Annual Well Maintenance Checklist for Burlington

Most well failures we see in Burlington could have been caught six months earlier with a 30-minute checkup. Pressure tanks waterlog gradually. Switches pit slowly. Wiring corrodes one rainy season at a time. By the time the symptoms are obvious enough to call a plumber, the system is usually weeks from a full shutdown.

This is the annual maintenance checklist we walk through on routine service calls in Alamance County. You can do most of it yourself in an afternoon. The parts that need a meter or a pressure gauge are worth handing to a pro every other year.

Once a Year: The 30-Minute Checkup

Pick a calm Saturday in spring or fall, before the system gets stressed by summer drought or winter freeze. Walk through these items in order. Most homeowners can finish in under 45 minutes.

• •Visual inspection of the wellhead cap and seal for cracks, gaps, or rodent damage.
• •Look at the ground around the casing for settling, pooling, or surface water that could reach the well.
• •Check the pressure tank's air charge with a tire gauge (tank empty of water, pre-charge should be 2 psi below pump cut-in).
• •Listen for short cycling: open a tap and time the pump on/off intervals. Less than 60 seconds between cycles means something is wrong.
• •Inspect the pressure switch cover for burn marks, ant infestation, or moisture.
• •Check all visible plumbing at the tank for slow drips, white mineral crust, or rust.
• •Run hot and cold at the farthest fixture from the well; flow should be steady, not pulsing.
• •Pull and inspect any sediment filter cartridges; replace if discolored.

Every Year: Get a Water Test

Bacteria and chemistry can change without any taste or appearance shift. The Alamance County health department offers a basic coliform test for a small fee, and private labs run broader panels for 60 to 150 dollars. At minimum, test for total coliform and E. coli once a year. Every three years, run a broader panel including nitrate, lead, iron, manganese, hardness, and pH.

If you have an infant, an immunocompromised household member, or have done any well or septic work, test more often. After a flood event, test before drinking.

Every Three to Five Years: Pro Inspection

Hand the hard stuff to a tradesman with a meter. A professional inspection should include amp draw on the pump motor (a slow-rising amperage trend predicts pump failure months out), a static and pumping water level measurement (catches a falling water table early), pressure switch contact inspection, and a flow rate test against the original well log.

A pro inspection runs 200 to 400 dollars and catches things that visual inspection cannot. It is cheap insurance on a system that costs 5,000 dollars or more to replace in a panic.

Seasonal Tasks

• •Spring: walk the well area for damage from frost heave or storm runoff.
• •Summer: watch for pressure drops during high-demand days (irrigation plus laundry plus showers).
• •Fall: insulate exposed lines, check the pump house heat source, replace sediment filters before winter.
• •Winter: keep an eye on basement humidity around the pressure tank; condensation can hide a slow leak.

Records Worth Keeping

A simple folder with three documents saves real money on the next service call. Keep your well log (drilled depth, casing depth, pump depth, static water level at drilling), every water test result with date, and every invoice from work done on the system. A tradesman walking in cold to a 30-year-old well is guessing; one with records is diagnosing.

If you do not have a well log, your driller may still have it. The state also keeps records of permitted wells. Spend an hour finding yours; it pays back every time something goes wrong.

Common Mistakes Burlington Homeowners Make

• •Skipping the yearly water test because the water looks fine; bacteria are invisible.
• •Letting brush and mulch pile up against the wellhead, creating a path for surface contamination.
• •Adding bleach down the well as routine maintenance without testing first; you can mask a real problem.
• •Replacing a pressure tank with the wrong pre-charge setting; it cycles wrong from day one.
• •Waiting until water stops to call; the same problem caught early costs a third as much.

What to Watch For Between Checkups

Three symptoms mean call now, not at the next annual checkup. Short cycling (pump kicking on every few seconds with a tap open) is a pressure tank warning. Sputtering air at fixtures means a leak in the drop pipe or a falling water level. Any change in taste, smell, or color means stop drinking and test before you do anything else.

If you see any of those, our well pump repair service covers diagnosis and repair across Alamance County. We also handle full maintenance walkthroughs if you would rather have a tradesman run the checklist with you the first time.

Bottom Line

Wells reward attention. A 30-minute walkthrough every spring, a water test every year, and a pro inspection every few years prevents most of the panicked no-water calls we get. If you are not sure where to start or want a baseline inspection, reach out through our contact page. And if you are also seeing pressure problems, the well water pressure problems guide is the right starting point.