Air Pump Not Producing Air - Stumped

[reignofcheese]

It is an Elite 802 and the motor is running full speed and and the rubber diaphragms are in perfect shape - by all accounts it should be working fine but there is not one single drop of air coming out of it. I have a feeling this will be another empty question, but if anyone has ideas it would be great.

Thanks

 

[Ben M]

hi, once my air pump stopped working but the motor was still running, so i turned it off, unplugged the tubing from the pump and blew really hard down it until bubbles came out. then when i plugged it in again it worked.

 

[ian]

bang it about a bit?

 

[reignofcheese]

Ok, I blew through it and it did not help.

Bang it around? First I thought that was dumbest advice yet! So I banged it around a bit and it got one of the two ports working to full capacity I will settle for that, I only need the one anyway. Lousy equipment.

Thanks for the help guys

 

[OldMan47]

There are two essential parts to a vibrating type pump. The first is the diaphragm which you have already inspected. The second is a flexible outlet valve that prevents air flowing backward when the diaphragm moves back. The pump works by pushing some air into the tube and then moving in the other direction to bring in more air. If it does not have a functional check valve, it will just suck in air from the air tube instead of from the inlet chamber.

 

[dgwebster]

odd this, i have a new BiOrb air pump (please note, just the pump as it was going for a song and suited the 6gallon in the bedroom down to a T.) and after hooking it up ended up with the same issue.

As its brand new I plan on taking it back to the store, but the valve does sound like the culprit.

 

[OldMan47]

The check valve IO am talking about is often not much more than a flexible membrane that is anchored in one spot and is free to open when air is flowing the right way. It is not the fancy thing most of us install on the outlet air tubing to prevent water flowing back into the air pump.
If I had that problem on a new air pump, it would be returned before you could say "Bob's your uncle".