With open-top cylinder pumps, all preventive maintenance activities can normally be carried out by the pump caretaker for the village. With closed-top cylinder pumps, however, special lifting equipment may be needed to pull up the rising main and cylinder, so that pump parts down in the well hole can be maintained. Deep-well pumps can be too expensive for individual families, and they may be better suited to communal use. To maintain the pump in good working condition, communities will have to organize themselves, for example, by appointing a pump caretaker, or by coordinating activities through a pump committee. External support is often provided by state or nongovernmental organizations, but this can be costly. In some cases, small private enterprises, paid directly by the communities, are now doing this job satisfactorily.
'''Potential problems'''<br>
— the most common repair is replacing the plunger seals;<br>
— there can be problems with the quality control of local manufacturers, especially in African countries;<br>
— the hook-and-eye connectors of the pump rods tend to break more often than conventional connections, and the rods may also become disconnected, or bend
spontaneously;<br>
— corrosion is a problem, especially where the groundwater is aggressive, and it can affect the pump rods if they are not made of stainless steel, the rising main (if not galvanized iron tubing), the cylinder, the housing for the pumphead bearing, and other pumpstand parts;<br>
— handles become shaky or broken, mainly because of worn-out bearings;<br>
— the number of problems usually increases with increasing depth of the groundwater (the maximum lift for a pump varies according to the brand, but is usually 45–100 m).