Yes, winter has set in, but you can still chlorinate your Crystal Lake well

Yes, you can chlorinate your Crystal Lake well this winter.
But, why not leave well chlorination to the pros?

Another Crystal Lake winter seems to have come early. This is not the ideal time to discover that your home’s well water is smelling a little funny. Or, maybe you notice that the color of the water is tinted slightly brown. Or, maybe you just realize it’s been a while since you had your well water chlorinated. But can you chlorinate your well in winter?

Whatever the reason, whether it’s mid-January, or just acting like it, you discover that it’s time to chlorinate your well

You could buy some chlorine, bundle up, run a hose outside and chlorinate your well yourself. Expect to be uncomfortable. But, if you dress with layers, you won’t get too cold, well, unless your clothes get wet, which is a distinct possibility. About now, you may be reconsidering the idea. But, there’s another reason you might not want to chlorinate your own well.

When someone who is not a well technician chlorinates their well, they often do so improperly, which can have costly, long-term side effects. What happens is that, if the chlorination isn’t done properly, the chlorine can damage parts of your well system. You might not realize that the damage was done, at least, not until a well technician has to replace your well pump. The well technician will notice the problem and you’ll notice on the bill you receive when the work is done.

But, why not chlorinate your well in winter?

You can chlorinate your well in the winter. In the winter when the temperature is low, as you know, water freezes. Once the well is chlorinated, your well technician will flush the well. Along with waiting 24 hours to drink, bathe or do laundry with your well water, there’s a good chance the flushing will leave you with an ice-skating rink out in your yard. In general, it’s more of a mess working with water that freezes but the job can still be done.

You can still chlorinate your well in winter, and qualified well technicians are used to working under these conditions. And you will have more peace of mind knowing the well chlorination is completed and your water is clean, fresh and safe.

And, yes, you could put some skates on and use the frozen water in the yard for a skating rink. But, if you want to ice skate this winter, you’ll find better ice at the Barrington Ice Arena. That’s only a few miles from Crystal Lake.

Get out of your Spring Grove home for the afternoon while a pro chlorinates your well

Let the pros chlorinate your
Spring Grove well while you
spend the time away doing
something fun or useful.

The purpose of shock chlorination of a well is to reduce levels of microorganisms in the water. How important is the idea of clean, fresh, safe water at your Spring Grove home? Even though it’s winter, it’s still a great time to have your well chlorinated if you haven’t done it lately.

Having your Spring Grove well chlorinated will require that you not use the water in the house for a little while. When the process is done, you’ll need to run the water to flush the chlorine from the system after the chlorine is added. Considering, it’s not a bad idea to go out for a while while your well is chlorinated. Go shopping, dining out, go see the Cubs or Sox play, go somewhere and come back home when the work is done and the water in your home is ready to flush.

Chlorinating the well is a great thing to do at least once a year. It’s inexpensive insurance to ensure that the water you use to wash dishes and clothes, to bathe, and to drink is safe. Otherwise, bad bacteria can invade your well water where it will subtly affect you and your loved ones’ health.

On the other hand, you may want to stay home and chlorinate your well yourself. But why would you want to do that? It’s a messy job. And, if you think it’s as simple as taking the cap off the well, pouring the chlorine in, and putting the cap back on, you definitely want a professional to do the job.

Simply pouring the chlorine in will allow the chlorine to corrode critical connections in the piping that extends into your well. This may cost you some serious headaches and expense later when you need a new well pump and the well technician can’t thread into the pitless adapter.

The best idea is to let a pro worry about chlorinating your Spring Grove well? You can have a good time while they do the work on your behalf.

Is all that rain letting water into your Richmond well?

If the water in your Richmond yard crept up on
your well cap, you may want to call a pro to ensure
the water in the well is still safe to use and drink.

We’ve had a bit of rain this spring. Early on, we even had substantial, late snowfalls. The rain and melting snow have waterlogged the ground. Rivers and lakes are high and we’ve had more than a few flood warnings.

All that water poses risks to the well water you and your loved ones drink, bath with, and otherwise use in daily life. High water levels in Richmond have created the potential for groundwater to rise up to the height of well caps. If that happens, it’s very likely that the groundwater will contaminate your well.

Bacteria can make its way into your well. When you or your loved ones take a drink, it’s not unlikely that it could make you sick.

It’s a good idea to take a good look at your well cap and ensure that it’s well above the level of the groundwater in your Richmond yard. But keep in mind that the water level above the ground may have gone down. You may not see the water in the yard at its highest level.

The safest bet is to have your Richmond well checked. Call a well technician out to your home and have them check your well. The well technician can send a sample of your well water out for testing to ensure it’s safe.

Better yet, this is a great time of year to have your well water chlorinated. While they’re at it, they can perform a little maintenance on your well equipment.

Well maintenance includes making sure the bladder inside your well tank isn’t damaged or ripped and that the well tank has the proper charge. It includes checking the motor, the wiring, the well cap and all the other components of the well.

Hopefully, the rain will give us a chance to catch our collective breath here in Richmond. Either way, it’s a good idea to make sure your well water is safe and your well is as reliable as possible for the long haul.

What time is it? In Crystal Lake, it’s time to chlorinate

Spring time in Crystal Lake is time to chlorinate your well.

The snow is gone from the yard around your Crystal Lake home. Well, it’s gone for now (with the crazy weather we’ve seen this Spring, who knows when the snow will return). With the most recent snow having melted away you may dare to head outdoors and do some Spring cleaning and gardening. You may also want to have your well inspected and chlorinated.

A well inspection will ensure that your water-well system is operating at its peak performance. It can also identify problems that could cause your well system to stop providing water for your Crystal Lake home. It can even help extend the life of your well system putting off that inevitable time when you have to open your wallet wide to fix and replace parts of your well system, such as the pump.

Well chlorination of your Crystal Lake home, on the other hand, is focused on ensuring that the water you and your loved ones consume, and use is safe and healthy. Chlorination helps to eliminate elements in the water. Chlorination disinfects the well. It kills harmful and disease-causing bacteria in the well.

While having the well chlorinated, you may also want to send a sample of your water out for testing. A laboratory can ensure the water is safe to drink in all respects.

Calling in a qualified well technician will allow you to go about your Spring cleaning and gardening while someone else takes care of your well and does the job properly (many people, while chlorinating their own wells, damage the well equipment by adding the chlorine the wrong way).

With your well chlorinated, you’ll have safe water to drink and use inside your Crystal Lake home while looking out the window at the Spring flowers you’ve planted.

Well cap seal keeps Spring Grove surface water safely out of your well

But don’t forget to chlorinate your well, too

Can you see the well cap hiding in the landscaping?
Using landscaping to hide your Spring Grove well
cap isn't always a good idea.

Would you take a glass from the kitchen and dip it in a puddle out behind your Spring Grove home for a drink of water? Of course not. There are all kinds of potential problems with drinking the water off the ground. This is why it’s important to maintain a separation from surface water and the water in your well. Keep in mind that the well pump can actually suck surface water through the cap vent if the water gets too close.

At first blush, it’s easy to see that the water in a puddle is unsavory as a refreshment. Scoop it into a glass and you’ll quickly notice that, rather than the clear, fresh water from the tap, the glass of surface water is dirty. There’s stuff in there – all kinds of stuff.

To get to the puddle, the water was probably run across the surface of the ground. In the process, it absorbed a certain amount of dirt particles and more. It may have passed where the dog has done its business. If not the dog, even the squirrels living in a nearby tree may have contributed to the contaminants in the water.

This makes for unhealthy mix. Dysentery is a likely outcome. But there are other potentially unhealthy items you’ll find in surface water. For instance, parasites may abound in a glass of water scooped from a puddle in your backyard. In some cases, the problem is exasperated because homeowners and business owners terrace around the well cap. Their efforts to use landscaping to hide the well cap actually brings the surface water up closer to the well cap.

These are less likely but potential problems with your well water, too. This is why you should chlorinate your well at least once each year. You should also have your well water tested. A laboratory can confirm that your water is safe for consumption.

Assuming you chlorinate your well once a year, the next step to ensuring its quality is to keep that surface water out of the well. This is why, under the well head you see in your Spring Grove backyard, you’ll find a well cap. Less apparent, from a glance, is the seal between the well cap and the well pipe. That seal is a critical part of your well.

As Spring Grove enters the spring season, with melting snow and rains that are often heavier this time of year, the water around your well cap can reach a level where the water could get past the well cap, assuming the seal is not secure.

The way to make sure that the well seal is in good condition is to have it checked. And, it just happens that checking the seal on a well cap is part of the process when chlorinating a well. In other words, you can call a well technician out to chlorinate your well and have the seal of your well cap checked at the same time.

Spring Grove well pumps can fail in the middle of winter, too

But, well maintenance can extend the life of your well pump

Even in the middle of winter, your Spring Grove
well pump can fail. Maintenance is the key to
avoiding this problem.

One good thing about winter is that, when the temperature falls in Spring Grove, you never have to worry about your well pump failing. When the ground is covered with snow, you never have to worry, either. Of course, there’s only one problem with these statements; they’re both patently false.

A well pump doesn’t care what the temperature is. The well pump in the ground outside your Spring Grove home doesn’t care if there’s no snow, an inch of snow or 2-feet of snow; if the pump will fail the weather won’t have an appreciable influence on the matter.

The problem with a well pump failing in winter is that a well technician has to work on your well, replacing the pump, when water exposed to the air will freeze. And, in the winter, if there is snow, particularly if there is 2-feet of snow, the well technician has to get through the snow to get to your well head.

Getting through 2-feet of snow to replace a well pump starts with knowing where to dig out the snow. Assuming you have a rough idea where the wellhead is will narrow the search. Otherwise, the well technician will have to dig holes in the general area until they find your well head.

Considering the difficulty finding a wellhead when the snow is deep, it might be worth it to take a couple measurements before the snow flies. Measure from two fixed positions relative to the wellhead. For instance, it might be 6’9” from a fence post on one side of the wellhead and 4’11” from the trunk of a tree in the other direction.

By using those measurements, a well technician can quickly triangulate and find the wellhead. That will help, should your well pump fail in the winter time. But, the well technician will still have to dig under the snow. And they’ll still need to deal with the cold. That’s just the way it is, if your well pump fails in the depths of a cold, cold, snowy winter.

Keep in mind that, when the well pump fails, you won’t have any water from your plumbing. One way to avoid having your well pump fail at an inopportune moment is to maintain your well. If you haven’t thought about it, you can even do that during the winter.

Well maintenance can help to extend the life of your well pump, and other parts of the well system. It’s a great way to avoid having your Spring Grove well pump fail in the middle winter.