Ventilation for Water Well

[Robert Neville]

This is a pretty good description of the different types of well caps.

Turns out even the sanitary caps do allow some air exchange, so they aren't completely sealed.

[Reno]

lost woods wrote in news:cc303e94-df28-48c1-b461- [e-mail]:

You don't need to worry about venting the well. It is not like a tank where air must get in so water can get out. Water comes into the well from the groundwater acquier. This replaces the water pumped out and it is not necessary for any air to vent. When the pump starts the water level in the well will get drawn down and if air can't get in there may be a negative pressure for a few minutes which actually helps because the reduced pressure in the well helps draw more water from the ground.

I have two wells for geothermal heating and I have fake boulders on each of them. My boulders come from a concrete brick supplier and are made from concrete with rock powder mixed in for color. The walls of the boulders are about an inch thick and they are natural rough shapes about

30' x 24" x 18"high. They are pretty heavy - I can lift one end and rotate it myself to access the well but I can't pick it up and carry it. The fake boulder is as tough as very hard concrete and can stand a lot of abuse with no noticeable marks.

I have a retaining wall about 18" high making a raised circular ornamental area about 8' in diameter. I have a 4" thick layer of clean round stone around the well and sit the boulder on top of the stones and rake a few stones up around the boulder so you can't see the straight line bottom. If you sat your boulder on similar clean round stone then you would get plenty of air movement for venting if you are worried about that. I am in Winnipeg where we get at least 5 months of way below freezing temperatures and I have never had any freezing or even much frosting under the boulder. I am using pitless adaptors with the water lines well below the frost line.

The setup in the picture with the water line coming out the top of the well would freeze solid around here the first time the pump stopped for an hour.

[bob haller]

your better off vented if radon gas is a issue in your area