dyi skimmer venturi valve (mod)

[xiaohuang7]

recently upsized my skimmer's needle wheel pump, and it was running very rough, because the existing venturi's intake hole was too small.

to make the intake larger, i chipped out the inside of the existing venturi (basically turning it to a straight pvc tube, with an air intake snorkel).

then i took expoxy, the kind used to aquascape and mount frags with, and finger molded a ring on the inside of the tube. using a turkey baster, i made a circle in the middle of the expoxy.

does anyone think this will work? it took 10 mins.

if this works (big if), i think this expoxy molding diy can work for people making their own venturis out of pvc pipe... instead of buying and playing around with countless smaller fittings.

 

[xiaohuang7]

here's a pic...

 

[xiaohuang7]

just installed it - totally works, tons of froth in the skimmer now

 

[monks600]

Nicely done, wouldn't have thought to do that... good find mate!


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[Scrubber_steve]

a typical venturi has a taper in & then taper out at the air intake, to create a pressure change & suck air in (top drawing).

When the venturi body is a straight - parallel type, as in the lower drawing, simply cutting the air intake tube on an angle, with the high side facing the direction of the water flow, is a simple way to avoid water being pushed out of the air intake & instead, air being sucked in.

 

[xiaohuang7]

so @twinfallz, why dont mfg's just use a straight pipe with the angled air intake like in your picture?

 

[Scrubber_steve]

so @twinfallz, why dont mfg's just use a straight pipe with the angled air intake like in your picture?

their easy to mass produce industrially, and their sexier.

The straight pipe method is easy to build at home, which I did.