Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Overheating Compressor

Any ideas to make it run cooler. Once summer comes it's gonna get real hot.

How many psi is it running at?

As far as I know it's not building more than 40 psi..... it's all open hose but the water pressure is some... No Guage on it

+1

Bobby,

My first step would be getting a pressure gauge. They are not expensive. My double head RPP system will provide 35 psig before the relief valve pops but the manufacturer recommends operating pressure of no more than 15 psig. The higher the back pressure, the hotter the unit will run and the less life it will have.

In other words, I would try to figure out why it is getting so hot before working on how to improve the cooling.

40 psi????????????????

You better get a gauge on it asap. If it's that high, there are some serious problems you need to address. I rarely see any pressures over 8-10 psi. If 40 psi, it is working way too hard that that is the problem. 40 psi would correlate to almost 80' deep water...........

What makes you think it is not building pressure more than 40psi?

It could very well be!!!

Bobby,

I think you've got the message that getting a gauge for pressure is strongly recommended.

BTW What makes you think your motor is running hot?

An open hose without any other restrictions (like a diffuser or a diffuser with an internal restriction) should be slightly less than a half psi for each foot of depth the end of the hose is under water.

In other words an open hose placed at 10' depth should have about 5 psi back pressure at the pump. 20' depth about 10 psi., etc.

One atmosphere of air is the weight of the atmosphere from outer space to sea level and is about 14.7 psi. That is an atmosphere of air. Water is heavier than air and it only takes about 33.8 feet depth of fresh water to be equivalent weight to an atmosphere of air.

Since we start our measurements at sea level, when water is 33.8 feet deep, it will take 14.7 psi of pressure to force air down to that depth. In other words 14.7/33.8=.44 psi per foot of depth. Or considering maybe a little resistance to flow by the hose and any diffuser we might be using, we round it to about .5 psi for each foot of depth.

You probably already knew all that, but for anyone that has never had any reason to consider it, thought that explanation might be useful.

As a scuba diver we have to be aware of the pressure we are breathing at depth because it affects the amount of gasses our blood stream is absorbing (Boyles law). Absorb too much nitrogen and come up too quick and we get "the bends" (or "fiz up" in slang terms), because nitrogen bubbles form in the blood vessels (which is a very bad thing). Too much depth and oxygen concentration doubles, becomes toxic and we die. That is how I came to be acquainted with pressure under water, through training for diving and Nitrox mixed gas use.

I've seen a couple psi backpressure due to friction losses in lengths of hose run too, all depending on the I.D. of the hose.

Typically I don't like to run anything less than 1/2" or 5/8" ID hose, and have run up to 1 1/2" I.D. all because of the length of run and the numbers of diffusers being fed.

BRice - Note that a dry air gauge on that pump will not last very long compared to a liquid filled gauge. That style of pump produces pulsing air and it will make the indicator needle bounce compared to a liquid filled gauge where the liquid dampens needle bounce resulting on longer life span of the spring works inside the gauge. Those pumps compressing air could easily by design operate normal at 205F. Try and measure the temp of the pump to check if it is 'overheating' beyond 205F.