Blast from the Past - Working Silent Giant Airpump

[Uberhoust]

A trip to visit my parents resulting in me finding one of my Dad's old Silent Giant airpumps. The thing still works except the foam standoffs have compressed to the point it sits without a gap under the unit meaning the air cannot get in (an easy fix). These pumps are weighted to reduce the noise of vibration. This one is originally from about 1976. I spent some time looking for some old Dyanflo filters but I think they are all gone. I will clean this pump up and start using it because my current pumps are too noisy.

Anyone else has old fish gear in working order?

 

[GaryE]

Years ago, I helped clean out the house of an acquaintance who had passed away suddenly. We were throwing stuff out, and I found a very old German made air pump out in the back shed. It was slightly larger than a pound of butter, and made with a bakelite type brown housing. The plate that would have given the company was gone.

I took it home and ran it for about 10 years, til it finally burned out (literally). The thing was dead silent and ran a number of tanks. And when I say silent, I mean it.

 

[Byron]

This brings back memories. I had a Silent Giant pump in the early 1980's, and it was certainly quiet. Even in the dead of night with no sounds, you could not hear this pump operating with your ear next to it. I gave my fish equipment away when I moved to Vancouver in 1988 because I could not have fish where I was living (renting an apartment) at the time. When I got back in the hobby in the mid 1990's I got on the canister filter bandwagon, but I had larger tanks then (115g, 90g, 70g). They made pumps meant to last in the old days, just like everything else.

 

[jaylach]

Way back when I setup my first tank my grandfather gave me a dual piston air pump. Man did that thing move some air! Not quite the same but similar to the following. I have no clue as to the make/model. Definitely not silent but really not all that loud.

 

[GaryE]

30 years ago, our club had a wonderful member who was in his mid nineties, and had worked in the fish business. He had been a founder of the club in 1933. He gave us a presentation of 1930s and 1940s equipment he had dug out of his basement. The really early stuff was clever, but not very efficient.
By the end of WW2, there was good stuff being made, and it was of a higher quality and efficiency than a lot of things we buy today. Equipment that lasts isn't very profitable after the initial sale, so we have to feed those landfills now (while talking green).

 

[BrianK]

My family had one back in the 60's.

 

[Uberhoust]

@jaylach Love the simplicity of the double positive displacement pump. Looks totally user maintainable.

 

[Glenn407]

I remember the tank in my dentist's office around the mid 50's. I think I was more interested in his belt drive pump than the fish.

 

[Uberhoust]

Was just at my dentist. I was wondering if the polishing head could have an encoder feedback and have the dental hygienist adjust the rotation speed rather than the air pressure to drive the polisher. She kept stalling out the drill/polish head.

 

[jaylach]

@jaylach Love the simplicity of the double positive displacement pump. Looks totally user maintainable.

Ya, it was a pretty cool pump and I wish I still had the thing. The one I had pushed a ton of air and I'm sure would still be working today as there was nothing on the thing that could not easily be replaced.