Prevent Your Well from Freezing This Winter by Following These Tips
Though Florida may be better known for its hot summers than any other season, it can get quite cold when the dead of winter hits. And when we begin to experience these cold temps, you need to prepare your well and well pump so that it doesn’t freeze and break during a cold snap.
Again: Here in Florida, we’re unaccustomed to very cold weather. We go most of the year trying to keep cool, so it might be off your radar to prepare for the cold when it hits. But a little bit of prep can go a long way toward keeping your well and well pump safe during the winter months, helping it to avoid breakages and helping you to avoid repair costs.
Keep Your Pipes Insulated
Most of the damage that can occur when your well freezes comes from burst pipes. As the water in your pipes begins to freeze and expand, it could cause those pipes to burst open. And should that happen, you would be left without running water until they were fixed — for a fee you might not be too happy to pay.
To keep this headache from affecting your well and your home life, take a simple precaution to prevent your pipes from bursting: simply wrap them in insulation. This added layer of insulation will help to keep the water inside your well’s pipes from reaching freezing temps, ensuring that they don’t burst when the weather dips way down.
Keep Your Well Pump in an Insulated Enclosure
Of course, your well’s pipes provide only part of the structure that allows you to draw water from your well. The other part (the one that allows you to actually get your water drawn) also helps to get water to your home, so it deserves as much attention and protection as the piping does in the winter.
And similar to the piping, your well pump needs to be insulated against the elements to stay safe during the harsh winter months. Of course, because of its starkly different design, your well pump’s means of insulation is not similar to your pipes’: Instead, you’ll want to provide a small, insulated enclosure for your well pump to keep it safe and warm.
Put a Heat Lamp in Your Well House
While the above-mentioned enclosure will certainly go a long way toward keeping your well pump safe and protected when the weather starts to cool down, it may not always be 100 percent effective in that endeavor. So, it might need a bit of help to keep your well pump safe from freezing during the winter.
And that work can come in the form of a heat lamp. By installing a heat lamp in your well house, you won’t have to hope that a static enclosure will provide sufficient heat for your well pump. Instead, you can just flip on your heat lamp when the temperatures get into dangerous lows, and you’ll know that your well pump will be protected from freezing.