Answered 24/7 · acreage and western parcels
Well pumps, where losing pressure means something entirely different
On a private well the pump, the pressure tank and the switch are one system, and the fault is diagnosed by which of the three is behaving wrongly rather than by replacing the most expensive part first.
- CFC1433655Florida plumbing contractor license
- Pump, tank, switchdiagnosed before anything is replaced
Why does my well pump keep switching on and off?
That symptom is called short-cycling, and it is usually not the pump. A private well system has three parts that work together: the pump that lifts the water, a pressure tank that stores it under pressure so the pump does not have to run every time somebody opens a tap, and a pressure switch that decides when the pump starts and stops.
When the pressure tank loses its air charge or its bladder fails, there is nothing left to store pressure, so the pump starts and stops every few seconds instead of running in longer cycles. The tank is the failed part, the pump is the part making the noise, and replacing the pump fixes the symptom for a week and costs a great deal more.
That distinction is the whole reason to diagnose before replacing. On a well there is no utility to call and no meter to read, so the household is the only system there is.
What you are seeing
The four things a well system does when it is unwell
Each one points at a different part.
The pump starts and stops constantly
Short-cycling. Usually the pressure tank has lost its charge or its bladder has failed, so there is nothing storing pressure between draws.
Pressure that surges and drops while a tap runs
The system is running directly off the pump rather than off stored pressure, which is the same underlying problem felt at the fixture.
The pump runs continuously and never satisfies
Either the pump is no longer lifting what it should, or there is a leak between the well and the house that never lets pressure build.
Sand, grit or cloudiness in the water
That is coming from the well itself rather than the plumbing, and it wears everything downstream of it including the pump.
It fails when irrigation runs
On acreage the irrigation and the house often share a system sized for one of them. It reads as a house problem and it is a sizing and isolation problem.
How the job goes
Testing three parts before replacing one
The order exists because the cheap part fails more often than the expensive one.
- 01
Read the pressures
Cut-in and cut-out pressure at the switch, and the air charge in the tank. Those two numbers separate a tank problem from a pump problem before anything is opened.
- 02
Check what the pump is actually delivering
A pump that cannot reach cut-out pressure, or takes far too long to, is a different fault from one that reaches it and then cannot hold.
- 03
Replace the part that failed
A tank, a switch or a pump, with the reasoning shown. Where the honest answer is that the well itself is producing badly rather than the equipment, you get that answer too.
Questions
Straight answers before you call
Is short-cycling always the tank?
Not always, but it is the first thing to test and it is the cheapest of the three parts. Replacing a pump because the tank failed is the most common expensive mistake on a well system, and it is avoided by reading two pressures.
Who do I call if the water stops entirely?
On a private well, nobody but a plumber, and that is the point. There is no utility, no main in the street and no outage to report, so a well household should know where its shut-off, its switch and its tank are before there is a problem.
Where in South Florida is this common?
The western and agricultural edges, where municipal service never reached. Large parcels around the Redland district south of Miami and acreage in western Broward are where it turns up most.
Can I be on a well and city sewer at the same time?
Yes, and the reverse happens too. Water and sewer are separate services and a property can be on a private well while connected to a municipal sewer, or on city water with a septic system. It is worth knowing which combination you have.
Related work
What sits alongside a well system
Properties on a well are usually on septic as well.
Live dispatch · 24 / 7 / 365
Pump cycling, or no water at all?
A person answers at any hour, and the three pressures that separate a tank fault from a pump fault get read before anything is replaced.
No obligation. Work performed under Florida plumbing contractor license CFC1433655.