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

[Streetwise]

Who else provides this level of product support and customer service? I am an IT Pro, and we only get this level of service from our local ISP for IP Phones, and Ruckus Wi-Fi, where we lease the hardware, and have a support contract!

[Guppy Guy]

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.

I haven’t taken apart a coop air pump, but I have taken apart an aqueon pump to reposition the diaphragm and change the air filter. I didn’t know that anyone was still using air pumps with electric motors, other then the linear pumps and compressors. As far as I know, most new pumps use a dc electro magnet connected to ac power so it silently oscillates back and fourth.

I have personally used dc motors in dozens of projects, including under water, in extreme heat/cold, banged all around, as well as many other unreccamended spots without issue. @TheDukeAnumber1, you said that your motor burned out. Unless is wasn’t turning at all, or was in a ton of heat, I doubt it was the motor that burned out. If you still have it, take apart the air pump and connect the motor to a 9 volt battery for a few seconds. If it turns on, then it is the electronics, if not, either it is jammed in some way other then shredded plastic, a bad internal motor connection, or melted brushes. Let us know what happens!

[TheDukeAnumber1]

On 1/25/2022 at 6:00 PM, Guppy Guy said:

I haven’t taken apart a coop air pump, but I have taken apart an aqueon pump to reposition the diaphragm and change the air filter. I didn’t know that anyone was still using air pumps with electric motors, other then the linear pumps and compressors. As far as I know, most new pumps use a dc electro magnet connected to ac power so it silently oscillates back and fourth.

I have personally used dc motors in dozens of projects, including under water, in extreme heat/cold, banged all around, as well as many other unreccamended spots without issue. @TheDukeAnumber1, you said that your motor burned out. Unless is wasn’t turning at all, or was in a ton of heat, I doubt it was the motor that burned out. If you still have it, take apart the air pump and connect the motor to a 9 volt battery for a few seconds. If it turns on, then it is the electronics, if not, either it is jammed in some way other then shredded plastic, a bad internal motor connection, or melted brushes. Let us know what happens!

I've done misc projects with DC motors too. With my usb air pumps I did the whole tear down of the pump and tested the motors alone and they would not turn over. In my case I believe the motors themselves died. I don't have a data sheet for these motors but in the realm of brushed DC motors getting 8000 hours of life isn't outside of what is a normal range for brushed DC motors. You seem to be talking about extreme temps or spots for the motors to be in, but increased torque demmands (potentially caused by back pressure in this case) over many hours is what's going to wear down a motor and cause failure.

[Dancing Matt]

I killed a usb-nano (emphasis on I KILLED) by running it in freezing temps and the water in the airline froze. I took off the rubber but did not disassemble it. I tossed it in the trash today but am definitely pulling it out tonight to observe the "guts". I will report back with my findings.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Dancing Matt

[Torrey]

On 1/25/2022 at 3:47 PM, Cory said:

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.

 

Cory thank you for adding in all the other parameters. You just explained why my other [not purchased from you] diaphragm, plug in air pump died: I was running too long of a hose😬

You and Candi really do go above and beyond in support, because you choose to educate people on the entire process. 

I know that education can be a thankless field, so I wanted to make sure you have built a fabulous team, and the support you give your employees shines through in how well they take care of the public. 

Thank you .

[Dice]

Super glad I found this thread. My first nano pump died within about 4 months, but AC totally took care of me. I've got two now and one definitely puts out more air than the other. The weaker of the two wasn't working yesterday morning when I came in to feed the fish. Same as others, a little tap and it started back up again. I may strip it down and see if it's gunked up with plastic shavings. 

Sure, it's annoying when a pump goes out, but these are cheap enough that I think I will just always have a spare in reserve just in case of failure. Sure appreciate this company!

[Brandy]

I have actually run about 15 of these for over a year and a half with check valves. Some of mine have died. I also have disassembled them. Sometimes, the motor has died, but the majority of the time the little rubber bellows has developed a pinhole crack that then widens until it does not push air anymore. I save the bits and have frankensteined healthy bellows onto a healthy motor with success. 

At about $10/each I decided that I could buy up to 20 before it would just make more sense to get a linear piston pump and go full fish room. I am in the process of making that switch now. If I only had one or two tanks these are so silent and perfect I would run them for years, replacing as needed. I am still a fan, but once you are over 5 tanks or so you may as well bite the bullet...

[Streetwise]

I want to try the new dual air pumps when they come back in stock.

[lefty o]

i knew reading this thread recently was a bad omen. mine died today, 6 or 7 months old. i tapped it a few times and it started up, dead again a short while later.

[CT_]

On 1/27/2022 at 1:35 PM, Brandy said:

I have actually run about 15 of these for over a year and a half with check valves. Some of mine have died. I also have disassembled them. Sometimes, the motor has died, but the majority of the time the little rubber bellows has developed a pinhole crack that then widens until it does not push air anymore. I save the bits and have frankensteined healthy bellows onto a healthy motor with success. 

At about $10/each I decided that I could buy up to 20 before it would just make more sense to get a linear piston pump and go full fish room. I am in the process of making that switch now. If I only had one or two tanks these are so silent and perfect I would run them for years, replacing as needed. I am still a fan, but once you are over 5 tanks or so you may as well bite the bullet...

It's kinda ironic, I've disabled 2 of 3 of the bellows on multiple pumps to lower the air volume and motor load because I like lower air volume and restricting them with a needle valve was turning out to be bad for them. 

I don't like air in general but I feel it's good insurance.

[Brandy]

On 1/31/2022 at 7:49 PM, CT_ said:

It's kinda ironic, I've disabled 2 of 3 of the bellows on multiple pumps to lower the air volume and motor load because I like lower air volume and restricting them with a needle valve was turning out to be bad for them. 

I don't like air in general but I feel it's good insurance.

Interesting, I kinda love air. Why don't you like it? Aesthetics or something else?

I would run every tank with sponges or matten filters if I could. I like the simplicity of no moving parts. My 125g is running with a corner matten actually, but it's powered by a submersible. The flow rate for air was just too low on a tank that long.

[JettsPapa]

I lost another one a couple of days ago.  The air stone in the sponge filter was clogged up.  That killed the pump.  No more air stones in filters for me.

[MarkM]

First, thanks to Cory for the additional in depth information about the product and for sharing the stats on failure rates that you are seeing. It's far too easy to assume a larger problem exists than really does, especially when there are hundreds of variables that come into play.  One of the nicest things about buying from the coop is knowing you're data driven and customer service focused.  If there was a larger problem with the pumps I can be sure you're likely already aware of and trying to remedy it.  This way I can safely assume that there's some variable in my situation that I might tweak to make better (or infinitely worse, hopefully in a spectacular and enjoyable fashion).  

 

Now back to the regularly scheduled electronics abuse.  Nano pump #1 died again on me this weekend after running for two and a half weeks straight.  This time it wouldn't spin even if not connected to any airline. I tore it open and there wasn't any shredded plastic and the spindle only looked marginally worse.  Bellows were still in tact but manually spinning it sounded SUPER crunchy.  I gave it a bunch of spins and some more percussive maintenance.  This knocked out a bunch of what I am assuming is the brush.  Manually spinning now sounded (slightly) less crunchy and once back together it spun right up.  However when connected to existing setup (~4ft of airline with a check valve in the middle connected to stone) it immediately died again.   With all the information shared by everyone I decided to cut out the middle man.  I hung the pump above the waterline, put a little less than a foot of line on it without a check valve, stuck it in the water, and voila bubbles.  I was out of fresh stones and so I printed an airstone I found on thingiverse to diffuse it a little.  

 

Ironically I just went to get a picture and discovered the pump had died again after running for an additional 48 hours. A nice solid smack got it back to making bubbles.

 

Thankfully it looks like I'll be able to put this pump out of it's misery soon and replace it with the coop pumps. I'm planning on opening up this motor to see if there's anything more I can learn. 

[CT_]

On 1/31/2022 at 8:02 PM, Brandy said:

Interesting, I kinda love air. Why don't you like it? Aesthetics or something else?

I would run every tank with sponges or matten filters if I could. I like the simplicity of no moving parts. My 125g is running with a corner matten actually, but it's powered by a submersible. The flow rate for air was just too low on a tank that long.

I don't like the sound and the splashing makes a mess.  And if I'm above the tank (pond, tub) it makes it harder to see inside.

 

I do like not worrying about o2 and I do like that it breaks up any gross film.  So for me minimal air is best

[drewzero1]

On 1/31/2022 at 9:31 PM, lefty o said:

i knew reading this thread recently was a bad omen. mine died today, 6 or 7 months old. i tapped it a few times and it started up, dead again a short while later.

I'm in the same boat! I hadn't thought about the possibility of failure until I read this thread, and a week after that I noticed mine was getting louder and putting out fewer (and shortly after, zero) bubbles. I was able to get it started by tapping as well. I opened it up and relubed the rotor, but it quit again over the weekend. It appears to be a dead spot on the armature. (I may try to open it up and take a look, since part of my work is fixing larger brushed DC motors.) 

I was running with a check valve and no airstone, and removed the check valve when I noticed the motor starting to fail. Needing a quick replacement, I pulled the eject motor out of an old CD drive and soldered it in. So far so good but it runs a bit warm.                                                                                                

On 1/31/2022 at 9:49 PM, CT_ said:

It's kinda ironic, I've disabled 2 of 3 of the bellows on multiple pumps to lower the air volume and motor load because I like lower air volume and restricting them with a needle valve was turning out to be bad for them. 

I don't like air in general but I feel it's good insurance.

When I bought my 2-outlet pump one of the owners of the LFS warned me I couldn't restrict the pump with a valve, but to instead bleed off extra air into the room to avoid restricting the pump. I ended up just adding an extra sponge filter to one of my tanks.

Personally I love air as long as the bubbles aren't too big. I've got two tanks that only have air (plus a low-voltage light over the tank). The lines are easier to hide and can be cut to length. If there was a heater powered by air, I'd probably use that too!

[Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics]

On 1/25/2022 at 2:33 PM, JettsPapa said:

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.

Absolutely, I didn’t mean to insinuate that it was the pumps fault. It most definitely was mine for not realizing I needed to clean the airstone. Haha. 
 

I was only offering some perspective from someone who had a pump go down. I’m sure there are others who lost a pump to a similar situation, but didn’t realize what may have caused it. 

[Minanora]

@mpm42 how do you like the air stone you printed? I never thought to do this! I'm going to try one!

[MarkM]

On 2/5/2022 at 11:43 AM, Minanora said:

@mpm42 how do you like the air stone you printed? I never thought to do this! I'm going to try one!

Haven't been using it long enough to form a solid opinion.  The bubbler only took 2g of PLA to print, so very little to lose if I wind up tossing it.  Its offline while I wait for delivery of new pumps (USB pump is finally mostly dead.)  Bubbles were larger than the ziss stones and ceramic stones, but that didn't bug me so far.

[eatyourpeas]

I had two of these stop pumping air, and I decided to open them up and see if I could figure out what went wrong. All parts seemed to be in good order, no cracks, no warping.

I did notice that the motor would still try to go, but then stopped. Here is what I found: tiny gunk particles clogging the shaft and preventing from spinning!

So, silicone grease was applied to the shaft with a very small brush:

 

There is a little black soot coming on the brush, then after cleaning it and applying a little more silicone grease, the process was repeated but this time with the motor running.

Each time, the brush got cleaned on a piece of absorbent paper (I used rice paper), and only after the brush did not have any more black come off the process continued.

Both pumps have been running for a few hours, both with ACO valves, one with and one without airstone.

I will check them again after a couple of days, to make sure this has been an effective fix.

Edited February 24, 2022 by eatyourpeas

[lefty o]

On 2/21/2022 at 4:57 PM, eatyourpeas said:

I had two of these stop pumping air, and I decided to open them up and see if I could figure out what went wrong. All parts seemed to be in good order, no cracks, no warping.

I did notice that the motor would still try to go, but then stopped. Here is what I found: tiny gunk particles clogging the shaft and preventing from spinning!

So, silicone grease was applied to the shaft with a very small brush:

 

There is a little black soot coming on the brush, then after cleaning it and applying a little ore silicone grease, the process was repeated but this time with the motor running.

Each time, the brush got cleaned on a piece of absorbent paper (I used rice paper), and only after the brush did not have any more black come off the process continued.

Both pumps have been running for a few hours, both with ACO valves, one with and one without airstone.

I will check them again after a couple of days, to make sure this has been an effective fix.

keep us updated. if it works, ill tear mine apart.

[CT_]

I've had good success cleaning and greasing one and failed greasing and cleaning another.  So at least for me its always worth a try but not a guarantee. 

[DaveO]

Coincidentally one of my USB pumps died yesterday as well. Interestingly it is the one I have been running the shortest length of time. It did run for slightly more than a year, so I got my money's worth out of it. The other two usb pumps I am using have been going for 1 1/2  years and counting. I did not perform an autopsy on the dead one.

[eatyourpeas]

These pumps have been going for 1.5 years as well. I just refuse to throw things away if there is a possibility of fixing them. I agree with @CT_ that there is no guarantee the fix will work, but you won't know for sure until you try.

One of the pumps is still working this morning. The second one stopped and after a gentle shake got back to it. Jury is still out. My next test would be to lubricate the rubber bellows, since I suspect they may get brittle in the dry winter air. Surgery without worrying that the patient may wake up in the middle of the procedure is quite a luxury! 🤪

[Wrencher_Scott]

Yes, you can't expect an inexpensive product like this to last forever.

Like Cory says, there will always be defects too. 

I think if you want a permanent pump for your tank get something designed for the job. A little logic goes a long way.

With that said, I have one of these little pumps and the output is amazing for it's size! I would not trust the little bugger to pump air through about 8 feet of hose and down to the bottom of my 90 gallon tall though. At least not for very long. That's a lot of stress on that tiny pump. I use it for my 5 gallon hospital tank.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Both pumps are still running as of today. One is pumping air through two airstones since last night. They are now going to be used as backup in case any other pump needs to be repaired. I would still recommend having a brand new one as a backup just in case. 🙂