Okay, so today we’re talking about shocking a well, which sounds a bit nuts, right? I mean, who even thinks about shocking a well? Well, me, apparently, after I found out my well water started smelling like a rotten egg’s worst nightmare. So, I had to dive in and figure out how much this was gonna set me back.
My Journey to Shocking My Well
First thing’s first, I gotta figure out what I need. Turns out, shocking a well is basically just bleaching the heck out of it. So, I grabbed some regular household bleach. I didn’t get the fancy stuff, just your run-of-the-mill, kill-all-bacteria bleach. Did I measure precisely? Not exactly. I used a bit more to make myself feel better. Then I had to dump all that bleach down into the well. I used a hose to try to mix it all up down there. After that, I ran all my faucets until I could smell the bleach, which meant the bleach was all the way through my pipes.
- Bought Bleach – Got a couple of gallons. The guy at the store gave me a weird look when I told him what I was doing.
- Dumped it In – Poured all that bleach right into the well. Felt a bit like a mad scientist, I won’t lie.
- Mixed it Up – Used a garden hose to make sure the bleach got all nice and mixed in with the well water.
- Ran the Taps – Turned on every faucet in the house until I could smell bleach. This part made my house smell like a public pool, but hey, at least it was clean, right?
Then comes the waiting game. You gotta let that bleach sit in your pipes for at least 8 to 12 hours. So, I did what any reasonable person would do – I left my house for the day. Went to visit some friends, caught a movie, just basically avoided my house like it was radioactive. This part is to get rid of that smell and kill bacteria.
After what felt like forever, I went back home and started flushing the system. You have to run all your taps again until you can’t smell the bleach anymore. This took ages, and I’m pretty sure I used, like, a million gallons of water. I just kept running the water until it ran clear and the bleach smell was totally gone. My water bill was probably through the roof that month, but whatever, it had to be done.
So, how much did it cost to shock a well? Honestly, not much. The bleach was pretty cheap. The real cost is your time and, I guess, the massive amount of water you end up using. But, in the end, my water was back to normal, no more weird smells, and I felt like I had conquered some ancient household beast. Would I do it again? Probably, but hopefully not for a long, long time. The whole process is a bit of a pain, but at least now I know what I’m doing, right?
