When the well don't work anymore...

[Zombie Axe]

Been away for most of the day today, but when I got home, Dear ol' Dad told me his well quit working. We feared the worst as there was power to the pressure switch but no pressure was building... Something was screwed up. The contact on the switch looked pretty bad with a lot of carbon build up... No problem... Killed the power, took a piece of fine grit sand paper and shined them up, put back on the power and we were good to go...

It got me to thinking about the last time the power had failed during an ice storm. I had most of my critical circuits covered by the generator panel, but the DUMB ASS builder didn't put in my well pump on that sub panel :( Later on this was corrected :) by a qualified electrician... ME :) I had the parts to do this with, but after working 10 hours and driving to, from and during work on slippery roads, all I wanted to was get some water to flush toilets and go to bed.

My Dad who lived 'amongst the pines' already had a plug to only power his pump and the freezers but he was ahead of the curve...

Well we had enough drinking safe water hose to run from his home to mine to backfeed mine and allow me to fill my tubs :) Well that is until we got to the place where my garden hose and his were supposed to have connected... as it should be... two males... will not connect together :mad:

That idea was shot, but I had enough water cans to fill them up in my driveway and use for various needs inside the home... So it is a good idea to have water containers for emergency use!



I did locate a coupling that if need be, I can hook two homes together via garden hose and run both homes... may not be ideal, but it will work. Just be sure you have some way to shut off the water so it will not backfill into the well and ONLY provide water to the home,

I am sure one could do this, lets say, if your neighbor cut his water line on city or county water and you were wanted to help out...

As I live in a very rural area, we are on well water but I also have access to 2 springs on the property (one developed and the other easily developed) so I do not store massive amounts of water in the home. 100 gallons in bulk containers and about that much in bottled water. If it looks like the SHTF and I need more I will just get it from the spring house and haul water back to the house...

Also have the option of purifying the creek water with the big berkey water filter, or MSR filter... So water is not a problem for me...

So just be sure to have a plan when things don't work like they should!

[Omegaman]

I have the same thing at my place. I am on my own deep well and I have a stream that runs through my property and 2 springs on my property. The stream would be a last ditch as it runs under a main road and comes from way up hill from me. In one of the springs I have installed a well tile and I hope to do the other in the summer. But I thought could you get water from a deep well with no power and I came across this but I have yet to try it, though I did by the parts. http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues..._Belanger.html

[lazer128]

Zombie Axe,
You and your Dad probably already had four sections of hose that were female-female. Your washing machine hoses! :)

Just thot I'd post this in case it helps someone else sometimes.

[mdogspot]

I will be honest I dont know much about wells. We have a good well on our place. In a bind I can get water the river's .5 mile from the house. If the irrigation ditch is running we have water. But is there an easy way to extract water from from the well without power. I thought about getting an old hand pump. for emergency's but thats would probaly be a pain in the ass trying to convert it or can ya have a manual pump and still have the house hooked up to the electric pump.?? also pondered in a bind if ya could pull the pump and drop a small bucket down the case and get water that way it would take awhile but ya would have drinking water. Like I said I don't know $hit about wells. any thoughts.

[Zombie Axe]

Zombie Axe,
You and your Dad probably already had four sections of hose that were female-female. Your washing machine hoses! :)

Just thot I'd post this in case it helps someone else sometimes.

Dang lazer... your are the man!!! I am blinded by flash of the frickin' obvious!!! Kudo's to ya bro!!! :cool:

[Zombie Axe]

I would say if the well casing or hole is wide enough shouldn't be a problem. I know several folks that have this method setup...

Wish I could find one for my 365' deep well :eek:

[lazer128]

Dang lazer... your are the man!!! I am blinded by flash of the frickin' obvious!!! Kudo's to ya bro!!! :cool:

Funny!
I'm telling you.....you don't learn this stuff from watching boring azz movies! MacGyver was the man! :D

Guess I figured out the hose thing when I was flushing out the cooling system on a truck years ago. You know the kits you cut a "T" into the heater hose and then hook up to a garden hose? Well.....if you loose that adapter then you can use a washing machine hose. I keep one hanging in the shop all the time.

Glad I could help! :p

[Zombie Axe]

Dude, everyone knows something, someone don't ;) It is all about sharing in the knowledge my friend :)

[CJD]

Keep in mind that some washing machine hoses have flow preventers in case the hose bursts. They are easy to remove, but if you don't know they are there, you sure would be scratching your head.

[Zombie Axe]

Good thought as well :)

[RossA]

I would love to have a well with a manual pump on my property for bad situations. Trouble is, I live in the city and they kind of frown upon drilling wells on your property. I assume that in Houston the water level can't be very far down. If I could only find someone who could do it quietly...:rolleyes:

[barkingowl]

We're on city water here, but we have a 300 gallon container full of water sitting on the back deck. There's also a 300 gallon hot tub full of water & an 80 gallon rain barrel. If worst comes to worst there are streams in the neighborhood as well as some ponds & fountains in the neighboring business parks.

[TheUnboundOne]

Zombie Axe,

You wrote:

Been away for most of the day today, but when I got home, Dear ol' Dad told me his well quit working. We feared the worst as there was power to the pressure switch but no pressure was building... Something was screwed up. The contact on the switch looked pretty bad with a lot of carbon build up... No problem... Killed the power, took a piece of fine grit sand paper and shined them up, put back on the power and we were good to go...

Yep! So much depends on the ability of the power to flow to the devices we need every day.

I found that out when I revived my dead computer one time simply by taking some canned air to the insides of my CPU. Dust will kill a connection and can play Hell with a processor chip if not removed. Right after I removed the dust, I replugged the computer in and it came back to life (sans some minor data which I had in hard copy form elsewhere. YESSSS!)

[BROWNING12]

I live in Fort Worth,Texas and found a guy that purchased thousands of gallons of water from FEMA, the cardbord boxes the gallons of water came in became damaged and FEMA doesnt want the water. Long story short I picked up a truck load of water today and it is fine. If anyone lives in or near FORT WORTH TEXAS, pm me and I will tell you where you can pick it up. Oh, the best part is it,s FREE. The guy just wants to get it out of storage.