Air Compressor - Test 1

Its been a busy week ... supplies have finally started arriving (all at the same time) but another post on my newest toys soon to follow.  Included in my bag of goodies was an air compressor.  I've been playing around with using an aircompressor INSTEAD of a pump because they have much more power (10 bar instead of 3 bar/45psi for the pump).  HOWEVER, in order to use JUST an air compressor, at least part if the system would need to be pressurized and for the life of me, I can figure out how the return works.

1. I understand how to make a pressurized source which will push the liquid through the tubes
2. However how does fluid return?
• In an open reservoir to release the air pressure (but how to bring the fluid from the returned reservoir back to the source reservoir)
• If I make the source and return reservoir one in the same, wouldnt the air pressure be the same all the way around, thus water would NOT flow
• Ive thought about pressure release valves but that will effectively lower the entire systems pressure, not just one section

ANYWAY ... until I figure out how a closed system works, I'll keep playing around with my open systems.  As it stands right now, Ill use my pump to push the water and my air compressor to push the air (and the water behind it).

So the first conclusions involving the pump vs air compressor involving 20 meters of 5mm inner (9mm outter) schlauch are:

• Pump needs 14 seconds to fill the schlauch
• Pump needs 50 seconds to empty the schlauch
• Air Compressor needs 7 seconds to empty the schlauch !!!