"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 geothermal drill 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 20ft tooling without requiring a class A/B CDL, the DM250's size helps expand available geothermal drillers talent pool. Its smaller footprint also provides contractors with a geothermal systems selling point, comforting clients' concerns when describing a geothermal drill just bigger than a dually truck will complete geothermal well 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 travelling 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 well drilling jobs due to the required hole depth, but he recently put the DM250 on a commercial geothermal systems site drilling 75% of the 96 holes to 400ft.

"It did great," Erickson said. "The speed of drilling 400ft holes and tripping pipe meant it was taking maybe two hours per hole."

He also appreciates the open ears exhibited by the team of engineers, who he says are willing to pick up the phone.

"Engineering and service are always open to our suggestions. Some places see it as an insult when you offer a suggestion. It's not that way at DRILLMAX," Erickson said. "They're always wanting to do better and want to know what they can improve on."

For Ryan Hadden, operator with Dick Joyce Well Drilling in Florida, their DRILLMAX is hands-down a reliable rig, worth every bit of money paid, and "come from good people too."

"Everyone is focused on keeping you up and running. Whether you need a part or a technical question answered, you will receive support as fast as possible," Hadden said. "When spending that amount of money, you're buying a piece of equipment but also the people who stand behind it. With DRILLMAX you're definitely getting your money's worth in both aspects."

Engineering attention to making durable rigs with easy maintenance means universally-sourced parts, equating to simple service. 

"If you need a certain bearing or fitting you can get them locally," said owner Scott Miller of Northern Virginia Drilling. "Plus it's easy to work on with everything out in the open."

For Miller, parts inventory and support are where other companies come up short.

"We also like that DRILLMAX has Geoprobe as a parent company. We knew we'd have somebody to help keep inventory and provide support out in the field," Miller said. "They're established with support infrastructure. I don't care what kind of drill you have, it's going to breakdown so it's about how fast you can get back up and running."