Moving to well water in the new house in WV and I'm almost certain it will be hard as hell and have a sulfur smell, based on well water I've had at other places in the area.

Will a whole home water softener deal with the sulfur smell as well as the hardness, or is another filter or process needed for the smell?

Any recommendations for whole home softeners? A buddy has one from Costco and he gets the salt there pretty cheap as well.

Replace the anode with a magnesium version.  Verify metal.

Get a Fleck 5600SXT softener.

Get a whole house carbon filter *not a tiny canister one, I'm talking a huge one like the Pentair that holds carbon media, not the cheap replaceable filters, those versions don't do much) for the sulpher smell. It takes care of it no issue.

How long has the house been vacant?
When was the last time the well was shocked with chlorine? Not using the well can cause the smell to build up, dropping pool tablets down the well and washing the sides of the well casing with bleach, then flushing the well may get rid of the smell.

The well inspection should give you some answers and also shock the well after they open it.

Water softeners are pretty easy, add crystals or pellets as needed (depending on which your model was designed for). The two Costcos near me don't carry salt for them, I get it at Home Depot.

Kharn

Do chlorine injection coming in from the well. Through a sediment and carbon filter. Then through a pair of water softener tanks.

Does a good job pulling the iron, which is the primary food the egg smelling bacteria. Ended up costing a couple grand. Filters get swapped every other month. Worth every penny.

House did sit empty for a time before I bought it. Left filters out, chlorine cranked up, and opened all the facets. Let them run until each smelled like bleach. Helps purge all the plumbing.

I have well water with a sulfer smell and instead of buying a fancy system, I started using a single stage Activated Carbon whole house filter and it made a world of difference. Filter quality matters though, The home depot filters work better than the Amazon cheapies. Something inexpensive to try anyway.

1 Stage House filter

Same.
Replace the filter once the smell comes back. Usually 3-4 months.

We had that issue with a family farm in Blue Sulfur WV.

It was mitigated some but not entirely.

Pulling from a location less than a quarter of a mile
from the actual hot spring probably didn’t help

Carbon filtration will remove the sulfur bacteria.   The carbon will need to be replenished periodically.

Shocking the well will give you temporary relief until the bacteria recolonizes.  

It sucks.

A softener isn’t what you need here.

Replace the anode in your water heater with the powered titanium rod anode.

Also make sure you drain/flush your water heater yearly.

No house or well just yet. Well will be getting drilled sometime this year.

@packingXDs

Could you provide the manufacturer info for your filter and softeners?

Figure it's easier/cheaper to buy all this stuff and have it installed while the house is being built instead of after the fact.

Thanks

This.. Test sniff hot water vs cold and if the problem is hot, service/modify the water heater.

Aerator system gets the sulfur out...

I am so glad that I have great well water.

Those look similar to the filter we put under our kitchen sink in the current home.

Seems like doing the filter and then a softener tank would kill both the smell and hard water.

The hardware was sourced by the installer and its mostly unbranded. I can see if I can find the manual for the softener to get a model. Otherwise pretty standard stuff. Filters are whatever 4.5"x20" I can find on Amazon. 5 micron carbon and 1 micron sediment filter.


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We put in a 2500gal water tank next to the well head. Gets rid of the sulfur smell through off gassing.

I was also told by my buddy that used to service the big aquariums at resort & parks to get the big carbon filters that look like oxygen "D" tanks.

Ask your well driller about sealing the casing of the well.  This can keep the well from becoming colonized by the iron eating bacteria in the first place.

We have a 500 gal tank w/ aerator for the smell, combined with whole house osmosis system and it turns our very sulphury water into some of the best water I've ever tasted.  We do not use a softener.

I put in a kinetico sulfur system it uses a 7% hydrogen peroxide solution to refresh the bedding.

Put it in the first day we built my house it took the sulfur smell away in 10 seconds after turning it on.

Got the hydrogen peroxide in 2 gallon jugs for $12 lasts for 3 months before you have to buy more.

Oh and the sulfur system was in addition to the water softener.

Whole thing cost 3500

That's a blessing, for sure.

Lots of folks around me have bad sulfur odor.  Thankfully I don't, but I do have high hardness and clear iron.  A regular softener takes care of those.  I add a recommend amount of 'Iron Out' to the salt.

An air injection oxidation system (AIO) is maintenance free and also takes out iron.  I had bad sulphur and it works.  You put it before the softener.  The previous owner used carbon filters.  I don't need them anymore.  I haven been maintenance free for 15 years now.

This. I shocked my well many times, then changed anodes. No problems since then

Ozone + sediment filtration.

When my house was built the water was hard so we installed a Kentico softener. The hot water had a rotten egg smell from sulfur.  I pulled the anode out of the then new water heater and cut it off just below the anodes threads and put just the threaded part back in as a plug. That took care of the rotten egg smell.

BTW this was in 1993 and that same water heater is still in use with no anode for over 30 years.

We have a well and a large aerator that helps to remove the smell so no water softener needed.

The best option for sulfur and sulfur reducing bacteria is going to be a catalytic carbon filter and a source of oxidation, peroxide injection (34%). The oxidation turns the sulfur (a gas) into a solid so the carbon filter can remove it. The H2O2 (peroxide) also kills the sulfur reducing bacteria. 34% H2O2 is available from well supply stores ect, around 200$ for 25 gallons and lasts a family of 6 around 6 months. Chlorine is not a good oxidizer, and it has some nasty stuff in it that many buy filters to remove if on municipal water.. Aeration or ozone injection are also good options if ph, hardness and space aren't a concern.

One of the most effective ways to address sulfur smell in Florida is via aeration.   It's also one of the cheapest ways to deal with the issue.

At our prior house I added an aeration tank and 2nd well pump.   The water went from the well, to rhe aerator and then a second pump pulled from the aerator and served the house.  We also had some clear water iron and hardness so we added a softener also.  We had very good water.

At our current home we added a single tank aerator which eliminates the need for the 2nd well pump.   It's similar in appearance to a water softener but it doesn't use salt, it is about 1/2 filled with activated charcoal and it keeps air in about 1/2 of it to aerate the water used.   It recycles every few days to rinse the charcoal and replenish the air column.   It works great.

If your water straight out of the well smells less sulfurish than out of your faucets aeration is a great approach as that is often caused by bacteria that cannot tolerate oxygenated water.

Honestly, water softeners generally suck. If you have really hard water, a softener will only do so much and you will still be dealing with water stains and residue. To help with the smell of Hydrogen Sulfide, you need a system that has aeration feature.

After 30 years, we are moving OFF well and septic and into a neighborhood with municipal water and sewer and we couldn’t be happier.

Switched from a bladder tank to avc and got rid of 95% of my sulfur smell issues.

I work in water commercial and industrial water treatment.

I would need to know the hardness in ppm or gpg, pH and iron. High iron can really foul a softener. Some of the sulfer bacteria treatments can lower your water pH to the point of it causing corrosion.

I do not have sulfur issues but I have very high iron, like 8ppm which would absolutely wreck a softener unless you regularly cleaned the resin with citric acid. I have a fleck 5600SXT valve and the media is katalox lite. It removes most of the iron but its “heavy” media requiring 10gpm/cuft or better for backflush.  My well pump really only does 10gpm so I have plans on switching. I will need to install an acid neutralizer (georgia marble) then I want to move to a 7-12% hydrogen peroxide injection system to oxidize the iron and catch that in a backwashing catalytic carbon media.  Then maybe I’ll get a dual alternating softener so it only regens when its counted a specific amount of flow.

Ultimately I’d like to feed that treated water into a small holding tank 200-250gal with a high and low switch to control the well pump.  I would probably have a small loop constantly recirculating it with UV too. Then floor mount one, possibly two DAB EsyBox pumps to provide house pressure. With the holding tank and 120V pumps I can at least use 200 or so gal of treated water without having to turn on my bigger generator to run the well pump. My 4000w inverter can handle those pumps easy.

This type of treatment set up would work for you too,  possibly without the acid neutralizing. It really depends on the pH and alkalinity of your water and its buffering capacity.

Damn, much info to go over. Thanks, gents

Filtering with a carbon filter is just a bandaid for the symptoms.

Honestly just do a well shock covering from well to point of use.

If it doesn't work your ratios are wrong, or you didn't cover well to point of use.
Don't go homer Simpson, this is easy.

This. Then a whole house filter for any other particulates.

Thanks to everyone for the insight. We’ll see how the water tastes/smells once the well is drilled and the house plumbed and go from there.