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.