air pump to aqua lifter ?

[rseleri]

Hi, found this air pump sitting and was thinking if I could somehow turn it into an aqua lifter for auto siphon restoration in my overflow. im not from the US so its not that easy for me to get an aqua lifter or even any kind of diaphragm pump.
Attaching the air pump image below. What i've tried:
1. sealing the airpump inside a box with an airtube connected to the airpump outlet and pushing air outside the box (sealed the hole of couse), place another tube from the inside of the box (just sitting in the box) to outside and placed it inside a cup of water to see if i get water drawn - didn't get water drawn
2. here is something that confuested me, i duct tape the crap out of the airpump, covering any possible place for it to draw air but when I plugged it and turned it on, it still managed to push air through the outlet - how? does it magically creates air?

I also have a wet/dry return pump (newa jet 3000) and i remember seeing somewhere that people are connecting an airtube to it for air suction but couldn't understand how.
anyway, any help would be much appriciated!

 

[rseleri]

also, i just came across this old video:


looks exactly the same as mine air pump! can't understand what exactly he modified to make it work like that

 

[geologeek]

I personally wouldn't go down the route of converting your air pump to making it draw water........it could be done by making sure the rubber diaphragm is sealed by gluing, but when the diaphragm breaks as they do.......it's not going to be a happy time! Wet floors if your lucky, fire if you are not!

With regards to adding a line to your return pump, you will need to add some sort of Venturi to the intake or output side of the return pump....... looking at your model it does not seem that the intake side is feasible given the grating over it (unless you can drill a small hole somewhere in the central section to put an straight airline connector) you might be best to have it go on the output side of the pump.

You would need to get say a straight airline connector and drill a small hole in the pumps outlet so that you can push the airline connector in far enough that it will then act as a Venturi and suck in air via the airline you have connected to it.......it might take a bit of trial and error to get the connector in the correct position so that it sucks rather than just acting as a Tee off of the pump and "blows" if you catch my drift?

That's why it would probably be best to have it connected at the intake of the pump.

However I see a major issue with connecting your overflow to your sump return this way, if a Syphon starts and the return pump if off for a protracted time and you are not about/aware...... again not a happy time!

An other alternative for you would be to get a cheap 3-5vdc orn12v even peristaltic pump off AliExpress for example and run this as it will purge the air from the overflow.

 

[rseleri]

I personally wouldn't go down the route of converting your air pump to making it draw water........it could be done by making sure the rubber diaphragm is sealed by gluing, but when the diaphragm breaks as they do.......it's not going to be a happy time! Wet floors if your lucky, fire if you are not!

With regards to adding a line to your return pump, you will need to add some sort of Venturi to the intake or output side of the return pump....... looking at your model it does not seem that the intake side is feasible given the grating over it (unless you can drill a small hole somewhere in the central section to put an straight airline connector) you might be best to have it go on the output side of the pump.

You would need to get say a straight airline connector and drill a small hole in the pumps outlet so that you can push the airline connector in far enough that it will then act as a Venturi and suck in air via the airline you have connected to it.......it might take a bit of trial and error to get the connector in the correct position so that it sucks rather than just acting as a Tee off of the pump and "blows" if you catch my drift?

That's why it would probably be best to have it connected at the intake of the pump.

However I see a major issue with connecting your overflow to your sump return this way, if a Syphon starts and the return pump if off for a protracted time and you are not about/aware...... again not a happy time!

An other alternative for you would be to get a cheap 3-5vdc orn12v even peristaltic pump off AliExpress for example and run this as it will purge the air from the overflow.

Thanks for the informative response! Noted!