Without well maintenance, Lakemoor water pours like crude oil

That's water coming out of that pipe. It's
so black that it looks like crude oil but
it's not - it's water from a Lakemoor
well that is grossly overdue for well
chlorination and maintenance.

No, that is not “bubbling crude” coming up where “Old Uncle Jed was shooting at some food;” that’s well water coming out of a Lakemoor well. The water looks like “Black Gold, Texas Tea” because no one has bothered to maintain this well since …, well, probably since this well was drilled.

Few Lakemoor wells get this bad. Even if maintenance isn’t done as often as it should be, the wells are maintained well enough that, at the worst, the water is a little off color when next it is chlorinated. Unfortunately, the color of the water is not the real problem, though it is hardly palatable. The problem is what’s in the water.

Water that black, coming from a well that was seldom chlorinated, is very likely to contain viruses, bacteria and parasites. That’s possible even if the water comes out of the well nice and clear. But, the likelihood of contaminated water increases when a well is as neglected as this well was.

The well technician chlorinating this well said that the water ran black for 20 minutes. It then ran brown for another 20 minutes. And, after all that, when he moved the pump a little in the well, bumping the casing, the water turned black all over again.

With a well this bad, it’s necessary to brush and descale the well before flushing again and chlorinating. Brushing and descaling is a process where a special liquid is added to the well and then agitated. Then, it’s left to sit for 24 hours before it’s pumped off.

In the case of this Lakemoor well, the well technician said it was a darn good thing that he decided to pump the water over the top rather than flushing it through the plumbing in the house. If he had done the latter, he’d have spread that much throughout the plumbing.

While few wells, in Lakemoor or elsewhere, get this bad, a well this bad offers a stark lesson for everyone with a private well. If you let your well go for 10 or 15 years, your well water may be as black as this. But, even if you don’t, the process that turned this water black has already started. It’s just a question of how long you’ll let it go.

Well technicians, even health departments, recommend that you chlorinate your well annually. Looking at this picture, it seems like a very good idea.

What does a bladder have to do with why my Crystal Lake well is working?

If the well tank bladder breaks the
water will stop flowing in your
Crystal Lake home.

The water comes out of your Crystal Lake faucet, what’s the problem and what does a well tank? Just because the water flows from your well today doesn’t mean it will flow tomorrow. And, the problem could be a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

In the case of your well pump bladder, this time bomb is made of rubber. It’s inside of your well tank and it’s a critical part of your well system.

A well-tank bladder is designed to maintain the proper amount of pressure in the well tank. A well technician will adjust the air pressure that is on one side of the bladder. If the bladder doesn’t have the correct amount of air pressure the bladder is liable to stretch. If it stretches far enough, or often enough, it’s liable to rupture.

A ruptured well-tank bladder is not a good thing – not good at all. It’s impossible to maintain the proper air pressure in a well tank that has a ruptured bladder. It confuses the pressure switch. The pressure switch doesn’t know when to call on the well pump to pump more water up from the well.

Instead of running when needed, the pressure switch will call on the well pump repeatedly for more water. As the well pump and well pump motor are called upon to turn off-and-on repeatedly, a process called cycling, the well pump motor will get hotter and hotter. Eventually, your Crystal Lake well pump motor is liable to burn out.

When the well pump motor burns out, the gig is up. It won’t run and you won’t get any water when you use a faucet in your home. It’s a short chain reaction from the well-tank pressure, to a ruptured well-tank bladder to a cycling and overheated well pump motor, to a burned out well tank motor.

The cost of checking and adjusting the pressure in your well tank is nothing compared to the cost of replacing a well pump and well pump motor. On the other hand, the next time you call your well technician out to maintain and chlorinate your well (You do have your well technician out annually, right?), they’ll check your well-tank pressure as part of the process.

You might call maintaining and chlorinating your well, as well as checking the well-tank pressure, inexpensive private well insurance. It’s insurance that ensures your Crystal Lake well is more likely to keep providing water when you want it.