Cold water rotten egg smell
I have had an ongoing problem with cold water rotten egg smell. Several years ago, I started to notice a rotten egg smell coming from the main bathroom cold water only. I had a man a water softening company come out to test for sulfur which he said there was no sulfur present and was likely bacteria (which freaks me out!). This makes sense since we didn't smell it anywhere else. So my husband and I treated the well with 5 gallons of bleach, turned on all the faucets until we could smell bleach then let it sit over a weekend we were gone before flushing it out. This fixed the problem for about 9 months before it returned so we did it again - this time I tried flushing most of the water outside since we have a septic and it was advised that bleach in the septic was not a good thing since it kills the good bacteria. Anyway, it came back again. I let the problem go since I didn't know what to do and just avoided using the cold water in that bathroom. However, now the smell is now in the downstairs bathroom and outside faucets too. Have not noticed the smell in any of the hot water or the kitchen sink. I'm assuming this is because we use the kitchen sink more often and the hot water heater kills any existing bacteria. I had one person suggest that bacteria was coming in through a faulty faucet. We have on spigot outside that is broken - could this be the problem? For awhile I was afraid our well water was contaminated but since I don't smell it in the kitchen sink, I don't think this is the case.
I read an earlier post on this site that talked about removing faucet cartridges but I'm not sure what that is (I can Google it to see if I figure it out). I would just like a solution that cures the problem without having to dump a bunch of bleach into the septic and something that will hopefully cure the problem for good. It is very disconcerting to think that your water is contaminated. I'm embarrassed to have guests over.