Help with winterizing my well

[keegs]

I'm having a new well system installed in our Maine summer house. I'm considering how to handle winterization. I thought it might be a good idea to raise the level of th expansion tank which I'm planning to install in the basement, to make draining it easier. I'm not sure if there're going to be freezing issues with the remaining water in the line from the tank to the well pump (I'm thinking will be submersed in the well).

Any experiences with this out there?

 

[Tig]

If it's a drilled well, the punp will be deep in the ground and safe. Keep your line below the frost. 4'? Check with the local building authorities on that one. Level or perhaps a very slight slope into the basement for the last 10' would allow the water to run out once disconnected from the pressure tank.
Don't skimp on the pressure line from the well to the house.
My well line is not nearly as well installed yet it survived years of abuse. Last march there was even ice on the water in my dug well.

 

[dave1949]

There is a simple answer to your issue Keegs. Have the well driller or plumber install a drain down valve in your well. It will be installed where the water pipe comes out of the side of the well casing down below the frost level.

Opening the well casing cover, using a long tee handle, you can open that valve and let the residual water in your pressure tank and supply lines drain back into the well.
Dave.

 

[PILOON]

There is a simple answer to your issue Keegs. Have the well driller or plumber install a drain down valve in your well. It will be installed where the water pipe comes out of the side of the well casing down below the frost level.

Opening the well casing cover, using a long tee handle, you can open that valve and let the residual water in your pressure tank and supply lines drain back into the well.
Dave.

Have done that, and it works!

In the line, below frost level, installed the "T" and used a ball valve.
I then used copper pipe length, split the end , drilled the copper and ran a cotterpin thru a hole I drilled in the ball valve lever.
At the top, under the well cover I made a lever or handle using an elbow and short length of copper as a lever to actuate the ball valve.
Stays in the well permanantly.
Use a stainless cotter pin.

I also do a similar setup for when the owners pump water from a lake except I install the valve just a little offshore and about 2-3 ft below surface.
Gravity empties all the lines for me.

 

[keegs]

Thanks guys...

Dave, I was getting around to the drain down valve when I was shopping around and there's a premium involved of four or five hundred dollars. Do you think it money well spent? Or can I do without it?

 

[dave1949]

Thanks guys...

Dave, I was getting around to the drain down valve when I was shopping around and there's a premium involved of four or five hundred dollars. Do you think it money well spent? Or can I do without it?

You can do without it, but you have to plan for it. Like Tig said, layout the well to house supply line with the slope that will allow you to drain the line and tank. What the valve really helps do is release the vacuum formed by the water column in the well and supply line. Plus, somewhere around your pressure tank there will be a check valve that isn't going allow the water to go backwards. That will complicate your life a bit when trying to drain the supply line. There will be a boiler drain valve installed in the supply line on the well side of that check valve along with the drain down valve in the well. You could put that in either way for $2.99.

If the valve prevented you from having to replace the water line once, it will have paid for itself. To replace the line, it will have to be dug up from the well to house. There goes your landscaping. You can save some of that by running a 4" PVC pipe from your basement wall to the well, putting the supply line inside that pipe. All of this is well below frost line, for you at least 5'. The pressure tank itself is hellishly expensive but easy to drain. Wish I had a better answer on the pros and cons vs money spent.
Dave.

 

[dave1949]

Keegs,

Not to get too far down the wrong path here, were you thinking the well itself would freeze? I've never heard of that happening. But, I suppose it's possible.

The biggest problem I think comes from the air temp in your basement going below freezing, causing the water line coming in to freeze. It may freeze for some distance towards the well it that goes on for very long.

If I remember your house pic, you have a full basement with no walkout level? That would be the best case for preventing freezing. Do you plan on keeping any heat on in the house over the winter?

For about $30 you can buy a thermostatically controlled electric heater - the 'milkhouse' style with a fan. Set the thermostat so it comes on around 40* and point it at the well line in the basement.

You can also get temperature alert boxes that will place a call to your phone when the temperature falls below a certain point, or the power is out. Of course, you need a landline at the Maine house for this to work which is a downside. Greenhouses and the like use these units. You can also call the box and it will tell you the current temp, low and high temps, and power status.

Perhaps not exactly useful from NJ to ME, but it will give you something to worry about when it calls in the middle of the night - that's when they always call
Dave.

 

[studor]

Anything that will make sure you do not have freezing problems is money well spent. Last year my well line froze and thawing it was a PITA. I was very worried the line or pitless adaptor would break but luckily they stayed together -- now I have a wire heater inside the pipe that senses when heat is required and turns on -- 15 feet of that was over five hundred bucks.

 

[dave1949]

Anything that will make sure you do not have freezing problems is money well spent. Last year my well line froze and thawing it was a PITA. I was very worried the line or pitless adaptor would break but luckily they stayed together -- now I have a wire heater inside the pipe that senses when heat is required and turns on -- 15 feet of that was over five hundred bucks.

Do you think it froze because the frost got to it? I assume it's a house you live in. The guy who put my well line in says he has seen them freeze up 5' down in this area. You could be colder. His opinion is the worst situation is when you have a driveway or lane that you keep plowed crossing above the well line.
Dave.

 

[tommu56]

Yep the snow insulates the ground from the colder air.

You could put an old style galvanized tank and sniffer and check valve in the house in and have a weep hole in well pit so it will drain back every time the pump shuts off.
We had a cabin on piers that use it and we never had that line freeze up and the slug of air in the pipe kept the air in the pressure tank so it never water logged.

it might take some hunting to find an old plumber that knows these systems but they do work.

tom