Running-in Period: Maintenance & Operation Tips for Water Well Drills

10 December, 2025

After leaving the factory, a water well drill is generally specified to have a running-in period of about 60 hours—also referred to as the break-in period—which is formulated according to the technical characteristics of the drill for its initial operation stage.

However, some users currently neglect the special technical requirements of the running-in period for new drills due to insufficient operational knowledge, tight construction schedules, or the eagerness to gain quick returns. Long-term overloading of the drill during this period leads to frequent early-stage failures. This not only affects the normal operation of the machine and shortens its service life, but also delays the construction progress. Ultimately, construction projects suffer losses due to machine damage, resulting in more harm than good.

Therefore, full attention should be paid to the operation and maintenance of water well drills during the running-in period.

The characteristics of the running-in period are as follows:

Rapid wear rate

New machine parts have rough friction surfaces, small contact areas of mating surfaces, and uneven surface pressure due to factors such as processing, assembly, and adjustment, which accelerates the wear of the mating surfaces of the parts.
Poor lubrication

Due to the small fit clearance of newly assembled parts and the difficulty in ensuring uniform fit clearance caused by assembly factors, lubricating oil (grease) cannot easily form a uniform oil film on friction surfaces, thus reducing lubrication efficiency and leading to early abnormal wear of parts.
Loosening

Newly processed and assembled parts are susceptible to the effects of factors such as heating and deformation, and originally fastened parts tend to loosen easily due to excessive wear and other reasons.
Leakage

Due to machine loosening, vibration and heating, leakage can occur at the machine’s sealing surfaces and pipe joints.
Operational Errors

Insufficient understanding of the machine’s structure and performance can easily lead to faults caused by misoperation, and even result in operational accidents.