Check valve

Description

A check valve lets water or air through in one direction only. The aquarium check valves with the most ratings in our search are airline valves, sold to stop tank water siphoning back into an air pump. Pawfly's, the most-rated, is sold as a pump protector that will prevent backflow of water through the tubing during a power outage or pump pause, and AQUANEAT says its non-return valves will protect your air pump by preventing aquarium water from back siphoning during a power outage. Water lines use them too. A 2020 automated rack system for rearing invertebrates has a large one-way check valve in its plumbing that prevents water from traveling backwards through the filters during a feeding cycle, and a small one on the air line of its feeder: the air passes to the Luer lock Y connector through a one-way check valve, and the check valve prevents food from passing to the airline. The airline kind is plastic and made for low pressure, and Pawfly says so: for oxygen pumps only, NOT suitable for CO2 or other high-pressure systems to avoid crack and leak. A CO2 line has its own row in this catalog, the CO2 check valve. Fit and upkeep come from the sellers. Pawfly's valve takes standard 3/16 inch ID airline tubing, and AQUANEAT's fits standard aquarium airline tubing with inner diameter about 3/16 inch and most air pumps. Pawfly is the one that writes about clogging: clean the valve regularly, and when it gets clogged inside and restricts air flow, poke it with a slim stick from the inlet side to push it open. Nothing here says how long a check valve lasts, so this page gives no interval.

Sources

• amazon.com — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YTVR6LJ
• amazon.com — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086JRH4WS
• pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7199361/

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