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Anybody use this Chinese External CO2 reactor?

Just a way of venting air (and CO2) after maintenance/fitting, just makes life easier. I just release the air by loosening the pipe fittings to my APS EF2 after maintenance.
I haven't clean my reactors in years, as when I did do them they was basically clean.
Sorry to tag onto an old thread, but I have had my reactor (same one as at the start of this post) up and running for a few weeks and it seems to be working well. Not too noisy and I seem to get good dissolution of gas. I had quite a few issues priming the system with it attached though, and basically did it accidentally when I removed a pipe connection and it flooded the system (and partially the cabinet). Obviously, I don't want to do this every few weeks, so I have been trying to find something - a 'purge/bleed' valve - that I could attach to allow me to release the air in a more controlled manner. Is there such a thing readily available on the market? What do others do? I note @Zeus. loosens the pipes - this would make me nervous of catastrophe!
 
@Karacticus
This reactor already has a bleed valve. It's the metal element between the inlet and the outlet, you just need to unscrew it at the top to let the air out. No need to unplug co2 pipe.

Matt
 
@Karacticus
This reactor already has a bleed valve. It's the metal element between the inlet and the outlet, you just need to unscrew it at the top to let the air out. No need to unplug co2 pipe.

Matt
Oh, really? I thought that was to regulate the CO2 going in. Pretty sure I have it fully open at the moment, but am getting good CO2 levels in the water. The reactor is full of water with no air gap, so this might be why. So the valve will let gases out but not water? Will I be losing CO2 with it open?
 
Should be closed at all times unless you want to bleed the air from the reactor or once reactor is fully flooded, water will start to leak. If there's air inside it should make hissing air sound until fully bled, just like your house radiators.. same principle.
 
Should be closed at all times unless you want to bleed the air from the reactor or once reactor is fully flooded, water will start to leak. If there's air inside it should make hissing air sound until fully bled, just like your house radiators.. same principle.
Weird, I’m using it for 4 years and it was always fully open and I never had water leaking from there. But I was always wondering why it still can let gas in even if it is fully closed. I also thought it is needle valve for BPS regulation. By the way looking on eBay for same valve and all of them listed as flow control valves - not for bleeding
 
OK, I pulled out my spare reactor and did check the purpose of the valve.
It will not let gas in when fully closed. When it’s fully open the flow only goes through the connected tube and nowhere else. So if you use it for bleeding you have fully closed the valve first and then disconnect CO2 feed. After that open the valve and release air pocket.
I found this very inconvenient and build something like this
IMG_7095.jpeg

Metal tip goes into reactor valve, CO2 feed with check valve goes then into one of the connectors. Finally second connector gets this
IMG_7093.jpeg

I use CO2 tubing to connect all the bits. Also I purposely connected tube to tap/bleed valve so when bleeding the water goes through tube into bottle.


End result schematics
IMG_7096.jpeg
 
Thanks, @MrClockOff . Appreciate the experiment . I will try your initial method, which doesn't sound too bad, but if that proves a pain, what are those connectors called or where might I find them online please? Have no idea what I'd call them to search. This might be obvious to lots of people, but I am clueless I'm afraid!
 
Thanks, @MrClockOff . Appreciate the experiment . I will try your initial method, which doesn't sound too bad, but if that proves a pain, what are those connectors called or where might I find them online please? Have no idea what I'd call them to search. This might be obvious to lots of people, but I am clueless I'm afraid!
Apologies, I should provide with links in the first place. So first one Y split you can get from here, and the bleeding tap from here. I believe you need to look for 6mm OD tube size.
 
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