Well frozen. ..

[Equine_Woman]

How on earth do you guys who live up north keep your wells from freezing? We have a heat lamp in there but something is frozen somewhere cause we have no water!! It's only 20 degrees outside. Hopefully it warms up fast and nothing explodes!

[WashingtonBay]

Ours is a community well for about 4 of us, and there's a heater in the well house. I might have thought a heat lamp would be enough, our biggest concern for freezing is if it's cold and the power's out.

[Equine_Woman]

I just bought a space heater for out there. . . I hope nothing bursts!! Crossing my fingers! It's actually only 19 degrees here right now. It doesn't get this cold very often here but now we'll have the heater just in case!

[JennyandJosey]

Oh, that stinks. I've never had a well since I've never lived outside a city. But our pipes froze one year. It was very early Spring and thankfully only took a couple of weeks to thaw. We had a hose attached to the fire hydrant running to the house for water during that time. Now every year from about January to April we have to have one faucet constantly running a very slight stream of water to prevent that.

I hope your well thaws soon!

[shelsnsaus]

Here in PA, many of the wells/well pumps are built inside the house. Well, at least they were, however they can no longer do that in newer homes. If our well ever has to be redug, we have to have the pump etc outside. However, IF our well ever has an issue, we have the ability here to hook into city water. About 5 years ago, they ran public water lines. Whoever lived here than was able to opt out of the hook up, because of the distance our house is from the road (homes within 50 foot had to hook up- we are 70 feet from the road). If our well has an issue, we'd just opt in for the city water.
As a child living about 30 miles south of where I am now, we had a well in the shed. I don't remember my parents doing anything super special to keep it from freezing, and I never remember it freezing. Having days in the low teens and single digits wasn't every day, but it did happen several times each winter.

[grandmadeb]

In Southern Maryland , my mother in law had a well and she had a pump outside in a little house that she had to keep warm in the winter. The well itself didn't freeze but the pump was what would freeze. She kept a hig wattage lightbulb in it and that did the trick.
Here in the cold Northeast the pumps that are in the well are so far down that they don't freeze as they are well below the frost line. The well we had in Philadelphia was over 300 feet deep so there was no chance of it freezing.

[Gypsy Rose]

Up here, in the country, newer houses have submersible pumps put in when the well's dug. Great in the winter, but a real pain if something goes wrong, because the whole thing's got to be pulled up, lol!

Older houses like mine, either have the pump in the basement, or a pumphouse outside. Most of the farmers have pump houses, and use space heaters or heat lamps.

[Equine_Woman]

I just hooked the heater up outside, came in, sat down, and I hear the toilet that wouldn't flush this morning running!! YAY!!! Heater FTW!

[lacyloo]

Its those little things.....

We usually just turn our whole well off for the night.

[WashingtonBay]

I just hooked the heater up outside, came in, sat down, and I hear the toilet that wouldn't flush this morning running!! YAY!!! Heater FTW!


Oh good! Close call then! Glad you're not without water now.

I obsess on water in the winter. Got it stored everywhere, inside and out, always thinking the power's going to go out, or the pump fail, or something freeze! And I'd be without water! In my former life I must have died stranded in the desert or something.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Up here, in the country, newer houses have submersible pumps put in when the well's dug. Great in the winter, but a real pain if something goes wrong, because the whole thing's got to be pulled up, lol!

Older houses like mine, either have the pump in the basement, or a pumphouse outside. Most of the farmers have pump houses, and use space heaters or heat lamps.

Yah, my well has a submersible pump all the way at the bottom, so everything is underground until it gets into the house. My biggest risk is if the power goes out, pipes and things will start freezing in the crawlspace. Hence... a generator in case of an extended outage.

[Gypsy Rose]

Oh good! Close call then! Glad you're not without water now.

I obsess on water in the winter. Got it stored everywhere, inside and out, always thinking the power's going to go out, or the pump fail, or something freeze! And I'd be without water! In my former life I must have died stranded in the desert or something.


WB, you're as bad as me!!!:crazy::) Only I'm that way in the summer, when the electrical storms are more likely to cause an outage.

EW, glad you got your water back!

[offgridgirl]

Yah, my well has a submersible pump all the way at the bottom, so everything is underground until it gets into the house. My biggest risk is if the power goes out, pipes and things will start freezing in the crawlspace. Hence... a generator in case of an extended outage.


No problems with the well freezing cuz everything is buried and
power is NEVER out here:cowboy:. We keep the fire going and all is warm;)

[Beausgirl]

No problems with the well freezing cuz everything is buried and
power is NEVER out here:cowboy:. We keep the fire going and all is warm;)
Hey, fellow Canadian northerner!
All our plumbing - from the well to the house is 8' under, minumum, until it gets to the house. There are folks in trailers though who have a portion of their plumbing above ground running under the trailer, and they use heat tape on those lines that are above ground. If the power goes out - you're hooped, though, without a generator! Which - we don't have, I might add!! If the power was out long enough for our pipes to feeze in the basement though, I'd be worried about more than the pipes freezing! We also have a wood stove which we use for heating to save on gas, so for keeping "us" warm - we have alternatives! Offgridgirl, my husband would like to get totally off the grid too, but that takes money -money we don't have. So! We rely on the power and gas company to keep us in the 21st century!

[OffGridGuy]

we have alternatives! Offgridgirl, my husband would like to get totally off the grid too
Take the money you are spending on power and gas per year and multiply it by 20 years...... that is where your off grid system is!!
We have neighbors that spent $50K to get power to their house. :(
We have spent $15k (so far)to set up and it goes down the longer we live here...Go Green now!!