Rural Water is NOT the same as City Water...

Well Pump Repair

If you live in the country, you've probably had to deal with your pump house at some point. And if you haven't yet, you probably will.

A private well water system isn't terribly complicated. You've got the well, the pump, the pressure tank, pressure switch, pressure gauge, and the electrical controls that make everything work together.

This particular system has a 44-gallon pressure tank, pre-pressurized to 28 PSI. The pressure switch is set for 30–50 PSI, so the pump comes on when the pressure drops to about 30 PSI and shuts off when it reaches about 50 PSI.

You can adjust the pressure settings, although there are limits to how far you should push an existing switch. If you want more water pressure, it's often better to use a pressure switch designed for 40–60 PSI rather than trying to make a 30–50 switch do something it wasn't designed to do. Note that the pre-load for the pressure tank must always be about 2 PSI BELOW the cut on point for the regulator.

The good news is that these systems are fairly straightforward once you understand how they work. There is a bit of a learning curve, but you don't need to be a well technician to understand the basics. The pressure tank, pressure switch, gauge, and control box are all things that can be checked and, in many cases, replaced without rebuilding the entire system.

On this job, we ended up replacing the pressure switch, pressure gauge, and well pump control box.

If you're working on a system where several of these components are getting old at the same time, it can make sense to replace them together. They're relatively inexpensive parts, and doing them all at once can save another service call when the next old component decides to quit.

The main thing is not to panic when your well system stops working. Most of the time, there are only a handful of components to work through, and once you understand what each one does, troubleshooting becomes much less mysterious.