Drill rigs for sale suited for geothermal drilling include the DM250. The geothermal drilling rig withstands the pace of commercial and residential geothermal drilling.
Businesses and homeowners are increasingly honing in on the benefits geothermal energy systems offer beyond being a green, reliable energy source. Often, savings on monthly utility bills pay for financing a system. Many see a return on their investment in a geothermal retrofit. In recent years, the federal government — and even some states — implemented tax credits and incentives for the renewable energy option.
Engineered to handle the speed of geothermal drilling - drilling multiple borings per day as compared to a single hole during a multiple-day process - DRILLMAX® drill rigs for sale exceed expectations in tough conditions. While geothermal drilling tends to prioritize overall rig size and weight, drilling speed, and cost per foot, options such as sandline winch or pipe spinner systems can be added to minimize equipment on the geothermal drilling job site.
Developing demand for geothermal energy systems has generated growth in the drilling industry and a need for equipment sized to fit onto today’s urban geothermal drilling sites combined with the power to complete commercial job requirements.
“Jobs don’t adapt to the equipment in the industry, the equipment has to adapt to the jobs,” said Kyler Erickson, drilling manager with Associated Drilling in Kansas. “We needed a rig sized to drill those residential geothermal systems.”
They found the DRILLMAX® DM250 slips into tight geothermal drilling job sites while maintaining production pace of larger rigs.
“We have the DM250 running five days a week from one geothermal job to the next,” Erickson said. “I thought it would be slower than bigger rigs, but we haven’t seen much change at all.”
Engineered to utilize 20-foot tooling without requiring a class A/B CDL, the DM250’s size helps expand available driller talent pool. Its smaller footprint also provides contractors a selling point, comforting clients concerns when describing something just bigger than a dually truck will complete work, leaving less mess and fewer ruts.
“We’ve been getting more phone calls from different contractors and even the ones we’ve worked with for 20 years ask for the DM250,” Erickson said.
The compact, comfortable chassis also equates to fuel efficiency and satisfied crews traveling site-to-site at highway speeds enjoying air conditioning and Bluetooth stereo.
“It gets into jobs much easier, is quicker to set up, and drills fast,” Erickson said. “The DM250 can definitely compete with the larger rigs in the geothermal and shallow water well market.”
Typically they would use their bigger rigs on commercial geothermal jobs due to the required hole depth, but he recently put the DM250 on a commercial site drilling 75 percent of the 96 holes to 400 feet.
“It did great,” Erickson said. “The speed of drilling 400-foot holes and tripping pipe meant it was taking maybe two hours per hole.”
Read how one company took their business to the next level and succeeded on one geothermal drilling job where COVID-19 restrictions limited them to just the two owners on site thanks to the features on the DM250, including:
The speed and ability of the single rod loader to keep adding pipe make the DM450 well suited for geothermal drilling jobs.
“On average, the DM450 is 1.5 times faster than our other rig,” Skyler Wilson, Pan Terra Energy operations manager, said. “Just the top head movement on the other rig takes twice as much time as swinging the rod handler. Once you’re out of rod in the other rig carousel, adding pipe takes 10 times as long.”
The driller was impressed the DM450 kept up with the “geo-pace of drilling four to five holes a day.” He boasts the DM450 accomplished more than the combined footage of three other rigs on a geothermal drilling job in the Rockies.
Having a central U.S. service center nearby provides peace of mind. For Owner Mike Ryan, having engineers receptive to driller feedback for product improvement distinguishes DRILLMAX® from other manufacturers.
“It’s not always the case that engineers have an open mind to suggestions from drillers,” he said. “DRILLMAX® engineers seem to really be interested in feedback from the field. When it comes down to it, it’s about people. The DRILLMAX® commitment to make things right is important.”
Read how they compare the features of their legacy and 2020 DM450, including:
Drillers seeking rotary drilling options - outfitted for air drilling or mud drilling - with power to pull and push in tough geologies choose the DRILLMAX® DM650 for geothermal well drilling with 28.5-foot stroke, 40,000 lb pullback, and 8,000 ft-lb torque.
“I don’t want to lose out on business, so the DM650 capabilities caught my eye and its similar operation to my current rig means I wouldn’t have a huge learning curve,” Robbie Barnard of J&J Water Well & Windmill Services in Texas said.
Possessing power to quickly reach depth, the DRILLMAX® DM650 is engineered to handle up-to 24-inch holes. Top head and drill mast features contribute to its ability to quietly and smoothly drill deeper, bigger holes.
“It’s much faster, heavier, and has more pull down. I could do jobs a lot faster,” Mark Kelly of Emerald Coast in Alabama said.
Drawn to the DM650 for its attention to detail with a simple control center and clean routing of hydraulic hoses, other features catching drillers' eyes include:
Our team of engineers thrives on collaborating with drillers while they continually innovate new designs for our geothermal drilling rig line. Our goal is to help maximize your success by making your job faster, safer, and easier. Partner with us and we'll work to decrease your rig downtime while increasing your family time.
“The DRILLMAX® geothermal drilling rig took a beating but got right through it. We doubled our production speed with the stroke and pump.The way she forces plastic clay out of the hole was pretty unbelievable. The 20-foot stroke and speed of the tophead means it goes faster for a longer distance, good for plunging clay out of the hole." - Joe Dalba, partner, Island Geo Drillers, New York
Using their DRILLMAX® DM250, company owners claim completing 15 bores to 305 feet through tough, plastic clay 80 percent of the hole - just the two of them. One ran the geothermal drilling rig. One prepped loops for installation with the mud cleaner.
The Rocky Mountains were no trouble for the DRILLMAX® DM450 geothermal drilling rig. Owner claimed the DM450 drill rig outproduced the combined footage of three other rigs drilling multiple borings per day to install geothermal loops.
Outfitted for air drilling or as a mud drill, the DM650 tackles geothermal holes required for large residential, light commercial geothermal systems.
Contact Us
1835 Wall Street
Salina, KS 67401
Phone: (785) 825-1842
Fax: (352) 237-0450
Four decades ago Michael Barlow began installing pumps and drilling wells with one rig. He diversified into commercial geothermal projects in the early '90s. Today MICHAEL BARLOW DRILLING & SERVICE INC. completes as much service volume as drilling. This i
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As ASSOCIATED DRILLING adapts to new ownership, they’re also adapting to the smaller DM250. Calvin Piper now oversees technical work — pumps, water lines, out of water calls — while Kyler Erickson oversees drilling. This includes drilling for water well,
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7822DT successfully completes installing 15 geothermal loops for ground source geothermal heating and cooling.
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Choose from a wide range of options, including rod carousel, tailoring your DM250 to your geography and production needs.
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Wide array of standardized drilling rig components tailors DM450 to commercial water well, geothermal, or cathodic protection jobs.
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