How to chlorinate your well
September 15, 2015
You can easily and inexpensively disinfect your well and plumbing system yourself by using a chlorine solution. This process is called “chlorination”. It consists of flushing your well and plumbing system with a chlorine solution that will kill bacteria and other micro-organisms (see the table below for the quantities). It is generally recommended to carry out this process every 6 months.
The disinfection of your well with chlorine is a very effective method to eliminate bacterial contamination. Follow these steps:
- Set aside a reserve of water as necessary, because you will not be able consume your well water for a period of 12 hours.
- Set your water softener to “bypass”.
- Remove the cover from the artesian well.
- Pour the recommended quantity of bleach into your well water (see the table below for the quantities).
- Connect a garden hose to an outdoor faucet of the house and bring the other end of the hose to the well in order to create a closed circuit.
- Open the outdoor faucet and let the water run for about two hours in order to thoroughly mix the bleach with your well water.
- Remove the end of the garden hose from the well and replace the cover.
- Open only the cold water faucets inside the house one by one and let them run until you can smell the chlorine. This typically takes no more than 2 or 3 minutes. Don’t worry if your water changes color.
- Close the faucets.
- Let the system rest for 12 hours without using your water.
- Drain the well using your outdoor garden hose. Don’t forget that this water contains chlorine, so don’t let it run toward your flower beds or other places that could be affected by chlorine.
- Let the water run until there is no more smell of chlorine. If the water flow from your well is low, adjust the faucet to avoid draining your well completely or perform this step over a period of several days.
- Close the outdoor faucet.
- Open the cold water faucets inside the house one by one until there is no more smell of chlorine.
- Start up the water softener.
- Analyze the water 1 week after chlorination.
If you need additional information about chlorination, you can contact our specialists at any time. They will be happy to provide specific advice for your well.
You can consult the Quebec government website for more information and use their tool to calculate the quantities required for the disinfection of a well.