What’s In A Clean And Service

We see a wide range of instruments that come in for repair. All receive a thorough clean and service – and sometimes that’s really all they came in for.

When we receive an instrument they’re tagged and logged first. We note any instructions that were sent in (we love it when we get notes about what’s wrong… hint, hint) and then start in on the cleaning. We’ve seen everything from instruments that look like they’ve hardly been used, to instruments that are quite literally caked in dirt, dust and casing grease. We test the electronics to see if they are working, check the battery (if it comes in with one), check continuity with the probe (if there is one), remove the cover plate, record and look up serial numbers and make any other initial observations.

We then begin removing and cleaning the tape/coax starting at the probe end (again, if there is one. Sometimes they are no longer one with the unit…) We clean the entire length of the tape/coax noting any minor damage like nicks that need covering, note any significant damage that needs replacement or repair, we spot check calibration of coax and lastly clean the reel once it’s empty of line.

We’ll put together a comprehensive quote with various options for repair or replacement – if that is what you prefer, or you can give us the ok to just do what we think needs doing. (You can always trust us to take the most cost-effective route.) We then tackle any minor preventative fixes or major repairs, put everything back together, box it up and get it out the door! Often we are able to do a same-day turn around – especially if we’ve got a note and/or can speak to you right away.

We’re also proud to say that we service and repair our competitors instruments – often we are able to repair what they wouldn’t, saving you the cost of a brand-new instrument.

A clean and service starts at $40.

Well water measurement

Why Monitor Your Ground Water

Let’s start with a different question first… where does your tap water come from? (Hint: ‘the tap’ is not the answer we’re looking for.) Seriously though, do you know where your tap water is sourced from? Maybe you live in a city and you know you pay the municipality, but have you ever found out where that water comes from? Is it a lake? Or a river? Maybe you live out in a rural area and know darn well that you have a well on the property. It’s an interesting question to ponder, and when you consider that water is necessary to sustain life, it might be worth knowing where your water is coming from, how sustainable that supply is, and perhaps what’s going into it and how it’s being made safe to drink and bathe in. But that’s a whole other topic for discussion.

We were originally asking ‘why monitor your groundwater’ and that question applies to well owners or any organization/municipality that sources their water from a well. Knowing a little about your well and the water that’s in it can range from interesting factoids to critical data. Water levels below ground can vary just like they do above ground, so much like keeping track of lake levels in summer, keeping track of your well levels seasonally can help you establish seasonal trends, know when you’ve got plenty, or when you’re getting lean, and a good data trail can help if something changes and your well suddenly dries up. The latter can be the result of things you can’t control, like an earthquake… but it can also result from other things you can’t control like a development boom in your neighborhood with a whole lot of new houses consuming a whole lot of water! So keeping a monthly log of the water level in your well can be a good idea.Why Monitor Your Ground Water

As with any data collection, try to keep the variables the same each time you run a test – same time of day (for example, before the entire family take their daily showers and all the water-using machines in the house run), same day of the month (for example, set up a reminder on your phone to do your monthly well test on the 15th)… you get the picture. Try to keep the test conditions the same every time. Maybe for fun sometime, you and the kids could run an experiment – measure the well first thing in the morning, then take showers, run dish and clothes washers all in rapid succession (lots of water being used) then run out and test the water level again. Is there a difference? Does your system have a big storage tank that the house pulls from that gets filled by the well? These are interesting ways you can learn more about your system and be more aware of the resource that you rely on daily!

To learn more, check out these handy resources:

Repair of ground water instrumentation

Repair Service

Tough as our instruments are, we know that the field can be a pretty tough place! We had an operator sheepishly tell us, upon delivery of a mangled instrument for repair, that his colleagues claimed he could break an anvil. It’s ok, we don’t judge. We just repair. Joanie is a whiz with all things water-level indicator and is rarely stumped or unable to repair what you break.  She coined the phrase ‘we make ’em, you break ’em, we fix ’em’ and that’s exactly what we do.

So when you find that you do have something that needs troubleshooting, replacement parts, fixing, cleaning, etc… pack it up in a box with some padding so that it doesn’t get more beat up, include your contact information and what the trouble appears to be, and anything else we might need to expedite the work and get it back to you. We’ll give it a look, get you a quote (both for repair and for replacement), get the work done and get it back to you ASAP. And if you’ve got a really great story for what happened, you can include that too!

*Note about the pictured damaged tape: this instrument came in with some unusual and seemingly unfixable damage. The great thing about our tapes is that they are extremely hardy, and damage like this is rare unless it’s been put into an equally, unusual situation! In this case we were able to remove the damaged section (thanks to the stainless steel conductors there was no stretch in the rest of the good tape), replace the length and probe, and had it out the door in no time, at a fraction of the price of a completely new unit.

Ground Water Level Measurement Indicators

Welcome to Our New Website

We are proud to announce the release of our newly redesigned website!

First and foremost, a big thank you to Karen Burroughs at Bayside Web Design for her skill and expertise and for working with our budget. As you can see, we’ve upgraded the look and feel of our website considerably! Lots of new pictures and details that we hope will help you in your decision making.

Of course, our fast, friendly and reliable service stays the same, no changes there! We’ll continue to turn out a hardy, accurate and easy-to-use product in addition to servicing and repairing ours and our competitors instruments. The backbone of our product line is a simple, surface-to-ground water sounder that comes complete and ready to use, has easily replaceable parts and most importantly doesn’t require any specialized training to use. Whether you’re a ground water professional or a private well owner, you can put our instruments to work for you.

If you have any questions about our products, a repair or you want to place an order, give us a call at 360.676.9635 or drop us an email at contact@waterlineusa.com.