Well Screens Can Make All The Difference In Your Water Well

What Makes One Well Better Than Another?

To start, if you could look down through the earth, you wouldn't find an 'underground river' flowing into your well. In some cases, the water seeps through cracks in rock formations. In other cases, however, the groundwater is found in the tiny places between sand and gravel particles in a water bearing zone known as an "aquifer."

This aquifer is the well driller's target. Once the aquifer has been drilled into, a screen must be installed at the bottom of the casing to keep sand and gravel out and let the water into the well. With no screen the sand could quickly destroy the pump and plug the well.

What is a Screen?

At one time, this screen might have been nothing more than a length of casing with a few slots torch-cut into it. In practice this "screen" did neither of its jobs well. In fact, it kept out most of the water and the crude slots let a lot of sand and gravel in - exactly the opposite of what a screen should do.

Various other designs offered some improvement, but one, the Johnson® well screen, put everything together. Unlike every other type of screen, it uses a unique design consisting of a series of steel support rods around which a continuous length of wire is wrapped. Each intersection of wire and rod is automatically welded making a very strong cage-like cylinder with one continuous slot spiraling along its full length.

What Does This Mean to You?

1. Protection For Your Pump
   The slots are very narrow and precisely sized to keep out even fine sand grains which could otherwise destroy your pump through abrasion.
   
2. Lower Pumping Costs
   Even with narrow slots, the total open area for the water to enter is far higher than any other kind of screen design. More water with lower pumping costs.
   
3. Longer Well Life
   The slots widen inward so sand grains don't wedge and plug. The screen is stainless steel for maximum corrosion resistance. The high open area of a Johnson® screen lets the water enter slowly to avoid the problems which arise when water is pumped at high velocity. (If water passes into the screen too quickly, pressure drops and gases are released allowing minerals to drop out of solutions and form encrustants on the screen surface. High velocity water can also erode the screen causing the slots to widen and allowing sand to enter the well.)
   
4. A More Efficient Well
   Part of well construction involves a process called "well development" in which finer sand grains are pumped into the well and removed. By the end of the process, only the larger sand and gravel particles are left next to the well screen. the water then passes freely around these coarse particles and enters the well.

Remember that every drop of water from your well must first pass through the well screen. A Johnson® well screen is stronger, more plug-resistant, longer lasting, and more efficient than any other screen design available anywhere. That means more water for you, for a longer time, at less cost.

Have more questions about the Johnson® Well Screen? Contact Us Today