No water, cold temps, any ideas?

[XJeffro]

Hello,
I have a deep well that serves my house and a garage apartment. Everything (pressure tank, switch, water softener, etc.) is located in one of the garages with minimal heat. Everything was working the other day, and when we woke up yesterday, there was no water in either place. We have had single digit temps for 4-5 days. I thought the pipes might be frozen, so i put 2 heaters near all the pipes all day yesterday, with no luck. For some reason my pressure gauge says 58 lbs., but there is no water in the pressure tank. I thought it might be the pressure switch, so I replaced it. That didnt fix anything, and my gauge still says 58lbs. I put the old switch back on and I can hear a hum from the pump when I manually run the pump in the well.

I think I have it narrowed to 2 things: its frozen somewhere, or the pump is bad. Does this sound right? Should I check anything else? And why would my pressure gauge still read 58 lbs with no water in the system? Thanks for the help. I really need to flush my toilets...

[Gary Slusser]

The pressure switch may be broken, they do that and stick at some pressure reading. Since when you turn on the pump you get a hum, assuming that's on a pipe and the pump is in the well, the pump is running. You shouldn't do that though, the pump could build enough pressure to blow itself off the drop pipe or break some plumbing or it will overheat.

Here's my idea, very low heat in a probably uninsulated garage and single digit temps for days... something is probably frozen and the bt of heat you've got isn't thawing everything or, the line from the pump is broken inside the well or somewhere and it won't allow water to the pressure tank.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I had a similar problem just this weekend due to single digit weather. Though most of the piping in the well house was lagged, the nipple going to the pressure switch wasn't. If I manually engaged the switch then the pump would come on and I could hear (and see in a clear filter housing) water flowing. I heated the nipple and base of the switch *very* gently with a propane torch. It only took a minute or so and everything was back to normal.