How do I start a siphon and how does a siphon work?

New Car gas siphon Gas Tapper

Manual Car SIphon Model Gravity

A siphon takes advantage of gravity and the fact that liquids seek their own level. What does that mean?

If a source tank containing gas, water or any liquid is above a destination tank, you can get the liquid from one tank to the other using gravity. Siphoning is really not a lot different then having a hose directly connected to the bottom of the higher tank and then opening a spigot at the other end of the hose lower than the tank. Picture a tank on a table with a hose attached hanging down to the ground. The tank will clearly empty like it has a hole in it.

Siphoning uses this gravity flow principle and takes it to another level because siphoning allows you to go up with liquid before you go down. There is one caveat, the hose end must be lower than the liquid level. The reason you can have liquid go up first in this situation is that the weight of the liquid in the hose creates a vacuum that draws the fluid out of the tank, basically following the liquid that comes out of the hose. I hope that’s clear? Regardless, it works.

A key point in siphoning and the reason it often leaves a bad taste in your mouth (pun intended) is that you have to draw the liquid up and over the raised part of the hose and get it to travel below the level of the liquid in the source tank, once you do that, it will flow by itself. Most people do this with their lungs. They suck on the end of the hose to create a vacuum causing the fluid to flow into the hose. The part of this that sucks is that the liquid often comes racing over the hump and into your mouth before you can get it out of your mouth into the destination tank.

What are the alternatives? And electric pump that pulls the fluid and pushes the fluid as we offer here on the website, or a manual pump. The problem with a manual hand siphon is that its great at starting the siphon effect but then becomes a blockage in the line once you stop applying human power. You don’t have the free flow of an open hose.

GasTapper hand siphon solves that problem by putting in a siphon bypass hose segment in parallel to the hand pump. This allow you to start the siphon with the hand pump and then open up the bypass line to allow for great flow. No gas in your mouth. This also allows us to use a hand pump that can actually lift fuel and liquids above the source tank, unlike a conventional siphons. The Gastapper Gravity product will allow you to move gas and other liquids above the source simply by squeezing it repeatedly in a pumping action (with the bypass closed). Simple, clean and inexpensive. Thanks for reading the blog!

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