When should I replace my well pump?
Many homeowners with wells ask “How many years does a submersible well pump last?” or “When should I plan to replace my well pump?” There are many factors involved in answering these questions! An answer like “every 8 years” fails to recognize the quality of the equipment installed and the primary factors that influence the longevity of your pump! Check out our blog on the expected lifespan of a submersible well pump for more discussion on those topics. In today’s blog we’ll be discussing the specific signs that your well pump is ready for a replacement.
Energy Bills Creeping Up
One of the first signs your well pump is ready for replacement comes from energy bills that are slowly rising year over year. Submersible well pumps are machines and they pump water that frequently has small particles that can cause wear and damage to the pump. Sometimes minerals deposit can plug up the pump or piping. These issues are not always detectible at the faucet, but it does show up in the amount of electricity the pump uses to provide the water necessary for your home or garden. This decreased efficiency of the pump will have a long term impact on your wallet! A qualified pump technician can take measurements of how much water and pressure a pump produces and its energy consumption and make a recommendation for replacement based on comparing this data to the pump manufacturers performance curves. Small amounts of wear and tear, while decreasing efficiency, don’t necessarily call for pump replacement. After all, you do want to get as much pump life as possible out of the pump before incurring the cost of replacement.
Low Water Pressure.
A sure sign of a problem is low water pressure. While low water pressure can be caused by many things such as a plugged filter, low yield well or failed pressure switch, the distinct possibility of a worn out submersible well pump should be thoroughly investigated when a technician is diagnosing the problem.
Tripping Circuit Breakers
In some cases submersible pumps that are long in the tooth will produce plenty of water and pressure, but they use significantly more electricity than they should! The problem in these cases is usually with the motor bearings being worn/old. In this situation the pump uses so much more electricity than they should that they will occasionally trip the circuit breaker that supplies the electricity to the well pump. If you are having to reset the circuit breaker to your well pump on a regular basis, then it is very likely the motor or wire to the well pump has a problem. The equipment should be checked for electricity usage, insulation breakdown and short circuits. Pumps that exhibit this behavior frequently only have a few weeks or month of life left before they fail completely!
Brown spots in the yard?
Your yard is often a good indication of pump performance! If the sprinklers used to cover the whole lawn and now there are dead patches in the middle…you should check the well pump! There are other causes such as plugged filters or faulty irrigation valves, but once you have ruled those out, the pump should be checked. A worn submersible well pump will still produce water, but may struggle to produce enough pressure or volume to make the sprinklers reach those center sections or distant corners.
Yells from the shower!
Is the person upstairs making a fuss whenever you turn a faucet on downstairs? Does the dishwasher cease to fill/work when the landscaping is being watered? These types of situations illustrate that there is simply not enough water or pressure to meet the demands! If these problems are new, then it is time to check out the submersible well pump equipment to see if it is due for service/replacement.
A huge jump in electricity costs.
A huge electricity bill from one month to the next is often a dead give away to a submersible pump on the fritz! This usually happens when the pump has worn out enough so that it doesn’t quite make enough pressure to pressurize the system fully and turn off. Since it can’t make enough pressure to turn off, the pump continues to run 24/7. Most pumps only run for a few hours a day, but when they run 24 hours a day for a month you can imagine that energy bills can be as much 10x times the norm! The good news is that in some cases the utility company will forgive a portion of the bill if you can provide an explanation of the problem and show an invoice for the replacement of the faulty well pump equipment.
Oakville Pump Service trains and employs top quality technicians that can get to the bottom of your well pump problems quickly and make effective repairs. Call our team of Napa Valley Submersible Pump Repair Technicians today to ensure your equipment is performing optimally.