How long after shocking a well can you drink the water?
Give the disinfectant its full contact time, usually 12 to 24 hours with no water use, then flush from an outside spigot until a residual test shows zero disinfectant left. Drink from another source until a bacteria retest one to two weeks later comes back clean.
The flush usually takes a few hours of running an outside hose onto ground that drains away from your septic and garden. Do not judge by smell alone: a residual test strip is cheap and certain, and it is included in our kit for exactly this moment.
Showering is lower stakes than drinking, but wait for the flush to finish either way; shock-strength disinfectant is rough on skin and rougher on septic systems if you send it down the drain.
Want the dose sized to your exact well?
We pull your well's dimensions from your state's official record and pack a chlorine dioxide kit to them, from $399.
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