How to Winterize your well pump equipment and continue your pipes from freezing this winter!

If your household relies on a well for drinking water and other needs, when the leaves fall it is time to make certain that the well equipment is winterized. If you lot waited and a current cold snap has acquired your water pipes to freeze or your well pump equipment to stop working, we're here to help. Fortunately, winterizing well equipment isn't as hard as y'all may think. By following a few uncomplicated steps, checking out the basic supplies listed in this web log, and setting aside a few hours of tinkering; you can knock this project out yourself and residuum bodacious your well volition function well through this winter and many winters to come.

Insulate the pipes

When water freezes it expands, causing the pipes to plug with water ice, or even outburst if the freezing goes unchecked. To minimize this possibility, outdoor piping should be insulated. Insulation works like a warm hirsuite blanket that blocks out cold. Hardware stores carry a broad diversity of pipe insulation. The best kind of pipe insulation to use is the airtight prison cell foam "tubes" that are around half dozen' long. Airtight cell foam keeps the water out so the cream doesn't saturate with water and become ineffective. Make sure to cull the right size cream for your pipe and brand sure to order enough to encompass all outdoor exposed piping! If your cream tube doesn't have a slit in i side, that's OK, advisedly slit it on 1 side and slip it over the pipe, securing information technology with zip ties every half-dozen" or continuously wrapping the insulation with pipe wrap tape. Make certain to keep the slit in the insulation facing down as much as possible.

At that place are a few types of ordinarily available insulation that can exist problematic! The type of pipe insulation that has adhesive on one side and you just wrap it effectually the pipage does a decent job of insulating, but it will cost you a fortune if you ever need someone to piece of work on your piping or plumbing. The stuff is so viscid and hard to removed, that you lot may pay more for the labor for the plumber to remove the stuff so he can really practise the necessary work than the cost of any actual plumbing work you may need done in the futurity! Fiberglass wrap insulation is fine if the pipage is in a dry location, merely if it it outside this insulation becomes useless when it becomes wet because it looses its power to insulate.

As y'all are insulating pay particular attending to the pressure switch! Your pressure switch is often grey, blue or black box about 3"x3"x4" with a 1/4" piping connectedness and some electric wires going to it. Some h2o systems use a pressure transducer, and these are just as susceptible to freezing as a pressure switch. Pressure transducers are typically a minor cylinder about 3/4" to 1" in diamter with 1/four" pipe threads on i cease that are threaded into your main pipe and a wire that goes to the pump controller. The pressure switch/transducer is ofttimes the showtime component to freeze and thus stops water from flowing fifty-fifty though the main pipes are non frozen. Make certain that insulation completely encloses the force per unit area switch/transducer and the tubing/small piping that connects it to the main water supply pipage. In very cold climates or places that have prolonged cold or wind exposure information technology is recommended to place a heat wrap/heat strip in shut proximity to the pressure switch or pressure level transducer to ensure they exercise not freeze! Once frozen, a pressure switch or transducer will ofttimes be permanently damaged and may need to be replaced. If you notice that your pump won't run or the water force per unit area is a scrap lower or higher after a difficult freeze information technology is probable that harm occurred to the pressure switch/transducer and replacement is in order. Force per unit area switches will price around $xx-$50 while a transducer may cost equally much as $200!

Install Heat strips to Go on Pipes and Equipment from FreEzing

Sometimes insulation just isn't enough! Depression extended temperatures and lack of water period can crusade even insulated pipes to freeze and damage force per unit area switches and booster pumps. You need to resort to increased measures to keep the h2o in your pipes or booster pumps from freezing. Installing a heat strip on piping and h2o system components susceptible to freezing can salve them from freeze damage. A estrus strip is a device that plugs in to a nearby outlet and creates a minor corporeality of oestrus forth its length, gently warming the pipes or pump it is wrapped effectually. Oestrus strips should exist installed around equipment that is outside your business firm, paying particular attention to the surface area where pipes go in and out of the booster pumps and pressure switches. Make certain the heat strip is kept in close contact to your pipes and equipment. Professionals use pipage wrap tape or cypher ties to ensure that the oestrus strip is held tightly confronting the pipe and so that the heat from the rut strip goes into the pipe! In some cases with extreme cold, heat strips are installed with insulation installed over the top of it. Oakville Pump Service in the Napa Valley tin can install heat strips on your piping and booster pump to ensure you take water on the coldest of mornings!

Encompass it Upwardly

A uncomplicated tip to go on your well equipment going through the coldest days of wintertime is to comprehend information technology upwards! An old blanket can work with some plastic on top. Other options are to purchase well covers that await like a rock or insulated covers that can be slipped over the top. These simulated rocks can be small or large, depending on what you want to hide from both eyes and the weather. If you lot get a false rock, DON'T FORGET WHERE YOUR WELL IS! We've had customers that didn't know where at that place well was located because it was bearded under a simulated rock for and so long they thought the rock was real!

Let your faucets to drip

Equally crazy as it may sound, this simple tip can help go along your well from freezing when the temperatures hit sub-goose egg. Equally soon equally y'all know that the temperature is going to plummet, plow on your faucets so they slightly baste or drizzle. This brings slightly warmer water from the well upwards and through the pipes and prevents the h2o from freezing solid inside your pipes. While this helps in many situations, it does waste water and maybe insufficient to protect against extreme sustained cold conditions. If you are going to be abroad from your abode, y'all may choose to leave the rut system on with a low temperature set point so that information technology can keep the the temperature of the house/plumbing above freezing.

Insulate your backflow preventer!

Many of our customers take backflow preventers that are installed nigh their well or on urban center water connections. These devices are sensitive to freezing atmospheric condition, expensive to repair/replace and difficult to insulate with typical foam/wrap manner insulation products. Insulated covers take been developed that ensure the backflow preventer can piece of work properly and is insulated from the cold! These covers tin be found in several unlike colors to all-time match your aesthetic gustatory modality. If y'all have a cover already, cheque that information technology is however intact and not falling autonomously. If information technology is deteriorating become ahead and supercede it!

These simple tips will not just save you time and money, only will also extend the life of your equipment. If you are looking for a reliable service provider in the Napa Valley to help winterize your well pump equipment, waste no fourth dimension and contact Oakville Pump Service, today!

For those of us that get caught past surprise with our pipes or pump equipment freezing with the power off, information technology can be difficult to even defrost the pipes or ourselves. The web log you demand to read is about generator considerations and shopping for generators. While you wait for your generator to be delivered, maybe pick yourself upwards some estrus packs to warm yourself and starting time planning your long term strategy to go along your ability on and the h2o flowing in the coldest of conditions!

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