Submersible vs jet pumps: which one is in your well?

How to tell which you have

Look for a motor and pump body near the pressure tank. If you see a pump with a round motor attached and pipes running out to the well, that is a jet pump. If all you find is a pressure tank, a pressure switch and maybe a small control box on the wall, the pump is down in the well, which means it is a submersible.

Older homes around Cartersville and in the country often have jet pumps on shallow bored wells. Newer drilled wells almost always use submersibles.

Submersible pumps

A submersible pump is a long, narrow pump and motor that hangs deep in the well on pipe and wire. Because it pushes water up rather than pulling it, it handles deep wells well and is usually quieter and more efficient.

The tradeoff is access. When it fails, someone has to pull it out of the well, which is why replacement takes equipment and a crew. Most last many years when the pressure tank and switch are healthy.

Jet pumps

A jet pump sits above ground and pulls water up by suction, helped by a jet assembly. A shallow-well jet pump works down to about 25 feet. A deep-well jet uses two pipes and an ejector down in the well to reach somewhat deeper, though it gets less efficient with depth.

Jet pumps are easier to reach and often cheaper to replace, but they are noisier, they need to stay primed, and they lose prime when air gets into the line. A jet pump that keeps losing prime is a common service call.

Which one makes sense for you

The well decides more than preference does. If the water level is deep or drops a lot in summer, a submersible is usually the better choice. On a shallow bored well with a strong water level, a jet pump can be perfectly fine and simpler to keep running.

Sometimes a house that has outgrown its jet pump, with more bathrooms or irrigation added over the years, is a good candidate for converting to a submersible when the old pump fails.

Price ranges overlap. A jet pump swap is often on the lower end; a deep submersible with new pipe and wire is on the higher end of the $1,500 to $3,500 range that many replacements fall into.

Talk it through

Call or send the form and a local well pump pro serving Cartersville and Bartow County will call you back. If you know the well depth or have the old pump label, that makes the conversation quicker.

Common questions