As a home owner, there are a list of maintenance items that you complete every year to keep your home running well. You change the air filters for your air handler, change the batteries in your smoke detectors, get the freon refilled in your AC, and clean your gutters. All of these might seem arbitrary until you are in a hot house without AC or have water leaking into your house because heavy rain is not draining off your roof. Do you ever have your water well equipment checked to ensure that it is functioning properly? Do you even know what is installed in your well?
I could sit here and give you a lesson about how a well is constructed and what is in your well, but the truth is, well construction is extremely regional. For instance, in the South, we have very basic residential wells with submersible pumps, external wiring and plumbing. In the North, where freezing temperatures are more common, well drillers install the same style well with pitiless adapters (these push the water out below the freeze line so there are no exposed lines) and turtle caps (sanitary seals). In the Western US, the well owners may also have cisterns to supplement well water and take advantage of all of the available and much needed rainfall. When your well was drilled, a report was created which includes the construction makeup, production levels, and equipment that was installed. If you are not the original owner and were not provided a copy of this, you may find one at your county office.
The one thing that all of our wells have in common is that they are outfitted with equipment that can fail and leave us without water. An annual inspection by a licensed water well professional should begin with a visual inspection of the well, checking for any obvious leaks, loose connections or frayed wires. It should also include testing the currents standing water level alone with a flow test. This tells you not only where the water levels are at this time, but how much water your well is capable of pumping and, maybe more importantly, how quick does it recharge/refill after it has been pumped down. You may also want to have your water quality tested for bacterias or other supplemental nitrates that are getting to an unhealthy level.
If you are performing yearly maintenance on your well you will receive a report from your well professional with all of this information included and easily displayed for your records. Sporadic measurements don’t mean much, but having the historical data to show where you’re well levels were when it was drilled and where it is now, 10-20 years later. This lets you know how healthy the well is and if you should expect another 10 years or should consider having a new well drilled.
Well Watch 670
For those of you who are interested in taking a more informed position in your water well maintenance, we suggest installing a sonic water level meter, like the Well Watch 670, on your well cap. This is a non contact method of monitoring your well levels which can display real time readings at your well or in your home with the remote display. You should know what is normal for your well, what is low and at what point you should be concerned enough to place a call to your well professional. This will allow you to take action before it is too late and you run out of water causing major expensive repairs.
