How to Keep Your Well Safe in Cold Weather

Winter weather can cause some potential difficulty with your well and your plumbing system. Therefore, as a homeowner, you must take some critical steps to keep your water well safe and in good condition throughout the winter months.

Here are some tips about how to maintain your well during the winter.

Protect your pipes

Your pipes are a critical part of your plumbing and well systems. When water freezes during the winter, it expands and could potentially burst your pipes, which could result in some significant damage to both your well and your home.

Any above-ground plumbing connected to your well must be properly protected for cold weather. Check small pipes that pressure switches are mounted to, as well as the body of your pressure gauge. See also if you have any exposed pipes running from the well to the house.

The good news is there are several steps you can take to easily avoid issues with frozen pipes, including:

• Insulation: If you have pipes that are exposed or run through non-heated spaces to get to your home, you can insulate them with rubber casing or fiberglass insulation to help keep their temperatures above freezing.
• Turn off water: Once you start seeing temperatures dip below freezing, you should turn off your exterior water shutoff valve. Drain any remaining water in exterior systems, or blow out your pipes with an air compressor.
• Inspection: At the very least, you should perform an inspection of your pipes and water system. This will help you determine if there are any problems that need to be addressed, and if you should hire a professional to come in and take care of those issues.

Protect your pump

Well systems are generally buried underground to give them protection from the cold weather. If you have an above-ground pump, however, you’ll need to take some extra action to keep the system warm to prevent any freezing or damage. You can create a small, insulated enclosure to cover the pump and keep it above freezing. You can find prefabricated well houses or construct one of your own. Often, they can be designed to look like landscaping features so they blend in with the rest of your property.

Consider the possibility of power outages

While you might not be able to do much to prevent power outages from occurring in the winter, you can at least prepare yourself for such a scenario should it arise.

Purchase a portable gas generator and fuel so you can connect it to your pumping system if the power goes out. This will help you keep the system operational and prevent stagnant water from freezing.

You can also purchase plenty of bottled water or gallons of water before winter, so you can have clean drinking water on hand in the event of a power outage.

For more information about how to keep your well safe in cold weather and what you can do to get it ready for winter, contact the team at Love Well & Pump Supply, LLC.

Categorised in: Well Maintenance

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