MadMan

To see if I'm understanding what you're saying, let me try to rephrase it. If the pump is made for liquids (a much less compressible medium), then the seals for the check valves may have a reverse breakdown at a lower pressure with gas (a much more compressible medium). This being due to the seals not being as strong. That makes sense to me. I figured that the way check valves function this wouldn't be the source. However, less effective seals around the valve would explain it somewhat. Yes, that is what I'm talking about. So the actual use of this pump in the machine is a vacuum, which involves different forces than compression (if I'm understanding correctly). According to my tests, that spec seems to match. However, I did also save a separate check valve that was somehow connected to this pump, as well as a smaller pump (the actual name of it escapes me currently). It doesn't seem to create enough negative or positive pressure to overcome this valve, but I may be overlooking how it was implemented. I vaguely remember how it was attached to the machine. Different tubes stemmed off a 4 output plastic tee, one of which has the check valve on it. Although it may have not been your intent: I thank you for giving me somewhere to look. Although it probably should have been obvious: if I can find some schematic of how this pump was incorporated into the machine, I could deepen my understanding of it. Still doesn't define how I could increase the power of it, but it's something to go to.

I've been messing around with a diaphragm I've gutted from an old keurig machine. I'm trying to learn more about gas compression methods, and the transportation of gasses. I believe the pump was intended more for water than air (gasses), which might be much of why I am having a hard time achieving higher psi through this pump. In what I've gathered so far: the weak point seems to be the actual diaphragm itself. The check valves should operate the same no matter what pressure is applied because of the counteracting forces. I believe I foolishly tried to increase the area of expansion and contraction of the diaphragm by replacing it with a balloon. It appears the flexibility of the latex inhibits the suction and repulsion needed to actuate the compression. Whether with the balloon, and some manual fiddling, or with the original diaphragm: I can only seem to get up to ~10 psi; if the pump is wet/damp, and ~8 psi; if the pump is dry. I've had trouble finding help online. I've mostly ran into people selling their pumps. I'd like to more deeply understand what is going on here, and if I'm missing anything. Any suggestions on what I could do to either improve my current process, or what fundamentals I'm missing to study up on to further my understanding would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.