Well Pump Repair
The most expensive mistake in well repair is pulling the pump to fix a forty-dollar switch. Everything above ground gets tested first (power, pressure switch, tank, wiring) because surface components cause a large share of 'dead well' calls and cost a fraction of a pump pull.
Only when the surface checks clear does the work go downhole. This page covers that discipline and the repairs on both sides of it, for submersible and jet pump systems alike.
How a Plumber Diagnoses the Problem
The order of operations:
- Power and protection. Breaker, control box (on 3-wire systems), wiring condition. Capacitors and relays in the control box are classic silent culprits with bench-testable verdicts.
- Pressure switch. Burned contacts, drifted settings, clogged sensor tube. The component that starts and stops everything fails more often than the pump it commands.
- Tank interaction. A waterlogged tank makes a healthy pump short-cycle toward death; ruling the tank out protects the diagnosis (its service lives on the pressure tank pages).
- Amp-draw reading. The pump's current draw against nameplate tells its condition from the surface: high suggests binding or wear, zero with power suggests open windings. Evidence before excavation.
- Downhole when earned. Pulling the drop pipe brings up the pump, its wiring and check valve for direct repair, with the pipe and splices inspected while everything is on the surface.
Service Details & What's Included
The repair repertoire:
- Surface repairs. Switches, control boxes, capacitors, wiring and connections. The majority of visits end here, with the well never opened.
- Submersible work. Pulled-pump repairs: failed splices, worn check valves, damaged drop pipe, and pump replacement when windings or wear-parts end the story, sized to the well, not to the old label.
- Jet pump service. Above-ground jet pumps offer bench-level access: seals, impellers, ejectors and priming problems, plus the foot-valve issues that masquerade as pump failure.
- Low-yield truthtelling. When the pump is fine but the well is falling behind, the honest diagnosis says so. Yield problems have their own remedies, and a new pump is not one of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you know if it's the pump or something above ground?
By testing in cost order: power, control box, switch, tank, then reading the pump's amp draw from the surface. That sequence resolves most calls without touching the well, and it is why a proper diagnosis visit precedes any talk of pulling pipe.
What does the control box do, and why does it matter?
On 3-wire submersibles it houses the start components (capacitors and relay) that fail far more often than the motor they serve. A dead control box mimics a dead pump exactly; swapping its components is a surface repair with a bench test to confirm.
What is involved in pulling a submersible pump?
Lifting the drop pipe string until the pump surfaces, with equipment matched to the depth. Once up, the pump, splices, check valve and pipe are all inspectable and repairable directly. It is real work, which is exactly why the surface checks come first.
Why does the pump run but deliver little water?
Split the suspects: a failing pump (worn impellers), a leak in the drop pipe returning water to the well, a clogged intake, or a well whose level has dropped to the pump's depth. Amp draw plus drawdown behavior separates them; sputtering air points at the water level story.
Repair the pump or replace it?
Surface components and pulled-pump fittings: repair. Motor winding failures and worn wet ends on aged units: replace, and replacement is the moment to size against the well's tested yield rather than copying the old pump's label. The Well Pump Replacement page covers that decision.
Diagnose the Well Pump
Report the symptom (no water, sputtering, cycling) plus the system type if known (submersible or jet) and pump age. Surface checks come first; the well opens only if it must.
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