We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)

On 23 Mar, 09:38, Matty F wrote:
We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)

Sounds like it might be better to reverse-fill the pipe from the tap.

Large closed plastic container near filled with water, hose through a
hole in the top and dipping down to the bottom and closely sealed
where it passes through the container.

Connect hose to tap, and pressurise the container through the filling
hole, with the vacuum cleaner outlet - or any other convenient method
you have to pressurise it.

I'm guessing the drop from tank to tap is fairly small (as airlocks
don't readily blow out) - so not a great deal of pressure required to
reverse fill.

In article ,
wrote:
On 23 Mar, 09:38, Matty F wrote:
We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)

Sounds like it might be better to reverse-fill the pipe from the tap.

Large closed plastic container near filled with water, hose through a
hole in the top and dipping down to the bottom and closely sealed
where it passes through the container.

Connect hose to tap, and pressurise the container through the filling
hole, with the vacuum cleaner outlet - or any other convenient method
you have to pressurise it.

I'm guessing the drop from tank to tap is fairly small (as airlocks
don't readily blow out) - so not a great deal of pressure required to
reverse fill.

I've had success using something similar to that, but using compressed
air from the bottom, waiting until it's gurgling out the far-end, then
quickly removing the hose (from a handy SCUBA cylinder) Then, rather
than the water trickling down to a closed tap, it has a bit more momentum
which carries it all the way to the open tap without any chance to airlock...

It really stirs the tank up though, so any sediment is coming down the
pipe and may take a while to settle out...

Gordon

On Mar 23, 10:19 pm, " wrote:
On 23 Mar, 09:38, Matty F wrote:



We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)

Sounds like it might be better to reverse-fill the pipe from the tap.

Large closed plastic container near filled with water, hose through a
hole in the top and dipping down to the bottom and closely sealed
where it passes through the container.

When there is an airlock, we can't get any water from anywhere. The
tank is too deep to get water out of it.
The suction method works so I'd like to persevere with that.
Blowing air doesn't work, we tried it with a high pressure pump.
We can't dig up the pipe - it's 80 years old and there are tree roots
over it.

On Mar 23, 11:18 am, Matty F wrote:
On Mar 23, 10:19 pm, " wrote:



On 23 Mar, 09:38, Matty F wrote:

We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)

Sounds like it might be better to reverse-fill the pipe from the tap.

Large closed plastic container near filled with water, hose through a
hole in the top and dipping down to the bottom and closely sealed
where it passes through the container.

When there is an airlock, we can't get any water from anywhere. The
tank is too deep to get water out of it.
The suction method works so I'd like to persevere with that.
Blowing air doesn't work, we tried it with a high pressure pump.
We can't dig up the pipe - it's 80 years old and there are tree roots
over it.

have a google on here for "cyclone" and "vaccuum" (sp) - a thread a
while back had a link to a webpage on how someone had knocked one up
for a workshop vac so that the vac's filters didn;t get bunged up so
quickly....

- in your case I would fancy a tall, largeish - 30litre? plastic
bucket and lid could be adapted or anything you got around - oil drum?

Holes in the lid for hose from tap (hose down to base of bucket), and
vac nozzle just into top maybe at an angle or more elaborately -
inverted with pushfit waste pipe fittings?, if smaller bucket add some
"baffles" inside to make the path longer for water to resist it being
sucked "straight" into vac... etc??

Cheers
JimK

On Mar 23, 11:18 am, Matty F wrote:
On Mar 23, 10:19 pm, " wrote:



On 23 Mar, 09:38, Matty F wrote:

We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)

Sounds like it might be better to reverse-fill the pipe from the tap.

Large closed plastic container near filled with water, hose through a
hole in the top and dipping down to the bottom and closely sealed
where it passes through the container.

When there is an airlock, we can't get any water from anywhere. The
tank is too deep to get water out of it.
The suction method works so I'd like to persevere with that.
Blowing air doesn't work, we tried it with a high pressure pump.
We can't dig up the pipe - it's 80 years old and there are tree roots
over it.

or another one that just sprang to mind - depends how much sucking you
had to do but;-

feed strong wire/string down a length of hose pipe - tie a small
piece of sponge to one end of wire, saturate it, dram into end of
hose, connect hose to tap. then from other end draw wire out of hose
rapidly to create suction et voila.

Obv depends how far the airlock is away vs agro of feeding wire down
hosepipe :) but if you *had* to do it without power or much kit a
variation on the theme may work and could be rigged up in advance of
hauling the hose up the mountain....

Cheers
JimK

On Mar 24, 12:21 am, JimK wrote:
On Mar 23, 11:18 am, Matty F wrote:

or another one that just sprang to mind - depends how much sucking you
had to do but;-

feed strong wire/string down a length of hose pipe - tie a small
piece of sponge to one end of wire, saturate it, dram into end of
hose, connect hose to tap. then from other end draw wire out of hose
rapidly to create suction et voila.

Obv depends how far the airlock is away vs agro of feeding wire down
hosepipe :) but if you *had* to do it without power or much kit a
variation on the theme may work and could be rigged up in advance of
hauling the hose up the mountain....

Last time I removed the airlock it required a lot of sucking, say
several minutes with a vacuum cleaner. A cyclone system would work
fine but I don't have time to make that right now. I do have bits of
pipe and duct tape!

On Mar 23, 6:33 pm, Matty F wrote:
On Mar 24, 12:21 am, JimK wrote:

On Mar 23, 11:18 am, Matty F wrote:
or another one that just sprang to mind - depends how much sucking you
had to do but;-

feed strong wire/string down a length of hose pipe - tie a small
piece of sponge to one end of wire, saturate it, dram into end of
hose, connect hose to tap. then from other end draw wire out of hose
rapidly to create suction et voila.

Obv depends how far the airlock is away vs agro of feeding wire down
hosepipe :) but if you *had* to do it without power or much kit a
variation on the theme may work and could be rigged up in advance of
hauling the hose up the mountain....

Last time I removed the airlock it required a lot of sucking, say
several minutes with a vacuum cleaner. A cyclone system would work
fine but I don't have time to make that right now. I do have bits of
pipe and duct tape!

did the teapot need periodic emptying during this several minutes? and
how big was the teapot? just pondering whether the size of the steam
hole (i think) you were sucking from was a bottleneck.....

cheers
JimK

Matty F wrote:
We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)

Can you buy one of these locally?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Inflatable-Boa...f26d92ff2589e1

They suck as well as blow (air & water) although I can't say whether it
would produce enough negative pressure for your purposes.

Tim

"Matty F" wrote in message
...
We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)

A wet vac?

A 55 gallon drum between the vac and the pipe to collect the water?

Use water (hose pipe) to flush the air back the other way?

On 23 Mar, 09:52, "dennis@home" wrote:
"Matty F" wrote in message

...



We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)

A wet vac?


ermmm carried up a mountain ? altho fact it has power (I assume from
refs to vac earlier) suggests there maybe more obvious solutions....

On Mar 24, 3:33 am, JimK wrote:
On 23 Mar, 09:52, "dennis@home" wrote:

A wet vac?

ermmm carried up a mountain ? altho fact it has power (I assume from
refs to vac earlier) suggests there maybe more obvious solutions....

Yes a wet vac would be the obvious solution, but I'm not paying for
that or carrying it up when there is a perfectly good vacuum cleaner
there already.
Yes there does happen to be electric power there.
The teapot worked rather well and I imagine that two teapots would
eliminate all the water. I thought somebody might suggest something
better and more ingenious.

Matty F wrote:
We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
a large teapot to a tap and sucked through the little hole in the lid.
The idea was that any water would remain in the teapot.
However some water did get into the vacuum cleaner, which I had to
dismantle to dry out.
What I want to do now is to make a better device to trap the water and
stop it getting into the vacuum cleaner.
I thought maybe a couple of bottles with pipes to the bottom of each
bottle and sucking out from the top. But plastic bottles will flatten
with the suction.
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way! (Tomorrow!)
You can get small pumps that fit on a drill fairly cheap,with which you
could reverse prime the system.

Matty F wrote:

We have a tank supply in a mountain hut. Last time someone left a tap
on and drained the tank, there was an airlock in the underground pipe
that stopped water coming from the refilled tank.
I managed to clear the air out of the pipe by sucking it out with a
vacuum cleaner. I had no special equipment so I attached the spout of
Any brilliant ideas? Whatever I make will have to be carried quite a
long way!

I use a camping air bed pump that also deflates (them) to bleed
stubborn*radiators, i would have thought this would also work for what you
need.*
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