air lift brewer not working

95'ZR1

Active Member
Wondering if I am doing something wrong or the pump needs to be bigger.

I am used to making my teas with the normal air stones and letting it bubble... I figured I'd step up a notch to the air lift...

I'm using a 45 LPM pump and 1.25 pvc P-trap. I ran three hoses down into the bottom of the tube about 1 inch from the bottom. It lifts the water to about the bend in the p trap then just bubbles, very big bubbles. So the only thing coming out of the p trap is just a tiny bit of water and a ton of air. I'm only brewing 1 gallon at a time so I really can't imagine this pump not being strong enough.

Is a lot of fluid supposed to come out of the trap or is this correct?

I just don't see how this is better than air stones..
it looks like I'm going back to the air stone.
 
Need bigger air pump I made.my vortex brewer and bought the 110lpm eco 7 I believe and it does the job quite well. The reason the brewer is better is because there is no standing still water and the surface tension is broken it also makes the entire brew is inoculated. A bucket w air stones a lot of the ewc etc sits on bottom and does not move
 
It's ridiculous that for a one gallon brew you need over a 100 watt air pump. Can someone hold a certain size bucket say a 2 liter soda bottle for example under the exit of the air lift and see how long it takes to fill up? It just feels like it's not moving enough water.

my current design using air stones let's nothing sit still at the bottom. It is constantly churning the mixture up.
 
How far above the waters surface is the p trap? the closer to the surface, the more water it lifts. I just built a 20 gallon. I like it better than the stone. plus it doesnt clog over time.
 
It is roughly 1/2 inch off the water and it fills a 16oz party cup up in just under 2 sec.

it makes a gulping sound almost like someone violently throwing up.
 
No sure what a picture will show. It's a 1 gallon pitcher roughly 8" diameter and 1ft tall with a 1.25 inch p trap in the water.
 
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