How the parts fit together
Understanding the sequence makes most well faults self-diagnosing.
The pump lifts water from the well. Most modern residential wells here use a submersible pump sitting down in the water rather than a jet pump at the surface.
The pressure tank holds a reserve of water under pressure against a captive air cushion, usually behind an internal rubber bladder. Its job is not storage — it is to stop the pump starting every time someone runs a tap. Without it, the pump would short-cycle itself to death within weeks.
The pressure switch watches system pressure and starts the pump when it falls to the cut-in point, stopping it at cut-out. Typical settings are 30/50 or 40/60 psi.
Then treatment: sediment filtration first, iron removal if needed, then softening. That order matters — each stage protects the one after it.
What usually goes wrong
People assume the pump, because it is the expensive part. It is usually not the pump.
- Waterlogged pressure tank. The bladder fails, the air cushion is lost, and the tank fills with water. The symptom is unmistakable: the pump kicks on and off rapidly every time you run a tap. Left alone, this destroys the pump.
- Failed pressure switch. Contacts pit and burn. The pump will not start, or will not stop. Inexpensive part.
- Lost air charge in the tank without full bladder failure — fixable by recharging to 2 psi below cut-in.
- Sediment reaching the fixtures, meaning the filter is spent or the well is drawing more sand than it used to.
- Iron staining — orange-brown marks in sinks and laundry.
- Pump failure, genuinely, which on a submersible means pulling it from the well.
Worth knowing
Rapid on-off cycling is the one to act on quickly. It is almost always a waterlogged pressure tank, the tank is far cheaper than the pump, and every day it continues is wear on the pump that does not come back.
The tank test worth knowing
This takes five minutes and identifies the most common well fault in the area.
Turn off power to the pump, then open a tap and drain the system. With no water pressure in it, check the air valve on top of the tank — it looks like a tyre valve — with a normal tyre pressure gauge.
It should read 2 psi below the cut-in pressure. On a 30/50 switch, that means 28 psi.
If it reads low, recharge with a compressor or bicycle pump. If water comes out of the air valve instead of air, the bladder has failed and the tank needs replacing — no amount of recharging will help.
Checking this annually costs nothing and prevents the expensive failure downstream.
Treatment: the order and why
Getting the sequence wrong is the most common expensive mistake on a well, and it usually shows up as a softener that stops working within a year or two.
Sediment first. Sand and grit damage everything downstream. A spin-down or cartridge filter at the entry point handles it.
Iron next, if present. Iron above roughly 0.3 ppm fouls standard softener resin — it coats the beads and they stop exchanging. Once that has happened the resin generally does not recover. Handle iron with a dedicated filter or specialty resin before the softener, not after.
Softening last. Sized to your actual hardness, which on a Hill Country well commonly means 25-35 grains per gallon — noticeably harder than Boerne city supply. Sizing on an assumption rather than a test is how people end up with a unit that regenerates constantly.
The practical implication: test the water first. Hardness, iron, pH and total dissolved solids. Wells vary from property to property, and a neighbour's numbers are not yours.
What a well does not change
The house side of the plumbing is the same. Drains, fixtures, water heaters and slab leaks behave identically to a city-water home.
What changes is that harder water accelerates the wear. Water heaters scale faster, valves and cartridges fail sooner, and a tankless unit needs flushing twice a year rather than annually.
And when pressure is low, the diagnosis starts in a different place. On city water you check the regulator; on a well you check the pressure tank and switch first. Same symptom, different first move — which is worth saying to whoever you call.
One more thing: there is no utility to ring when something goes wrong. That is the real difference on a well, and it is the argument for checking the tank pressure once a year rather than waiting.