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Comment by John Songco on October 4, 2012 at 7:58pm

@Bob Campbell, thanks for the cool link! I'll try it out one of these days. It'll be fun to do with my daughter hehe

@Chris - Thanks for the input! I didn't find any of your comments negative at all. They're actually very helpful in making the right adjustments for improving the pump. good point on the design of the chamber!Thanks for pointing it out...I'll experiment more with different sizes and update you with the data I gather. 

@Bob and Chris - I really appreciate all the helpful comments. I'm fairly new to aquaponics and its technicalities and it's great that I found this site. Really appreciate it guys!

Comment by Chris Carr on October 4, 2012 at 8:43am

@John. I don't know if the depth of the water should matter too much as the chamber is basically sealed with the check fail when it burps. I believe at that point, the ability to push out water is going to be dependent on the design of the chamber and the air pressure. I could be wrong though. 

Stuff like this is fun to build for sure. I was not meaning to be negative towards your efforts I was more speaking in general about the design practicality. I agree it is really cool and it looks like it may have potential to be a popular design but how well does it compare head to head? Not something I was expecting you to answer, just asking out loud :)

If you search for "sewage check value" on the web it should get you started finding one but I agree they don't seem to be a common item that I've noticed at the hardware store. I wouldnt have thought to build one as you did. Super cool! keep us updated on your design.

Comment by Bob Campbell on October 4, 2012 at 7:43am

@John Songco - This is probably a lot more work than you want to invest, but this is how I measured the output of my air pump.  I had this laying around from my crazy days of HHO experimentation.

http://youtu.be/na8z5IMcyjI

But the volume will vary the deeper you go.

Comment by John Songco on October 4, 2012 at 12:40am

Hi Chris I haven't really measured it at all. I was just thinking that if it can lift water with 4 inches of submergence and 28in of lift, I'm guessing it'll do better with deeper submergence. I'll try to measure the waterflow at different and more realistic ratios (50-60% submergence) doing what you said with the sump and IBC fish tank. That's what I actually originally intended to do. I'm using the resun lp-60 rated 60 watts (220v). I'll try to get more data and hopefully post a video soon.

The reason I tried this type of pump is because I was blown away with Glenn's projects in Hawaii and the Philippines, plus.. it seemed really fun to build. I had trouble finding the one-way flap valve so had to make one with a ballpen case and a circular plastic cutting from a plastic cover inserted inside the pump. To my surprise it worked pretty well compressing the water-air mixture.

I still use a submersible in my super small system hehe..but if I can get good numbers from this pump I might just try to scale it up a bit.

Comment by Chris Carr on October 3, 2012 at 2:56pm

These are both examples of Glenn's  "burper" pumps which is more of a geyser pump than an airlift.  

John what is your flow rate at this height and how many watts is the air pump? 

Airlifts are good at what they do and so are impeller pumps. This specific design concept is meant to challenge the efficiency of a magdrive impeller while using air to do an impeller pumps job but nobody has challenged this with a fair showdown comparison yet.

A fair comparison would be to take a sump at ground level with 18 inches of water and pump water up and over the edge of a full sized IBC. Then it can be seen whether or not the burper is more efficient.  Regardless of efficiency, they both do have their own set of pros and cons to consider.

Comment by RupertofOZ on October 3, 2012 at 9:55am

Bob, there's multiple threads on "airlift" systems...going on at BYAP...

Search for "airlift".. or "low energy" systems...

In fact if you've got any questions about AP at all.... search BYAP... they've probably all been asked... and answered...

Comment by Bob Campbell on October 3, 2012 at 9:27am

Is there any discussion going on about air lift pumps in any of the forums or groups?

I briefly experimented with it a few weeks ago, but put it on the back burner for a while.  

Here's my video

Comment by halemart on October 1, 2012 at 12:22pm

Congrates.

Step in the right direction.   Still working on mine.