Water Well Drilling & Service - Advice from the Pros

If you live in a home equipped with a well, then you may have taken the good water pressure in your home for granted until it diminished. Low water pressure can lead to showers that take longer and don't feel as refreshing, washing machines that take seemingly forever to fill up, and that chore of hand-washing dishes taking much longer than it used to. You may not immediately know the cause of sudden low water pressure in a home equipped with a well. Read on to learn about four common causes of this sudden decline in pressure. 1. Clogged Sediment Filter If your well is equipped with a sediment filter, as most are, then the key to why your home's water pressure suddenly dropped could be as simple as a clogged sediment filter. While how quickly your filter becomes clogged depends highly on the quality of your well water, a good rule of thumb is to change it every six months to not only maintain maximum water pressure, but also keep your water clean. However, some well owners need...

 There are several options on the market for submersible motor protection. These offerings include product that protects your motor from incoming power failures or brown-out conditions, lightening strikes, run-dry conditions, rapid cycling and overcurrent scenarios. In this article we will highlight some of the products in the market that we have time-tested and believe provide our clients with a high level of protection. We will grade each on price and reliability as well.  Grading Scale 1-5, 1= Least and 5= Most Variable Frequency Drives Variable Frequency Drives (VFD's) are controllers for your submersible well pump and motor that can be as basic as a control box or as detailed and in-depth as your vehicle with just as many options. Most of the VFD's we install at Heritage Well are manufactured by Yaskawa  and include everything from the basic submersible operations to the highly engineered options to run large horsepower motors.  These VFD's are able to convert s...

 We are often asked what the warranty period on a submersible well pump is. All  submersible manufacturer's offer a 1 YR WARRANTY on submersible pumps and motor product. Check out this quick information sheet from Pentair Products:  Many manufacturers have specific agreements with installers or dealers like us at Heritage Well to offer an extended warranty for specific periods of time. These warranties are subject to review from the manufacturer and exclude failure due to electrical, water quality and heat related issues.  Unfortunately, manufacturers like Grundfos, Goulds, Franklin and Pentair have had the upper hand in these agreements and most recently have regularly denied warranty replacements for many of our clients due to issues listed above. As a result, here at Heritage Well we have been transitioning our clients to accept what is formally written from the manufacturers and accepting what is provided which is a 1 YR manufacturer warranty in the "bumper to bu...

 We often get asked what a completed well looks like. To tell the truth, it doesn't look like more than a piece of steel coming out of the ground with a cement slab around it. Here's a quick picture:  The real magic in well construction is all below the surface. Well drilling is an art, science and geology lesson all wrapped into one tight space! Well Drilling, especially in Southern California can be very challenging and there are a lot of unknowns. As you might know topography and geology in California are very diverse due to our unique position in the world. This means that formations, strata, and material vary greatly depending on your location.  An experienced drilling company should have an army of experience, knowledge and records to be prepared for your drilling project. They should be able to accurately tell you what to expect in your drilling project and be prepared with the tooling and material to make it happen. Here at Heritage Well our family has been drilli...

  More than 43 million people in the US ( over 15% ) use well water. That’s a lot of wells and a lot of issues can arise with how well water is pumped into your house. While modern wells in rural and suburban areas run great for many years without problems, issues can and do arise that need fixing. Not having water access in a more secluded or hard to reach area can be a real headache, so knowing what to look for when a problem pops up will help you act fast to restore your well water system. Even if you own a well, there may be a chance you don’t know what a well pressure tank is and therefore, don’t know what to do if it does unfortunately need to be replaced. Don’t get left high and dry, let’s learn about what you can do if your well pressure tank is in need of replacing.  What is a well pressure tank? A well’s pressure tank maintains the water pressure in your house and protects the life of your well’s pump. It stores water down below and has compressed air up top and prov...

Are you aware that the EPA sets drinking water standards for individual water wells? The US Environmental Protection Agency or EPA has a detailed list of 90 drinking water contaminants in water wells and their limits. Now, you may be asking yourself what qualifies as a contaminant? The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) defines "contaminant" as any physical, chemical, biological or radiological substance or matter in water. Drinking water may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. Some contaminants may be harmful if consumed at certain levels in drinking water. The presence of contaminants does not necessary indicate that the water poses a health risk. The list of contaminants can be found here  and includes things like levels for nitrates, lead, arsenic and many other items that are commonly found in our drinking water.  Contaminants are classified into 4 different categories by the EPA and listed as the following:  Physical  cont...

 We are happy to report our favorite residential submersible pump brand for 2023! For the 2023 year we are celebrating our partnership with Berkeley pumps and want to commend them for offering the most-reliable residential submersible well products on the market today! We have had a long-standing relationship with Pentair manufacturing and want to commend them on their product reliability and overall value! The Berkeley name has been around since 1937 when they were first used to irrigate the fertile fields of the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. Today, Berkeley pumps offers a wide variety of water supply products for the residential and commercial markets. Berkeley is an industry leader and has one of the most comprehensive and reliable product lines in the well industry.  At Heritage Well Service we rely on Berkeley product to service both high and low flow well solutions as well as deeper sets. Berkeley is well known for supplying "curve envy" in that they offer h...

  Signs you may Need a new Water Well Pump Unfortunately, there are not many signs to warn you that your  water well pump is going bad. You’ll most likely find out you need a replacement on a morning when you’ve woken up late, your kids can’t find their homework, and you have a meeting with your boss at 8:00 a.m.  In other words, you’ll most likely find out you need a replacement at one of the most inopportune times, like when you try to start your morning shower, and you find you have very low pressure or no water at all.  Well Pump Troubleshooting  Your home’s water system is made up of two important components: the well pump and the pressure tank. The well pump draws the water from the well near your home; the pressure tank provides storage for the water and regulates your home’s water pressure. So, when you shower, wash the dishes or run the washing machine, that water comes from the pressure tank.  If you think your well pump is going bad, it may truly be y...

 Are you looking at well pump replacement or initial installation and wondering about proper selection of pumping equipment? At Heritage Well Service we believe a lot of goes into proper pump selection and pride ourselves in helping our client make sound decisions on pump selection. Some things to consider when selecting a pump for your well are: Well Depth, Total Dynamic Head, Desired Production Rate and Cost.  Well Depth & Well Production What does well depth and overall well production have to do with pump selection? EVERYTHING!! In all pump sizing options you will be limited on what you are able to install by overall well depth, well production and availability of electricity. Learn more about these items below.  Total Dynamic Head Total Dynamic head is the total amount of system pressure, measured in feet, where water can flow through a system before gravity takes over. Total Dynamic Head or TDH is used to correctly size your well pump.  To calculate TDH, in...

  In general, a residential 3- wire pump generally has a useful life of 10-12 years, whereas a residential 2-wire pump has a useful life of 8-10 years. Various factors are responsible for determining how long a submersible pump would last. The running time of the pump, its quality, and electrical supply are a few of them. Learn more below about how to improve the useful life of your well pump and how best to ensure the useful life on your equipment can be improved.   Excess wear and tear-- to upthrust/downthrust issues: An upthrust issue occurs when low head pressure on the top of the pump fights against the higher volume of water that is pumped from the bottom of the pump. This causes the impellers in the pump to float upwards and rub against the diffuser plate. The diffuser will wear down to the excess striking of the impeller stack.  Conversely, there is a downthrust issue when the upwards pressure is greater than the bottom pressure and the water being pumped upwards...