When Your Well Goes Dry: The Issues Nobody Talks About

Your well stopped working. You’ve already checked the breaker, reset the pressure switch, and confirmed the tank isn’t not waterlogged. Now what? Here’s what the pros actually check—the stuff that separates a three-hour service call from a three-week nightmare.

Pull Your Well Records

Before you throw money at the problem, get your hands on your well completion report from the Texas Water Development Board’s database. Most homeowners have no idea this exists. Search by property address or drilling date, and you’ll get critical data: actual well depth, static water level, casing diameter, and pump depth. This thirty-second lookup can save you from sending a tech down blind or, worse, pulling a pump unnecessarily. You need to know if your pump is at 180 feet or 380 feet—that’s the difference between a $1,200 repair and a $4,500 one.

The Check Valve Is Probably Destroying Your System

Check valves fail silently and expensively. When that little flapper at the bottom of your drop pipe gives out, water drains back into the well every time the pump shuts off. Your pump then short-cycles constantly, creating a brutal pattern: pump runs for twenty seconds, shuts off, water drains back, pressure drops, pump kicks on again. Do this a few hundred times and you’ve cooked your pump motor, hammered your pressure switch to death, and potentially stirred up decades of sediment from the bottom of your well. If your pump is cycling every few minutes with no water being used, don’t wait. That check valve failure will cascade into a full system replacement within weeks.

Sediment Screens Need Surging, Not Replacement

When flow drops to a trickle but your pump still runs, techs often want to pull the whole assembly. Hold up. The foot valve screen at your pump intake can clog with fine sediment, iron bacteria, or mineral deposits—especially in the Edwards Aquifer and Carrizo-Wilcox formations. Before pulling a pump that might be 300 feet down, request well surging. A surge block or bailer can blast accumulated sediment off that screen in an hour. It’s mechanical, it’s effective, and it costs a fraction of a pump pull. Many drillers won’t mention this option because it’s less profitable than a full service, but it solves flow problems in 60% of cases where the pump itself is fine.

Water Table Fluctuations Are Real in Texas

Your pump depth matters more than most homeowners realize. If your well was drilled during a wet period and the pump was set shallow—say 40 feet below static water level—a single drought year can drop that water table below your pump intake. You don’t need a new well; you need your pump lowered. But here’s the thing nobody tells you: before you pay to drop that pump another hundred feet, check your well log. If your well is only 200 feet deep and your pump is already at 180 feet, you’re out of room. At that point, you’re looking at either drilling deeper (if your casing allows) or drilling a new well entirely. Know your numbers before the truck rolls out.

Your Pressure Switch Is a $35 Part That Acts Like a $3,000 Problem

When a well “stops working” but the pump still hums and the breaker’s fine, it’s often a burned contact inside your pressure switch. These square boxes fail constantly in Texas heat, especially in pump houses that hit 120°F in summer. Contacts pit and corrode, preventing the switch from completing the circuit even when pressure drops. Before diagnosing elaborate electrical faults or calling for pump replacement, pull that switch cover off and inspect the contacts with a flashlight. If they’re blackened or pitted, swap the switch. Use a good quality switch rated for your voltage and cycle frequency—cheap ones fail in six months. This is a fifteen-minute fix that prevents misdiagnosis 90% of the time.

The Bottom Line

Well failures rarely happen in isolation. A weak check valve stresses your pump. A clogged screen drops your pressure. A short-cycling pump burns your switch. The pros know these systems fail as a chain reaction, not a single component. Get your well records, understand your actual pump depth and water table, and push back when someone wants to pull your pump without checking everything else first. We hope this bit of knowledge is the difference between a smart repair and an expensive excavation.