Well maintenance is well insurance for Richmond homes and offices – winter or summer

Imagine your well technician coming out to turn the water back on in your Richmond home on a day such as this.

The snow and cold are coming. After all, it’s winter and it’s Richmond, Illinois. How cold? How much snow? The answers to those questions are still shrouded by the shadows of what is to be. But, rest assured, they are coming.

There is no good time to turn on a faucet and discover you have no water. Certainly, that’s true in the winter. If you’ve done a good job of maintaining the well at your Richmond home or office, you won’t have to worry about that. If you have had your well maintained on a timely basis, you probably called your well technician out to your home or office during the warmer months.

It’s easier for them to perform well maintenance on your well when the sun is shining and it’s 80 degrees. On the other hand, not only are the weather conditions harsher for the well technician, the process is increasingly difficult in the winter.

Well maintenance includes chlorinating the well. To do this properly, requires flushing the well, too. When flushing a well on an 80-degree day, the water tends to merely soak into the ground. When it’s below freezing, however, the water doesn’t act the same.

The frost line won’t allow the water to soak into the ground. And, water standing on the surface, on a below-freezing day, tends to harden – it turns to ice.

Additionally, if there is snow on the ground, the well technician may have to spend time locating the well under all that snow.

Here at McHenry Water Well & Pump, we understand what it means to go without water. Customers facing that dilemma call us all the time. You can’t cook. You can’t bathe. You can’t even flush the toilet. Water is a vital fluid that runs through a home or office. Turn the water off and other processes tend to atrophy.

Good weather or bad, warm or cold, when called, we’re on our way as soon as possible. We treat a lack of running water as an emergency because that’s how our customers see it. We’ll come out and get the water running as quickly as possible – that’s our promise, our commitment.

We just don’t like to see people families without water. Knowing that the difference between a well that works and well that doesn’t is almost always a matter of proper maintenance, we encourage our customers to have their wells maintained on a regular basis. It’s inexpensive well insurance.

If your Richmond well hasn’t been maintained in a while, give us a call. Call somebody but, please, don’t wait until the water stops flowing.

You and your pipes are liable to groan if your Spring Grove well isn’t maintained

You turn the faucet at your Spring Grove home and the pipes bang a bit and groan. Finally, a trickle of brownish water drips from your shower head. This is not what you would call good news when your head is full of lather.

What happened? Where did the water go?

Chances are, the water is right where you left it – in your well. Most likely, the problem isn’t a lack of water but something broken with your water delivery system.

With a private well, as is common with many Spring Grove homes, the ‘delivery system’ includes several integral parts. All of these parts have to complete their intended operations while working in unison. If they do, they’ll move the water through your pipes and out of the faucets and shower head, or into the washer, dishwasher or ice maker.

The parts of your well ‘delivery system’ are common for wells in Spring Grove or almost anywhere else. They include:

• The well – if it was drilled properly, you’ll have years of reliable access to water, assuming the rest of the well works properly.
• The well pump – some well pumps are better than others but, if they’re maintained, they should all provide years of service.
• The well tank and internal bladder – a good quality bladder is essential to the reliability and service of your well.
• Electronic switches and parts
• A sealed well cap – if the well cap doesn’t seal correctly, the water may flow but who knows what’s in it.

These parts will generally operate without failure for quite some time. However, if not maintained properly, that length of time is shortened appreciably. In fact, the likelihood of a problem with your well ‘delivery system’ increases significantly without regular, scheduled maintenance.

In either case, whether you require emergency well repairs, or if you want to maintain your well to avoid emergency well repairs, the key is to do the job right. Your best bet there is to call in a professional.

A qualified, licensed well technician will ensure that your well is operating correctly and, therefore, will do so longer without problem. If you require repairs, they’ll have your well back in running order, and the water flowing, in no time.

A qualified, licensed well technician will also help to ensure that the water your well ‘delivery system’ provides is clean and safe. On an annual basis, they’ll properly chlorinate your well and have the water tested as appropriate.

Is all well with your well contractor? Don’t take it for granted

You’re having a little trouble with your well. But, you’ve called a well company and you’re confident everything will turn out fine once your well professional shows up. Hopefully, you’re right. Unfortunately, that’s not guaranteed.

The unfortunate truth is that some well companies know wells, and well maintenance and repair, better than other companies. Even more discouraging is the reality that some well companies aren’t, well, quite as trustworthy.

John Matthesius, the owner here at McHenry Water Well & Pump was recently called by someone who wanted to abandon a well. They told John about the price they were quoted by another McHenry County well company that had come out to look at the job.

John said that he’s usually a little lower but would be happy to come out and take a look, as he wasn’t comfortable giving a firm price without looking at the job. The price could vary primarily based on the depth of the well. With a well that was 150-feet deep or more, the price would be higher than a shallower well.

Based on the price the other company quoted, John expected to find a deep well. Instead, he found a 20-foot well and was able to knock the price down considerably.

“The customer didn’t know how deep the well was, or didn’t know what to expect to pay to abandon a well,” John said. “The other well company appears to have tried to take advantage of the customer’s ignorance of pricing for well work. Their price had a whole lot of profit built in.”

By giving the customer an honest price, based on the actual depth of the well, John developed the kind of good will he has with the vast majority of his clients. Realizing that honesty pays in more ways than one, including a clear conscience, John has no doubt that he handled the job the right way.

“The customer was clearly happy with the news that she was saving several hundred dollars,” said John. “It kind of makes you feel good when you can make a difference in someone’s life that way.”

Wells are abandoned for several reasons. For instance, someone may tie into city water, they’re demolishing a home and need to cap the well, a well has gone dry and they need to drill a new well.

“I never give a firm quote without coming out to measure the well and look at the project first,” John said. “Customers have a right to know what to expect.”

All is well in Lakemoor when your wells are well chlorinated

In Lakemoor, many of the homes and businesses are served by well water. Unlike city water supplies, where, for the most part, the only requirement is to turn on the water when you want it, a well requires a degree of maintenance and care.

More than a few of the residents in Lakemoor have become familiar with maintaining their own wells. Hopefully, they’re doing the job right. For instance, while well chlorination seems fairly straightforward, if it’s not done correctly, a homeowner or business owner in Lakemoor can actually cause problems with their wells.

Proper chlorination goes beyond simply pouring the chlorine into the well. To do it properly, you want to avoid pouring the chlorine over the well cap and pit-less adapter, as well as electrical connections in the well. Over time, the chlorine does a nasty job of eating away at these parts of the well.

When the pros at McHenry Water Well & Pump chlorinate a well, they add the chlorine so that it doesn’t corrode metal parts and connections.

It’s also important to completely flush the chlorine from the well and water lines after the chlorine has had time to sanitize the well. The chlorine will break considerable amounts of mineral deposits from the well and plumbing pipes. Those deposits can clog small diameter water lines and fixtures.

Last winter, John Matthesius, the owner of McHenry Water Well and Pump, filmed a video as he chlorinated an artesian well. It’s a short video that provides some insight on how to chlorinate your well. It also demonstrates that John is a consummate professional who knows wells inside and out. You may want to simply call John and let him handle the job at your Lakemoor home or office. It’s not that expensive and it’s comforting to know the job is done correctly.

Is it time to test and chlorinate your well?

What kind of water are you bringing into your home? Is it safe, clean and odor free?

The enemy lurking, waiting for a chance to contaminate your water is known as bacteria. It assaults your water supply and moves through your house in the pipes that carry this vital resource.

Water is an essential element in your home. You use it to bathe, cook and clean. Most importantly, you and your loved ones consume it – allow it to enter your bodies where it plays a vital role in the maintenance of good health. But, what if the water is tainted, if it contains toxic elements? Clearly, that’s not good.

If you have city water, the hope is that the city is doing a good job keeping the water safe and clean. In the process, they probably help to improve the taste while removing any negative odor. But, if you have a private well providing water to your home, you can’t count on municipal workers to do that job. The burden falls on your shoulders.

Where the city falls short, you might call in a water treatment company to help. Through filters and softeners they will help to improve the quality of the water in your home. With a private well, however, a really good place to start is at the source. In other words, proper well maintenance is the first step to ensuring good water quality in your home.

Water well maintenance includes ensuring that your well’s delivery system is up to par – that the pump works properly, the well tank is properly charged, the electronics are in good condition and the well cap is sealed so foreign insects and matter can’t get in. Proper water well maintenance also includes annual tests and chlorination of your well.

You may be tempted to chlorinate your well yourself. A word of caution in this regard: if you don’t do it right you can cause damage to parts of the pump, tank and electronic connections. Your best bet is probably to call in an expert, such as John Matthesius with McHenry Water Well & Pump.

One aspect of John’s job that he enjoys the most is the good feeling he gets knowing he’s helped to ensure that his customers are drinking and using safe and healthy water. Well maintenance is extremely cost effective. On the other hand, avoiding timely well maintenance can prove very expensive.

Do-it-yourself well chlorination isn’t always the best idea – especially if you wait until winter

Chlorinating a well is a fairly straight-forward procedure. It helps, of course, if you know what you’re doing. In fact, it helps a lot.

There are many who don’t think that’s the case; they think they can get by chlorinating their own well without any difficulty. After all, what’s to it other than removing the well cap, removing the cap on the container of chlorine and pouring it into the well? Put the cap back on the well, and the seal up the chlorine container, if any chlorine remains, and – Tada – all done, right?

Not quite. You may get by that way for years. When friends come to visit, they’ll look at you in awe as you proudly proclaim, “I chlorinate my own well.” Some may be so impressed that they’ll ask you to come over and chlorinate their well, too.

The problem is that chlorinating a well isn’t quite that simple. If all you do is open the well and pour, you may later discover that you’ve created a costly headache that will come back to bite you.

The problem is that the pump and connectors don’t react real well to chlorine. If you need to replace a pump down the road sometime, your well technician is liable to look at you with a frown and say, “You chlorinated your own well, didn’t you?” That’s the moment when you’ll realize that there is more to chlorinating a well than open and pour.

Another question is when to chlorinate your well. Technically, you can chlorinate a well any time of the year. But, there are good times to chlorinate your well and there are not so good times. One not-so-good time is in the middle of winter. Why? Not only because it’s cold out and darn uncomfortable to play with water in that kind of weather, but also because, to do it properly, you’ll want to run your outside faucet after words to clear out any sediment the chlorine broke off the inside of the well.

If you’re planning to bill a skate pond in the backyard, that’s not a problem. On the other hand, maybe you’d rather not turn your yard into a skating rink.

It’s amazing how much sediment the chlorine can break loose in your well. If you don’t run it out the faucet outside, that sediment gets into your lines inside the house. You may suddenly find that you have clogged pipes.

Another reason to flush your well when chlorinating is if you have a septic system at your home. If not flushed, the chlorine could mount an attack on the bacteria in your septic tank. That bacteria is vital to breaking down waste.

Another problem, if you wait until winter to chlorinate your well is finding the well. That’s not, generally, a problem unless it’s covered by a foot or more of snow.

In any case, yes, you can chlorinate your own well and you can do it whenever you want. But, then again, you might just want to call in an expert.

To cap it off, the well cap was full of bugs

The well that provides water for your Bull Valley home silently operates day after day until, one day, it doesn't. The water is safe to drink until, one day, it isn't.

In both instances, the solution is to maintain the well supplying fresh water to your Bull Valley home. This means chlorinating the well annually. It also means checking the well pump, motor, electrical connections and water quality on a timely basis – also suggested on an annual basis.

While checking your well, one part you don’t want to leave out is the well cap.

Now, you might be thinking, “Well, the well cap is just a well cap; what’s so important about that?”

Think about it – what does the well cap do? The answer is in the name – it caps the well. Imagine if you didn't put a cap on your well. What would happen?

Without a well cap, your Bull Valley well is open to the elements, as well as to wildlife. Contaminants can freely flow into the well. Now, having the water tested is something you may want to do on a daily basis.

What this all comes down to is that the well cap is as vital as any other part of the well. If it doesn't properly cap (seal) the well, you’re inviting unsafe water into your home and, from there, into the bodies of you, your family and friends.

How does a well cap go bad? Have you hit it with the lawn more, kicked it while running across the yard or dropped a log on it? Any of these activities can jar the cap sufficiently to break the seal.

If the well cap is bad, you may open the well and turn the cap over to find a colony of bugs on the inside. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to assume this isn't good for the water quality.

Of course, you don’t just want your well cap checked; you also want your well checked in general. The point is to make sure this vital step isn't missed.

Turn those frowns upside down by maintaining your McHenry Water Well and Pump

The kids are so excited. They’re getting their suits on while you setup the Slip’N Slide out in front of your McHenry home. Their eyes are sparkling with excitement as you go to turn on the water. You turn the faucet but nothing happens. You turn it back the other way and still nothing.

Not realizing there is a problem, the kids start in with, “Come on, Mom.” They’re ready to slide; they’re ready to get wet. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do about it today. Your well pump isn’t pumping and there’ll be no slipping and sliding for the kids today.

Well, you may call a well and pump professional who can make it to your house right away. With any luck, it’s just a loose wire. If that’s the case, maybe you can calm the kids with a snack while the well and pump repair technician gets the water flowing again. If not, or if it’s something more serious, such as a bad pump motor, it may take a while before the kids can start sliding through the water out front.

There is really only one solution. So, you pick up the phone and call the well repair expert and explain the problem while trying to convince a three-year-old to stop crying. That’s all you really can do once the well pump stops pumping. Of course, you could have avoided the problem altogether; you could have employed some timely well and pump maintenance.

The likelihood that you’ll find yourself without water someday is extremely low assuming you maintain the well and pump regularly. Fortunately, regular maintenance for a well and pump is annual maintenance.

All you need to do is call out your well and pump repair technician before you have a problem. Once a year, have them come out and check your well and pump. They’ll make sure the wiring is good, the tank bladder is good and properly charged and the well cap seals properly. They’ll check the motor to make sure it still has a good, long life left. They can even check the water quality.

If you follow that simple, annual procedure, you’ll probably never find the water has stopped flowing at your house. Then, whether you’re setting up the Slip’N Slide for the kids, filling a pot at the kitchen sink for cooking, taking a shower or even relaxing in a bath, when you ask your McHenry well for water, your pump will bring it to you on demand.

With a little well maintenance Richmond residents won’t have to yell

The quiet tranquility of Richmond is suddenly shattered when you turn the faucet on and nothing happens – no water comes out. “Aaargghhh” Neighbors on the other side of Richmond can hear you holler.

An inconvenience? You bet. Your well provides water so loyally that you’ve come to take it completely for granted. When, unexpectedly, it stops working, you discover just how much you’ve come to depend on that well.

Think about it: you use water to bath and shower; wash your hands, clothes, car and dishes and to cook. You probably use the water from your well to water the lawn and garden and to give your pets a drink. When the water stops, all those trivial actions take on new importance and you also discover that you can’t flush the toilet.

This isn’t hypothetical. This is precisely what will happen if you fail to properly maintain your well. Maintaining your well includes checking the well pump and motor, well tank, electrical connections and the well cap. It also includes making sure the water is safe to drink. Of course, that’s a whole different crisis.

The good news is that you don’t have to check your well every other week. Rather, an annual well check and maintenance, including chlorination, is all it takes. Follow those simple steps by calling a qualified water and well technician, and you’ll have the confidence of knowing your water is all but sure to keep flowing. Neglect your well and you may have reason to yell, not to mention the additional cost of fixing a well as compared to simple maintenance.

Don’t get all lathered up in Spring Grove – have your well inspected

At what point will your well pump in your Spring Grove home stop working because it wasn’t maintained – because it went so long without an inspection? Will you find yourself lathered with soap in the shower, squinting to keep the soap out of your eyes when, suddenly, the water stops?

It could happen. Of course, it’s just as likely it will happen while the washing machine is halfway through a load of laundry. Or, it might happen while you’re filling a pot to cook dinner. Maybe the pump will expire while you’re away from Spring Grove and you’ll return home to find you have no water.

Whenever it happens, when the pump stops working, one thing is certain – it’s an unexpected inconvenience. Another thing is almost equally certain – you’ll spend some money fixing the problem. But, you can avoid both the surprise and most of the cost.

The solution, whether you live in Spring Grove or Timbuktu, is to have an annual well inspection. A qualified well technician will quickly assess the status of your well, from the pump and tank to the electrical components and more.

A thorough well inspection will include checking your:
• Well cap
• Well tank for pressure and charge
• Wires and motor
• Pressure switch
• Water quality

If all of these components and factors are not assessed you may still have a weak link in the chain. If the cap doesn’t seal properly, contaminated water may mix with your drinking water; bugs and/or rodents may infest your well.

If the tank doesn’t have the proper pressure and charge, the bladder can tear and now you need a new tank. Once the bladder tears it puts additional strain on the motor and, well, you get the picture. It’s the same with the pressure switch and the wiring. They’re all part of an integral system that silently, and unseen, provides a constantly available flow of water inside your home.

You may take that water for granted but, shut the water supply off and you’ll suddenly realize how big of a part it plays in your home.

Finally, checking the water quality will address odors and contaminants that can make your water less than safe to consume. Once tested, assuming all is well, you’ll have the peace of mind knowing water quality is one more concern you can cross off your list.

Annual water well maintenance check is a great way to keep the water flowing in your Wonder Lake home

You carry a basket of laundry down the stairs in your Wonder Lake home, put some detergent in the machine and add the clothes. Then you turn the knobs to the desired selections before closing the door and pushing the button. But, as you turn to walk away, nothing happens. You push again. Still nothing.

The problem: the well pump that brings water from the well outside into your Wonder Lake home has expired.

The solution: call a well repair service, such as McHenry Water Well & Pump and, while you wait, take the clothes to the Laundromat on Wonder Lake Road. Of course, with an emergency call, you may not have time to make it to the Laundromat before your well technician arrives.

It shouldn’t take long for the well technician to have your well pumping water again. However, a new well pump isn’t free. Additionally, there’s the question of why your well pump burned out in the first place.

Was it merely a matter of age or was there another problem? If the well tank wasn’t properly charged the well pump won’t operate correctly. In fact, if the well tank wasn’t charged properly, the bladder may have a rupture. In either case, as a result, your well pump may have cycled on and off repeatedly. That puts a heavy burden on a well pump and the heat created will quickly terminate the pump’s motor.

At McHenry Water Well & Pump, as with any conscientious well repair service, they’ll do all they can to keep the costs down. But, when the well pump burns out or the bladder in the well tank is ruptured, there is only so much they can do to keep the cost of a well repair down.

The best way to avoid the high costs of having you’re well on the property of your Wonder Lake home repaired is to ensure that your well is maintained. Well maintenance is inexpensive insurance to avoid costly well repairs.

A quality well technician will chlorinate your well while performing a maintenance check. The chlorination will go a long way to ensuring that your water is safe. They’ll also do a multi-point check of your well system, checking the electrical components, the well cap, pump and tank. With the latter, that will include checking the charge in your tank.

Often, a well tank bladder rips because the well tank didn’t have the right charge. By maintaining the charge at the correct level you virtually guarantee that the bladder won’t rip.

In the meantime, there are some things you can do to check your well system yourself. If you notice a rotten egg smell to the water, or see that the water in the back tank of your toilet is leaving an orange skin on the porcelain, that’s a good indication that your well requires chlorination. However, an annual chlorination will avoid those problems in the first place and an annual checkup for your well system is a very good idea.

Time for that annual well check and chlorination, unless you’d rather wait until the water doesn’t flow

Spring Well Inspection Special good until May 1, 2014.

Remember when there was a pump at the kitchen sink. If you wanted water, and didn’t want to lower a bucket down the well outside, you simply pumped the pump at the sink and, with a little effort, the water flowed. Well, you probably don’t remember that. Few of us do. It was a generation or more before us.

Today, you turn a handle, or lift a lever, and out comes the water in a way that, folks back then, would have classified as nothing short of magical. In McHenry County today, is doubtful anyone relies on a hand pump at the kitchen sink to pump the water up from the well. They rely on an electric pump down in the well that provides indoor access to water.

“Rely” is really the right word, too. They ‘rely’ on that pump to the extent that they hardly ever think about it. About the only time they would ever think about it is if the lifted the lever, or turned the handle, and nothing happened. Well pumps are so reliable that, when they don’t work, it comes as a bit of a shock.

Actually, it’s not as shocking as most might think. In fact, unless folks in McHenry County think about their wells a little more often, it may happen when they least expect it.

The need to think about your well and well pump is really an annual event. At least once each year, you should do a little well maintenance. That includes checking the pressure in the water tank. It includes checking the motor and wire connections on your well pump and equipment. And, it includes chlorinating your well.

Checking the well tank will ensure that the bladder in the tank isn’t damaged, which would cause the pump to cycle and burnout prematurely. Checking the motor and connections will ensure that your equipment is up to the job for the foreseeable future. Chlorinating your well, on the other hand, will ensure that your water is clear and safe for consumption.

You may feel tempted to chlorinate your well yourself. That’s fine, as long as you know what you’re doing. If not done properly, chlorinating a well can cause more problems than you imagine. Properly done, it will ensure that your water doesn’t become contaminated with bacteria and pathogens. 

“If it’s not done right, well chlorination could clog the well pump and damage the pit-less adapter,” said John Matthesius of McHenry Water Well & Pump. “If it’s not done right, you could even cause damage to your plumbing.”

Matthesius recommends calling on a professional to chlorinate your well. He said the expense is low-cost insurance to make sure your water is safe and the job is done properly. While chlorinating the well, the professional should also check to make sure the well tank is charged properly and in good repair, as well as checking the motor and the connections.

“This time of year, we offer a $75 Spring Well Inspection,” said Matthesius. “It includes checking the tank pressure and charge, the well cap, the wires and motor, the pressure switch and fresh water quality.”

For more information about McHenry Water Well & Pump, call 815-403-3333 or visit: www.mchenrywellandpump.com.

How much experience does your well technician really have?

When you call a well maintenance and repair technician to come out to your house or office, you want the peace of mind knowing they are experts at what they do. This is particularly true if your well system isn’t working. If they have the knowledge and experience, you’re confident fresh, clean water will start flowing again soon.

Of course, if it’s merely a well system maintenance call you still want an experienced well technician on the job. If the person working on your well system doesn’t really, really know what they’re doing, you could find yourself dealing with repairs before too long.

When a well company advertises that it has 81 years of experience, for instance, what do they really mean? Is it a one-man shop with a 100-year-old well technician who started fresh out of high school in 1933? Not likely.

Maybe there are three techs who have 27-years experience each. It’s almost as likely that they’re triplets to have equal years of experience such as that. No, chances are, if the advertised number has any basis in fact, it includes the 50-plus years of experience of the semi-retired owner and several other well technicians combined.

The worker who shows up at your house, a nice kid who recently started shaving, may have no more than a few months of experience. When that young worker approaches your well, it’s a roll of the dice how things will work out.

What this means is that you’ll want to make sure your well technician is really a technician with knowledge and experience maintaining and repairing wells. That nice kid may quickly find him or herself in over their head in your well problem. They had all sorts of confidence when they started but suddenly discovered the true depth of their knowledge.

The reality is that number of years on the Web page or advertisement for the well company you’re calling may have little practical application to reality. The best defense is to ask specific questions about your well technician’s experience and knowledge.

For instance, if you called McHenry Water Well & Pump, you’d discover that the well technician coming out to your home or office has decades of experience and geological education that will give you that well-deserved peace of mind.

Disconnect the hose outside or your frost-free sillcock can freeze

After a couple weeks with the temperature on the low side of freezing, it’s nice to have a warm day in the weather forecast. If, however, you’ve left a hose attached to your sillcock, the faucet on the outside of your house or business, a warm day could bring an unpleasant surprise.

A portion of the water pipe extending to the faucet is generally to close to the wall to enjoy the full benefits of the heat inside. This means that any water in the pipe can freeze. When water freezes in a pipe, there is a risk it will split the pipe open. You won’t notice when the water is frozen but, on that warm day when things thaw, the water will begin pouring out of the hole in the pipe.

It’s surprising how much water can pour out of a small hole in a pipe. If the leak is far enough inside the wall you may not notice the leak right away. You’ll probably hear water running but won’t track down the culprit until you see water collecting in the basement. The water can also damage the wall and insulation.

Thankfully, new sillcocks, which are called ‘frost-free sillcocks,’ have a rod running back from the outside faucet to a valve so the water is held back from the section closest to the outside wall. This can save homeowners and business owners from worrying about frozen pipes running to outside faucets. But, it’s not a guaranteed solution.

If you leave the hose attached to the faucet outside, water can remain in the section of pipe beyond the sillcock valve. If it freezes the pipe can still burst. In this case, you won’t notice the leak right away on a warm day after a freeze. Instead, you’ll notice the problem the next time you turn the faucet on.

You may notice that you have lower water pressure on the far end of the hose. Or, you may notice water collecting in the basement again.

Whether the leak is from an old-style sillcock or a new frost-free sillcock, the potential damage is significant, particularly if you have a finished basement.

Years ago, before frost-free sillcocks, homeowners would shut the water off to a pipe running to an outside faucet and drain the line. Today, with frost-free sillcocks, that’s not necessary. However, it’s important to remove the hose from the faucet outside so the sillcock can drain.

This message is brought to you by McHenry Water Well & Pump. For more information about McHenry Water Well & Pump, call 815-403-3333 or visit: www.mchenrywellandpump.com.

Quality well technicians will brave arctic cold to get your water flowing

You can hear the wind howling and the frost is creeping across your window. The backyard looks like an arctic landscape as the snow swirls and blows. It’s cold outside and it’s good to be indoors. Your plan is to just wrap yourself in a comforter and settle down with a cup of cocoa and a good book.

In the kitchen, you take the teapot off the stove and carry it to the sink. You hold it under the faucet as you glance out the kitchen window and remind yourself how fortunate you are for central heat. Then, you lift the lever and … nothing. You try again. This time you hear a bang and a wheeze and some rusty powder puffs out of the faucet.

You look under the sink in the hope something simple and easy to fix is responsible for the unexpected disruption in the on-demand flow of water. But, under the sink, everything looks fine. In other words, it looks the same way it does any other time you look under the sink.

You think to yourself, “I’d better try the bathroom sink” but you receive the same response from the faucet there. Even the bathtub and utility tubs are coughing dry powder instead dispensing water.

You call a friend who knows a little about maintaining a home. After a couple of unsuccessful suggestions, your friend recommends that you call in an expert. You have well water so you need to call in a well technician.

Hopefully, you’ll call a well company like McHenry Water Well & Pump. You need someone who knows wells and well pumps inside and out. You need someone who can fix your well on a good day but is also willing to come out and fix your well when it’s 10-below zero and the wind is making it feel like 50 below.

On a day such as this, when that well technician arrives, you watch from the warmth indoors as the well technician leans against the blowing wind and fights his or her way out to your well. Maybe, it’s a simple wiring issue and your water is quickly flowing again. Then again, it could be the well pump or the well tank, or both.

In this scenario, the work is a bit more involved. That well technician will be out there fighting the elements for a couple of hours so you can have fresh, clean water indoors while you huddle in the heat.

Ask yourself, what would you say if you called a well maintenance or repair company and they said, “I’m sorry, it’s too cold out today. Why don’t you call back when it’s a little warmer?”

A quality well repair and maintenance technician knows there are hot days when they repair and maintain wells and there are cold days – sometimes, very, very cold days. It comes with the territory. Of course, for folks like those at McHenry Water Well & Pump, it warms their hearts when they see the smile on your face knowing your water is fresh, clean and running again.

For more information about McHenry Water Well & Pump, call 815-403-3333 or visit: www.mchenrywellandpump.com.