July 30, 2026 · By Pocono Well & Pump Service
You turn on the tap and nothing comes out, or what comes out is a weak trickle that used to be real pressure. Before you assume it's a dead pump and an expensive repair, there are five things worth checking first. They take about five minutes combined, need no tools, and more often than homeowners expect, one of them turns out to be the actual answer.
This is the same starting point we use ourselves before talking about a new pump: rule out the simple stuff first.
1. Check if it's really the whole house
Start here, because it changes everything else. Turn on a faucet somewhere else in the house: a different bathroom, or an outside spigot if you have one. If water works fine there, the problem probably isn't your well pump. It's more likely a clogged fixture or a closed shutoff valve, and in cold weather, a frozen line is worth ruling out too. Either way, that's a smaller problem than a dead pump, and it changes who you'd even call.
If every fixture in the house is dry or weak, keep going.
2. Check the breaker
A well pump runs on electricity, and a tripped breaker is one of the most common reasons a pump appears "dead" when it's actually fine, and one of the most overlooked. Go to your electrical panel and look for a breaker sitting in the middle position instead of fully on or fully off, or one labeled specifically for the well pump. Flip it fully off, then fully back on.
If the breaker trips again immediately, stop there and call. A breaker that won't hold usually points to an electrical problem with the pump or the wiring, and resetting it repeatedly won't fix that.
If flipping it fixes the problem, you're done. It's still worth mentioning on your next service call. A breaker that trips once can be a fluke; a breaker that trips repeatedly is usually the pump or the wiring telling you something.
3. Listen for the pump
If you can hear your pressure tank or well area from inside the house, listen for a minute. A pump that's running constantly or cycling on and off rapidly is telling you something specific, and so is one making a noise it normally doesn't make. Constant running usually points to a leak somewhere in the system, or a pressure tank that's lost its air charge and can't hold pressure the way it should. Rapid cycling, on and off every few seconds, almost always points to the pressure tank or the pressure switch.
Silence, when you'd normally expect to hear the pump kick on, points a different direction: no power reaching the pump, or the pump itself has failed.
4. Check the pressure gauge, if you have one
Many well systems have a pressure gauge somewhere near the pressure tank, often in a basement or utility closet. If yours does and you know where it is, take a look. Well systems typically cycle between a low and high pressure setting, commonly somewhere in the 40 to 60 psi range, though every system is set differently. A gauge reading zero, or a needle that isn't moving at all when the pump should be running, tells you something real is going on with the system.
Don't worry if you don't know your system's exact settings or don't have easy access to the gauge. This step is a bonus. The other checks matter more.
5. Think about timing
When did the water actually stop, and did anything happen right before it? A storm with a power outage, recent digging nearby, or a sudden change after another service call are all worth mentioning when you call. You don't need to investigate it yourself. Just remember what you can, because it can point straight at the cause.
When to stop checking and just call
If you've gone through the checks above and you're still without water, and the breaker's fine, the pump is running constantly or not at all, and it's affecting the whole house, that's the point to stop troubleshooting and call. There's no prize for figuring it out yourself, and a system that's cycling wrong or drawing power incorrectly can make a small problem worse the longer it runs that way.
Emergency well pump service — call (570) 243-1679. Tell us what you checked and what you found; it genuinely speeds up the visit, because we already know what to rule out.
What happens when you call
We ask what you're seeing: whole house or one fixture, breaker status, whether you can hear the pump. It's the same checklist above, and it helps us come prepared. When we arrive, we run the full diagnostic: pressure switch, pressure tank, wiring and motor, then the pump itself, in that order. We explain what we find, plainly, in order — and if it turns out to be something small, we tell you that instead of finding a reason to replace more than you need.
"Woke up Friday morning to no water pressure whatsoever. Called Pocono Well and Pump around 8:30AM or so, and a new pump was installed by noon." That's what a real fix looks like when it does turn out to be the pump: diagnosed and handled the same morning.
The bigger picture
A well pump failing is stressful mostly because it feels sudden and total. One minute you have water, the next you don't. But most no-water mornings trace back to one of a handful of causes, and a five-minute check at home is often enough to know which direction you're dealing with before anyone shows up. If it turns out to be the pump, we'll walk you through what failed and why, and we'll test the rest of the system at the same time, so you're not back here again in six months over something we could have caught the first visit.
Call (570) 243-1679. Monday through Saturday, 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Emergency well pump service available; closed Sunday. We serve Stroudsburg and the surrounding Poconos. See our service area for the full list of towns, and our well pump repair page for what the full diagnostic looks like.
Not sure what you're dealing with?
Call the crew who answers the phone. Most questions get a straight answer on the first call.
Call (570) 243-1679