Pond Boss Forums AERATION Systems questions Never ran across this problem before

Got a call about a diffuser not working. System was @ 15 psi and just a few bubbles were coming up to the surface Long story short, the check valve in the vertex membrane diffuser was stuck shut.

Does anyone know the working mechanism for the Vertex membrane check valve? How complicated is it? What does one look like compared a normal membrane simple checking valve consisting of a basal hole and 'nipple' that the lack of air movement and water pressure pushes the nipple back into the basal hole????

What did you do to correct the stuck shut check valve; just take the diffuser apart and clean the valve or install a new diffuser? If you have the old diffuser I would like to see a picture of the used diffuser and check valve.

Bill:

Unfortunately I didn't have a new diffuser with me, I will swap it out next Spring. I took a Phillips screwdriver, unscrewed the diffuser, put the point of the screwdriver in the bottom where the air enters and whacked the screwdriver a couple of times with a large crescent wrench. I would have whacked it a few more times but the screwdriver bounced and the splash that I saw was the last time I saw it.....

I honestly thought something had put enough pressure on the air line to collapse it. I didn't expect all the air to WHOOSH out of the air line when I unscrewed the diffuser from the base.

I have a number of diffusers here, some new, some 5-6 years old, I will sacrifice one of the old ones and see what the check valve looks like. It's weird because this system has been running for 3 years with no issues.

I have tried to unscrew the ring from a diffuser before and couldn't, no way to do that in the boat with wet slippery hands and bio film on the diffuser.

Yesterday it was in the low 50's, currently it is 15°F and the wind is whipping at 16 mph, gusts to 29, and the ponds have froze back over again.

On another note:

I changed the diffuser in my pond to one with large holes, one that is used in waste water systems. I will see if that keeps a bigger hole in the ice this winter. It is set 3' below the surface, in 4' of water. I had to adjust it depth wise because the pond water level is so low it was on the surface of the pond and not doing much good.