First, What to Do Right Now
A breaker trips to protect your wiring and your equipment. When the well breaker trips, the safe steps are short and simple.
- Reset the well breaker in your panel one time.
- If it holds and the water comes back, keep an eye on it and call us to talk it through.
- If it trips again, leave it OFF. Do not keep resetting it.
- Call 703-776-0996 if you are out of water, or 703-791-3981 if you still have some.
Please do not open the pressure switch cover or the pump control box. Those parts carry live power, and a breaker that trips is a sign that something inside may already be damaged. Resetting a breaker over and over can turn a repair into a replacement, and it is a real shock and fire risk.
Common Reasons for a Well Pump Tripping the Breaker
A tripped breaker is a symptom. The cause is usually somewhere between the panel and the bottom of the well. Here are the ones we see most.
A worn pump motor
As a pump motor wears, it can draw more power than it should. Eventually it draws enough to trip the breaker. This is common on older pumps near the end of their life, and a well pump lasts on average 10 to 15 years.
Damaged wire in the well
The wire that runs down to the pump can wear against the casing or break down with age. A short in that wire will trip the breaker, sometimes right away.
A failing part in the control box
Many pumps have a control box in the basement with a capacitor and other parts that help the motor start. When one fails, the motor can struggle and pull too much current.
Lightning or a power surge
Storms are hard on well equipment. A nearby strike or a surge can damage the pump, the switch or the control box. If the trouble started right after a storm, tell us when you call.
Short cycling
When a pressure tank loses its air charge, the pump starts and stops over and over. All those starts heat up the motor and can end in a tripped breaker. The pressure tank is often part of the fix.
A tired breaker
Now and then the breaker itself is the problem. That is less common than the causes above, but it gets checked.
A pump that runs too long
If a leak in the line, a running toilet or a worn pump keeps the motor running far longer than it should, heat builds up. Look for water pooling near the well or listen for hissing at the casing. A pump that never shuts off is worth a call even before the breaker trips.
The One Check You Can Do Safely
With the well breaker OFF, run cold water until it stops. Then check the air pressure at the valve on top of the pressure tank with a tire gauge, the same kind you use on a car. It should read about 2 psi under the pressure switch low setting, which is around 38 on a common 40-60 switch. Our step-by-step guide to checking pressure tank pressure walks through it.
If the tank reads very low or you get water out of the air valve, the tank may be waterlogged. That is useful information to share when you call.
Tripped Breaker or Tripped Switch?
These get confused. Some pressure switches have a low-pressure cutoff with an outside lever. After a power outage, that switch can drop out and will not restart on its own, even though the breaker is fine. We explain that situation in lost water after a power outage. The difference matters, and we can often sort it out over the phone.
Things to Note Before You Call
A few details help us figure out the cause faster, and sometimes let us sort it out by phone:
- Did the breaker trip right away when you reset it, or after the pump ran for a while?
- Was there a storm or power outage recently?
- Have you noticed short cycling, sputtering faucets or low pressure in the past few weeks?
- Roughly how old is the pump, if you know?
What We Do When We Get There
We test the pump circuit from the panel down, check the control box and switch, and measure what the motor is drawing. From there we can tell you whether it is a part, the wire or the pump itself. If a new pump is needed, we install Gould, Myers and Grundfos pumps with a 5-year warranty on the install. More on that at our well pump repair page.
No-water calls take priority. That goes for farms off Sudley Road in Catharpin and rural homes near the airport in Midland. Our emergency no-water service runs 24/7. If you want the full list of warning signs, see 7 signs your well pump is failing.