What will this cold do to water well systems?

[Huntindad]

Well I guess next time my only option is to turn off the entire water system and drain the 2,500 gallon holding tank and every line after that.. 100% drain the system.

I think I see a nice crack in my 2,500 holding tank No telling what else yet until it starts to thaw.

I get the pumphouse as warm as I can during the 1 hour with power. The 2 without not much I can do. They claim we will stay on this rotation until Friday now.

I think I see a new blind, complete with a floor.

[RiverRat1]

I think I see a new blind, complete with a floor.

I'll try that infomercial flex seal. LOL Can't hurt to try it. Have to wait a couple of days for things to thaw first.

It would make a nice blind though, plenty big.

[Draco]

My pump house is a 12x15 metal building with the foam insulation. There is a 3000 gallon tank inside it. I have nothing to heat it and nothing has frozen in it. The mass of water has kept it warm enough to not freeze.

[denimdeerslayer]

The best thing to do is shut it off and drain it and the house good. I lost my generator right before dark on coldest night. So I just drained the house outside facuets then the well tank. I had a north facing one that I had to burn paper towels to thaw it to drain. It was covered the whole time.
Power came on next day and turned on breaker and no issues. I have no well house just wrapped and tarp over it.


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[lovemylegacy]

For people in the country that have a well with a 2-3k water tank, pressure tank system, will this freeze screw it all up?

I'd hope the blue pressure tanks can handle being frozen. But I have a cast iron pressure pump, filtration system with 3 in line filters, the 2,500 gallon tank (not worried about this tank), and all the water lines in between.

I kept it all going until the power went off a couple hours ago. It froze so fast there was nothing I could do. One of the filters is a blow out/clean out one so I at least was able to get some pressure out of the lines.

Fingers crossed.. Going to be a long 3-4 more days before I find out.

But what do others do in the country with set ups like this? I had pipes insulated, shed with pump and pressure tank insulated. A light bulb and one heat cord.

I would be worried about the cast pump and the water lines.

[Huntindad]

My pump house is a 12x15 metal building with the foam insulation. There is a 3000 gallon tank inside it. I have nothing to heat it and nothing has frozen in it. The mass of water has kept it warm enough to not freeze.

That is interesting that the mass of water is enough. Gonna try to make it over Saturday if all goes well.

[Draco]

Always enjoy your company.

[pyrobow]

[QUOTE=Draco;15474343]If you have a large tank in your pump house, which you should, and good insulation, which you should, then you won't have a problem. The mass of the water in the tank will keep it from freezing. A heat lamp will help as well.[/QUOTE

I did this last spring. 2500 gallon tank, pressure pump, bladder and plumbing all inside. 1 inch foam insulation walls and ceiling. I have a small electric heater in it.

The only mistake I made. I did not run the waterlines underground before I poured the slab. Both 1 1/4" lines froze outside.

[R C]

Not certain how large our tank is but it is in a well house. Last year I insulated the walls and ceiling with wall insulation from Home Depot. Every section that I could reach. I also bought several cans of the sealing foam and filled every crack that I could find that I had not insulated. We also hooked up a heater to a thermostatically controlled outlet which automatically kicks on when the temperatures drop below 35 and turns off when above 45. We were without power for over eight hours but when I checked the temperature in the well house it was in the 40s even though our temps dropped to -2 for a low. The other thing that we did was removed the outlet and let the heater run non-stop when we knew the cold weather was going to be around for several days. I was surprised when I checked the temps the next morning to find temps in the 60s when it was around 3 the next morning. Insulating was probably the best thing we could have done in that well house because it really helped hold the temps up when we needed it to.

[Draco]

[quote=pyrobow;15480259]

If you have a large tank in your pump house, which you should, and good insulation, which you should, then you won't have a problem. The mass of the water in the tank will keep it from freezing. A heat lamp will help as well.[/QUOTE

I did this last spring. 2500 gallon tank, pressure pump, bladder and plumbing all inside. 1 inch foam insulation walls and ceiling. I have a small electric heater in it.

The only mistake I made. I did not run the waterlines underground before I poured the slab. Both 1 1/4" lines froze outside.

I think it's better to have a gravel floor than a slab. If you have a massive leak, it can soak straight down and not go out at the walls and rust or rot your building. Also if you need to dig some thing up to add or repair. it's no problem.

[RiverRat1]

Hope I'm not speaking too soon but here's an update.

Looks like the 2,500 gallon holding tank is not cracked. There's a deep scratch and the 1/4" of ice made it look 5x bigger than it was. The booster pump appears to be good also. The in line filters were not allowing water to pass even after thawing. I took them out for now. I think overall the system will be ok. Just have to figure out the error lights on well pump but it does this sometimes anyway.

And have to wait for tank to thaw to pump more water.

So good news.. Bad news is a couple line cracks but it's PVC and the newer tankless water heater cracked in the house. I think a TBHer is coming out soon to see if he can repair it. Will owe him big time!

They finally turned our water on back in town so heading home in the morning. Time to take a real shower!

[kingranch]

Hey Rat I'm not far from you so let me know if I can ever help.
I built my well setup and it has been pain free 6 yrs and running.. I think your biggest problem was the power outage and like me should look at wiring in a backup generator plug to feed your panel.

[Walker]

Burst every pvc pipe in my daughter well house near bandera. Bladder type tank was okay. Luckily the hardware store on 16 had what I needed.