DIY Peristaltic Liquid Pump Dosing Pump for Aquarium Lab Analytical

I wanted to get a cheap peristaltic pump, which can pump water with flow rates 0.1 to 5 ml/min. The minimum flow rate of the INTLLAB Peristaltic Liquid Pump with 2mm ID x 4mm OD is too high for my purpose, so I have tried to decrease it by (1) using tubings with smaller ID, and (2) supplying the pump with lower voltage.Hooshing Silicone Tubing 1mm ID x 3mm OD (ASIN: B08QFFLP3S) were fitted into the pump head without problems but would easily slide out upon running because the OD is too small. I used MettleAir 129PP-1 Polypropylene Plastic 1/16" ID Hose Barb Union (ASIN: B00S529L6Y) to keep the tubing in place, and it works just great as if it was intentionally designed for this unit.Also, I replaced the original power supply (outputs fixed 12 VDC) with SHNITPWR 24W AC Adapter 3V~12V 2A Universal Power Adapter (ASIN: B08YN79VVD). At lowest voltage input, 3V, the pump starts to operate when the flow control knob reaches the middle of its range, and at 4V it can move in the entire range of knob positions.With 1mm ID tubing and 4V input voltage, it was possible to get a sustained flow rate as low as ~ 0.4 ml/min.

I needed one that was programmable and not one that runs constantly. It worked good though.

This is a very simple pump that works. Description stated flow rate as low as 5ml/sec. The lowest I could get was 30ml/sec and that was with the 3mm ID backup tune. Low flow rate is of importance in my application.

The media could not be loaded. Mainly using this as an auto top off pump for my saltwater tank. Don’t know about self priming ability but it will pull from approximately 10 feet once primed (i helped it prime). Looking at design it should not lose prime or back siphon. Did general research on pumps of this style and generally they should pull from 35 feet. When you run into a situation where you need to get water from A-B, this thing will do it! I have a 58 gallon barrel of fresh rodi and i needed my ato to get water to my main tank a floor above it and this does it! Hopefully this thing will last a year! But how this will function for me, id say will run maybe a minute every hour or so depending on speed setting and evaporation! Some atos can run upwards of $50 minimum! Buy this and some hose needed for your setup and you’re good to go!

Edit: The pump broke after about a week of operation.So first off, I can't believe I got a peristaltic pump for this cheap. It does work, but barely. I just needed something to barely work, though, so it's fine. (I'm regenerating SPE cartridges in my lab with HCl, so I just needed something that can handle acids and that will move fluid at any old rate). The rollers are turned by nothing but friction with the shaft of the motor, which means that if anything changes this amount of friction you will not have reliable pumping speeds. This also means that you can't put vacuum grease on the rollers, which usually key to maintaining the longevity of peristaltic pump tubing. So I don't know what effect this is going to have long-term on pump performance. Also, there's no reverse, but I added a dpdt switch to switch the polarity of the motor and it works in reverse now just fine. Anyway, I would not trust this AT ALL for precise metering, but if you need to move fluids that require isolation from the pump, this works.

I did not expect much out of such an inexpensive pump, but this guy is working great. I've read some reviews about people unhappy with it in their 'lab' setting - look, pumps can be thousands of dollars for a lab. You're not going to be able to get 0.01mL accuracy while running this 24hours a day under several hundred dollars, so be realistic. The power supply alone was nearly worth the purchase ;)

These things are borderline garbage. For the price that's not a surprise, but they might be bad enough that even at that price they're surprisingly bad.At lower speeds (effectively the half of the speed/potentiometer range), they just don't work. The DC motor has too many dead spots, and even if it gets started it's liable to eventually get stuck and stop. That's regardless of taking it apart and trying to re-oil it and making sure the tubing isn't kinked and making sure it's attached soundly. So that rules out all the low range of the pump output.I haven't measured water volumes, but there's no way you're going to be able to pull 5ml with this thing, unless you get lucky that it dies at 5ml. You need it running fast enough that you can still have drips, but the drips aren't countable because they're coming out so fast.At higher powers, they do pump out water. They're very loud when doing so, but if you pull the pump head apart and/or play with how tight the tubing is in there and/or somehow push the pump head on really tightly, it can be quieter.Is it remarkable that technology and manufacturing is so advanced a little pump with controls can be bought for $15ish? Yes.Is this pump a quality device that you'll want to trust anything with, when you're not actively watching and controlling it? No.But it's cheap, and if you want some arbitrary amount of water moved at an arbitrary rate, with a decent ability to pull water up a height, while you baby sit it, it'll likely do that.I have no idea if the stand alone pumps without the case are any better.

Hello Vendor,Could you supply a TRULY battery powered rotary pump? From the description, it says "battery powered". However, it's only powered by the 24V DC converter. If you could manufacture the pump with battery compartment, we'll buy hundreds of that and use it in the field more easily.