Everything You Need To Know To Find The Best Water Drilling Rig for Sale

Choosing a water well drilling rig requires careful consideration before signing on the dotted line. It's not an impulse decision. While price is the most common consideration for many people, there are quite a few other aspects to consider ' some of which may outweigh the influence of price. Think about the service and support, training and quality; and don't forget about the ever-important mud pump.

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Whether shopping new or used, a little research and education will help identify the right drill to meet your needs.

Service and Support:

Service is just as important as the product itself, so don't skimp on the partner you choose.

Look for a company that supports its customers, even after the sale. Oftentimes, if a product comes with a cheap price tag, it also comes with a subpar support model. The manufacturers of these discounted rigs might not be around long or won't be there to help you with questions or issues after the sale.

Instead, choose a manufacturer who is known for their after-sale support and resources. If they offer training manuals, videos and technical support, they are likely a trustworthy manufacturer who will help further the success of your business. Look for a company who has actual people answering their support calls. If they can answer not only your product questions, but also your operation and application questions, the company is likely dedicated to the success of its customers, not just making a sale.

A reliable company should be there when you need them with global parts shipping and expert support available by and . By partnering with a knowledgeable and experienced manufacturer, you'll be able to tap into their familiarity with the products and logistics to get the most out of your water drilling equipment.

Another good indication of a reliable manufacturer is their warranty. One of the best ways to determine a company's confidence in its products is by reviewing the warranty policies that accompany a purchase.

Training:

Proper training is essential to the success of your operation, so work with a manufacturer who offers a safety and operational overview.

Operating a new piece of equipment presents a list of potential challenges. If an operator has not worked on a water well drill, or even if they have but are inexperienced with the brand or model, training is essential.

Many manufacturers offer onsite training, which is a great way for drillers to gain hands-on experience before beginning a project. Proper training helps operators become familiar with equipment, as well as the different roles on a drill site. By learning the roles and responsibilities on a jobsite, operators can minimize the risk of injury. Find a manufacturer who understands these roles and works with you to share safe operating procedures.

Quality:

Don't cut corners on materials and components if you want a drill that will perform well and last over time.

'You get what you pay for' is an over-used phrase, but it's true. A higher-quality product might cost a bit more, but when it performs better, causes fewer problems and lasts longer, those few extra dollars are worth it. Plus, low-quality drills typically have little to no resale value compared to higher-quality models.

Look for a manufacturer that discloses the quality of the materials they use, along with the assembly processes. Find a heavy-duty welded steel frame and thick drill pipes to ensure the drill can withstand challenging conditions. Some manufacturers cut corners by using thinner steel. This can cause the frame to bend or twist while driving or prematurely wear due to corrosion in hot, humid climates.

Having a robust water well drill pipe and other strong components can also make a huge difference. Some manufacturers cut costs by offering inferior water pipe instead of heavy-duty ASTM A500 spec drill pipe. And while drill pipe can cost 10 times more than water pipe, if your drill is 100 feet into the ground in a remote location and you hit hard soil or rocks, a broken pipe could mean a major setback. This situation could take hours to resolve or mean moving to a new site and abandoning your pipe to rectify. Look for manufacturers that use at least 1 ¾-inch-diameter drill pipe and connections made of heat-treated alloy steel. Lower-quality drills often use ¾- or 1-inch water pipes intended for less intense applications.

With quality components, drill operators also limit trips to a repair shop for replacement parts for their water well drilling rig.

The Secret is in the Mud Pump:

The power of your system and depth of the hole are directly related to the quality and power of your centrifugal pump.

The mud pump is an essential component of the water well drilling process. A powerful centrifugal pump is required to flush out the cuttings from the hole, allowing for the proper depth of drilling and a high-quality well hole. Once your pump can no longer flush out the cuttings, you have reached maximum depth capacity. The power and efficiency of a mud pump increases this depth, allowing you to drill deeper compared to other methods.

Some people may choose to cut corners and buy a cheaper mud pump from another manufacturer, which can result in poor performance by purchasing a pump with specs not tailored to their specific drill. Choosing a mud pump from an OEM means that it will provide the most optimal performance when paired with the drill.

Choosing Well Water Drilling Equipment

A knowledgeable drill manufacturer will work with you to identify the ideal drill for your needs. Soil type, geographical location and intended use will help determine which drill is best. Work with a company who supports your drilling mission during every step of the process. A true partnership will present the best results.

Article Index:

• Water Wells
• Geothermal
• Foundations
• Geotechnical
• Mining
• Exploration
• Primary Percentage Rule

Water Wells

When you're drilling wells for water, location is everything. Generally speaking, 'East and west of the Mississippi the demands on a rig change drastically,' says Brock Yordy, product manager and drill trainer for GEFCO, an Astec Industries Company.

In Michigan, for example, he says the average water well is quite shallow, around 120 feet down, whereas a lot of the western United States consists of rock and it isn't uncommon to have to drill to depths of more than 6,000 feet to reach water. Taking that into consideration, looking into a used water well rig for work in the Midwest is totally sensible. Head west and the stress on a rig increases, meaning buying new could be a worthwhile investment.

Although going brand new can cost more than $1 million easily, the perks can be especially useful for rigs that deal with tough geologies and experience high rates of wear and tear. 'You have a warranty on it and so your cost of ownership other than the monthly payment is pretty much capped. And even once the warranty expires, your cost of maintenance for the first five years on a new machine is relatively low,' says Tom Moffitt, business development manager of Atlas Copco Drilling Solutions, Deep Hole in the U.S.

As for leasing, Moffitt says a lot of people in the water well market confuse it with renting. He hears from drillers wanting to 'lease' a drilling rig for just six months, making it hard to find a financial institution to help finance. Another point he makes is that truck mounted drills have to be licensed and titled, and short term deals complicate that process.

Geology matters in terms of features to focus on as well. Yordy says safety has been a major theme for the past couple of years, so rigs without catheads are in. The deeper you have to drill, the more pieces of drill rod necessary and the more important this innovative quality becomes in shrinking jobsite liability.

Once the local geology has been determined, Moffitt says relevant attributes to look for are pretty straightforward. If drilling 500 to 1,000 feet down in rocky places, he suggests looking for a rig with an air compressor. In coastal areas, where soils are sandy and holes are shallow, a mud rig or hollow stem machine is ideal. As for combination areas or overburden and rock, combination machines are a smart option. Drilling rigs like these come with an air compressor and mud on board, or they have the capabilities off board to add them.

Geothermal

Generally, water well and geothermal drilling tend to intersect quite a bit, but differences do exist, and reliability is especially important in this market. 'You need a high producing machine that's not going to be breaking down and having down time because if you're doing a big commercial geothermal job or you're doing wells or boreholes for a school or hospital or something like that, you have kind of a timeline that you're working on for the project,' Moffitt says.

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For this reason, Yordy says brand new rigs are ideal and leasing is a great option for drillers who suddenly win a contract for a large scale project with an established timeline. Leasing contracts can be formed to offer all of the benefits that buying new does, including warranties, services and maintenance. If you don't already have a set of brand new geothermal drilling rigs to drill a bunch of boreholes and you aren't sure if or when the next large scale opportunity will come around, leasing offers peace of mind and means you don't have to store and pay off the impractical equipment once the project's over.

As for everyday residential jobs, Yordy says geothermal is a good market for buying used. After all, the borehole depth, around 500 to 600 feet, is pretty straightforward and consistent. 'A rig that used to be 100 percent efficient, if it's 65 percent efficient and it's a cable drive and it still can drill 300 feet pretty easily or 400 feet pretty easily, they'll use it,' he says.

In thinking about rig features, something geothermal makes a lot more of than water wells is mud. Yordy says a lot of drillers in this market go with a rig that weighs less than 50,000 pounds and has an all-wheel drive function so they can maneuver jobsites without getting stuck. Other qualities to avoid getting stuck in the mud include six-by-six trucks ' larger than typical six-by-four water well trucks ' and trucks with short wheel bases.

Foundations

Similar to commercial geothermal drilling, the foundations market faces high pressure to be unwaveringly efficient. The choice between buying used, new or leasing is really specific to each end user's needs, according to Ed Radford, director of commercial operations at Watson Drill Rigs. He says the risk in buying used is that determining how much life is left in the machine can be more challenging.

Risking reliability might not be the best route, as speed is everything to the drillers and clients in this market. 'In the foundations industry, you're in the critical path from the start of the project,' Radford says. 'So if you are falling behind on production you affect the entire project and there's potentially, in some cases, liquidated damages associated with that.'

With schedule and time being of the utmost importance, Radford recommends purchasing very productive machines, several machines or several very productive machines. The speed of the rig, the reliability of the rig, and the availability of parts and service for the rig are important features to consider.

Another aspect to keep in mind when tracking down rig qualities is space. Yordy, who's worked with a company drilling foundation holes in the locker room of a college football stadium, says finding a drill that can fit into and function in the space in need of services is crucial. Carefully considering if it needs to be truck or track mounted to travel through a given site, and sizing the rods based on overhead clearance are key.

Geotechnical

The geotechnical drilling market is just as focused on speed as foundations. Yordy says he's never seen a leased geotechnical rig and he doesn't suggest buying used. 'They're usually owned by construction companies that are always buying capital equipment anyway, and so they want to go with what's easy to maintain and what's going to work and when something's depreciated out they get the next piece of equipment.'

Maneuverability matters for geotechnical drillers. If you're planning a lot of work along the highway, checking for salt intrusion for example, truck mounted rigs are the most sensible. For work around, say, a gas station, Yordy recommends a remote track mounted system. As for drilling methods, auger and sonic are two of the most effective ways to go if sampling.

Mining

Within the mining sector contractors traditionally buy new or lease to own rigs if they are intended for large projects, according to Todd Courtney, business line manager for blasthole drills at Atlas Copco USA. For relatively small jobs, like a road cut, or if they don't own the right equipment, he says it's common and practical to rent the drill and return it after completion.

A new rig is particularly ideal for mining because jobsites are often rife with hazards and avoiding them is very important. Older rigs don't promise to meet the latest safety inspection standards, so keeping equipment updated is ideal or you risk not being able to even get the drill onsite.

Keeping with safety, key qualities to look for in a drill include cages around the rods that spin in the top head and hands free rod loading functions.

The scope of work you plan to do largely determines what machine is right for you. Unlike water wells and geothermal, which can more or less be tapped into anywhere, Yordy points out that Mother Nature has placed precious metals in very interesting places. If you're going to be drilling 6,000 feet, he suggests automated rod handling with every bell and whistle that's possible. If you're planning to drill into the mine from the side of a mountain then it has to be very portable since getting it there could require flying it in with a helicopter. In this case, he says to just look for the basics that would make the rod spin and provide good rotational torque for getting to the required depth.

For blasthole mining, Courtney suggests finding a drill that will allow you to drill projects with single path. 'If you can avoid changing steel in production drilling, there's a lot of benefit,' he says. Because there is such a wide variety of mines, he says it's important to determine what size holes you plan to drill and what kind of material you'll be drilling into when drill hunting. The harder the rock, the more air pressure necessary.

Exploration

Gregory Guillot, global product manager for capital equipment at Boart Longyear, says the purchasing method for a drilling rig in the exploration market all depends on the contractor. Buying brand new is smart for a financially strong drilling company with visibility over the long run. For drillers with less of a sense of where they'll be, say, a year down the road, Guillot suggests buying used to avoid the risk associated with the bigger investment of brand new. It's most economical to rent, he says, if a specific job comes up at a specific location that's well defined in time.

Exploration drilling, according to Yordy, seems to have more stringent expectations regarding minimal invasiveness than production sites. 'It seems like mineral exploration is not as favorably viewed upon as when we say 'Hey, we're going to drill for water and when we leave you're going to have a new source of life,' or when we drill for geothermal we leave and we go, 'We've made it so you don't have to use as much fossil fuel and you're going to save money.'''

That said, surface exploration very much revolves around keeping everyone around the jobsite happy. That means the drilling rig needs to be as clean and pristine as possible. Drilling can, of course, be quite loud, so noise mitigation is important. A quieter rig, even if it needs to be customized, is a great idea.

Another quality to look for in an exploration rig is a sliding angle mast if you're going to be drilling angle holes, Moffitt says. He says he knows of contractors that get away with using drilling rigs purposed for water wells for exploration, but without a sliding angle mast, they're limited to vertical holes.

Primary Percentage Rule

No matter the market, finding the right drilling rig and selecting the best purchase option are key steps in building a strong business. It all comes down to what's most practical for the driller's wallet, the kind of drilling being done and the geology of jobsites.

A lot of drillers, understandably, have an unrealistic image in their heads of a multipurpose drilling rig that can transcend all drilling markets, soils and depths, Yordy says. 'What these guys need to think about is, do I invest $750,000 that's going to do most of my work, or do I try to buy a $1 million plus piece of equipment in hopes of a couple extra jobs?'

Knowing the scope of one's work and finding a rig that meets it is the safest, smartest way to go. Yordy advises drillers to go by a simple rule to stay practical and prosperous.

'What they need to do is they need to think about 75 or 80 percent of what their primary business is and look for a rig that's going to do that.'

Valerie King is associate editor of National Driller.

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