Should I buy a house with a private well?

There are many considerations when buying a new home. One is whether you want city water or if you're OK
with a private well.

When you’re a potential home-buyer, there are many factors to consider. For instance:

• How is the school district in the town?
• Do you like the layout of the home?
• Can you afford the payments?
• What are the taxes for the home?
• Does the home have city water or a private well?

With that last question, is more than just whether you will choose one or the other; it’s also a question of which is better for you.

City Water vs Well Water

Private Well Water Quality: With a private well, you could have bacteria or viruses and other dissolved solids in the water. These are not inevitable, which means that, if you properly care for your well, you can virtually eliminate the threat of bad water quality from your well. First and foremost, you’ll want to chlorinate the well annually. It’s also not a bad idea to have the water quality checked each year by sending a water sample to a reputable laboratory or government agency that can thoroughly check the quality of your water.

City Well Water Quality: With city water there is also a risk of bacteria, viruses and other unsavory particles in the water. With the city water, however, someone else is charged with maintaining the water quality. If they do a good job, you shouldn’t have a problem. But, we’ve all heard about communities that had boil orders in effect because the water wasn’t safe. Just because you have city water doesn’t mean you’ll never have problems with water quality.

Cost of City Water vs Well Water

Private Well Water Cost: With a private well, the cost of maintenance and repair falls squarely on your shoulders. If something breaks – for instance, if the well pump breaks – it’s your responsibility to fix it or hire a well technician to repair it for you. It’s also your responsibility to maintain the well – to chlorinate and perform other maintenance and checks that will keep your well system operating properly with safe, quality water.

City Well Water Cost: With city well water, you’re reminded each month of just what it costs to use water in your home. The amount you’re required to pay each month depends on where you live and how much water you use. But, don’t get too comfortable with the amount you pay for City Sewer & Water; before you know it, the city will come along and pass a rate increase.

Crystal Lake living is better when your well water flows

Crystal Lake is a great community but, if
your well water doesn't flow, you might
not feel that thrilled at the moment.

Living in Crystal Lake, you feel blessed. You have a beautiful home in a beautiful town. But, when things go wrong with your home, your enthusiasm for Crystal Lake can dwindle, such as if the water ceases to flow.

You go to the sink and lift the faucet with time-tested confidence. The faucet always responds on demand. You lift the lever and water comes out. But, not this time. Your train of thought is suddenly disrupted when you realize nothing has happened. You lower and raise the handle a few times and still nothing.

Living in some areas of Crystal Lake, such as yours, you rely on a private well. So, when the water stops, you can’t blame anyone else. You can’t call the city and ask them what the problem is and when they’ll have it fixed. It’s your well and it’s your problem. This probably means that you’ll have to call a water well technician. Until they arrive, however, you’re without water.

Fortunately, wells are fairly reliable. This explains why you’re so shocked now that your well has failed and the water doesn’t flow. As reliable as they are, however, private wells do break down.

There are essentially several reasons that a well will cease delivering water. They include:

• Electrical Failure: Electricity is a key component in the operation of a well. If the electricity is interrupted the water is interrupted, too. In some cases, a well is struck by lightning and this can short out components disabling the well. You can also blow a circuit breaker (go check your circuit breaker now but, if the circuit keeps tripping, someone needs to find out why).
• A mechanical part has broken: this can include the motor burning out, a pipe breaking (not real common) or the well tank bladder rupturing, which will cause the motor to cycle and burn out. There are other components that can break but these are the most likely.
• Something was installed incorrectly: If the well was providing water and stopped, if the problem is improper installation, this probably means that something was damaged as a result. This is why it’s essential that you rely on someone who knows their way around your well – such as a well technician – for installation, repairs and maintenance.
• Age: Your refrigerator will eventually wear out. Your microwave will wear out far too soon. Your well pump and well tank will wear out, too. It’s inevitable. In fact, it’s a good idea to have a well technician take a look at your well system annually to make sure it’s in good shape.

One way to avoid problems that unexpectedly interrupt the flow of water in your Crystal Lake home is to have your well checked regularly Once again, annually is best. While the well technician is checking your well, they can perform well maintenance, including chlorination, to reduce the risks of a water-flow interruption. In the process, they’ll also extend the life of your well-system components.

Why is your Long Grove water well pressure falling?

The water pressure at your Long Grove home or office
won't drop without a good reason.

The well outside your Long Grove home was so reliable, for so long, that you hardly gave it a second thought. But, now, your well water is running slower and you don’t know why.

At first, you weren’t sure. In fact, you chalked it up to your imagination: “I’m sure that’s the way the water has always run.” But, overtime, you began to realize that this wasn’t your imagination; your well was running slow or, at least, the water coming out of the faucet wasn’t coming out with the same force and volume you were accustomed to.

Once you realize that it’s not a figment of your imagination, your next thought is the most drastic: “THE WELL IS GOING DRY!!! If you’re at that point now, take a deep breath and relax; the odds that your Long Grove well is actually going dry is minimal. There is probably a different explanation and one that is far less dramatic than a dry well.

It’s far more likely that the reason you’ve seen a drop in water pressure is related to something to do with your well system. For instance, you could have a problem with …

• A short-cycling well pump
• A leak competing for your water pressure
• A clog somewhere in water well system

A short-cycling well pump is often an intermittent problem. In other words, you’ll have times when the water pressure is better than other times. The problem could be that the water pressure switch isn’t operating correctly. You could also have a bad bladder, or improper air charge, in your well tank. Without proper air pressure or with an occluded line going to the pressure switch, the well system isn’t getting an accurate read on when the well pump should run. Cycling makes the well pump and motor work overtime. As they work, and heat up, they can begin to wear out.

Something competing for your water pressure generally refers to a leak somewhere. Or, it could refer to a toilet that is constantly running. The leak could be inside the well or underground where you can’t see it.

Your pipes are clogged is a problem that, rather obviously, would cause a problem with water flow. Old pipes can rust (which could cause a leak) and sediment can accumulate in the pipes until, instead of a standard 3/4” pipe opening, you may have a fraction of that. You may also have a clog in the pressure switch line.

Whatever the problem, you can try to track down the cause yourself. But, be careful you don’t cause a bigger problem trying to fix the issue yourself. Or, you can call an expert – a water well technician – who knows their way around a well system and can get your well pressure back to the flow you’re accustomed to in your Long Grove home or office.

Damaged or otherwise, your Long Grove well needs a springtime inspection

This well shouldn't be leaning as it comes out of the
ground. Probably, a snowplow ran into it during the
winter. The owner probably wants this Long Grove well
checked out.

Imagine looking out of your Long Grove back window on a late-March afternoon. The snow has long-since melted but you just hadn’t noticed this before. You’re looking out in the backyard when you notice something odd.

About 50 feet beyond the backdoor, just off the driveway, is a silver pipe, with a smaller pipe beside it, that extends out of the ground about a foot. On top of the pipe’s is a silver-metal cap that is shaped like a teardrop. You’ve seen it out there how many times without ever really looking at it. But now, it looks different.

It looks bent. The cap is sitting up from the pipes and there is space between them. You’re wondering why that doesn’t look right when it suddenly dawns on you – ‘The snowplow.’

During the winter, you have a company come out and snowplow your driveway. As you look at the well you can see ruts in the grass extending towards the well. It’s obvious what has happened; the snowplow went off the driveway and hit the well.

So, with a banged up well pipe and well cap, is this something you need to worry about? The answer is yes. Not maybe yes but most assuredly yes.

It’s obvious that your well needs attention because of the space between the pipes and the well cap. What this means is that the well is no longer capped. Ground water could, potentially, get into the well. Vermin can also crawl into the well and contaminate the water.

At the same time, someone needs to inspect that pipe to make sure it isn’t cracked, which can also allow contamination by ground water and vermin.

Even if there was no apparent damage to the well, every year, when spring arrives in Long Grove, you want to have your well inspected, and chlorinated. You’ll keep the vermin and contaminants out and you’ll also ensure the efficient operation of your well while extending its life.

This is the pump puller you need when other pump pullers can't reach the well

You don't have to tear up your lawn, or tear down your fence, to get at your well to pull the well pump. This nifty gadget will do the job without any damage or bother; it's the industry's most versatile pump puller. Check out the video below to see how it works, as demonstrated by John Matthesius with McHenry Water Well & Pump.

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?