by the iron. If you are interested, please let me know.

Tammy

S.L. wrote:

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Reply to
tmichunter

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Steve,

Tammy, slow down a bit I can't read so fast. That post is from April 9,

2004 but my dial up connection is also slow and I just got lucky to receive the original post from April 9, 2004 today. I'm not sure why it didn't take 6+ years for me to get your post, may be due to time travel while on acid. Do you have experience with time travel? I'd love to figure this out. I'll give you one clue that will help you with problems like these, Usenet. Look it up, study how it works, stop posting from that stupid ass web page you are on.
Reply to
Tony Miklos

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