Your faucet just ran dry. Before you call anyone, a few minutes of checks can tell you whether this is a $0 fix or a real repair. Work down this list in order: breaker, pressure switch, then give the motor time to cool.
Find your electrical panel and look for the breaker labeled well pump. A tripped breaker sits between ON and OFF, or looks slightly out of line with its neighbors. Flip it fully OFF, then back ON. If it trips again right away, stop: a breaker that won't hold means an electrical or motor problem, and that's a pro call, not a retry.
Near your pressure tank (usually the basement or a well pit) there's a small gray box on the pipe: that's the pressure switch. If the gauge next to it reads zero, the switch itself may be the problem. This is where DIY checking stops and a service call starts: pressure switches are a commonly named cause of both a pump that won't run and one that won't shut off, but adjusting or resetting one is a job for a pro.
Pumps have thermal overload protection built in. A pump that ran dry or cycled hard can shut itself down until it cools. Give it time, then try a faucet. The thermal protector resets itself once the motor has cooled enough.
After an outage, well systems sometimes don't restart on their own. Repeat the breaker and pressure-switch checks in order. If your neighbors on wells have the same problem after a storm, the issue may be bigger than your equipment.
Stop if: the breaker won't hold, the switch clicks but nothing runs, the pump runs but no water comes, or anything involves the wellhead or wiring. Pulling a pump is a two-person job with specialized equipment, and 240 volts near water is not a homeowner project.
Plymouth and Carver wells vary a lot with the season. State guidance on private wells is specific about the mechanism: the water table runs at its annual low in the August-through-October stretch, and a well that tested fine in spring can come up short in a summer drought. If your well sputters, surges, or pulls air late in the summer, that can be a water-table problem rather than a broken pump: a different diagnosis, a different fix.
$1,500 – $4,000
professional pump replacement; smaller repairs cost less
Start with the breaker: find the one labeled well pump, flip it fully OFF then back ON. If it trips again right away, stop, that's an electrical or motor problem. If the breaker holds, check the pressure switch next to your tank: a zero reading there means the switch may be the issue, and that's a pro job to adjust. If both check out, the motor may just need time to cool: it has thermal overload protection that resets itself once it does. Full walkthrough above, in order.
No, not repeatedly. Reset it once. If it trips again right away, that means a breaker that won't hold, which points to an electrical or motor problem. Retrying it over and over doesn't fix anything and risks the wiring or the motor. That's the point where it's a pro call, not another retry.
It means there's no water pressure registering at the tank, and that has a few possible causes, not just one. If the breaker already checked out fine, a zero reading commonly points to the pressure switch itself, one of the more frequently named causes of a pump that won't start. But it can also mean the pump isn't producing water at all, or the well itself is low. This is where DIY checking stops: figuring out which of those it actually is, and adjusting or resetting a pressure switch, is a job for a pro.
That points away from the easy fixes and toward the pump or the well itself: lost prime, a leak in the drop pipe, a failed check valve, or low water in the well. This is the point where guessing gets expensive, since some of those causes are down the well. See our symptom guide to narrow it down before you call.
Possibly. Plymouth and Carver wells vary with the season, and state guidance on private wells is specific about the mechanism: the water table runs at its annual low in the August-through-October stretch, and a well that tested fine in spring can come up short in a summer drought. If your well sputters, surges, or pulls air late in the summer, that can be a water-table problem rather than a broken pump: a different diagnosis, a different fix.
Well Pump Repair for Plymouth and Plymouth County. When the water stops, start here.
(508) 905-6197