Thread: Air pump recommendations please

I have two questions really…

I’m trying to reduce running costs so I no longer want to run the Charles Austin ET 100 to power my Draco MIDI with K1.

I’ve worked out the following based on 34p per kWh where the Charles Austin ET number refers to LPH:-
ET100 costs 86p a day so £313.90 a year
ET60 costs 45p a day so £164.25 a year (£100 to buy) £430 2 yr total
ET50 cost 38p a day so £138.70 a year (£97 to buy) £374 2 yr total
ET40 costs 24p a day so £87.60 a year (£84 to buy) £260 2 yr total
ET30 costs 20p a day so £73.00 a year (£97 to buy) £243 2 yr total

So the question is what’s the lowest LPH I can get away with to adequately move the media and feed the bacteria?

The EA Airtech 70 is 28p a day so £120.20 a year.

To purchase these and based on the fact I’ve vary rarely had an air pump last
longer than 2years and it’s usually internal cable failure that writes them off, the ET60 is £100 (£428 including running for 2 years), the EA 70 is £165 (£405 including running for 2 years).

Thoughts and experiences please on which is the better pump and the minimum LPH I can get away with.

depends if you think the ET100 is over powered for the bio?
i'd put an energy monitor on the pumps, as i found they don't always give accurate statements.

my charles austen ET80 uses 59w (60w stated on pump)(85w in literature?)
my jecod MA100 uses 67w (60w stated on pump)

an ET 100 has a stated wattage on the pump of 80w x 24hrs = 65p/day so £238.27 a year.

for energy efficiency i'd look at a jecod PA100 for more air at a lower pressure,
or a hiblow XP80 if you can get away with maybe a little less air @ 58w stated?

The ET100 is 105w so 24h x105w x34p is 86p a day so nearly £315 a year. Hence trying to get the cost down.

Originally Posted by DiabloDave

The ET100 is 105w so 24h x105w x34p is 86p a day so nearly £315 a year. Hence trying to get the cost down.

it says 105w on the pump?
there seems to be a bit of confusion between the actual wattage on the pump (80w) and what the literature says...
you might find it uses even less than 80w....?

How bizarre is that? The spec sheet which I’ve been working to says 105 but you’re correct on the pump it says 80w.

589ABE3B-6A5E-42BA-A18A-B465C4197498.jpg

The Charles Austen pumps are very good, robust, reliable, and the quoted performance figures are always the minimum whilst the quoted energy consumption is generally the maximum.

I bought one of these, Aqua Eco Hi-Blow air pumps. The quoted power consumption seems to be about the best I could find with the 120lpm pump using just 70w:

https://coastal-koi.com/product/product-example-5/

Haven't actually tested it for accuracy mind.

Originally Posted by RS2OOO

The Charles Austen pumps are very good, robust, reliable, and the quoted performance figures are always the minimum whilst the quoted energy consumption is generally the maximum.

I bought one of these, Aqua Eco Hi-Blow air pumps. The quoted power consumption seems to be about the best I could find with the 120lpm pump using just 70w:

https://coastal-koi.com/product/product-example-5/

Haven't actually tested it for accuracy mind.

we'll have to pop the lids on our air pumps and do a side by side one of these days...
and compare the innards of coastals aqua eco hi blow v's a Jecod MA100.
as externally they look identical....?

Originally Posted by DiabloDave

How bizarre is that? The spec sheet which I’ve been working to says 105 but you’re correct on the pump it says 80w.

589ABE3B-6A5E-42BA-A18A-B465C4197498.jpg

i know...
i thought my ET80 was 85w but when i tested it with an energy monitor it comes in at 59w.
and says 60w on the pump which is pretty accurate...

Originally Posted by davethefish1

we'll have to pop the lids on our air pumps and do a side by side one of these days...
and compare the innards of coastals aqua eco hi blow v's a Jecod MA100.
as externally they look identical....?

Good idea.

With the Jebao variable pumps and all the other identical pumps, they look the same, they all have the same moulding defect around the fascia for the pump inlet, and the controllers look the same.

Yet the different brands do perform differently - I have 2 identical looking pumps, one is 22k lph and uses minimum 80w, the other is 20k lph and uses minimum 24w. Massive difference in consumption. Haven't tried it through not wanting to risk anything going wrong, but I could plug the 22k pump into the controller of the 20k pump and see what happens to its operation and consumption. What do you think? Do you envisage any possibility of damage being caused? Controllers are mounted right next to each other so it would literally be a 20 second job to try it.

Originally Posted by RS2OOO

Good idea.

With the Jebao variable pumps and all the other identical pumps, they look the same, they all have the same moulding defect around the fascia for the pump inlet, and the controllers look the same.

Yet the different brands do perform differently - I have 2 identical looking pumps, one is 22k lph and uses minimum 80w, the other is 20k lph and uses minimum 24w. Massive difference in consumption. Haven't tried it through not wanting to risk anything going wrong, but I could plug the 22k pump into the controller of the 20k pump and see what happens to its operation and consumption. What do you think? Do you envisage any possibility of damage being caused? Controllers are mounted right next to each other so it would literally be a 20 second job to try it.

bit of a risk without testing polarity and voltage of the outputs,
those pump cables are usually 3 or 4 pin and might not be wired the same internally....

additionalyl the 22k pump is probably a sinewave pump, and the 20k non sinewave,
same as my 20k vario is non sinewave, and will run really low, but the 30,000s is a sinewave pump and only goes down to about about 30% iirc..?

Originally Posted by Feline

I have 6 air pumps, not quite sure why I have so many, I’m just a bit of an air pump kleptomaniac and like to have spares.
But the advertised lpm flow doesn’t really bare much resemblance to the performance in a real world situation. Some pumps are better under the pressure of running BD air domes and some better on dancing plastic media in my experience. I have an old green one (can’t remember the brand, something super-silent) that’s 35 lpm but puts out almost as much as another one that’s meant to be 60 lpm. The EA one seems pretty powerful, but is noisy compared to some of the others.
They do fall off in output if they need servicing particularly with blocked air filters. There are spiders in my filter house so they eventually get webs in

‘What I would really like to own is a variable flow rate air pump so I could fine tune the air flow and save power consumption rather than venting off excess.

some of the lads on youtube are using a plug in fan controller for the air pumps to reduce flow and wattage....

Originally Posted by davethefish1

some of the lads on youtube are using a plug in fan controller for the air pumps to reduce flow and wattage....

That’s unreal and a huge saving if true. Wonder if these are safe to use long term?

Ive bought one to try but i do remember someone saying their air pump was very noisy using it.I have hiblow xp 80,s which are overkill in winter,so this would be handy but i do have one old type 40 so will experiment with that first in case of problems

It would be good to know which pumps it works with / doesn’t.

fan speed controllers are nothing new, and do work.
but cheap one usually use resistors to slow the fan speed down by pulse width modulation,
which can cause the motor to buzz and generate a lot of heat wasting electricity.

you can get a dynamic frequency fan controller similar to how our sinewave variable pump controllers work.
which stretches the sinewave to slow the fan and doesn't genererate loads of heat and no buzzing from the distorted wave form.
but they are about £200 - £300

Originally Posted by Ajm

Believe ukzero on here had a play with this sort of idea but it didn't work out at all if I remember rightly

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

That rings a bell.

I recall an outcome that suggested reducing power to air pump will kill it eventually - thus costs more to replace pump than the energy saving.