Automatic Bell Siphon Explained

This is a demo of a bell siphon I built in collaboration with a couple of engineering professors. There are certain cases where it would be nice to be able to create a siphon without any intervention, a self-priming or automatic siphon: the next level of siphonry. It's built out of an acrylic sheet and a piece of clear pipe. Thanks to Rolf Hut and Pete Marchetto for inviting me to collaborate on their project.

Animation: Devin Sloan

Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

[direghostman]

Me: The pythagorean chalice is a cup that spills everywhere if you pour too much liquid in it.
Smartass Friend: All cups do that

[koaasst]

when youtube was in its infancy i learned how to build a complete aquaponic system, and still have a box in the garage with the old pvc bell siphons. blast from the past!

[Scruffy]

there was a local news story here a long while ago about a group of teens siphoning gas from vehicles. They eventually hit an RV park and mouth siphoned a tank just not the fuel tank it was the septic holding tank.

[Raymonddurann]

Working on my degree in hydroponic/aquaponics. Most ebb and flow systems have some type of bell syphon used. Up until now, I had never known how it works. Thank you sir for keeping me one step ahead👍

[TheGhirlinzoni]

Hi! My name is Fernando and I'm from Brazil. I'm a Mechanical Technician here and I like your videos and explanations.

[AlphasysNl]

Very nice and clear explanation of the ancient device called the Pythagoras cup, also known as the greedy cup.

[kurtisnimmert]

this is a concept that I have tried to explain many times to my less engineering interested friends, who are interested in hydroponics, in the past with no success. but this demonstration is simple and beautiful and with its help i am sure they will get it

[ThisOldTony]

as always, great video. love the models & the graphics.

[privateinformation]

I’m glad channels like this exist on YouTube. You actually learn something

[looksintolasers]

SUGGESTION FOR FUTURE VIDEOS: I love this video because it has a nice, uncut 15 second section just showing the siphon doing its thing. It feels like being in a lab and just watching a demo! Many of the newer videos will show off The Device at the beginning but never give us just a straight section where we can watch how it works and observe.

Please keep the little demo sections in the middle of the videos!

[carlbussmann]

Another great self-explanatory and useful video by Grady. Also use flexible tubing immersed completely under the surface, block off the outflow end and release the blocked end into the lower container.

[VeiaC]

i have never seen a bell siphon before never even heard of one, love the simplisity of it and how it works so well, your model is a real nice way to show it working, this vid was sooo cool for me, thank you verry much =].

[clanravencub]

Just wanted to say how great your channel is and how much we love it. You explain things really well and in great detail. It's fantastic to have things explained properly and not dumbed down. This is how we can spread the love of engineering and the beauty of a well engineered and simple and elegant solution

[zacknicley]

“Automatic siphon” sounds like what they would call an electric water pump in the 1800s.

[zacharbison]

I've used this in my garden, 3 watt solar pump to fill the feed tank from the collection res (takes all day) and the bell siphon to flood the beds (~15 min). Beds drain to res and everything starts again when the sun comes back up. Works great as long as it stays clean. Great vid as always!

[DMahalko]

In many cases the siphon's purpose is an intermittent surging flow, as this saves water for cleaning/flushing purposes. But, if the input flow is too small, water can just dribble over the lip of the drain tube and it can't form a water seal. If the input flow is about the same as the outlet capacity, the siphon can enter an undesired steady state where it never stops flowing. More complex siphons use additional air communication tubes, air chambers, and U-traps, to assure the flow is reliably intermittent without entering a steady state.

[coreymcconnell]

I am looking at purchasing a home with a bell siphon septic, my research brought me here. This was all I needed to understand the basic principles, thank you.

[JamesCoyle]

Have you considered making a clock that uses a series of siphons and chambers to represent time with water?

[Mostlyharmless]

It’s weird, I remember watching this YouTube video several months ago. Then, a few weeks ago I was enginerding a stand pipe for my aquariums overflow, the design goal being to achieve laminar flow to reduce gurgling, but to not create a siphon. Without realizing what I was doing, I created a bell siphon. Then, I put a small hole in the top of the cap covering the bell to keep it from being a 100 % siphon. Then, to get super clever I set another hole in the stand pipe just above the main grill to account for blockages so it would become a siphon if the water level got too high.
Where it is strange is I didn’t do any of this consciously, but with my understanding of how water in these situations behave, gained from watching this video. I *learned* something. On the internet. From a site that is “hmm, that’s interesting whelp on to watching cats try to fit themselves into ridiculous spaces!”

“If you do things right, it won’t appear like you’ve done anything at all.”

[olivier]

bell spihon are used to release softener on washing machines