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Lebanon Plumbers, home

Wells & Water Treatment

Well Pump Repair and Water Treatment

Outside the boroughs, the pump, the pressure tank and the water chemistry are all yours. There is no utility to call when the pressure drops.

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What is included

Well pumps, pressure tanks and treatment

  • Submersible and jet pump diagnosis and replacement
  • Pressure tank replacement and pressure switch adjustment
  • Short cycling, weak pressure and loss of prime
  • Water softeners sized to measured hardness
  • Iron, manganese and sulfur odor treatment
  • Sediment filtration, neutralisers and UV disinfection
  • Plumbing work following a water test result

Signs to look for

Is it the well pump or the pressure tank?

  • The pump switching on and off rapidly while a faucet runs
  • Weak pressure throughout the property
  • No water at all, or water that stops and restarts
  • Air spitting from faucets, or cloudy and sandy water
  • Orange, brown or black staining on fixtures and laundry
  • A rotten egg smell from the water
  • Scale on kettles and fixtures, and soap that will not lather

Why it happens

Why does a well lose pressure or stain fixtures?

01

A pressure tank that has lost its charge

The tank holds an air cushion that lets the pump deliver steady flow between cut in and cut out. When the bladder fails, that cushion goes and the pump hammers on and off every few seconds. It is the most common well call and it destroys pumps if left.

02

Pump or pressure switch failure

A worn pump loses capacity gradually, while a pressure switch out of adjustment or with burned contacts causes erratic behavior. Both present as pressure problems and need testing to separate.

03

Falling water level

Air spitting from faucets, or water going cloudy and gritty, can mean the level has dropped near the pump intake. Running a pump dry damages it, so this is worth investigating rather than living with.

04

Groundwater chemistry

Corrosivity is the one that does real damage and gets treated least. Water low in pH takes metal out of your own plumbing, which causes pinhole leaks in copper, blue-green staining and a metallic taste, and it is the mechanism that puts lead and copper into well water. Of the Lebanon County well samples sent to the Penn State lab between 2007 and May 2025, 62.2% came back corrosive and the median hardness was 56 mg/L, which is soft. Coliform, nitrate and iron turn up as well. All of these need a test result before any equipment is chosen.

Our approach

From no water to a working well

  1. 01

    Read the cycling pattern first

    Rapid on and off while a faucet runs points at the pressure tank. Steady weak pressure, or a pump running without building pressure, points at the pump, the switch or the well. That distinction directs everything that follows.

  2. 02

    Check the simple faults before the pump

    A tripped breaker, a failed pressure switch or a control box fault are all far smaller jobs than a pump, and all of them get missed by anyone who assumes the worst first.

  3. 03

    Test the water before selling any treatment

    A softener or a filter never gets sized from a description of the symptoms. A certified lab test tells you what is actually in the water and at what concentration, and equipment gets chosen from that.

  4. 04

    Install and set up properly

    Pressure switch set correctly, tank pre-charge set to suit the cut-in pressure, and treatment plumbed so filters and media can actually be serviced.

Before anything else, it is worth understanding why well water here is corrosive rather than hard, because the two problems need opposite treatment.

Public water or a private well?

Lebanon County splits fairly cleanly. Inside the city and the boroughs there are public systems: the City of Lebanon Authority serves Lebanon city and a number of surrounding municipalities, Myerstown has its own borough water authority, and Pennsylvania American Water serves much of the western side including the Palmyra and Annville areas.

Outside those service areas, across the rural townships, houses are generally on private wells. If that is you, there is no utility standing behind your water. The pump, the pressure tank, the plumbing and the quality of what comes out are all yours.

A blue well pressure tank with its pressure switch and gauge against a fieldstone basement wall

Short cycling is the call to make quickly

The single most common well problem, and the one most worth acting on, is a pump snapping on and off every few seconds while a faucet runs.

The pressure tank is supposed to hold a cushion of air that lets the pump deliver steady flow between cut-in and cut-out. When the bladder fails or the charge is lost, that cushion disappears and the pump starts hammering. Every one of those rapid starts is wear, and a pump on a failed tank can be destroyed in a small fraction of its expected life.

It usually presents as an annoyance rather than an emergency, which is exactly why it gets left.

What Lebanon County well tests actually come back with

Between 2007 and May 2025, 150 Lebanon County samples went to the Penn State agricultural analytical services lab. Read this as the pattern among wells somebody chose to test, not as a survey of the county, because people test when they suspect something.

Test Share of samples failing
Corrosive on the corrosivity index 62.2%
Total coliform present 36.4%
pH outside 6.5 to 8.5 17.8%
Lead, first draw, over 0.015 mg/L 12.1%
Iron over 0.3 mg/L 10.6%
E. coli present 8.4%
Nitrate over 10 mg/L 8.3%

Median hardness was 56 mg/L, which is soft.

Three things in that table are worth sitting with. Corrosivity is the most common finding by a long way, and hardness is not this county’s problem, which is the reverse of what most people assume and the reverse of what a softener is built for. The lead figure is a first-draw result, so on a well it is lead coming out of the household’s own pipework rather than off a utility service line, and corrosive water is the mechanism that puts it there. And more than a third came back with coliform, which is the one worth acting on quickly, because nothing about the taste, smell or appearance of the water will tell you it is there.

Water samples in test tubes being checked with a digital meter at a kitchen sink

Test first, then treat

Water quality is a separate problem from water delivery, and the order of operations matters.

Hard water is widespread here because of the limestone geology, and iron, manganese and sulfur odor all turn up in wells around the county. Every one of those needs different equipment, and concentration decides what is appropriate.

A softener or a filter never gets sized from a description of your symptoms. Get a certified lab test, read the result, then buy equipment that matches it. Penn State Extension and the Lebanon County Conservation District both publish guidance for Pennsylvania well owners on what to test for and how often, and bacteria is the one that gives no warning at all through taste or smell.

Questions

Well pump and water treatment questions

General FAQ
My well tested positive for coliform. What does that actually mean?
Coliform bacteria are an indicator rather than a disease in themselves. Their presence means surface water is reaching your well somewhere it should not, through a cracked casing, a bad cap, a shallow or poorly sealed bore, or runoff finding its way in. E. coli in the same sample is more serious, because that points at fecal contamination specifically. Either result means finding the route in and closing it. Disinfecting the well without fixing how it got contaminated just resets the clock.
Do I need a softener or an acid neutralizer?
They treat opposite problems, and the test tells you which you have. A softener removes calcium and magnesium, which is what causes scale and spotting. An acid neutralizer raises the pH of water that is low enough to dissolve metal out of your pipes, which is what causes blue-green staining and pinhole leaks in copper. In this county corrosivity turns up far more often than hardness in tested samples, so fitting a softener by default is a common mistake. Some properties need both.
Should I worry about nitrate if I am near farmland?
It is worth testing for rather than assuming either way. Nitrate reaches shallow groundwater through fertilizer and manure, so farmland above a shallow well is the situation where it turns up, and it has already been found in a public well in this county: Richland Borough abandoned one over nitrate and drilled a replacement. Nitrate has no taste, color or smell, so a test is the only way to see it. It matters most for infants under six months and during pregnancy.
How do I know whether the problem is the pump or the pressure tank?
The cycling pattern is the giveaway. If the pump switches on and off rapidly, every few seconds, while a faucet is running, the pressure tank has almost certainly lost its air charge or its bladder has failed. If pressure is steadily weak, or the pump runs continuously without building pressure, or water stops entirely, the pump, the pressure switch or the well itself is more likely. Short cycling is worth fixing quickly either way, because it wears a pump out fast.
My water stopped completely. What should I check first?
The breaker for the pump circuit, because a tripped breaker takes a second to reset and gets overlooked constantly. Then the pressure switch and, on a jet pump system, the control box. Those are all far smaller jobs than a pump. If all of them check out, then it is the pump, the wiring down the well, or the water level. Do not keep switching a pump on and off repeatedly while investigating, because running it dry causes real damage.
Do I need a water softener?
Only a test tells you, and buying before testing is how people end up with equipment that treats the wrong problem. A softener is the reflex answer, but a softener does nothing for corrosive water, which is the more damaging problem on wells and the one behind pinhole leaks and blue-green staining. Corrosive water needs pH correction, not softening. Get a certified lab test covering pH, hardness, iron, manganese, copper and lead, then size equipment to what it actually found.
My water stains everything orange. What is that?
Reddish orange staining is the signature of iron, which is common in groundwater across this area. Dark brown or black points more toward manganese, and a rotten egg smell toward hydrogen sulfide. Each needs different treatment media, and concentration decides what is appropriate, so this is another case where the test comes before the equipment. If the smell is only on the hot water, look at the water heater's anode rod first rather than a whole house system.
How often should I test my well water?
Nobody tests it for you, so it only happens if you arrange it. Pennsylvania does not require routine testing of existing private residential wells and no utility monitors them. Penn State Extension and the Lebanon County Conservation District both publish guidance for well owners on what to test for and how often. Testing matters more for shallow wells and after heavy rain, and bacteria in particular has no taste or smell to warn you.
How long does a well pump last?
It varies enormously with water conditions, how hard the pump works and, above all, whether it has been short cycling. A pump on a system with a failed pressure tank can be destroyed in a fraction of its expected life, because every rapid start is wear. That is the main reason we treat short cycling as urgent rather than as an annoyance you can live with.
Can you treat water for a house that is on public supply?
Yes. Hardness affects houses on the City of Lebanon Authority, Myerstown Water Authority and Pennsylvania American Water supplies too, and softening is a common request in the boroughs. The difference is that on public water somebody else is already testing and treating for safety, so the question is comfort and appliance life rather than potability.
Should I test before buying a rural property?
Yes, and it is often overlooked. On a well property, the pump, tank, plumbing and water quality all become yours at closing with no utility standing behind any of it. A water test and a look at the pump and pressure tank before you commit is a small step next to a system you are about to own outright.

Other plumbing on a well property

Well service in the townships

All service areas

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