Trumpet valve felt washers to the rescue!

[tolstoy21]

I have a bunch of Ziss never-clog air stones that, low-and-behold, clogged on me. I will admit however, I had been running them some time before they conked out. (You know, if they never clog, why would Ziss include replacement washers?)

The air stones have been sitting around my house for well over two years, doing nothing but taking up drawer space. I've been looking for replacements for some time now, but it doesn't seem like Ziss offers them.

Anyway, after some trial and error, I have discovered that the felt washers used on Trumpet valves for cushioning work perfectly as replacements.

The only caveat is that they are a tad thicker than the Ziss washers, but other than that the fit is near perfect. You can fit three washers on the airstone if you really squash them down, but using just two seems to do the trick. The bubbles are courser, but not by an extreme amount. 

I'm running the air stone in the video full-blast, but you get the gist. This solution is far better than throwing wonderful airstones en la basura!

 

Edited Friday at 11:39 PM by tolstoy21

[Odd Duck]

I lost one of the plastic washers from a Ziss but I’ve been keeping it for “spare parts”.  I guess Amazon is going to start offering me trumpet parts now after this order.  😆 😉 

Edited Sunday at 11:28 PM by Odd Duck

[tolstoy21]

On 10/13/2024 at 7:28 PM, Odd Duck said:

I lost one of the plastic washers from a Ziss but I’ve been keeping it for “spare parts”.  I guess Amazon is going to start offering me trumpet parts now after this order.  😆 😉 

Yeah now I am on the search for replacement plastic washers/separators!

[Chris]

This actually makes a lot of sense. I keep a bunch of these around for my euphonium... I wonder if they'd fit after a bit of trimming.

[Tanked]

I guess I should have kept my trumpet.