I use an air pump with similar set up to empty my underground rain barrels and I used something very similar (powered by my old pulser pump) to make fake geysers. in the fake geyser, I was not interested in pumping water, the goal was to shoot a spray of water and air mix up in the air every few minutes. They are definitely fun projects.
Ok, I could do up a little diagram of how it worked. I haven't made one in years. It is controlled by a little siphon in a chamber at the bottom of the pipe. The chamber is maybe 3 or 4 ft deep in water. Mine was about 5 gallons size. The chamber fills with air, blows the siphon and water and air mix rushes up through the pipe until the chamber empties of air. Then your air pump slowly fills it with air again until the depth of air blows the siphon.
hi, thanks for the video. so the only reason for these devices is to save energy over a centrifugal pump. How much watts would you have needed about in your centrifugal pump to get the same effect as this 5w pump without the device?
thank you bro! i got a 3.4w pump to go about 1.5m high in shallow water but i need like 2m and i think this will do it. Plus it's alot more silent and gets a steady stream anyway...seems rly nice. I'll try to replicate it.
+jlocke8 thx for the replay. I cut down 2.5 liters bottles and put the sides with the holes together back 2 back. the chamber is around 0.75l - 1l. I replicated the piping and placed it inside the chamber, dropped the ball inside the chamber then sealed it off. The valved is leaky, have some ideas on how to fix that. When i tried to pump that high the air started to find ways to get out. The sealing was not permanent as i was not sure if it will work. There are some issues with the way i built the chamber as it's not always working the way it is intended. The valve fluctuates when air is pushed into the chamber allowing water to get in before the siphon activates making it into an usual airlift pump that pulses. I hope my description makes sense. If you want i can take a picture and upload it somewhere. I also found this design and i think you will be very interested. watch?v=lKtB1YKoMxk (check the guys channel) Good luck.
+jlocke8 here you go. watch?v=ywjS-2Bcsuk i'm working on improving the air siphon with a straw instead of the pipe and i'll try to do something with that valve. I can seal the bottles with hot glue or silicone but i'm out of bottles. I tried quite a few things so i chopped up lots of them. I think i need a smaller diameter pipe so i can produce more lift.
+Denver Eduard i'm loosing my mind...i got it pump to 2 m a few times a very steady and nice flow of water but i changed the position just slightly and then it didin't work anymore...not sure what made it work. At least i know it can be done now. Unfortunately i don't understand the physics behind it 2 well. I'm running out of time and patience but i won't quit especially now when i know it can be done even with electrical tape to seal it off, lol. Remade the siphon with the straw but my valve is a mess. i will keep messing with it as i did not find any alternative to help me in this en devour. I'm running out of materials and the money are coming a few days after i would like to finish this as there are other things to do and finish in my system. But now i'm getting obsessed with this low tech gadget. break finished. back to chopping and screwing with pipes, bottles, hoes, water and air.
i "discovered" that one of my 2 plastic/rubber balls floats. Fixed the valve, it's still leaking a bit but it works better now. The chamber must be sealed perfectly cause the pressure builds up really high from trying to raise the water so high and finds any minuscule gap to get out. Also i will have to use smaller tubing so the pressure from raising so much water won't be so high and the pump can deal with it easier. Anyways, this is the right pump to use afterall, at least from all my findings till now. A bigger chamber then the one i have might also help a bit but for now i don't really need that if i replace the tubing. There will be enough water to get where it needs. I'm thinking also of 2 stages. get the water at a certain level and drop it into a sort of second siphon but not sure how to get the second valve for now to let the air back into the first chamber. Maybe the floating ball holds the answer. This will help to get the water even higher perhaps if need it but it might complicate the design 2 much. Just a thought. Also i have a request for you if it's not to much. Can you please make a detailed video on your muffler/suppresor? the sound is really annoying especially if you wanna live next to this thing. Sounds like the toilet after flushing :)) . at least like my toilet. Thank you. Have a nice day!
This is EXACTLY what I'm looking for! I've been trying for a solid week to come up with a solution that pumps from a sub tank to a growbed that's 2 feet above it. I also didn't like the idea of submersible pumps (for quite a few reasons like yours.) Solids, maintenance, electricity in tank with living things, etc. The pump I have is capable of 38 liter/min at 2.9 psi. What do you think I could expect in GPH from a system like this? I think the minimum for aquaponics is 2 times the growbed (10 gallon) turnover rate in an hour. Curious, do you have a construction video for this system? Liked + subbed
if water pumping rate should be same then why its not pumping 9 lit in a min? it pumped hardly half lit in 2 mins , im trying to find out if airlift is more efficient or waterpumps , found mixed results , i think the simple airlift will pump more water just it lacks height water jet
Did you possibly try to make a water pump using the venturi effect? It's another possible way to move water with compressed air. I like this system too.
Hi Ty thanks for your question. I did try it before but it seemed to be a lot more energy intensive. I had a 40 watt water pump with a venturi nozzle to play with. It seemed only a fraction of the energy went towards sucking in air (or water). Using the 40 watt pump directly to lift water would be more efficient if the goal was to just lift water.
@@LockeLaboratory Good to know, thank you! Sounds like this type of design is the way to go then. I'm doing deep water culture hydroponics and I'm looking for a simple way to keep the clay pebbles wet. Especially for young plants whose roots have not reached the aerated water. With DWC hydroponics, you typically have a decent sized air pump anyway.
I could be wrong but I don't think this saves energy when you look at GPH,Watts and head height compared to a pump like dolphin dp-270. Seams like the dolphin dp-270 can get 36 GPH for 5 Watts This looks like about 20 GPH for 5 Watts.
jlocke8 I'm sorry, I know I'm rather late to the party, but why would the upper check valve have to be air tight? (I was envisioning it right above the pump body).
This is my question too. I would think a second checkvalve would give a more consistent water flow and the only time you wouldn't have water flow is when the chamber is refilling. This might also deter the need for a muffler system as you then wouldn't get the gurgling noise from the exit spout.
When I first asked my question a year ago, I thought it would be possible to make the geyser pump 'double action' by including two valves: one at the inlet and one just as the water exits the chamber. Now, I know that this modified design is a 'pneumatic ejector pump'. The 'geyser' mechanism is merely a means to automatically cycle between fill and pump. I thought that adding a valve just at discharge port would prevent water in the riser from backflowing. This should improve pumping capacity by fully forcing one-way flow. All of the water during the fill cycle is from the intake than from the discharge.
oh btw I guess I am thinking about it from aquarist (breed guppies & platys) point of view; I will build filter & other items, so I am always looking @/ considering volume of water moved in an hour thanx
I can see you have to buy the bend is not helpful & you are pushing it up looks about twice the depth of the pipe in the water as opposed to the pipe out of the water... cool cool 😎 V3
