What To Do When Your Well Keeps Going Dry
One of the challenges rural homeowners are facing at an increased rate is the inconsistency of available well-water for their home. “My well keeps running dry, what can I do?” is a question we’ve been asked this year more than ever before. If this is a problem you’ve been facing, there are a few options you can explore to help improve your well. Or if you’re looking for a sure-fire and permanent solution, you can transition to a cistern. Below you’ll find the range steps you can consider that can help you make the best decision possible for your home.
Immediate Action to Take When Your Well Goes Dry:
- Turn off the pump immediately to avoid running the pump dry and causing costly damage to your system.
- Conserve your remaining well water by only using it for essential needs like drinking, cooking, and basic hygiene.
- Purchase a temporary source of safe drinking water such as bottled water. Or use a small liquid storage tank to hold water from certified water haulers, or municipal water stations. Do not pour water from an external source into your well, as this can contaminate the aquifer.
- Before making major decisions, have a licensed professional check for simpler problems like a pump malfunction, electrical issues, or plumbing leaks. Finding these issues could be a best-case scenario resulting in a fast and economical fix.
Long-Term Well Improvement Options:
If you’re considering improving or altering your well, we highly recommend hiring a professional who can create a customized plan for your situation. Every well is different and will require a unique fix in order to work correctly.
- Due to climate change, hot, dry summers, and other challenges, many water tables are dropping year after year. If the water table has dropped but not disappeared, a well technician may be able to lower the pump to a deeper water level. This will likely require a new pump that is designed to handle the deeper well and altered recovery rate.
- A professional can determine if deepening the existing well is an option to increase its water yield. This would require additional digging, along with a new pump system designed for your deeper well.
- If improving your existing well is not a viable solution, your remaining option is to dig a new well.
All of these options are a gamble. For a sure-fire permanent fix, we recommend switching to a cistern.
The cost of repeatedly trying to save your well, improve it, or chase consistently lowering water level with deep well pumps, will cost more time, effort, and money than making the switch to a cistern. Providing clean, reliable, consistent water for good.
If a well is going dry regularly it will most likely continue to be an ongoing problem. Not to mention the impact of climate changes, dry and hot summers, etc. that have become the norm in Ontario. The good news is that installing a concrete cistern, poly cistern, or low-profile cistern can be a quick and easy job. One option that many of our customers choose is to connect their new cistern into the existing plumbing that runs from their well into their home. You can do this by bypassing the well and feeding the cistern into your plumbing system with a tee or an elbow. The benefit with this is that it will require minimal plumbing and digging, accelerate the project, and get water back into your home as quickly as possible.
If you’ve been experiencing challenges with your well, we can help. We’ve got a huge selection of concrete and poly cisterns in stock, along with the pumps and plumbing your contractor will need to complete the job on time and on budget.
