If the pump is running and no water is coming out, switch it off at the breaker right now. A pump running dry has nothing cooling or lubricating it and can destroy itself in minutes. Whatever the underlying problem, the pump running against nothing is making it more expensive by the minute.
What Actually Fails, in Order of Likelihood
The breaker
Genuinely the most common cause of no water, and free to check. If it has tripped, reset it once. If it trips again immediately, stop — something downstream is drawing a fault, and repeatedly re-energising a faulted circuit is how an electrical problem becomes a fire.
The pressure switch
A small, inexpensive component that tells the pump when to run. Its contacts pit and burn over years of switching. One of the cheapest parts on the system, and one of the most frequent failures — typically $150–$400 fitted.
The pressure tank
When a tank loses its air charge, every draw of water starts the pump for a couple of seconds. That is short-cycling, and motors wear out from starting rather than running. A great many pump replacements should have been $400–$1,200 tank replacements a year earlier.
The pump itself
Submersibles commonly last 15–25 years. When one goes it is a pull-and-replace job — and while the pipe is out is the sensible moment to deal with anything else down there rather than pulling it twice. Typically $700–$1,600, more for deep settings.
The well
Sputtering taps that recover overnight are a yield problem, not a pump problem. Fitting a bigger pump to a low-yield well simply empties it faster and destroys the new pump. Different problem, different remedy.
Diagnosis Before Replacement
The expensive failure mode in this trade is not a wrong repair — it is an unnecessary one. Pulling a pump is the big-ticket item, and replacing one when the problem was a $200 pressure switch is an expensive way to be wrong.
So we work the sequence: power, switch, tank, pump, well. And when we do pull a pump, we check the tank as standard, because putting a new pump back onto a tank that killed the last one is not a repair.
- No-water calls prioritised
- Diagnosis before replacement — not pump-first
- Pressure tank checked whenever a pump has failed
- Submersible and jet pump systems both handled
- Honest yield-versus-pump diagnosis
- We tell you what to check yourself before we come
Find Your Symptom
No water at all
Breaker, switch, pump or a dry well — in that order of likelihood.
Pump runs constantly
A leak, a switch that never cuts off, or declining yield.
Low water pressure
Frequently a filter or a valve rather than the well at all.
Air in the lines
The pump is drawing air, which usually means the level is near it.
Well ran dry
Fracking, storage or deepening — worth comparing properly.
Not sure?
The troubleshooter walks the sequence and narrows it in two minutes.
Pump Questions
How long should a well pump last?
A submersible commonly runs 15–25 years. What shortens it is short-cycling from a failed pressure tank, sediment in the water, and repeated dry running. If your pump turns on and off every few seconds when you run a tap, that is short-cycling, and fixing it is much cheaper than the pump it is destroying.
Can you repair a pump or does it have to be replaced?
For submersibles, replacement is almost always right once the pump itself has failed — the labour is in pulling the pipe, and refitting a repaired pump of uncertain remaining life means risking doing that twice. Jet pumps at the surface are more often genuinely repairable. And many no-water calls turn out to be a switch or a tank rather than the pump at all.
Why does my pump run constantly?
A leak bleeding pressure, a pressure switch not reaching cut-off, or a well whose yield has dropped so the pump cannot build pressure. The third is the serious one, because the pump is at risk of running dry. Check toilets and outside taps for the obvious leak first — a silently running toilet is a surprisingly common answer.
Should I replace my pump before it fails?
On a rural property, past about twenty years, there is a real argument for it. A pump replaced on a Tuesday in September is a scheduled job. The same pump replaced on a Sunday in January is an emergency callout with a household that has no water in the meantime. The further out you are, the stronger that argument gets.
Do you work on jet pumps as well as submersibles?
Yes. Older properties and shallow wells — common around the Suncooks and on some converted camps — frequently run jet pumps mounted at the surface. They fail differently from submersibles, they lose prime in ways submersibles cannot, and they are more often genuinely repairable.