Well pump not working? How to tell if your well pump is bad
A well pump not working sounds the same to everyone. You open a tap and get air, or you get nothing at all.
The pump is only one part of the chain that moves your water. Power, the pressure switch, the control box, the tank, and the check valve sit in that same chain. The symptoms below run in the order a service tech reads them.
No water and no sound from the pump
Open a tap and listen at the pressure tank. If nothing hums and nothing runs, the pump has no power or no signal to start.
Start at the breaker panel. The well has its own breaker, and a storm or an outage can trip it. Reset it one time, and leave it off if it trips again.
If the breaker holds and the pump stays dead, the fault sits past the panel. Burned or pitted pressure switch contacts are the most common single failure we find.
That check is where our well pump repair service starts. We read voltage at the control box before anyone talks about pulling a pump.
The pump hums but no water comes out
A hum means the motor has power and cannot turn. On a submersible pump, that points at a seized motor or a bad capacitor in the control box. A capacitor is a parts change we carry on the truck. A seized motor means the pump comes out of the well.
On an old basement jet pump, a hum with no water usually means lost prime. A shallow jet pump is limited to roughly 25 feet of lift. When the water drops past that, the pump spins and moves nothing.
Either way, stop running it. Shut the well breaker off and book a 24/7 no water call.
The pump runs constantly and never shuts off
A pump that never stops is losing pressure as fast as it makes it. Either water is escaping, or the pump cannot reach its cut off setting.
A stuck check valve is the classic cause. A submersible pump runs behind a spring loaded check valve. Its job is to hold pressure and prevent backflow of water from the system into the well. When it sticks open, the drop pipe drains back down after every cycle.
A torn tank bladder, a leak in the line, and a worn pump all read the same. So does a water level down at the pump intake.
Leave the pump off until we get there. When a pump is worn out, well pump and pressure tank replacement is the fix. Our guide to what a well pump replacement costs has the ranges by pump type and depth.
The pump short cycles on and off every few seconds
Short cycling is the pump clicking on and off while a tap is open. Most of the time the pressure tank is waterlogged. The bladder tears, the air cushion is gone, and the pump starts on every cup of water.
Washington State health guidance is blunt about it. Lost tank air leads to excessive pump cycling, which may shorten the life of the well pump motor.
A healthy pump starts 6 to 8 times an hour. Pressure tank replacement runs a few hundred to about $1,600 installed, and our estimates are free.
The pressure switch causes the rest. Common pressure ranges here are 30 to 50 or 40 to 60 psi. A burnt switch, or one set wrong, keeps the pump clicking. The longer list of pressure faults is in why well water pressure gets low.
The well breaker keeps tripping
A breaker that trips again right after a reset is telling you something real. Leave it off.
Two causes lead the list. The motor is pulling more current than it should, because it is seizing. Or the wire down the well has chafed and is leaking current to ground.
Storms are the other pattern. Lightning arrestors protect a pump motor and its controls from voltage surges caused by lightning. They do not protect against a direct strike, and a pump can run rough for days after one.
Sputtering and air at the taps
Air at the tap means the pump is picking up air somewhere. Two places account for most of it.
The first is the well. If the water level has dropped to the pump intake, the pump pulls a mix of air and water.
The second is a leak in the drop pipe, or a check valve that lets the pipe drain. The first minute at the tap is air, then the water steadies.
Shut the well breaker off once the taps sputter. If the water level is the reason, the full picture is in why a well runs out of water.
A new or recently replaced pump that will not work
A brand new pump that does not work is rarely the pump itself. It is usually how the pump went in.
Four causes cover most of them. Wiring landed wrong at the control box or the switch. The pressure switch sits outside the range the pump can hold. The pump was hung at the wrong depth. Or the control box does not match the motor horsepower.
Depth bites hardest. A pump set too high pulls air in August, and one set too low grinds itself out in sediment.
Some of these houses still run on a basement jet pump. Moving the pumping down into the well is a jet to submersible conversion.
What you can safely check
- Read the pressure gauge at the tank and write the number down. Zero with the breaker on points at power, prime, or a leak.
- Check the well breaker. Reset it one time only.
- Listen at the tank and the well cap. Note if the pump is silent, humming, or running without building pressure.
- Look for a reset lever on the pressure switch. Some carry a low pressure cutoff you can lift by hand.
- Turn the well breaker off if the taps sputter. A pump running dry can burn out in minutes.
- Write down the hour the water quit and what was running at the time.
Two jobs stay off that list. The pressure switch cover carries 230 volts whenever the breaker is on. Pulling a pump takes a truck and rigging.
What a no water service call looks like
Diagnosis comes first, and most of it is electrical. We test voltage and amp draw at the control box, and watch the gauge while the pump runs.
Then we check the pressure switch, the tank precharge, and the check valve. Those three explain most no water calls, and all three get fixed the same day.
The pump comes out of the well only when the tests say so. You get the repair price and the replacement price before any wrench turns, and the estimate is free.
When a repair beats a replacement
Well pumps last 8 to 15 years, with jet pumps at the short end. Most submersibles run 10 to 15 years. South Jersey water runs acidic with iron, so local pumps often finish early.
Above ground parts are worth fixing at almost any age. A pressure switch, a capacitor, or a control box is usually a same visit repair. National cost guides put most well pump repairs between about $350 and $1,500, and our estimates are free.
Once a pump past its tenth year has to come out of the hole, the math flips. The labor to pull it is the same either way. Replacement runs about $975 to $2,821 installed. A new pressure tank sized to the house is worth doing on the same trip. The estimate for your well is free.
New Jersey allows only licensed well drillers and licensed pump installers to install or service a well pump. We do this work under that licensing.
What to have ready when you call
The gauge reading, the breaker, and the pump sound tell us most of what we need. Call (856) 207-7373 with that. We run well pump service across Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, Atlantic, Camden and Cape May counties. No water calls are answered 24/7.