Captive air system for water well

Claim 1

In a water well system of the type having a downhole pump supported downhole in a borehole below the water level thereof for supplying water to a storage tank, the improvement comprising: said storage tank has a vertical leg connected to a lateral leg, said lateral leg is relatively longer than said vertical leg, said lateral leg has an interior end portion connected to an upper interior end portion of said vertical leg and slopes downwardly in a direction away from said vertical leg; a first pipe for connection from a pump outlet to the interior of the vertical leg of said tank, a supply pipe connected to supply water from the lowermost and outermost interior part of the lateral legs; and a blow-down pipe connected to the lowermost interior part of the vertical leg for removing debris therefrom; means forming an air space which extends from the top of said vertical leg and across the upper end of said lateral leg, and means forming one liquid space at the bottom of said vertical leg and another liquid space at the bottom of said lateral leg, means by which the recited one and another liquid spaces are joined to one another at the location where the lateral and vertical legs are joined together, when the liquid level is above the said location; the air space within the tank is maintained at a suitable volume by two spaced check valves placed within said first pipe which enables air to displace a small amount of water each pump cycle.