Well Pump Not Working? No Water, Short Cycling & Pressure Faults
When a well goes silent, the cause is usually upstream of the pump: a tripped breaker, a failed pressure switch, or a waterlogged tank. Short cycling points to the tank; runs-but-no-water points to the drop pipe or a dry well. Here is the no-water tree, in the order a pro checks it, before anyone pays to pull the pump.
Describe the symptom to a pro
A local licensed plumber can usually tell you over the phone whether it needs a visit.
(855) 000-0000New installs, replacements & repairs · No obligation
Safety first: if you smell gas, see water near electrical outlets or your panel, or sewage is contacting living areas, get people clear first. For a gas smell, leave and call 911 or your gas utility's emergency line before anything on this page.
- !You see scorch marks, melted insulation, or smell burning at the pressure switch or control box
- !Water is spraying from a fitting near the pressure tank or the tank itself is bulging
- !You get a shock or tingle touching the well wiring, pump controls, or nearby pipe
- !The pump runs continuously and the pressure switch contacts are arcing or buzzing
- !There is standing water around an electrical control box or panel
- ✓Check the breaker: a well pump runs on a dedicated 240V breaker (often a double-pole). Reset it once. If it trips again immediately, stop and call, do not keep resetting it
- ✓Read the pressure gauge on the tank: 0 psi means no pressure being built; a normal system cycles between roughly 40 and 60 psi (or 30 and 50)
- ✓Tap the pressure tank: a healthy tank sounds hollow on top and solid near the bottom. Solid all the way up means it is waterlogged
- ✓Listen at the pressure switch: with the cover off (power on, do not touch contacts), you should hear it click and the pump start when pressure is low
- ✓Check for a tripped reset on the control box or a GFCI on the circuit, and confirm no one shut off the breaker during recent electrical work
- →The breaker holds and there is power, but the pump will not start and the pressure switch will not click
- →The pump short cycles, kicking on and off every few seconds, which usually means a waterlogged pressure tank
- →The pump runs but builds no pressure and no water reaches the house: a drop pipe leak, failed check valve, or dry well
- →The tank gauge reads zero and the pump runs continuously without recovering pressure
- →Your water has gone cloudy, gritty, or you are drawing air with the water, suggesting the well level has dropped
Not sure what you are looking at? Just ask.
Calls are answered around the clock and routed to a licensed plumbing pro serving your area.
Call & describe the job
Tell us what you need: a new install, a replacement, or something that started leaking.
Get matched on the line
You are connected with a local licensed plumbing pro who serves your area.
Compare your numbers
Use the ranges on this page to sanity-check the quote before you commit.
No water at all: start at the panel, not the well
The most expensive mistake with a silent well is paying to pull the pump when the problem is a $5 breaker or a $40 switch on the surface. Work top down. First the breaker: a well pump runs on a dedicated 240V double-pole breaker, and a single trip can be reset once. If it trips again immediately, stop resetting it, because a pump trying to draw locked-rotor current is telling you something is wrong downhole.
Next the pressure switch, the small box on the pipe near the tank that turns the pump on when pressure drops. A burned, pitted, or stuck switch is one of the most common no-water causes and one of the more affordable fixes, at $150 – $350. With the breaker confirmed and the switch ruled in or out, you have separated a surface problem from a downhole one before any truck shows up.
Read the tank gauge
The pressure gauge on the tank is your dashboard. A normal well holds water under air pressure and cycles the pump between a cut-in and a cut-out point, commonly 40 to 60 psi or 30 to 50 psi. A gauge sitting at 0 with the pump running means the pump is spinning but building no pressure: think drop pipe leak, failed check valve, or a well that has run low. A gauge that climbs normally but the house still has no water points to a closed valve or a clog between the tank and the fixtures.
Combine the gauge with a tap test of the tank itself. A pressure tank is part air, part water; tap up the side and you should hear it change from solid (water) near the bottom to hollow (air) near the top. If it sounds solid all the way up, the tank is waterlogged and has lost its air charge, which leads straight to the next symptom.
Short cycling means a waterlogged tank
If the pump snaps on and off every few seconds, the near-certain cause is a waterlogged pressure tank. The tank uses a cushion of air (held by a bladder or an air charge) to deliver water between pump cycles. When that air is gone, there is no reservoir, so the smallest draw drops the pressure instantly and the pump restarts. Each of those starts is hard on the motor, and short cycling will kill a pump that is otherwise fine.
Sometimes the fix is recharging the air on a tank with a bladder and a working air valve; often, on a tank more than 8 to 10 years old, the bladder has failed and the tank needs replacing at $400 – $1,200 installed. Either way, do not ignore short cycling, because the next failure it causes is the pump. Our well pump cost guide breaks down tank sizes and when to replace the pump and tank together.
Runs but no water: downhole problems
When the pump runs, draws current, but no water arrives and the gauge will not build, the problem is below ground. The leading causes: a split or pinholed drop pipe that lets water fall back down the well instead of rising, a failed check valve that drains the column back after each cycle, or a well that has dropped below the pump intake (a dry well, common in drought or after heavy irrigation). A worn pump that has lost its lift falls in this group too.
These cannot be diagnosed from the surface with certainty, which is when the pump gets pulled. Pulling a deep pump is the expensive part of the job, and the cause found on the way up (pipe, wire, check valve) decides whether you reuse the pump or replace it. If your symptom is instead discolored or sandy water that suddenly appeared, our guide to brown water from the tap covers stirred-up sediment and a dropping water level.
What each fix costs
The surface fixes are the affordable ones, and they resolve a large share of no-water calls. A pressure switch replacement runs $150 – $350. A pressure tank, when it is waterlogged and past saving, runs $400 – $1,200 installed. Both are far below the cost of pulling the pump, which is exactly why a good well contractor checks them first.
Pulling and replacing a submersible pump runs $1,000 – $4,500, and $2,500 – $5,500 on deep wells where lifting hundreds of feet of pipe and wire is the labor. A jet pump swap, with no pull involved, runs $800 – $2,200. The big variable is depth and whether the drop pipe and wire come up sound or need replacing while the well is open.
Ready to get it handled?
One call, no obligation. Describe the job and compare the quote against the ranges above.