Rob Sigg

Hey gang, just a quick update. I moved this system out to my pond and doubled up the pumps to put almost twice as much water down the intake. Ive reversed it so the larger opening is the intake and the exit is the smaller diameter. I let it run for 30 minutes and it still wont get any higher than 1 PSI. Im not sure if its just not enough volume of water (size of tubes) or something else. Very frustrating since this seems like it should be more simple. Any thoughts? Im happy to answer any questions or try things. Thanks.

Well if that's the case then that is probably the main issue! Thanks Katherine, I'll keep at it.

I need to put a secondary chamber with a one valve on it, and I think that might help with the actual compression storage but it wont address the initial low PSI. From what I understand from the research the inlet pipe has to be smaller than the outlet, can someone correct if Im wrong? I believe Mr. Teslonian stated that in his follow up video as well.

Thanks Katherine, the larger air introduction was my next step and I just bought some parts to reduce the air chamber. Its all welded now so I have to cut and splice Those are great ideas and I will post my results. For those of you that are way smarter than me I need to be able to take whatever air comes out of there and then do a secondary compression but I can't seem to find any resources on manual compression in DIY context. Get gaskets etc to hold that much pressure may not be available on a smalls scale.

Oh and I have seen that video from Mr. Teslonian, he and Mollison both inspired me to do it. I want to experiment with small scale refrigeration and pond aeration all off grid. Stay tuned, and keep the comments/criticism coming!

I recently built a small scale trompe, here are the specs:

Closed system using a bucket of water being pumped to the top of the inlet and then returning to the bucket. Im doing this only to test out the dynamics of it, this will be used on a natural water way.

3/4 inch inlet with one straw for air introduction, this is about 8 feet tall
transition to 1 1/2 transfer pipe then to a vertical 3" air entrapment with 1/4 air compression gauge and valve. The air chamber is about 2 feet tall.
The outlet part of the transfer pipe then goes to 1 ". The outlet pipe is about 5 feet tall. I experimented with a one way valve to try and create back pressure. Youtube Mr. Teslonians Trompe Hammer for the gist of this.


No matter what I do I cannot seem to generate more than 1 PSI and of course once the pressure is releases the water level comes up and spills out of the top. I want to test this on actual falling water because I think it has to do with the volume of water going into the inlet pipe, it doesn't seem to be enough since im pumping through a 1/2 tube into a 3/4 inlet pipe.


If anyone has any further ideas/thoughts I would appreciate it and I can post more details if desired. I tried to contact Mr. Telonian but I can't find his contact info anywhere, he would certainly know the answer.

Got it! I actually went and bought coated 2x4 galvanized/welded wire. A little pricing but another guy near me used it and its very sturdy. I havent had any major problems with digging yet but if I do I will have to add something to the bottom for sure. thanks everyone for your input.

Having problems attaching the pic again....grrrr!

you got it! Ive attached the response I got from Morningstar on the subject. Im not a smart person especially when it comes to electricity so most of this is over my head lol.

Already have the chickens, actually got some buffs this time as well.

Im actually plannning on putting wire mesh over the ground where the grapes are to prevent digging around the base, I ahve done this with my trees along with small rocks and it helps quite a bit. Still allows them to do pest control without the destruction. Im actually counting on them to eat pests from the grapes...we will see Thanks for the input.

This wont work with a programmable feature based on voltage, the idea is to have the loads run off panels and batteries until the batteries get drained below a certain voltage, in my case probably 25.4v.

As for the storage idea, Im basically trying to do that with freezers, the problem is that even if I have them set to run during the day it wont work if its cloudy.