Well pump repair and pump service

What breaks first, and how we check your system step by step.

We test surface electrical parts first because checking them is quick and costs less. Bad switches, flat pressure tanks, burnt control boxes, or loose wires can cut off water while your pump remains perfectly fine. Once surface electrics test fine, we measure whether the pump motor broke or the water table dropped beneath your intake.

Pump failure, or a well that has run down?

The two look identical at the tap. Dropping a measuring tape inside the well casing reveals which problem you have. If water covers the pump but nothing comes out at the tap, you have a broken pump or wire. When water drops to the intake, you are pumping faster than the ground refills the well — common in bedrock where Aquifer 162 under Cedar and Yellow Point averages about 2 US gallons a minute and Aquifer 220 at Errington gives about 3. That is a storage and cycling problem, and replacing the pump does not fix it.

What can you do while you wait?

Leave the breaker off if it has tripped more than once — repeated resets on a real fault can cook a control box or a motor. Check your pressure tank with an air gauge rather than knocking on the metal side. If you have a hose bib on the pressure side, open it briefly and see whether there is any pressure at all. Note the pressure reading when the pump starts and stops, because those numbers help us bring the right repair parts.

What we do to protect your water after fixing the pump.

Regulations require every permanent pump to have a backflow preventer, a sealed cap, and an easy way to disinfect the well. Provincial guidance calls for disinfecting your well after pump installation, maintenance, or repairs too, as well as after drilling. Skipping chlorination risks contaminating your water with surface bacteria, so we always disinfect your well after doing repair work.

What a service call covers

• Diagnosis

  Pressure switch, tank pre-charge, control box, breaker, wiring and wellhead checked before anything is pulled.

• Water level measurement

  Measuring water depth in the casing tells us if your pump motor broke or if the well simply ran low.

• Pump pull and replacement

  Submersible pump, drop pipe, wire and fittings brought up and assessed as one system.

• Disinfection and backflow

  The well disinfected after the work, with backflow prevention on the permanent installation.

How a no-water call runs

1. 1

   Surface checks — we test the pressure switch, tank air charge, control box, breaker, and wiring first without pulling any pipe.

2. 2

   Water level — we check the water depth inside the casing to tell whether the pump failed or the water table dropped.

3. 3

   Pull and inspect — if surface controls test fine, we pull up the pump, drop pipe, wire, and torque arrestor to inspect everything on ground level.

4. 4

   Repair, then disinfect — after fixing the pump, we verify backflow prevention is working and disinfect your well before leaving.

Is low yield here a sign something's wrong?

Bedrock across this region yields water slowly during summer months. Under Cedar, DeCourcy Formation sandstone reaches a median depth near 50 m and yields about 2 US gallons a minute. Haslam Formation shale at Errington and Coombs sits near 60 m depth and gives around 3 US gallons a minute. On Gabriola Island, wells cluster near 34 m depth with a median yield around 4.5 US gallons a minute. Those numbers set the ceiling on what any pump can deliver. In June 2026, sixteen of the twenty-two aquifers the Regional District of Nanaimo monitors were sitting below normal. A pump system picked during spring rains can struggle when water tables drop in August.

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