How Long Should It Last?
| Component | Typical service life | Replacement cost |
|---|---|---|
| Submersible pump | 15–25 years | $700–$1,600 |
| Jet pump (surface mounted) | 10–20 years | Varies by type |
| Pressure tank | 10–15 years | $400–$1,200 |
| Pressure switch | 8–15 years | $150–$400 |
| Control box (3-wire pumps) | 10–20 years | Moderate |
| Drop pipe & wiring | Often outlives the pump | Worth replacing with the pump |
Notice the pattern: the pump is the most expensive item and roughly the longest-lived. Everything cheaper around it wears out sooner — and when one of those cheaper things fails quietly, it takes the expensive one with it.
What Kills Pumps Early
Short-cycling — by a wide margin the biggest
A pressure tank that has lost its air charge makes the pump start and stop every few seconds instead of running steadily. Motors wear out from starting, not from running. A short-cycling system can put a pump through more starts in a month than a healthy one sees in a year, and it does this silently for months while the water still works perfectly. A very large share of the pumps we replace were killed this way.
Running dry
A pump with no water to move has no cooling and no lubrication, and can destroy itself in minutes. This is why every page on this site says the same thing: if the pump is running and no water is coming out, switch it off.
Sand and sediment
Abrasive material passing through the pump wears impellers steadily. More of an issue on wells in certain ground, and sometimes a sign the pump is set too close to the bottom of the bore.
Electrical faults and surges
Repeated breaker trips, loose connections, lightning events. A pump that has been through several electrical incidents is living on borrowed time even if it currently works.
Being the wrong pump
Oversized for the well — which empties it and causes dry running — or undersized for the house, which means running constantly. Both shorten life, and both stem from a specification decision made years earlier.
The ten-second check that saves pumps: run a tap and listen. A healthy system runs the pump steadily then stops. Rapid on-off-on-off is short-cycling, and your pump is paying for it right now. That check, done twice a year, is worth more than any maintenance plan.
Is Yours Getting Tired?
- Taking noticeably longer to build pressure than it used to
- Running for longer periods to achieve the same result
- Occasional breaker trips with no other explanation
- New noises — grinding, or a different pitch
- Sediment appearing in the water that was not there before
- Pressure that fluctuates more than it used to
None of these is a certainty. Together with an age past twenty years, they are a reasonable basis for planning rather than waiting.
Planned Replacement vs. Waiting
Most people wait, because the pump currently works and money spent on a working pump feels wasted. That instinct is reasonable in town and considerably less so on a back road in Gilmanton or New Hampton.
Planned replacement
- Scheduled on a weekday that suits you
- A few hours without water, at a time you chose
- The tank and switch dealt with at the same time
- Time to get a second quote
- Done in decent weather with easy access
Waiting for failure
- Happens at the least convenient possible moment
- No water in the meantime — for however long that is
- Emergency scheduling, and whoever is available
- No opportunity to compare
- Frequently in winter, with frozen ground and snow
We are not going to pretend this is a straightforward financial argument — a pump replaced at twenty years that would have run to twenty-eight is money spent early. It is a risk-and-inconvenience argument, and the weight it carries depends entirely on where you live, who is in the house, and how you would cope with three days without water in February.
What is not a judgement call: if your pump is short-cycling, deal with the tank now regardless of the pump's age. That is not planning — that is stopping active damage.
Questions
How do I find out how old my pump is?
Ask the previous owner, check any paperwork that came with the house, or look for a date or installer's sticker on the pressure tank or control box. The state well completion report gives the well's drilling date, which is a floor rather than an answer. If nobody knows and the house is not new, assume it is older than you would like.
Should I replace the tank at the same time?
If the tank is anywhere near its own service life, yes. The labour overlaps, the system gets set up properly as a whole, and you avoid putting a new pump back onto a tank that may be about to start destroying it. We check the tank as standard whenever a pump is replaced for exactly that reason.
Can I buy a pump myself and have someone fit it?
Some contractors will, some will not, and there are real trade-offs. Sizing matters a great deal — a pump that is wrong for your well and house shortens its own life — and warranty terms frequently differ between trade-supplied and retail units. If you do go this route, get the sizing confirmed by whoever is fitting it before you buy.
What about a spare pump on the shelf?
Some genuinely remote property owners do this, and on a back road a long way from anywhere it is not unreasonable. The caveat is that a pump sitting in a barn for ten years is not guaranteed to be fine when you need it, and the labour of fitting it is still a call-out. Practical for some; not necessary for most.