Editorial Policy

Purpose

Every guide should help a U.S. homeowner with a private well understand a problem, check what is safe to check, weigh their options and costs, and decide when to call a professional. If a page doesn't do that for its topic, we don't publish it.

Accuracy and sourcing

Technical statements that drive a decision — pressures, run times, limits, safety warnings — must be supported by a source we have read directly: preferably a manufacturer manual, trade or standards publication, or a government agency. See sources and methodology.
Forums and videos can point us to questions people ask. They are never the only source for a technical or safety claim.
When sources disagree, we say so and explain which we follow and why.
We don't invent statistics, prices, specifications, standards, quotes, tests or experts.

Safety rules

Well systems combine line voltage, pressurized vessels, deep water and heavy equipment. In our guides:

We separate safe homeowner observations (looking, listening, reading a gauge, operating a breaker or valve) from professional-only work.
We don't present line-voltage wiring, control-box repair, electrical testing, pulling a pump or wellhead modification as do-it-yourself tasks.
Where a manufacturer warns against something (for example, re-pressurizing a corroded tank), we repeat the warning prominently.
Advertising is never placed inside a safety warning or a step-by-step safety sequence.

Cost information

Cost figures are published national ranges, attributed to the organization that published them and dated. We don't blend sources into a number of our own, and we don't invent adjustments (such as per-foot or regional multipliers) without a sourced basis. Cost pages are reviewed at least every six months.

How we use AI tools

We use AI tools to help with research, outlining and drafting. That speeds us up; it doesn't replace verification. Before publication a person checks every technical claim against the sources cited on the page, removes anything unsupported, and reviews safety guidance line by line. We don't use AI to generate fake reviews, testimonials, author personas or test results. Google's guidance for creators asks publishers to be clear about who creates content, how and why;^[1] this section is part of that.

Independence

Advertisers and partners have no say over what we write or recommend.
We don't accept payment for coverage or product placement.
If we ever earn money from a link or referral, the page will say so before the link. See our disclosure.

Updates and review

Each guide shows when it was published and, if changed, when it was updated, plus the date its sources were last checked. We review technical guides at least once a year and cost guides at least every six months, and sooner when a manufacturer changes its documentation. We only change a "last updated" date when we have actually reviewed the page.

Corrections

If you find an error, please tell us. We'll check it against the sources. Minor fixes (typos, broken links) are corrected silently. Substantive corrections — a wrong number, an unsafe instruction, a misattributed source — are fixed promptly and noted at the end of the guide with the date.