Last night as temps fell, our water died!

Paco Dennis

Paco Dennis

SF VIP
Location
Mid-Missouri
It is -9 right now. Yikes!!

Last night while cooking dinner our water stopped working. We are on a well that was installed last year. We made it fine last year, but last night it just stopped. It had reached about 3 degrees outside. So either something froze up in our water line, or the pump died. I sure hope it was the first. Waiting until spring, and paying another $2000...nope. Now, if one of our cars start ( crossing fingers ), we can go get some water. We can buy some up the road, ( Bottled [ we know - very bad ] ), or drive 20 miles to fill up our 5 gallon bottles. We should have had at least one filled before this happened.

I noticed another small glitch in this new winter. I get chilled easier than ever. It feels bad now when I get chilled. Like I am wanting to go into shock or something. So I have going out daily as the temp gets lower. A good exercise for that is getting the wood in. I like doing that also. Anyway others who read this might have had some "cold" experiences that are/were noteworthy. I will keep u informed.
 

I awoke to 7 F with a high of 12 expected today. No high wind so far at least. But over the next few days I believe it is supposed to drop more.

I use small "smart" temp/hum sensors to monitor areas of the house, including basement pipes and where the water enters the house. I also fill gallon jugs ahead of time as a bit of upstairs "heat ballast" as well as drinking water if worst came to worst.

I meant to have the car battery tested and replaced if necessary before all of this but it never happened. I had a couple of times last Winter when I couldn't get the car to crank. I'd bought a supercapacitor based 12 volt jump starting device, and it works ok though obviously less convenient than a normal start. Rather light, stores without degradation, and if the car battery is at a good enough charge it can slurp power from the battery then dump it all back in a cranking burst. It can also be charged via a 12 volt supply or USB charger.
 
Last edited:
First place to look is your breaker box and see if the breaker for your well pump is tripped.

I hope you don't have frozen pipes, that can cause a lot of issues if they burst. You may want to get someone out there to figure things out. Good luck.
 

C50 said:
First place to look is your breaker box and see if the breaker for your well pump is tripped.

I hope you don't have frozen pipes, that can cause a lot of issues if they burst. You may want to get someone out there to figure things out. Good luck.
Click to expand...
We did check the breaker. It is not shorted. Darn. I know about frozen pipes and them bursting. This new well has the "newest" plastic kind of pipe that is better they say. How can we find out if it froze in the pipes? I should ask Bing these questions maybe she will know. Notice I called it a her. ( Female voice Bot. )

Here are some signs that your pipes might be frozen:

  1. Limited Water: If the water from your faucets is dribbling out or not coming out at all, this could be a sign of frozen pipes12.
  2. Bulging Pipes: When water freezes, it expands, which can cause a pipe to bulge noticeably13.
  3. Gurgling Sounds: If your pipes start making banging or gurgling sounds, it can indicate you’ve got ice traveling through your pipes13.
  4. Condensation and Cracks: If you notice a pipe that’s covered in a layer of condensation or has small surface cracks, they may be freezing13.
  5. Smelly Water: A sewage smell emanating from your faucets usually accompanies a freezing exterior sewer line1.
If you suspect your pipes are frozen, it’s recommended to shut off the water to prevent any potential damage12. If you can access the frozen pipe, you can try to thaw it with a hair dryer or a space heater2. However, do not attempt to thaw a frozen pipe with any sort of open flame device2. If you can’t locate the frozen pipe or solve the problem yourself, it’s best to call a professional plumber2. Please note that these are general guidelines and the exact steps may vary depending on your specific situation. Always consult with a professional if you’re unsure.

That didn't help. :)
 
You mentioned "new well" and "better plastic pipe", if you had a new well drilled and new pipe laid I would start with a call to the company that did the work. It's difficult for any of us to offer suggestions since we don't know how your system is set up.
 
This Am I recalled something that might help-but I really hope your water has returned. Every well situation is different.

Last November I had a new well pump put in. I had no water, no low temps to freeze up, and the plumber attached a new wire to the pump and the water came back. He had brought a new pump with him, per my request, and after installing the wire ,he tried to talk me out of the expense of a new pump but I had planned on getting a new pump anyhow. I knew it would not last forever.

My last pump was over 25 years old and the cost was about $120 or a little more. I could be wrong on that but not a major expense. But I had figured the new pump would be close to $1200 and it was, $ 1,185 with a good warranty and he had upgraded the circuit breaker box, and checked over my hot water heater.

Then about a week later I woke up to no water! The plumber came right back and had to replace the new wire he had put on it, with another new wire. He said those wires can last a long time but this was a new one. It already had a deep nick in it. He installed some sort of protective tube into the well to prevent the next new pump wire from scraping on any possible small stone in the shaft.

No more problems.

One of my elderly neighbors, with help, bought and installed a new pump himself years ago but now could never handle that.

He never mentioned changing the wire to the pump , but this was also the problem with another neighbor, who was afraid of the growing expense for new pumps, yet her bill was minimal ,to her relief, for a new small wire that produces the electric for the pump to work.

I have a faucet dripping at night when it is very cold, and a cabinet door kept open for heat to my water pipes, under my bathroom sink. And learned long ago to have a back up hair dryer, to an older one , just in case, if I have to thaw my metal hose connection-And I cover those metal hose connector pipes with insulation every Fall.
 
We should have been dripping the faucets. Really a mishap. It keeps things interesting...as long as we can get water somewhere we'll make it ok. We will call the well people tomorrow. hear what they have to say.
 
Paco Dennis said:
We should have been dripping the faucets. Really a mishap. It keeps things interesting...as long as we can get water somewhere we'll make it ok. We will call the well people tomorrow. hear what they have to say.
Click to expand...

A life long resident of my community said the same thing to me a few days ago when i was in his store. So don't feel too bad about not doing it. We had pipes freeze in Wyoming once in the daytime. I'd dripped the pipes over night but once syn up a couple of hours turned them off as temps were what i thought was high enough.

When we moved to NM, the first winter i checked the pipes frequently on cold nights, as i'd learned the sign of faucet spitting (which they also do if city turned off to make repairs) but also i could hear the slight crackle when i'd turn them on if ice starting to form. We also have outside thermometer visible from inside, so i could tell at what point (+15F) it would happen.

Luckily our pipes are all in a line thru south side of house from bathroom to kitchen, which is last faucet on the line so i only need to drip it. There's a baseboard heater in bedroom between bathroom and kitchen that is turned on at 20F to combat the chill a bit and i start the water dripping when the outside temp is even at 16 when i'm up tending fire.

This is winter #12 for us here, and and we've never had them freeze up. An unexpected benefit of doing this and our layout is when we go to bathroom in middle of night it only takes seconds to have hot water for washing up because it's already in the line.
 
feywon said:
A life long resident of my community said the same thing to me a few days ago when i was in his store. So don't feel too bad about not doing it. We had pipes freeze in Wyoming once in the daytime. I'd dripped the pipes over night but once syn up a couple of hours turned them off as temps were what i thought was high enough.

When we moved to NM, the first winter i checked the pipes frequently on cold nights, as i'd learned the sign of faucet spitting (which they also do if city turned off to make repairs) but also i could hear the slight crackle when i'd turn them on if ice starting to form. We also have outside thermometer visible from inside, so i could tell at what point (+15F) it would happen.

Luckily our pipes are all in a line thru south side of house from bathroom to kitchen, which is last faucet on the line so i only need to drip it. There's a baseboard heater in bedroom between bathroom and kitchen that is turned on at 20F to combat the chill a bit and i start the water dripping when the outside temp is even at 16 when i'm up tending fire.

This is winter #12 for us here, and and we've never had them freeze up. An unexpected benefit of doing this and our layout is when we go to bathroom in middle of night it only takes seconds to have hot water for washing up because it's already in the line.
Click to expand...
It sounds like you have had some experience with alternative ways of getting water. It is sooooo interesting that you chimed in now, because a miracle happened just hours ago. ( you are my miracle friend ). Misa got up about 4 hours later than me. I had been making the coffee with jugs of water, and rinsing all kinds of things with pouring water from big plastic bottles.

She gets up and is sleepily in the kitchen. She turns on the faucet absent mindedly and water came pouring out the faucet!!! It truly is a miracle. We have no idea what happened. Freaky and wonderful. :) Thank you. :)

1705339607639.jpeg
 
Paco Dennis said:
It sounds like you have had some experience with alternative ways of getting water. It is sooooo interesting that you chimed in now, because a miracle happened just hours ago. ( you are my miracle friend ). Misa got up about 4 hours later than me. I had been making the coffee with jugs of water, and rinsing all kinds of things with pouring water from big plastic bottles.

She gets up and is sleepily in the kitchen. She turns on the faucet absent mindedly and water came pouring out the faucet!!! It truly is a miracle. We have no idea what happened. Freaky and wonderful. :) Thank you. :)

View attachment 325325
Click to expand...
Glad to hear that! The time ours froze in Wyoming i was able to slowly warm them with hair dryer on low setting. The main inlet pipe was accessible thru floor in bathroom linen closet so i didn't have to lay on cold ground outside to do it. But it was inconvenient enough to motivate me to figure out prevention tactics.

We always keep some water in containers because of the occasional shut offs due to repairs or weird accidents. Also if you are not stopped by road conditions the city has an outside tap we can fill bottles from down at water dept office in center of town.
Once some one crashed car into a pumping station, more recently someone skidded turning into gas station and took out fire hydrant (a mere 3-4 ft from diesel pump). They had it fixed in a few hours.
 
Paco Dennis said:
She gets up and is sleepily in the kitchen. She turns on the faucet absent mindedly and water came pouring out the faucet!!! It truly is a miracle. We have no idea what happened. Freaky and wonderful.
Click to expand...

So glad your water came back.

When I lived in Colorado once the pump in the barn wasn't bringing up water and I left it open because somehow that can help it start to work when it is frozen, but I forgot it and that night I noticed the water in the house was coming out of the faucet in a bit of a pumping rhythm, and when I ran out to the barn the pump I'd left open had started working and had already flooded the tack up area. But the silver lining was that while I was sitting out in the cold December night waiting for the little water pump to clean up the flood, I got to see a meteor shower.
 
Update: Our water is back on, BUT one of our frost free pumps is leaking...bad. We are having to turn the water off, and then only turn it on when we need to fill up the jugs, or maybe do dishes or sponge bathe. So not all is well in OZ. There will be some extra work. Oh well, it will keep us active.
 
That's the Spirit Paco Dennis! We learn so much when things like this happen.
I am so GLAD you got the water going again.

There is a lot of info here on what to do when a frost free water pump leaks:
Frost free water pump leaking - AOL Search Results

One thing I had to tell myself, after my husband died, is that everything can be fixed!

But, of course, the prices of repairs are always a concern and the frustration can get us down.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top