No Water From Your Well? What to Check First

When a well stops delivering water, the cause is usually one of five things: no power to the pump, a pressure switch that will not start it, a pump running without moving water, a well drawn down below the pump, or a leak draining the system. Most of the checks that tell them apart take ten minutes and need nothing more than the breaker panel and the pressure gauge next to your tank. Read the safety rules first, then match your symptom below.

Safety first

• Treat the pump circuit as 240 volts. Most well pumps run on 240 volts, enough to kill. Never open the pressure switch cover, the pump control box, or a wiring box with the power on. Leave the control box closed even with the breaker off: its capacitors can hold a charge.
• Reset a tripped breaker once, not repeatedly. If it trips again, leave it off. A breaker that keeps tripping is protecting you from a fault in the motor or wiring, and forcing power into it can turn a repair into a replacement.
• Do not let the pump run dry. A pump that runs without delivering water overheats; a submersible motor depends on the water flowing past it for cooling. If the pump runs and nothing arrives, shut it off at the breaker.
• Stay out of the well. Pulling a pump or working inside the well casing is a job for a licensed pump installer in many states, and done wrong it opens your drinking water to contamination.
• Test before drinking after an outage or repair. Losing pressure or opening the well can let bacteria in; more on that at the end.

Fast triage: which kind of no water do you have?

• Nothing at any tap and the pump is silent: power, the pressure switch, or the pump's controls. Start at the breaker.
• The pump runs but no water comes out, or there is no pressure: water is not reaching the tank. Think low well, a jet pump that lost its prime, or a broken, frozen, or leaking pipe. Turn the pump off before you investigate.
• Sputtering taps, air in the lines, or weak pressure: the well is drawing down to the pump intake, or the pressure tank or a filter is the problem.
• Water stopped, then came back after a wait: the well is refilling more slowly than you are using it. That is a recovery-rate problem, common in drought and with heavy use like irrigation.
• Good pressure at the tank, little or nothing at the taps: the restriction is between the tank and the fixtures: a closed valve, a clogged filter, a softener, or a frozen pipe.

Read the pressure gauge

The gauge on or beside the pressure tank is the best diagnostic tool you own. The pressure switch starts the pump when pressure falls to its cut-in setting and stops it at its cut-out setting; 30/50 and 40/60 psi are common pairs. On a normal day, watch where the needle sits when the pump kicks on and where it stops, and write both numbers down.

• Near zero or below cut-in, pump silent: no power, a tripped low-pressure cutoff, or a failed switch, control box, or motor.
• Near zero, pump running: no water is reaching the tank. Shut the pump off at the breaker.
• Climbing slowly, pump runs a long time or never shuts off: a low well, a worn pump, a failing check valve, or a leak.
• Normal reading, weak taps: the problem is downstream of the tank.

Gauges fail too. If the reading makes no sense next to what the taps are doing, do not trust it alone.

No water from a drilled well vs. a shallow well

Look next to the pressure tank. If a pump and motor sit there, you have a jet pump, typical of shallow, dug, or driven wells and some older drilled wells. If you see only the tank, the switch, the gauge, and perhaps a small control box on the wall, the pump is a submersible hanging inside the well, the norm for a drilled well. A submersible never needs priming and is usually silent from the house, so listen for the click of the pressure switch instead. A jet pump is loud when it runs and can lose its prime.

No water and the pump won't turn on

Work from the cheapest cause up:

• The breaker or disconnect. Look for a tripped double-pole breaker labeled well or pump, and for a separate disconnect switch or fuse box near the tank. Reset it once. If it trips again, stop and call a pro.
• A tripped low-pressure cutoff. Some pressure switches have a small lever on the side. When pressure falls far below cut-in (a big leak, a pump that could not keep up, a well that ran low), the switch shuts the pump off and stays off. With the cover closed, hold the lever in the start position and watch the gauge; once the needle climbs past cut-in, let go. If the needle does not climb steadily, release the lever: the pump may be running dry. If the cutoff trips again, do not keep resetting it; find the cause first.
• A pump protector or constant-pressure controller. If your system has one, check its light or display. Many shut the pump down after sensing a dry well or an overload and restart on their own after a delay; the manual explains what each signal means.
• A frozen switch or line. In freezing weather, the small pipe feeding the pressure switch, or any line in an unheated pump house or crawl space, can freeze. Shut the pump off at the breaker, warm the area with a hair dryer or a safely placed space heater (never an open flame or torch), then restore power.
• A failing pressure switch. A pump that starts only after someone taps the switch housing has burned contacts, and sediment can plug the port the switch senses pressure through. The part is inexpensive, but replacing it means working inside a box that carries line voltage: hire it out unless you are qualified.
• The control box, wiring, or motor. If power is on, nothing has tripped, and the gauge sits below cut-in with the pump silent, the fault is electrical or in the pump itself. Finding it takes a meter and often pulling the pump: licensed pump-installer work.

Well pump runs but no water comes out

Act on this one fast: a pump running without water is damaging itself. Turn it off at the breaker, then check the causes you can see.

• A leak draining the system. Walk the line from the well to the house looking for a wet or sunken spot, check the basement or pump house for a split pipe, and listen for a running toilet or an outdoor spigot left open. A pump that runs while nobody is using water points to a leak or a failed check valve.
• A closed valve or frozen pipe. Confirm the valves at the tank and the main shutoff are open, especially after recent work, and thaw any exposed pipe as described above.
• A jet pump that lost its prime. Only above-ground jet pumps need priming. With the power off, re-priming usually means filling the pump body with water through the priming plug, closing it, and restarting, following your pump's manual. A pump that keeps losing its prime has a leak in the suction pipe or a failing foot valve, and that is a repair job.

The rest of the causes are down the well: the water level has dropped below the pump intake, the drop pipe has cracked or come apart, the intake screen is clogged, or the pump is worn out. All of these need a licensed well or pump contractor to measure the water level and, if necessary, pull the pump. Do not keep cycling the power to see whether it comes back.

Sputtering faucets, air in the lines, or low pressure

• Air with every draw, or water that sputters and then quits: the water level is falling to the pump intake as it runs. That is a well-yield problem, not a pump problem; see the next section.
• Pressure that swings and a pump that clicks on and off every few seconds: short-cycling, usually a waterlogged pressure tank, and it wears out a pump fast. On a modern bladder tank, with the pump off at the breaker, press the air valve on top (it looks like a tire valve). Air is normal; water means the bladder has failed and the tank needs replacing.
• Checking the tank's air charge: with the pump off, open a faucet until the gauge reads zero, then measure the tank's air pressure with a tire gauge. It should be about 2 psi below your cut-in pressure. If it is low and no water came out of the valve, topping it up with a bike pump or small compressor is routine homeowner maintenance.
• Normal pressure at the tank, weak at the taps: a clogged whole-house sediment filter or treatment equipment is the usual culprit. Change the cartridge, or put the filter or softener in bypass to test.
• Pressure weakening over months: a worn pump, a failing check valve, or mineral buildup. Have a pro test the system before buying parts.

Water came back after waiting: is your well running dry?

If the taps quit during heavy use and water returns an hour or a day later, the pump is probably fine; the well is giving water more slowly than you are taking it. That refill speed is the well's recovery rate, and drought, lawn irrigation, filling a pool, back-to-back laundry, or a hidden leak can all outrun it. If neighbors lose water at the same time, a falling water table is more likely than your equipment.

• Right now: stop irrigation, fix leaks, spread heavy water uses across the day, and let the well rest between draws.
• If it keeps happening: a licensed well contractor can measure the water level and yield and tell you which fix fits: lowering the pump if there is water below it, hydrofracturing a bedrock well to open more water-bearing fractures, deepening the well, adding a storage tank that a slow well refills between uses, or, as a last resort, drilling a new well. A new well typically runs $5,500 to $35,000 depending on depth and geology; our well drilling cost guide explains what drives the number.
• A newly drilled well that never produced well: start with the driller and the well completion report, which usually records the yield measured when the well was drilled.

When to call a licensed well or pump contractor

• The breaker or low-pressure cutoff trips again after one reset.
• The pump runs but no water arrives, and you found no leak, closed valve, or frozen pipe.
• Power is on, the gauge is below cut-in, and the pump will not start.
• The fix means opening the pressure switch, the control box, or the well.
• Water comes back cloudy, sandy, or with a new taste or smell.
• The well keeps running out, which points at yield rather than equipment.

Ask the contractor to test the switch, tank, and control box before condemning the pump; replacing the wrong part is the expensive mistake. When the pump itself has failed, replacement typically costs $1,000 to $2,500 installed, depending on pump type and well depth, while repairs, pressure-tank swaps, and switch replacements cost less; see the well pump repair cost guide. Rules on who may work on wells and pumps vary by state, so look up the contractor's license before you hire. When you are ready, request free quotes and we will route the job to licensed pump installers near you.

After the water comes back

A system that lost pressure, or a well that was opened for repair, can pick up bacteria. Consider testing for total coliform and E. coli through a certified lab before drinking, and use bottled water in the meantime if the water looks, smells, or tastes different; many contractors disinfect the well after pump work, and a test confirms it worked. Our well water testing guide covers what to test and how often. Then keep the cut-in and cut-out numbers you wrote down: the next time the gauge behaves differently, you will notice before the taps go dry.

Common questions