Ken the lids open fairly wide, but not quite straight up. Here are a couple of smaller pitchers on mine - you can see I don't have a lot of fresh pitchers since the weather cooled off, and the plant got kind of dried out during our hot, sunny December.
Anna, have you tested the pH of your well water? You can get a little aquarium test kit to do it, or take a sample to your water company, or Extension service. Ours is 8.2 which is wicked high for most plants. The aquifer here is all limestone, so it leaches calcium salts into the deep well water. I start getting a lot of chlorosis in the springtime if we have a long dry period where I have to irrigate a lot. The rain water I collect off the roof is pH 7.4 or so and tap water is 7.6 to 7.8 depending on how low the water reserves are.
