A submersible well pump has a normal service life, typically 8 to 15 years, averaging 10 to 12 depending on how much the well runs, how much sand or sediment moves through the system, and how well the pressure tank has been maintained. When a pump reaches the end of that life, or fails early from a lightning strike, a stuck check valve, or years of short-cycling against a waterlogged tank, replacement is the honest answer instead of throwing more repair money at a motor that's done.
The old pump gets pulled up out of the casing on its drop pipe, the wiring and pipe connections are inspected (a drop pipe or wire in bad shape gets replaced along with the pump, not reused and hoped for), the new pump is sized to your well's depth and your household's demand, and it's lowered back in and wired up. If the pressure tank is old or already waterlogged, this is the point to replace it too rather than pair a brand new pump with a tank that's going to cause the exact short-cycling problem that kills pumps early.
Sizing matters more than most homeowners realize. A pump sized for a 4-inch well casing won't fit a smaller bore, and a pump undersized for your household's peak demand (multiple bathrooms running at once, irrigation, livestock) will short-cycle and wear out fast no matter how new it is. We size to your actual well and actual household, not to whatever's in the truck.
Drop pipe material is worth a real look, not an assumption. Older wells sometimes still run galvanized steel drop pipe, which corrodes from the inside over decades and can shed enough rust to discolor water even when the pump itself is fine. Most replacements today go in on PVC or polyethylene drop pipe, which doesn't corrode the same way. If your system is old enough to still have galvanized pipe, that's worth addressing at the same time as a pump swap rather than reusing pipe that's already most of the way through its own service life.
If your pump is under about 8 years old and the failure traces to something specific (a bad capacitor, a tripped breaker, a failed pressure switch), repair is usually the right call and the well pump repair page covers that. If it's older, has failed more than once in the past year or two, or the motor itself has physically burned out or seized, replacement is the more honest recommendation even though it costs more up front, because a second repair on a pump at the end of its life rarely holds.
Pump installation work in Texas requires a TDLR-licensed pump installer, with separate license endorsements depending on whether the pump is single-phase or three-phase power. This isn't optional paperwork, it's the actual state licensing structure for this trade, and it's a fair question to ask before anyone lowers a pump into your well.
Well drilling and equipment costs in the Tyler area are commonly cited in the range of $25 to $55 per foot for new drilling, with a complete residential system (drilling, casing, pump, and pressure tank) often landing somewhere in the low five figures depending on well depth. A pump-and-tank replacement on an existing, already-drilled well is a different and generally smaller job than a new well, since the casing and bore are already in place. See the cost guide for how these numbers actually break down, and treat any number you read online, including this one, as a starting planning figure rather than a quote for your specific property.
It varies more than people expect. Smith County sits over the deeper, confined part of the Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer system, where regional data shows wells commonly running several hundred feet or more, but wells actually drilled in the immediate Tyler area are commonly in the 100 to 400 foot range depending on the specific property and target sand. The only way to know your own well's depth for certain is your well log or driller's report, not a regional average.
Sometimes, if the tank is relatively new and its bladder is intact. But an old or waterlogged tank paired with a brand new pump is one of the more common ways a new pump gets stressed into an early failure through short-cycling, so we'll tell you honestly if your tank is a liability worth replacing at the same time.
No. None of the counties in our service area (Smith, Gregg, Rusk, Anderson, or Cherokee) require a permit for pump repair or replacement work on an existing well. That's different from new well drilling, which in some of these counties does involve groundwater conservation district oversight, but a pump swap on a well that's already in the ground is not a permitted activity anywhere we serve.
Get a Free Quote