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For municipal water wellsPatent pending

Keep air off the pump.

The EAD is an engineered stack of perforated, NSF-certified rubber discs, clamped and professionally tack-welded to the pump column. It breaks the water cascading into the casing and captures air carried in from the unsaturated vadose zone or recharge ponds, so separated air rises and vents up the annulus instead of reaching the pump intake.

Design a disc stack See how it works
Sized per wellFrom your levels, flow and casing
Bolt & tack installSegments bolt and tack-weld around the column
Water-jet precisionFrom true-size DXF files, for exact fit and performance
EAD disc: eight perforated segments under a split hub ring, with two pass-through ports
Split hub ring
Perforated segments
Cable and tube ports

The problem

Air reaches a well pump in two ways.

Air at the intake is linked to vibration, cavitation, air-locking and lost capacity. The fix depends on where the air comes from, so the EAD is designed for each source.

Pumping level Exposed perforations Bubbles driven downAir at the pump intake

Falling water into the casing

When the pumping level drops below the top of the screen, water spills from the exposed perforations and falls down the casing. The impact drives air bubbles deep into the water column, toward the intake.

  • Common in wells with deep drawdown or seasonal lows
  • The disc stack starts just under the design pumping level
Percolation pond Saturated formation Air enters through the screenUnsaturated vadose zone

Aquifer air from percolation ponds

Water released into recharge ponds carries air down through the unsaturated vadose zone and into the formation. That air enters the well with the water through the wetted screen and is carried straight to the pump.

  • Common in wells fed by percolation or spreading basins
  • The stack is built up from the intake, so air entering through lower screen zones must still cross and pass a disc before it reaches the pump

How it works

Three things each disc does.

Breaks the fall

A falling sheet of water hits the disc instead of driving straight down, so its momentum is spent near the surface instead of at depth.

Spreads the flow

The hole pattern spreads downflow evenly across the annulus, so no fast channel carries bubbles past the stack.

Merges bubbles

Small bubbles collide and merge as they pass each disc. Merged bubbles rise faster, so they can climb back against the downflow and vent at the surface.

What discs cannot do

Discs cannot lower the average downward velocity in the annulus: that is fixed by flow and casing size. They cannot treat air that enters below the intake. Where water moves down faster than even merged gas can rise, the workstation says so plainly and points to the alternatives.

The design workstation

Every stack is engineered for its well.

Enter the casing, column, levels, flow and pump data. The workstation sizes the stack and shows its working.

  • Disc count and depthsFor falling water, aquifer air, or both.
  • Hole size, pitch and countSearched across every standard size, ranked on flow loss, cutting and fouling.
  • Hydraulics and riskHead loss, flow cost and NPSH, plus thousands of what-if runs on levels and flow.
  • Live well cutaway and simulatorSee the cascade, the stack and the bubbles move, drawn from the model's numbers.
Open the workstation
eadflo.com/workstation
EAD design workstation: well cutaway, disc zone simulator and rendered disc

Design report

A printable PDF with findings, the dimensioned disc, placement, hydraulics, risk and a sign-off block.

CAD cut files

True-size DXF for each segment and hub half, with quantities in the file names. Cut layers are named CUT_*.

Honest limits

Every result is a design aid, not a stamped document. The workstation states what it does not know and blocks cut files for anything that cannot be built.

A fabricated EAD disc in the shop: eight black perforated rubber segments under a steel hub ring with two ports
A fabricated disc in the shop, before installation.

The disc

Built to go in without pulling the column.

Each disc is precision water-jet cut from NSF-certified rubber in segments, so it fits around the pump column in new or existing wells without pulling the column.

Segments
Pie-shaped perforated rubber segments, usually eight, running from the column to just inside the casing wall.
Split hub ring
Two steel halves bolt through every segment and clamp it to the column, then are tack-welded in place so the stack cannot slip or rotate.
Hole pattern
One standard hole size on a staggered pattern, sized for each well's flow and kept clear of every edge.
Ports
Openings for the power cable, airline or sounding tube, with the hub notched around them.
Casing clearance
Kept as tight as a drift check allows, so falling water cannot slide past the disc edge.

From well data to installed stack

Four steps.

  1. Send the well data

    Casing and column sizes, static and pumping levels, screen interval, pump setting and duty point.

  2. Get the design

    Disc count, depths, hole pattern and hydraulics, in a design report for review and sign-off.

  3. Water-jet and fabricate

    True-size DXF files go to the water-jet cutter once a casing drift check confirms the disc size.

  4. Install and verify

    Record motor amps, flow, levels and air at the discharge before and after, so results are measured, not assumed.

Have a well that pumps air?

Send the well data and we will run the design and talk through what the numbers show.

Request a well review Try the workstation first
Casing IDColumn ODStatic levelPumping levelScreen intervalPump settingDesign flowPump curve