No Water in Cottage

[RCO]

Hello! This is my first post to this forum. We have a cottage in N Minnesota about 100 miles east of Fargo. We were just there last weekend and left by performing the usually tasks of turning off the water pump at breaker box along with turning on faucets to drain water lines during the winter. We also shut off our water heater breaker.

We had guests arrive yesterday to use the place for the long weekend. We received a VM from them indicating they had no water after following the directions. It trickled for a little bit and stopped.

I called a neighbor up there who came over to check to make sure everything was turned on as it should be. He said there was no water, no pressure at tank. The place is not very old.....built in 2008/2009. It has the pressure tank inside the utility closet that houses the boiler for the in-slab radiant heat system. The well is located in the front corner of the yard roughly 50 feet from where it enters under the slab to the place. There is also a hydrant beside the house in the area of the water line. Our neighbor tried the hydrant as well and no water.

There is probably a couple of feet of snow up there but a vast majority of the area between well and home connection is plowed for access and turning around with vehicle. It has been a very cold winter as it has in many areas. But this week had been somewhat moderating. Although I do know last Monday AM it was around -30 up there.

I did not build this place but my assumption is the the water pump is in the well....roughly 4" - 6" diameter pipe that is capped above. So my guess is that the pump is possibly not working or line is frozen in between well and home?? Any ideas or recommendations would be appreciated. As we are 280 miles away and haven't had any plumbers since owning, we are at their mercy to troubleshoot this issue.

My neighbor has turned the breaker off again. Is it a smart thing to turn the breaker off and drain as we have been doing? Probably just due to an abnormally long, cold winter with little warming allowing frost line to deepen??

Thank you for your help!

 

[Valveman]

This has been one of those years when my first answer is always, “the lines are frozen”. We could use a little of that global warming they are lying to use about, instead of the little ice age, which is more likely what is really happening. Probably not much you can do until it gets above 32 for a few hours.

Turning off the breaker when the lines are frozen will keep you from burning up the pump.

You are doing the best you can to drain it, but you need a bleeder orifice a few feet down the well so when you drain the pressure out of the system, the bleeder will open and drain the lines to the well also.

If you know the horsepower of the pump, you can use a clip around amp meter to see if frozen lines are really the problem. Full load amps means the pump is pumping full flow, 30% to 50% less than full load amps means the lines are frozen.

 

[speedbump]

You mentioned plowing snow. If they plowed the snow over the pipe from the well to the house, driving on the bare ground will drive the frost down lower than normal.

I agree with Valveman, it sure sounds frozen.

Years ago in Michigan we would rent a steamer to thaw lines. I don't know if they even make them anymore, but that was the only way to thaw plastic lines. You would break the pipes apart and push a rubber hose with steam coming out the end through the length of pipe. It always worked for me.

 

[RCO]

Yes. I've spoken to a couple of well drilling companies in the area as well as a local fellow who had the same thing happen at this farm up there. They would to use steam to thaw the line. However, since we are there so infrequently, I'm guessing the best thing for us to do is have them unthaw the line and then blow it dry. Then wait until the ground thaws to use again. I'm thinking we'd be wasting our money to thaw and try to use again this winter as we've been doing. Frost is too deep and we'd end up with frozen pipe again.

 

[speedbump]

I think that's the wise thing to do. Replumbing can get expensive.