Well Pump and Pressure Tank Service in Southwest Florida

Where Southwest Florida Homes Still Run on Wells

A lot of people move here assuming every house is on city water. Plenty aren’t. Large parts of Lee and Collier Counties were platted for rural or semi-rural living long before utility lines caught up, and many of those lots still pull drinking water from a private well and send waste to a septic tank.

In Lehigh Acres, a big share of single-family homes depend on private wells, and the area has a history of wells going dry during hard droughts. That’s usually not because the aquifer is empty. It’s because older pumps were set too shallow, or have corroded, and can’t reach water once the level drops. We cover the bigger picture of well, septic and sewer in our Lehigh Acres wells and septic guide.

Alva and the rural stretches of eastern Lee County are mostly acreage, horse property and older homesteads on wells. North Fort Myers has the same story on its larger parcels off the main corridors, where listings commonly read well water and septic tank. In Collier, Golden Gate Estates is the big one: wide lots, long driveways, and a lot of homes still on private wells and septic even as utility service expands.

Cape Coral is a mixed case. The city started as a low-density community built on septic tanks and shallow groundwater wells, and the Utilities Extension Project has been converting neighborhoods to city water and sewer area by area. Homes that haven’t been converted yet are still on wells. Homes that have converted often keep the old well for irrigation only.

What We Do on Well Systems

Most well calls we get aren’t really about the well. They’re about everything between the wellhead and your faucets: the pressure tank, the pressure switch, the check valve, the pressure gauge, the piping into the house and the equipment that treats the water. That’s plumbing work, and it’s where most problems show up first.

• Diagnosing low pressure, no water, surging pressure and pumps that won’t shut off
• Replacing pressure tanks, including bladder and diaphragm tanks
• Replacing and adjusting pressure switches and gauges
• Checking and setting tank air precharge
• Replacing check valves, unions, tank tees and the plumbing between the well and the house
• Installing and servicing constant pressure controllers
• Repairing the water line from the well to the home
• Hooking up filtration, softening and sulfur treatment downstream of the tank
• Re-plumbing a well for irrigation-only use after a home connects to city water

If a problem traces back to the well itself, meaning the borehole, the casing or the grout seal, that’s a job for a Florida licensed water well contractor, and we’ll say so. More on that split below.

Submersible Pumps vs Jet Pumps

Two kinds of pumps do most of the work in residential wells around here.

Submersible pumps

A submersible pump sits down inside the well casing, below the water level, and pushes water up to the surface. They’re quiet, they handle deeper water well, and they’re the standard choice for most modern domestic wells. The downside is access. When a submersible fails, the pump, drop pipe and wire have to be pulled out of the casing to replace it.

Jet pumps

A jet pump sits above ground, often on a pad near the wellhead or in a pump house, and pulls water up by suction. Shallow-well jet pumps work only when the water level is close to the surface. Deep-well jet pump setups use a second pipe and an ejector down in the well to get more lift, but they still have limits.

That suction limit is the reason older jet pump setups struggle in a dry spring. When the water table falls, a pump that was fine in September can start losing prime, running dry or delivering air by May. If your system keeps losing prime every dry season, it may be time to talk about a different pump setup rather than fixing the same thing again.

How to tell which one you have

If you see a pump motor sitting on top of the ground or in a small shed with pipes running into the well, you’ve got a jet pump. If all you see is a well cap, a wire going into it, and a pressure tank somewhere nearby, the pump is almost certainly a submersible down in the casing.

Pressure Tanks and Pressure Switches

The pump doesn’t run every time you open a faucet. The pressure tank stores a reserve of water under pressure so the pump can rest between cycles. Inside most modern tanks is a rubber bladder or diaphragm with water on one side and pressurized air on the other.

The pressure switch tells the pump when to start and stop. Common settings are 30/50 or 40/60 psi: the pump kicks on at the lower number and shuts off at the higher one. For the tank to work properly, its air precharge is normally set about 2 psi below the cut-in pressure, checked with the system drained and the power off.

Switches are simple devices, but they live a hard life. The contacts pit and burn, ants and other insects get inside the housing in our climate, and the small tube that connects the switch to the plumbing can clog with sediment or iron. A switch that sticks closed can let the pump run nonstop. One that sticks open leaves you with no water at all.

Tanks fail too. Bladders rupture, air charge leaks down over time, and steel tank shells rust from the outside in a humid pump house. When we replace a tank, we size it to the pump and the household, set the precharge correctly, and check the switch and gauge while we’re there.

Short Cycling and What It Does to a Pump

Short cycling is when the pump turns on and off rapidly, sometimes every few seconds while a faucet is open. It’s one of the most common well problems we see, and it’s one you shouldn’t ignore.

Motor starts are the hardest moment in a pump’s life. Every start draws a surge of current and heats the windings. A pump that cycles a few times an hour can last a long time. One that cycles every few seconds is burning through its life on fast forward, along with the switch contacts and any start components.

Common causes

• Waterlogged tank: the bladder has failed or the air charge is gone, so there’s no stored water and the pump has to restart almost immediately
• Wrong precharge: tank air set too high or too low for the switch settings
• Undersized tank for the pump or the household’s demand
• A leaking check valve that lets pressure bleed back down the well
• A leak somewhere in the house or yard piping

A quick test you can do: with the power to the pump turned off and the tank drained, press the air valve on top of the tank. If water comes out instead of air, the bladder is gone and the tank needs replacing. If nothing comes out at all, the precharge has leaked down. Either way, call us before the pump pays the price.

Low Pressure, No Pressure and Pressure That Swings

Low pressure on a well system can come from the pump, the tank, the switch, the piping or the water treatment equipment. Sorting it out is mostly a process of elimination, starting with the gauge.

If the gauge reaches the cut-off pressure and the house still has a weak flow, the restriction is usually downstream: a clogged sediment filter, a softener or iron filter that’s fouled, old galvanized pipe, or a partly closed valve. If the pump runs and runs but the gauge never climbs to cut-off, the pump may be worn, the water level may have dropped below where the pump can keep up, or there may be a leak in the drop pipe or the line to the house.

No water at all usually comes down to power, the switch or the pump. Check the breaker first. If the breaker is fine and the switch shows power but the pump doesn’t run, it’s time for a diagnosis rather than repeated resets.

Pressure that swings between strong and weak in the shower is normal on a basic tank and switch setup. Your pressure drifts from the cut-off number down to the cut-in number and back. Some people barely notice. Others hate it. That’s where constant pressure systems come in.

One more thing worth checking: a pump that runs when nobody is using water. If the tank and switch test out fine, there may be a hidden leak in the yard line or under the slab. Our leak detection service can help track it down.

Constant Pressure Systems

A constant pressure system uses a variable speed controller to change the pump’s speed based on demand, instead of switching it fully on and fully off. Open one faucet and the pump runs slowly. Open three and it speeds up. The pressure at your fixtures stays close to steady.

The benefits are real. You get even pressure in the shower, softer starts on the motor, and the option to use a much smaller pressure tank. Many controllers also have built-in protections that shut the pump down if it’s running dry or the voltage is off.

There are tradeoffs to weigh. The controllers are electronic, so they’re more sensitive to power surges and lightning than a simple pressure switch, and they need to be matched to a compatible pump and motor. Not every existing pump is a good candidate. We’ll look at what you have and tell you honestly whether a conversion makes sense or whether a properly sized tank and a new switch will do the job.

Irrigation Wells

Plenty of homes in Lee and Collier have a separate shallow well that runs only the sprinklers, and a lot of Cape Coral homes that connected to city water kept their original well for irrigation. These systems have their own problems: pumps that run dry, failed pump start relays, check valves that leak back, and iron that stains every surface the sprinklers hit.

If your old drinking water well is being converted to irrigation-only after a utility hookup, the house plumbing has to be fully separated from the well so nothing can cross-connect. Our Cape Coral UEP hookup guide covers the connection side, and our backflow testing page explains how backflow prevention protects the drinking water supply.

Watering restrictions apply to wells too. In the South Florida Water Management District, year-round landscape watering rules cover irrigation from all sources, including private wells. Northeastern Cape Coral has also been under a water shortage order for private wells that pull from the Mid-Hawthorn Aquifer for irrigation. Restrictions there were eased in 2026, but it’s worth checking the current rules for your address before you reset an irrigation timer.

Iron, Sulfur and Hard Water on a Well

Well water in Southwest Florida often comes with iron, hydrogen sulfide or both. Iron shows up as orange or brown staining on fixtures, driveways, walls and anything the sprinklers reach. Hydrogen sulfide is the rotten egg smell.

Florida health officials point out that sulfur bacteria and iron bacteria aren’t disease-causing on their own, but they cause real problems. They foul pumps and switches, clog filters, slow production from the well and can create conditions where harmful bacteria do better. A smell doesn’t tell you the water is safe or unsafe, which is why periodic testing for bacteria still matters.

Where the smell shows up is a useful clue. If it’s only in the hot water, the water heater is the likely source, often a reaction involving the anode rod. If it’s strong at first and fades as the water runs, bacteria in the well or plumbing are likely. If it’s strong and constant, it’s probably hydrogen sulfide in the groundwater itself.

We handle the equipment side: sediment filtration, iron and sulfur treatment, softeners and the plumbing to support them. See our water softeners and filtration page for treatment options and our water heaters page if the smell is coming from the hot side. Iron and sulfur also build up inside pressure switch tubes and check valves, so a treated system is easier on the well equipment too.

Power Outages, Hurricanes and Generators

On a well, no power means no water. That surprises people the first time a storm knocks out the lines. You’ll have whatever is left in the pressure tank and the pipes, and then nothing, including no water to flush toilets.

Most residential well pumps run on 240 volts, so a small plug-in generator usually won’t run them. If you want water during an outage, the generator has to be sized for the pump’s starting load, not just its running load, and it has to be connected through a proper transfer switch or interlock. Backfeeding a house through a dryer outlet is dangerous for you and for line workers. Get the electrical side done by an electrician.

After a storm, flooding is the bigger worry. If floodwater covered the wellhead, Florida health officials advise treating the water as unsafe until the well has been disinfected and tested for bacteria by a certified lab. Until then, boil water, disinfect it properly, or use bottled water. Our hurricane plumbing checklist covers prep and recovery for the rest of the house.

Before a storm

• Fill containers with drinking water and fill a bathtub for flushing
• Turn off the breaker to the pump if the area around the wellhead is likely to flood
• Know where your pressure tank, switch and shutoff valve are
• If you have a generator setup, test it before storm season, not during the storm

After the power comes back

Lightning and voltage swings can damage pressure switches, constant pressure controllers and pump motors. If the pump won’t restart, or restarts and cycles strangely, shut it off and call us instead of flipping the breaker over and over.

Plumber or Well Driller: Who Handles What

Florida treats the well itself differently from the plumbing it feeds. Under state law, anyone in the business of constructing, repairing or abandoning a water well has to be a Florida licensed water well contractor. The licenses are issued through the water management districts, and permits are required for the construction, repair, modification and abandonment of most wells.

In our area, Lee and Collier fall under the South Florida Water Management District, which also covers a portion of Charlotte County. Most of Charlotte County is in the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Some counties issue well permits locally under district delegation. In Lee County, the Natural Resources department’s groundwater program issues well construction permits and inspects the work. In Collier, well permits go through the county’s Growth Management department.

Usually a well contractor

• Drilling a new well or a replacement well
• Deepening a well, or anything involving the casing or grout seal
• Plugging and abandoning an old well that’s no longer used
• Well rehabilitation and well-side disinfection when the problem is in the borehole

Usually us

• Pressure tanks, switches, gauges and check valves at the surface
• Piping from the wellhead to the home and through the house
• Constant pressure controllers and related plumbing
• Water treatment equipment downstream of the tank
• Separating a well from the house plumbing when you connect to city water

Pump replacement sits in the middle. Florida law allows licensed well contractors to install and repair pumps and tanks under the plumbing code, and some pump jobs touch the well in ways the permitting agency treats as well repair. When your pump needs to come out, we’ll tell you plainly if it’s work we’ll take on or a job for a well contractor, and we’ll coordinate with them if it’s both.

Getting Your Well System Looked At

Before you call, it helps to note a few things: what the pressure gauge reads when the pump shuts off and when it starts, whether the pump is short cycling, whether there’s a smell or staining, and how old the tank looks. Photos of the tank, switch and wellhead are helpful too.

We serve well owners across Lehigh Acres, Alva, North Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Golden Gate and the rest of Lee, Charlotte and Collier Counties. Call (239) 518-4198, email help@homeflowfl.com, or send a request through our contact page and tell us what your system is doing.