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Looking After a Private Well

A household on a public supply has a utility testing its water constantly and reporting the results. On a well, that is entirely yours.

The short of it

Nobody tests a private well on your behalf. Penn State Extension recommends annual testing and sets out what to look at and how often. The cost of skipping it is that a problem gets found by symptom rather than by measurement.

Source: Penn State Extension, Water Well Maintenance and Rehabilitation.

PumpDepth is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. Every state page sets out who licenses plumbers there and where to check, so you can confirm before work begins. We carry out no work, we sell no equipment, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

The testing schedule

Penn State Extension is specific. Test annually for total coliform bacteria and E. coli at a state accredited laboratory. Every three years, add pH and total dissolved solids.

Source: Penn State Extension, Water Well Maintenance and Rehabilitation.

The inspection interval

Have the well professionally inspected every ten years. That is not a response to a fault — it is how a fault gets found before it is a failure, and it is the step almost nobody takes.

What an inspection is looking for

The warning signs Extension lists are measurable rather than obvious: a decreased pumping rate, a decreased water level, decreased specific capacity, rising sand or sediment, and a decreasing total well depth. None of those announces itself at the tap until it is well advanced.

Why this site says it at all

Because 42.5 million people in the United States are on self-supplied water, and none of them receives an annual water quality report through the door. The maintenance nobody is doing for you is the reason most of these calls happen.

Source: US Geological Survey, Domestic Water Use, and the county-level data release for 2015.

On a well, nobody else is going to notice it failing.If the pressure has gone or the pump is cycling, that is worth a call today rather than next week. We route to contractors who work on wells specifically and cover your area, matched on the ZIP code you give, and you are never charged. Nor does it have to be the well; any plumbing work is routed the same way.

Call (888) 493-0912