Water Well Drilling Equipment Factory Tour Seals Deal

Fourth generation Hintzke Well Drilling will celebrate its 125th year from the same New London, Wisconsin, address where they began installing wells and servicing pumps from in 1896. Jason Hintzke, owner, and his two brothers now run the business his Great Grandfather started, building the company’s first steam engine well rig in 1901. Progressing to a 5-horse, hit-and-miss engine rope rig, and then in 1953 to a cable-tool rig, they still run the ‘old girl’ along with two ‘big rigs’.

“It was time to replace the cable rig. It takes too long,” Hinzke said. 

While in Nashville, Tennessee, for the National Ground Water Association show they first laid eyes on the DRILLMAX^® DM250 by Geoprobe^®. Then they ran into the guy who had purchased the DM250 on display.

“He told us how impressed he was,” Hintzke said. “After the show we stuck around to see it run. Donnie invited us to come to the factory to see it.”

While at the Kansas factory, they toured the production facility and interacted with engineers and service technicians.

“There’s not a crumb of dirt on the floor. You could do surgery in the place. Everything is organized with parts barcoded. That’s why they keep the rigs the same color, so they can send parts the same day,” Hintzke said. “They showed us on the computer every conversation about a rig so service technician knows exactly what rig schematic, its serial number, and the history so he knows what he’s talking about when you call.”

They also put their hands on the controls to test run a DM250. He and his brother were convinced it would do the job.

“The trip sealed the deal, looking at the factory and putting hands on controls,” Hintzke said. “We were nervous about spending that kind of money if we weren’t sure it could do job. But drilling into hard shale there, it did wonderfully. The 8.75-inch bit went through clay and shale like butter.”

They were impressed with rig speed for its size and also the fuel efficiency.

“The DM250 uses seven gallons of fuel when our cable rig uses at least 14, 23 with air,” Hintzke said. “With fuel prices the way they are now that’s important. It’ll get 9 miles-per-gallon where our big 72,000-lb rig gets 3 to 4 mpg to drive down the road.”

They did additional research chatting with members of a social media group confirming they weren’t having any rig troubles.

 “We don’t want to be wrenching on a rig all the time. We want to be drilling. It’s a well thought out piece of equipment,” Hintzke said. “Having console on driver’s side scared me a bit, but once we pulled 160 feet of rod out of the ground in three minutes, I knew I would get used to the controls in no time.”