Learn the anatomy of a well

Somewhere under your property there is water. Inside your home, you have faucets that will bring forth water when you turn or lift a handle. Some kind of magic takes place in between to make the water rise up from the ground and pour out of the faucet. That magic is performed by a device known as a well.

A well is a remarkable instrument. Quietly and unseen it performs its job day in and day out. It works as well in the middle of the night as it does in the middle of the afternoon.

If you have city water, the city has a well further from your home that performs the same task, though on a larger basis. With a private well, you’re dependent on your own well to make this magic happen. With city water, the price is paid monthly when a bill from the city arrives in the mail. With a private well, there is no bill. However, there is a cost. That cost is lower if you do a good job of maintaining your well.

If you don’t do a good job of maintaining your well, you’ll spend more in the long run. You’re also liable to find that the magic of the well is interrupted. You’ll notice this when the water stops flowing. Or, you may, or may not, notice this when the water has a bad odor or is even tastelessly unsafe.

So, what is the anatomy of this magical well – the bringer of water? The essential parts of a well include (sections in quotation marks are taken from the American Ground Water Trust list of definitions and explanations):

• The Well: The well is a hole in the ground that provides access to an aquifer as a means of bringing ground water up to the surface for consumption and others uses in homes, offices, etc.
• The Well Pump: Other than when using a jet pump, which is generally installed above ground, the well pump is usually found in the well where it pumps water up through the pipes and through the rest of the well system.
• The Well Casing: The well casing is a “cylindrical device (steel or plastic) that is installed in a well to maintain the well opening and to provide a seal. In most states casing is required for at least the first 20 or 40 feet of water wells. Well drillers typically install well casing in 20 foot lengths.”
• The Pitless Adapter: The pitless adapter is a “device installed in a vertical well casing to allow water to be piped horizontally below the frost line to its use point (usually a home).”
• The Aquifer: The aquifer is a “three dimensional sub-surface geometry of a geologic rock formation … that contains ground water in the spaces between sediment grains, in voids, or in fractures …. (a) geological formation or structure that has the capability to store and/or transmit water to wells and springs.”
• The Pressure Tank (or Well Tank): The pressure tank is a “tank installed as part of a water system to minimize the on-off cycles of the well pump. Pressure tanks typically store a few gallons of water and obtain their pressure from the well pump.”
• The Well Pressure Switch: The well pressure switch detects when the air pressure inside of the pressure tank is below a certain setting and then turns on the well pump. When the pressure in the well tank rises beyond another previously determined setting, the pressure switch turns the well pump off. In this way, the pressure switch maintains the pressure in the pressure tank between a certain range.

All these parts conspire to perform the magic that brings water into your home or office, assuming you’ve maintained proper well maintenance.

How long can you count on your Port Barrington well pump? Depends …

If your Port Barrington well pump fails, you'll find
yourself out of water.

That well pump outside has quietly drawn water from your well, and pumped it into your Port Barrington home for years. You’ve come to depend on it without even thinking of it; you just assume the water will flow when you want it.

Your faith in that well pump was well placed, if you’ll pardon the pun. It has worked, without complaint, for more than a decade. And, never once did it fail to deliver when you called on it for water. The question, however, is ‘how long can you continue to count on your well pump to deliver water into your Port Barrington home?’

In most cases, a well pump is well made. It will work for years providing water to your home without a hitch. But, inevitably, your well pump will fail. It simply won’t last forever.

When is it time to replace your well pump? There is that obvious time when the water has stopped and, with a tone of desperation in your voice, you’ve called a well technician out to your Port Barrington home. The well technician spent a while out in your yard working and then you hear a knock on the door. You find the well technician standing there with a silver cylinder in their hands.

They say something to you along the line of, “Yep, she’s bad – all burned out.”

The next questions are in reference to cost and time – how much will it cost to replace your well pump and how long will it take until your water is back on. Hopefully, the well technician has a replacement well pump handy, in which case it shouldn’t take too long.

In other cases, the well technician will come out to perform the annual well maintenance for your Port Barrington well system …

You are having annual well maintenance performed, right? Of course, you are. If not, there’s a good chance you had to have your well pump replaced prematurely and this would be a different story all together.

But, going back to the point above, you may have your well technician out to do some maintenance and the well technician will inform you that your well pump isn’t working as good anymore. The well technician might suggest that, rather than wait, this is a good time, while the pump is out of the well anyhow, to replace it.

Getting back to our question – ‘how long will your well pump consistently pump water into your Port Barrington home? That depends on another question referred to above: how good of a job have you done taking care of it?