Hello All,

I have an interesting problem that started happening about a month ago. Usually it would happen only in the morning, but now seems to be happening more often. The problem is that my pump is not turning on sometimes. I will flush the toilet, and you can hear it filling up and then stop. There will be no water pressure at any of the sinks. After 1-2 minutes, the pump will turn on and I have full water pressure. I've checked the switch and it is a Square D 30-50. I checked the contacts and they had pitting and arcing like an old set of points. I filed them down a bit with an old points file. This didn't seem to help. I've also noticed that my pressure tank bladder must be broken, as I drained it in order to pressurize it properly and it will not hold air pressure. So it looks like I will need a new one. The one I have now is a Wellmate WM-9. The guy who installed this did not put any couplings in, so I am either going to have to disassemble all the piping to remove it or make two cuts to remove this and add couplings. Any recommendations on a good pressure tank would be nice This tank is 16 years old. I just hope it is not a bad pump as things are bad here in Michigan and my savings account is drained. The well I have is the typical 4 or 5" white plastic pipe coming out of the ground. I believe the well depth is 160 feet and it is a 220 volt pump. What are the typical costs to replace a well pump? Can it be replaced by a home owner or will one of the big pump rigs be necessary? Any suggestions to further test? Thanks and Best Regards. Photoguy