Mr. Dumas has a question for the Alaskans

[hunter63]

So this is a real dumb question, but what do y'all do for water?
Do you have wells? With the purma-frost and all?
Does it matter where in the state it is?
If so, how deep? Do you need to do something special to keep from freezing?
Pump type?

Seeing the Alaskan Survivalist, "deep freeze cooler" made me think.

[Justin Case]

I remember Sourdough was working on his well a few weeks ago,,

[Sourdough]

I have two water wells both 66' deep. We use a "Pit-Less" system so the water never comes to the frost depth. My Pit-less is 12' deep, and most of my waterline is 8' or more deep, and insulated with Blue Board.

Perma-frost is scattered in Alaska. Well depths in this area run 50' to 350' deep, to dry holes (Expensive dry holes).

I will most likely not get the well pump installed this year. So I get water from a creek, it is pure.

[Alaskan Survivalist]

There is also heat tape to wrap pipes.

[crashdive123]

There is also heat tape to wrap pipes.

Just don't lose power in the winter.

[hunter63]

My well is 185 ft at "The Place" 80 gal bury pressure tank at 8 ft down and submersible pump at the bottom.

Pipe to cabin was wrapped when installed with redundent heat tapes double up.
One in use in the winter and a spare.

Just wondering how y'all did it.

[Alaskan Survivalist]

Just don't lose power in the winter.

They are buried underground also and leaving the water dripping will help prevent it from freezing also. Like Hunter 63 I have a pump house dug 8 feet down. In my case part of that decision had to do with distance electricity had to travel and did not want pumps burning up.

[Sourdough]

I did not want to do it, but many people here use a "Drain-Back" System, where you drill two or three, 1/8" holes between the pump and the pit-less near the top, that way when your tank is full and the pump shuts off, the water in the line slowly bleeds back, called Drain-back or Bleed-back. that way there is no water in the line to freeze.

[Chuck]

This is the spring we use for all of our water it comes right out of the ground. So far it has never froze or gone dry we've use it for over 10 years.



http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae71/Alaska-Homesteaders/Homestead/our-spring.jpg
(http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae71/Alaska-Homesteaders/Homestead/our-spring.jpg)