Snow in well/Low production

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ssr384

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My well has been decreasing in productivity over the last week or so here in the mountains of CO. It fills a 400 gallon cistern in the basement that is no longer staying full as it usually does. I went outside to take a look at the well today and think I found the problem, but wanted to consult with you all first. The pump/well company came out about a year ago to service the pump and ended up putting the pump down another 5-10ft (from what I remember) farther than it was before. As a result, my well cover no longer really covers my well. As a result of the high winds and low temps we've had here lately, the well is now filled with snow (at least at the top). I am guessing this is freezing the outside of the pipes, reducing the flow into the cistern/house. I was going to use a blow dryer to melt the snow or just pour warm water over it to get rid of the snow, but wanted some advice before I did anything stupid/caused any more problems. I have attached some pictures to give you an idea of what is going on. Thank you in advanced for the help friends!!!

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Reach4

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I don't know what the heater should be. I was thinking maybe immersion heater (not good in air) or roof ice dam heater (lower wattage than ideal. Maybe the roof heat cable could melt its way down.

I am thinking to get a 4x8 sheet of high-R rigid foam insulation, and cut into 4x4. Put those on top to hold heat.

I am not a pro.
 

Valveman

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If you clean that snow out and you can see the water pipe coming out of the casing, that could be your problem. However, that is a pitless adapter cap so I would expect the water line to be coming out of the casing about 5' below the surface.
 

Boycedrilling

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4 or 5 years ago we had gone to the National Groundwater convention in Nashville, first week in December. Get back home Sunday night. It's between zero and give degrees outside. First thing Monday morning i get a call from one of my customers.

He's got no water. His well is about 650 feet deep with about 75 feet of casing to get to bedrock. Then the open hole section is basalt . Static water level is about 600 feet. Many wells like this will blow or suck air, depending upon the barometric pressure. Go out to his house and you can hear the air just whistling going into the well thru the air vent .The pump was running but the drop pipe was frozen from the cold air being sucked into the well. Got the pump shut off.

We built a little straw bale hut and put a heater in it. 2 hours later we had water. Luckily nothing broke.

So my suggestion would be to get something over the well head and get a heater in there and thaw what you can out. Don't really understand why your pump company wasn't able to get the well cap back on correctly.
 

ssr384

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Thanks for the suggestions guys. Boyce, any certain type of heater you would recommend for getting this done? I too dont understand why they didn't fit the well cap back on properly, I am going to go with Reach4's recommendation and put some r-board over it once i get it fixed and then I'll go about figuring out why the cap doesn't fit in the first place.
 

Boycedrilling

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You need some that will not fall over or catch what ever you make your tent with on fire. If you had a level spot, I would just us a $20 ceramic heater. They have a fan and a tipover cutoff switch. I've made a tent out of a blue tarp and put a propane catalytic heater inside, with success. Though I wouldn't leave that unattended. A forced air propane heater would work well also. Will probably take a few hours to melt the snow and thaw things out. On small stuff I've used my hot air gun.

I would not recommend a propane torch of any kind. EveryBody gets too impatient with one of those and burns stuff instead of just hearing and thawing it.
 

Valveman

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You can also do a lot of good with a hair blow dryer. I would dig out as much lose snow as possible. Snow is a good insulator. I tried to melt a snow drift away from a gate. Used a big weed burner with a propane tank. Wasn't doing a thing. Threw it down and rented a skid loader. Lol
 
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