My well pump keeps clicking on and off every few seconds
This is short-cycling, it is destroying the pump, and in the great majority of cases the cause is a thirty-dollar part that has quietly failed.
What actually works
Tip it or tap it: a healthy tank sounds hollow on top. **A waterlogged tank means the bladder has failed** — the tank is doing nothing and the pump is cycling on the few cups of water in the pipes. Set air pressure 2 psi below the cut-in setting, with the system drained.
A leaking foot valve or check valve lets pressure bleed back down the well, which looks identical from the kitchen.
Run-time and cycle count logged over a week turns 'it seems noisy' into a number — and creeping run-time is the earliest warning a pump ever gives.
Motor starts are what kill pumps. A short-cycling pump can do a year of wear in a month, and the replacement is several hundred dollars plus a pulling rig.
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pump short cycling · pressure tank waterlogged · pump cycles rapidly · water pressure fluctuating · pump wont stop · pressure switch