With the weather getting colder, now is the ideal time to begin winterizing the different components of your home. Homes with a water well require special attention during the winter season. When the weather dips below freezing, the well pump can freeze and become damaged.
No matter if you live in your home all year or just at different parts of the year, water well pump winterization is important. The following are some things you need to know about winterizing your water well pump.
Why Should You Winterize Your Well Pump?
A well pump is an important component of a home's plumbing system. The pump supplies potable water to your home and should remain in good repair. For this reason, you need to make sure you maintain it properly. When the weather gets cold, the well pump can freeze and suffer damage.
Freezing temperatures cause the water within the pump to expand. As the ice freezes, it needs a place to go. The ice cracks through the casing of the pump and will cause damage, which can require significant repair.
Does the Depth of the Well Matter?
The depth of a water pump does matter. If your well pump is deeper in the ground, the odds of freezing is less and you may not have to winterize. When the well pump is more shallow, you need to take extra care to winterize to prevent damage.
What If You Do Not Use Your Well Pump Often?
If you have a vacation home or a second home in which you do not live in throughout the year, you should winterize for the cold season before you leave. A water pump not used regularly is more likely to freeze. Unlike in your daily home, where you shower and wash dishes in hot water frequently, a stagnant pump doesn’t have warm water flowing through it to prevent freezing problems.
When you fail to winterize your well water pump in a home you do not live in full time, you may return to a home with significant water damage due to non-use during freezing weather.
How Do You Winterize a Well Pump?
To winterize the well pump, you first must ensure the power is disconnected. You otherwise risk an electrocution injury. Next, open any faucet in your home or outside to empty any water left in the line. The removal of the residual water also removes the water pressure left behind.
The next step is to disconnect the drainpipes from the well pump. This is another part of removing the additional water from the lines. Any water left behind in any part of the pump leads to the potential for damage. If necessary, use an air compressor to aid in this process.
Be careful if you intend to use antifreeze in your well pump. You cannot use the same type of antifreeze you would typically see in automobiles. Only food-grade propylene glycol is safe to use in a well pump that supplies your home's drinking water. This is the final step of well pump winterization. If you live in your home year-round, you may want to avoid adding antifreeze to your well pump system.
This process is generally the same for most residential well pumps, but be sure to check with the manufacturer of your system. You may have special instructions to follow for your particular pump.
A home's water well pump is one of the most important parts of the house. For that reason, you need to take care of it with regular maintenance. We at
Action Well and Pump provide customers with a variety of water well services. If you need service on your well pump, please give us a call.
