Guide · Borehole maintenanceBorehole maintenance. Keep the water coming.

Any of these means it’s time to have the borehole looked at.

• Less water than before

  Lower flow or a tank that takes longer to fill can mean a silting borehole, a dropping water table or a worn pump.

• Sand or cloudy water

  Sand wears out pumps fast. It can point to damaged casing, a silting borehole or a pump drawing harder than the borehole can give.

• Air spurting from taps

  Often the pump drawing the water level down to its intake: a sign it’s too big for the borehole’s yield, or the yield has dropped.

• Pump tripping or cycling

  A pump that keeps cutting out, or starts and stops constantly, can be an electrical fault, a control box problem or a borehole running low.

• Taste, smell or colour changes

  New staining, a metallic taste or an odour means it’s time for a water test and possibly filtration.

• Pressure drops in the house

  Often the booster pump, a pressure switch or a float switch rather than the borehole itself, and usually a quick fix.

1. 01

   Keep the wellhead sealed

   Make sure the cap stays on and sealed, and keep runoff, garden chemicals and debris away from the borehole head. It’s the main way contamination gets in.

2. 02

   Don’t over-pump

   A pump bigger than the borehole’s yield draws it down too far, pulls in sand and wears itself out. A yield test tells you the safe rate.

3. 03

   Check the tank and switches

   Look at the JoJo tank, float switch and booster pump now and then, and clean the tank when sediment builds up.

4. 04

   Change filters on time

   Filter cartridges and RO membranes clog and stop working. Replace them on the schedule your installer gives you.

5. 05

   Test the water regularly

   If you drink the water, have it tested regularly, for example once a year, and after floods or any change you notice.

If you notice any of the warning signs, don’t keep running the pump hard: that’s how a fixable problem turns into a burnt-out pump. We retrieve stuck pumps, flush silted boreholes, replace corroded pipe and cable, deepen boreholes that have dried out, and yield test them afterwards. See borehole repairs.