Six Signs Your Well Pump Is Failing

Healthy pressure in a residential system holds steady around 40–60 PSI for the first 20–60 seconds of any draw. If your pressure tanks immediately when you turn on a faucet, the most common cause is a waterlogged pressure tank — the air bladder has failed and the tank is not storing pressure.

A waterlogged tank forces the pump to cycle on and off rapidly, and rapid cycling is the number-one reason healthy pumps burn out years early. This is the cheapest problem on the list to fix and the one most likely to save the pump if caught quickly.

A pump that runs without ever reaching cut-off pressure usually means one of three things: the pressure switch is stuck or set wrong, there is a leak in the system pulling water faster than the pump can pressurize it, or the pump itself is losing performance.

Diagnosing this in order — switch, leak, pump — is what separates a $50 fix from a full pump pull. Always check the switch and visible pipes before you assume the pump is the problem.

A submersible pump motor draws a brief surge of current when it starts. If the breaker trips on that surge, the most likely causes are a failing capacitor or control box (above ground), a damaged downhole splice, or a motor that is starting to short to ground.

A clamp meter reading on each leg of the pump circuit tells the story in about 60 seconds. We carry the most common Franklin and Goulds parts on the truck for that reason.

Air in the lines almost always means the pump is sucking air at the well — either the water level has dropped below the pump intake (drought, over-pumping, or a neighbor with a bigger pump), or the pump is set too high in the casing, or there is a hole in the drop pipe.

This is the symptom most likely to be confused with a low-water emergency. Sometimes the well is fine and the drop pipe failed; sometimes the well genuinely went dry. The fix is very different.

Sediment that suddenly appears in your water is a flag for either a failing well screen, a damaged pump bowl pulling sand, or a casing problem letting surface or shallow water in.

This one needs a real diagnostic — water sample, video log if necessary, and a yield/drawdown test. Ignoring it ruins fixtures, kills water heaters, and chews up the pump impellers in months.

Short-cycling is the death sentence for any pump. If you can hear your pump click on and off every 5–20 seconds when nothing is running, stop using water and call. Almost always it is a waterlogged pressure tank or a check valve problem; both are inexpensive to fix and ruinous if ignored.

Note exactly what is happening, when it started, and any recent events — a power surge, a lightning strike, a drought, recent neighborhood drilling. Then submit a request through the form. The more specific you are, the more likely we are to bring the right parts on the first visit.

Most Hill Country pump problems are not actually the pump. About six out of ten calls turn out to be the pressure tank, switch, capacitor, or wiring. That is good news — those are the cheap fixes.