USB Nano Air Pumps deaths, teardown, and (apparent) fix

[MarkM]

I have two of the USB Nano air pumps in use from the Co Op, both about 6 months old.  First purchased July 2021 and Second purchased in August 2021.  In December they both started having intermittent failures.  Like many others I found out you can make them work by giving them a little smack.  The time between failures got shorter and shorter, until finally one of the units no longer responded to the "percussive maintenance". 

I decided since I had nothing else to lose time to tear it apart.  (Insert obligatory "these actions performed by a trained idiot, do not try this at home.  Failure to heed these warnings can lead to fire, death, and general mayhem to you and all those you love. And likely void your warranty too.".)

As you can see there is a bunch of shredded plastic.  My assumption is that this is binding up the works and stopping the pump. 

 

Basic design is motor spins shaft.  Shaft has that piece of plastic mounted on it.  Piece of plastic has offset hole.  The bellows assembly has 3 tiny bellows with a metal shaft in center. that shaft goes into offset hole.  As motor turns shaft rotates and bellows pump in turn.  Problem appears to be that plastic gets all torn up and worn down.  A stress crack seems to be forming on one of them as well. 

 

And for anyone who is curious, I did take apart the bellows to see what it looked like.

 

The Fix.

It appears that cleaning all the shredded plastic out of the housing brought it back to life.  Both pumps have been running non stop for the past 48 hours.  One runs slightly louder than it used to.  Not sure if there was some grease mixed in the shredded plastic that I removed, but adding silicone has not changed the noise level. Its not a significant increase and since that one was completely dead, functioning at all is a big win.

Warning, when they say these aren't waterproof they weren't kidding.  The green case is the barrier between the electronics and the elements.  The power leads are soldered to the motor right on the back end.  Surprised they were able to run these things outside at all. 

From what limited information I was able to gather the newer units are the ones having problems.  I'd love to see if older units have the same design and materials to know what changed. 

Edited January 18, 2022 by mpm42
Grammar bad and No spell good

[Wingman12r]

I've been waiting for another one to die so I can open her up and diagnose. Then run a test with a pre-lubricacted one.

 

[MarkM]

The motor appears crimped into the housing. If these die again I’m going to go the next level of disassembly and grind them out.
 

I’m sure it’s not worth it to remake the parts when the fail, but maybe can prolong life further. 

[Naidu]

Thanks for this post I ran into same issue. USB pump died within 6 months. I was really hoping Aquarium CO-OP would have better quality checks than those on amazon but it doesn't seem like it. Just another junk from china.

[Guppysnail]

This is very valuable. Thank you. This summer I converted all my tanks to these. I now run 12 plus ziss Hatcher plus qt tank. I’ve had no problems…yet…but I’m certain odds are I will need this info at some point. 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

That's interesting, I've taken apart a couple that died on me after about a year and they didn't have any shredded plastic inside. In my case the motors themselves were dead.

[Naidu]

On 1/21/2022 at 9:38 AM, TheDukeAnumber1 said:

That's interesting, I've taken apart a couple that died on me after about a year and they didn't have any shredded plastic inside. In my case the motors themselves were dead.

Are you running a check valve? I wonder if check valve is causing back pressure making the metal shaft to work harder and shred plastic.

 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Naidu

[TheDukeAnumber1]

On 1/21/2022 at 8:45 AM, Naidu said:

Are you running a check valve? I wonder if check valve is causing back pressure making the metal shaft to work harder and shred plastic.

Yup, I've been using the check valves the Co-op sells.

[MarkM]

I am also running check valves (top fin/Amazon, older purchases that were unused before using on these pumps) but I have to imagine the bulk of people are. 
 

The motors in mine are definitely not happy and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until they let the smoke out. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by mpm42

[Griznatch]

Great post!

I'm running two of these for about 6 months now, with check valves. Curious to see how they hold up.

[LaurieinIA]

I’m having issues with 2 pumps that are maybe 9 months old. Using check valves. I just might tear one apart this weekend. I have a backup on hand in case playing “Mrs Fix-it” doesn’t work out for me 

[DaveO]

It sounds like the newer nano pumps are breaking down. Mine have been going strong for 20 months now. One is making that ticking sound that Guppysnail (I think) described, but other than that, no complaints.

No, wait, that was CalmedByFish who talked of annoying ticking.

Edited January 21, 2022 by DaveO

[Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics]

I had a never clog airstone become clogged in a quarantine tank and burn up my Nano air pump. It was weird. I found the sponge filter wasn’t running. Then I realized the pump wasn’t running. I swapped out a whisper air pump… still no air! I took the never clog air stone out, swished it around, loosened it, and it started blowing. 
 

When I plugged the pump back in… no go. I guess it burnt up when it couldn’t blow air. Lesson learned, and I have loosened all of my never clog air stones so they don’t clog (and I service them when I clean the sponge filters now. 

[Jorgey]

I purchased my first nano air pump shortly after they came available back in April 2019.  I have used that one off and on for some special projects and never had an issue with that one yet.  I just ordered and received a couple more about a month ago and now this has me concerned.  

I hope that this is not what happened, but it would not be the fist time that I have seen a Chinese manufacturer start off making a quality product, only change out parts and plastic at a later time to inferior quality parts, (without the customers knowledge) to save a few pennies.  I used to travel to China a lot for work and the counterfeiting and manufacturer fraud to its customers is a huge problem. 

[DaveO]

On 1/21/2022 at 1:03 PM, Mitch Norton said:

I had a never clog airstone become clogged in a quarantine tank and burn up my Nano air pump. It was weird. I found the sponge filter wasn’t running. Then I realized the pump wasn’t running. I swapped out a whisper air pump… still no air! I took the never clog air stone out, swished it around, loosened it, and it started blowing. 
 

When I plugged the pump back in… no go. I guess it burnt up when it couldn’t blow air. Lesson learned, and I have loosened all of my never clog air stones so they don’t clog (and I service them when I clean the sponge filters now. 

Note they have changed the name to Ziss Adjustable Air Stone. No longer Never Clog Air Stone.

[Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics]

On 1/21/2022 at 3:12 PM, DaveO said:

Note they have changed the name to Ziss Adjustable Air Stone. No longer Never Clog Air Stone.

That’s a good call on their part. Haha. 

[Torrey]

On 1/18/2022 at 4:20 PM, mpm42 said:

From what limited information I was able to gather the newer units are the ones having problems.  I'd love to see if older units have the same design and materials to know what changed. 

This is good to know. If either of mine start having problems, I will take pictures for comparison. I was surprised when people started saying that theirs weren't lasting long because mine are still silent *and* have outlasted 2 other brands, plus a box store plug in air pump.

I wonder if this is yet another supply chain issue/ impact? Like, I don't know about the Costco in King County, but the one near the Kirkland AFB has had a significant decrease in the quality of the water bottles (stack at one's peril/bottom case on majority of pallets are leaking) even as cost is increasing. 

[MarkM]

On 1/23/2022 at 12:06 AM, Torrey said:

I wonder if this is yet another supply chain issue/ impact? Like, I don't know about the Costco in King County, but the one near the Kirkland AFB has had a significant decrease in the quality of the water bottles (stack at one's peril/bottom case on majority of pallets are leaking) even as cost is increasing. 

My assumption is that they surreptitiously reduced internal part quality in the past year.  As Jorgey pointed out it wouldn't be the first time it's happened.  Only way to truly know would be to tear apart one of the OG units that function well.  If yours does happen to die, I'd love to see the cause.

[Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics]

I would like to add mine should have been one of the earlier Nano air pumps, and I 100% consider mine going out my fault. I had never used a sponge filter and I had never needed to clean any air stones in the past. So I never thought to clean it. 

[Wingman12r]

I think the position the pump is used in also makes a difference. The ones I hang seem the last longer than the ones I have set on a shelf.

[tekjunkie28]

I ran both a check valve AND the ziss bubbler.  I don't think the check valve was the issue as those check vavles are WAY less restrictive then others I had.  I think the ziss bubblers are to blame.  I think tightening down on the felt too much causes the failure.  I also don't think running these 24/7 was an intended thing.  This seems great for transportation of fish but I wouldn't run one 24/7.    I have ran one and it died. I smacked it around and it's dead. 

I think they are great little pumps but we are using them incorrectly by asking for 24/7 use. 

[Vanish]

On 1/24/2022 at 6:15 PM, tekjunkie28 said:

I think they are great little pumps but we are using them incorrectly by asking for 24/7 use. 

This was my assumption as well. I always felt like they were designed for temporary use, like transporting fish in the car, or running off a battery pack at a show.

[MarkM]

On 1/25/2022 at 12:02 PM, Vanish said:

This was my assumption as well. I always felt like they were designed for temporary use, like transporting fish in the car, or running off a battery pack at a show.

Based on apparent build quality, they certainly don't see to be fit for long term use.  My issue with that is they are not sold to target those limited use cases.  Even the coop sells them with the description starting "This small, almost silent, air pump is great for nano tanks or for adding an air stone to an existing larger tank". Personally I wouldn't have purchased if the description was "great little battery run pump for temporary uses such as transporting fish in a car or running off a battery pack at a show.  Not for 24/7 use.".  

But who knows, they're still getting great reviews from people (1025 5 star out of 1160 total).  Maybe I just was unlucky with two duds that coincidentally failed in the exact same way within 6 months of purchase. Sample size is small enough that its possible.   

It's been a week and a half since cleaning the pumps out.  They're both still running air stones and don't appear to have gotten any worse.  I certainly don't trust them anymore and intend to replace them as soon as the new co op pumps are available.  I shared the tear down not to bash the pumps, but rather to help anyone else who was dealing with a malfunctioning device.

[JettsPapa]

On 1/21/2022 at 1:03 PM, Mitch Norton said:

I had a never clog airstone become clogged in a quarantine tank and burn up my Nano air pump. It was weird. I found the sponge filter wasn’t running. Then I realized the pump wasn’t running. I swapped out a whisper air pump… still no air! I took the never clog air stone out, swished it around, loosened it, and it started blowing. 
 

When I plugged the pump back in… no go. I guess it burnt up when it couldn’t blow air. Lesson learned, and I have loosened all of my never clog air stones so they don’t clog (and I service them when I clean the sponge filters now. 

I have a half dozen or so of the USB air pumps running 24/7, and I've only had one fail, in a similar situation.  I noticed I wasn't getting any air from a sponge filter.  The pump was running but not putting out air.  I switched to a different pump.  Still nothing coming from the sponge filter.  I took the sponge filter apart, cleaned it, put it back together, and it started working fine (with the new pump; the old one was fried).  I can't really fault the pump for failing in that situation.

[Cory]

Just wanted to chime in. With all air pumps, the amount of back pressure put on a pump will have an impact on longevity. Things like length of airline tubing has an effect, a 25 ft run is much different than a 4 ft run. A check valve will have back pressure. How deep a tank is will affect back pressure. As well as type of air stone.

We've sold I believe more than 50k of these air pumps now, most users aren't experiencing problems. There will always be a defect rate in an manufactured product. So lets say thats 1% for easy math. Then we'll have pumps that fail due to back pressure be it from the air stone, tank depth, baking in the sun, getting wet etc. I've got pumps still in use for years now, i've also had some fail when I push the limits. Like sitting in the 100+ degree sun all summer, it finally stopped. I've had them quit after a racoon knocked them into water.

It didn't help when Ziss changed their felt, to a tighter felt. The end result was a never clogging airstone can now clog in some situations, and creates more back pressure.

When we deal with products that aren't branded aquarium co-op we only have so much control. With the ziss airstone, when they were going to green from the blue fabric, we had them buy all the blue fabric they could and we had 9 more months of blue airstones, this was like 30k of them. Then we had no choice but to carry the green or drop them. The green at the time still worked and without long testing we couldn't have seen any potential clogging as we were assured it was the same material as the blue. We now know it's not the exact same from my initial testing and the testing by the public.

 

As for the usb air pumps, we haven't been able to modify them at all, outside of providing a usb adapter that we choose for them to buy and add to it.

This has lead us down a path of bringing the new battery air pump as a replacement where we have had a hand in changing some aspects. And a never clog air stone closer to what we sold years ago as the never clog, brought back and improved. However we are still waiting for the latest proof before going to production this year.

Unfortunately with covid and just business in general, material shortages or things can change in production. Anything glaringly out of line we'll catch with defect rates. I believe the USB air pump has had a defect rate of less than 2% the past 90 days or so. Well within tolerances. This 2% includes just returns for no reason, not working, put it into water (this is why we have a disclaimer on the product page) you'd be surprised how many people thing the air pump is submersible.

I'd say the take away for me, is working in some education on back pressure and pump strain. We talk about this with the linear air piston pump and such. Need to make people realize that while something can do something, it might change life expectancy. A usb nano air pump, on the 800g, with a check valve, 15 feet of tubing, and a tight airstone is much different than say the way I was using it, pump sat on top of the 800g, 4 ft of tubing, no check valve. Into a loose air stone. This is best illustrated by a toyota camera owned by your grandma driven slowly, vs a teenager redlining the engine between every red light. The way of use determines longevity of a product.

I have no doubt that other factors that I haven't addressed here could also change it. All air pumps suffer from cigarette smoke and tar build up on parts. Dust/debris getting inside over time. Humidity of the room could play a factor, as well as temperatures.

In my experience, a non restrictive air stone without a check valve has held up for years for me. I usually hang my usb pumps when I use them. I don't think i have any long term tests of them with check valves in my own fish rooms, but I know we run those setups at retail and such without problems.