Just out of curiousity !

[WV Hillbilly]

I was once at a persons home & their well had a pump house built over it . The water was spraying out of the well seal & hitting the roof of the pump house & dripping down everywhere . They had a ditch that carried the water out of the pump house & over the bank . They also said the well sprayed water year around . They had a jet pump & pressure tank in the pump house . I've always wondered what would happen if the top of the casing was completely sealed , with a pipe from the seal to a pressure tank & a pressure relief valve & then feeding the house . In other words I wonder if the well would make good pressure & eliminate the need for a pump . Has anyone ever seen such a system ?

[Gary Slusser]

I've seen videos and still pictures of wells blowing water out 6" casing 30-40' high. You'll have a great time sealing a well casing good enough to hold that kind of pressure and the house plumbing should be able to or the water damage would be severe.

And if you have enough decrease in production of the well, you won't get water out of it but, a seal will cause a serious vacuum on the seal and the casing.

[speedbump]

I have seen many flowing wells, drilled a few also. If you seal off the well, you will be exposing the casing and any drilled hole below and around the casing to these pressure extremes. If the pressure is great enough to push water up and around that casing, you might now have a larger well than you ever intended to have. You could be opening a large can of worms. Once a flowing well with lots of pressure starts eroding the earth around a casing, there is nothing to stop it from making a much larger hole and just keep on flowing lots of water.

Or, if the water only spews when the pump is running, you may have holes in the droppipe and the well may not flow at all.

bob...

[hj]

The artesian well will develop the pressure created by the height of the water's source above the well. Few would generate enough pressure to eliminate the pump, unless the source was 100' or more above ground level. If that were the case, the well would generate 50 psi or more. If the well were sealed, nothing would happen, since it would be just as if the well had not been drilled in the first place.