Best bell siphon ever explained

Thanks to the great invention of web4deb (Bigelow Brook Farm: • The Better Bell Siphon ), the new best bell siphon (or auto siphon) never fails anymore. The vasch bell siphon is now trouble free. Following my previous movies, I made a modified one. All my siphons are now adapted to this design.
It can be bought here: www.aquaponicsshop.eu/product/...
Please 'Like" this movie (well... if you like it :-) )

[@kumardaniel4885]

simple & clear explain. ...Thanks for this video. ..

[@valschep]

@GooberTheUncouth: the inlet water comes from the pump of the fish tank or the pre-filter.

[@a892728]

very clear demo.

[@noelpical5544]

good animation it helps people to understand easy

[@kinansuyadi]

Very good

[@timurotolenkovski3780]

This is really cool.

[@GeorgeBonez]

Wow! Very kewl!

[@QuanNguyen-ot7ok]

why this upgrade bell siphon is better than the old bell siphon?

[@valschep]

your welcome np!

[@domingobandoquillo4991]

I just a bit confuse ,how often do you flood and drain the water?

[@RealityCheck6969]

Wow. I SOOO nedeed this video!

[@danotorioust2867]

First Video that I've watched where the title/vid almost match up great could have explained syphon/floatation design at some point

[@sreeyeshsyh2665]

Nice

[@bramenkatrien]

Nice animation V.

[@berthold64]

Thanms

[@lvkuang]

Thanks a lot for this explanation, it is indeed the best one out there. However I am still a little bit confused about the breather tube. I made a simplified version without the breather and it works too. So what exactly does the breather do? I mean if the bell siphon works without the breather why do you include it in this design?

[@roderickmccafferty332]

kuang lu, I think that the breather tube simply lets you control when you want the drainage cycle to stop. If you set it higher it will stop draining earlier. This will leave you more moist soil in your growing medium.

[@juneallanbolos5201]

@@roderickmccafferty332 3!mñmĺ

[@ccmcasey2649]

Nice design, but I have one and I don't use the air drain on the right. I just have the bell with holes in the bottom of the bell, ie, the outside piece, and the drain spout in the middle. Works great. Makes a tremendous amount of suction once the fill.

[@ValentijnSchepens]

don't you have problems to 'break' the siphon?

[@ccmcasey2649]

Valentijn Schepens No problems at all it works great!

[@james-nl7bf]

You mention holes in the cover cap. I don't have any yet. Is that why placing the cup under the breather tube keeps the siphon from automatically firing? I assume the cover cap is the cap over the bell pipe which is around and over the stand pipe (the siphon pipe). My current set up is firing automatically too soon and after a few minutes of slow trickle to streaming buildup prior to firing. I have a 1" dia stand pipe 11" tall, and a 2" dia capped (not drilled) bell pipe 12" tall in a grow bed 13" deep.

[@valschep]

@james: with the 'the cover cap', I do mean the bell pipe. Disadvantage of bad translations from Dutch :-). So of course the bell pipe of course needs holes in the bottom to let the water in. The cup not the breather pipe have any influence on the firing of the siphon. This is purely the relation between the stand pipe diameter & length (and put at least one 90° turn in the drain!) and the pump flow rate. A 1" stand pipe is huge, unless you feed more than 4000l/h? If it doesn't fire well, try to reduce the stand pipe diameter.

[@james-nl7bf]

Thank you for responding valschep. My siphon is torturing me. I will try a slimmer version. I am only pumping 2000l/hr. My plumbing choices presume success and expansion later. I have an s-trap also. Thanks again for the advice.

[@valschep]

james clark your welcome James. Try 3/4" and make sure to put a turn in to the drain.

[@matthewkispert8206]

any issues with biomass accumulation in the cup weighing it down and negating its purpose?

[@valschep]

@Matthew: not at all. As with any system, you should indeed rinse it from time to time (to be honest, I do it max 10 times a year :-) ). The weight of the cup isn't so important as long as it floats when empty. So extra weight helps it pulling down when needed.

[@valschep]

Yep, the suction is actually quite high due to the vacuum created by the dropping water column.

[@anilsharma-ev2my]

Put again the discharge in siphone tank ??? Being perpetual ??? Why not ???

[@anilsharma-ev2my]

How Total efficiency of bell siphone measures ????

[@davebean2886]

Any idea for the maximum size of an automatic siphon? Need a lot of water in a hurry to power sprinkler heads without manual intervention.

[@valschep]

I doubt that a bell siphon is a good solution for sprinkler heads. Sprinklers typically need high pressure with relative low flow. Also, blocking the "free" exit of a bell siphon is very negative for the operation. But i guess any size is possible, as long as the diameter of the stand pipe is in relation with the input of water.

[@isettech]

The small tube on the right is incorrectly configured. In a larger configuration, it is common for the larger tube to dribble and not seal to start a siphon. The small cup and tube are inside, not outside the large bell. The small tube siphon and cup starts inside the large bell, and when it's cycle ends, it draws air outside it's cup, which draws water over the larger siphon starting it. The larger siphon also has a shallow cup so the small siphon drawing air, starts the large siphon. Some applications have 3 nested siphons to start a larger siphon. In some applications, one siphon is a pilot and the bell is connected to a bank of siphons so they all start together by common low pressure in their bells connected with a small vacuum tube. This is sometimes used in wastewater treatment.

[@valschep]

although there are other types of syphons, I dissagree that this setup is not correct: We do make this type of syphons for years now (www.aquaponicsshop.eu/product/bell-siphon/) and they work perfectly well in small and large aquaponics growbeds.

[@Verradonairun]

Can you use bell siphons to pump water to a higher elevation? I.e. have the outlet higher than the inlet? I know that usually this is impossible, but the vacuum in the bell might make for an exception?

[@valschep]

The whole principle of the bell siphon is to start the drain using the 'falling water' as energy source. Vacuum can only be formed when suction occurs. So the drain should always be lower than the water level (eq the inlet) and using it as pump will not work. Well... actually, you make me think of something: ram pumps are relatively simple systems and might be combined with the bell siphon :-)

[@Verradonairun]

Yes, I thought so too. I wanted to combine a hydraulic ram pump with the outlet of the bell siphon - I'd use it to lift water from the growbeds and into a strawberry tower. But I figured it'll be too annoying to listen to it's "hammers" all day :)

[@valschep]

Martin B time to develop a silent one.. knowing myself, there is a good chance that I'll do some experimenting on this later this year :-)

[@Verradonairun]

Haha, constantly experimenting with everything - I'm a bit like that too! I guess you could bubble-wrap it, or something similar? But it's not just the noise that's the problem. I don't think it's an elegant solution, because so much water is poured out by the waste valve that it's not really an 'aesthetic' solution, there's just too much fuss with it. It's awkwardly mechanical. I reckon I'll end up using an airlift pump run by a couple of air stones to lift the water. Take care and by the way I just subscribed to your channel.

[@Verradonairun]

Using my solution you both lift the water and aerate it at the same time (always good for plant roots)! And using the same energy, no extra parts needed and immune to 'jamming'.

[@kaprinido2]

le " bouchon d'eau" se forme plus facilement, s'il y a un deuxième siphon non inversé plus bas, sur le tuyau de sortie !

[@valschep]

Je ne suis pas du tout d'accord :-). Dans les derniers 7 ans, j'ai essayé et vue plusieurs siphons avec deuxième siphon et ils marchent tous moins bien. Ou moment que le siphon s'arrête, l'eau dans la tube doit pouvoir sortir facilement. En plus, le deuxième siphon forme du résistance avant que le siphon démarre, et à cause de ça, le tube 'Bell' monte (flotte) car l'air dedans ne peut pas sortir.

[@anilsharma-ev2my]

What is maximum possible height of water level riser in bell siphoning 10.33 meters or more please write down the equation for shake of toilet 🚽 of Mars

[@andself]

Inflow continuos?

[@ValentijnSchepens]

Yes, but not necessarily stable.

[@coilsmoke2286]

What is this used for ? Seems like it imitates a rising and falling tide. Why is this useful?

[@Anarchy1080p]

The one application that comes to mind is in aquaponics (good way to empty the growbeds) Hope this helps !

[@38Real38]

my dumb friend was wondering all the day how it works thx

[@nicewhenearnedrudemostlyel489]

schizophrenia is a darn nuisance, eh?

[@hj8607]

Did I go deaf ?

[@robot7759]

As clear as mud 😶

[@Dalziel45]

Misleading title. Less than mediocre explanation.

[@jungkuan1373]

Dalziel45 confusing as hell

[@BazColne]

Shame about the baffling terminology. This would've been interesting.