CO2 reactor, strange reaction...

Keman

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 31, 2014
127
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Auburn, wa
So I built a simple CO2 setup. Big bottle with a tube to a smaller bottle of water for the CO2 to bubble and remove any alcohol. Then a tube up into the tank bubbler. Sounds good... looks like a dozen I have seen here and other places.

Here's where it gets strange.

When I first fill the big bottle with he sugar/yeast solution, it creates vacuum and draws water from the small bottle and the tank creating a syphon. Should not do that. If I wait an hour to put it all together, the big bottle pushes the co2 like it should.

Why does it create vac?
 

SCMurphy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 30, 2004
25
0
1
DC
Was the water warm in the big bottle? If it was, as it cooled the partial pressure of the air in the bottle was increased and it had to dissolve into the solution to even out the pressure. Warm water dissolves less gas than cold water. This caused the draw into the big bottle. Waiting an hour let the solution cool to room temp as well as letting the yeast get motivated.
 
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