porq

I've had 2 airzounds and the same thing has happened to both of them: all I get when I press down on the trigger is an air sound. I don't know what happens, but after I fill them up the 3rd or 4th time, I can't get any more sound out of it. I've tried moving the little orange thingy on the side, but that didn't make any difference.

Has anyone else had / solved this problem?

hotbike

Yeah, I've gone through Three AirZounds with the same results.

Airzounds is wonderful when it's new, but then it stops working.

I think I know what the problem is though;
When I'm pumping the bottle up, I see the needle on the pump's guage.
The air doesn't flow as fast as I can pump, so on the down stroke, the needle spikes at 110 psi, before leveling off at 80psi.

I will have to get another AirZounds to test this theory,
Pumping very s-l-o-w-l-y, so the surge doesn't rupture the diaphragm.

Halloween

I just purchased an AirZound, and it seems to work OK.
It even came already charged with a bottle full of air!
I'm in Japan, and I bought the horn from an American vendor... it arrived fully charged and ready to blast!

So, just to test it out, I ran all of the air out of it... one long blast of noise, and then pumped it back up to the recommended 80 PSI.

When I tried to disengage the pump, nearly the whole Schrader valve under the horn button tried to follow... it didn't want to separate from the pump! I got the pump off, and tried the horn, and all I got was "Pfffffffft".

I tried to shove the Schrader valve back into the horn, but it wouldn't go.

Then, I did what the directions suggested.
I tried to "If necessary, gently pull tube to reset valve after refilling."

That is, just above the bell of the horn, I pulled the air hose toward the bell of the horn.

The Schrader valve popped back into place, and when I pushed the horn button, BLAMMMM!!!... the horn worked again.



OK, since that question is answered, I have a question of my own...

I just got my first AirZound, and I asked this over in the Commuting forum, but, since nobody seemed to know anything over there, I've decided to piggyback on here and ask:


Does anybody know, specifically, what the difference is between the different versions of the AirZound?

Can you tell them apart just by looking at them?

Going by online stores' photos, there are gray ones, silvery gray ones, and maybe black/darker gray models, but I've seen no difference in the labels or logos.


My next project will be an attempt to lower the pitch of the AirZound so it sounds more like a Mack truck than a Fiat... because cage drivers respect BIG stuff...

porq

Well, I got inspired and tried your suggestion of lightly pulling the tube, but that didn't work. So I took the back off, took it all apart and then put it back together and voila, it works. Don't ask me what I did, but it works ... for now.

As for the different versions, I have no idea.

intrepidbiker

I have one of the original Air Zounds (with the horn jutting straight out). It has worked flawlessly for years... with only one exception. It cannot work in the cold! Days where it is under 40 degrees you get the same "pfffttt" sound.

This time of the year, I doubt that you are doing cold-weather riding... but I thought I'd mention it.

Zero_Enigma

Porq:

If you bouhg tyour AIRZounds at MEC they have an excellent reputation of helping to fix the problem or taking back items even if you lost the reciept. You'll just get store credit.

porq

Good point Zero_Enigma. I'm heading there to buy some lights this week - I think I'll take back the Airzound and get another one.

Cyclist0383

I spoke to the folks who make the Air Zound about this. Usually water or some other contaminant gets on the membrane of the horn. To fix the problem unscrew the large dial from the at the back of the 'trigger' dissemble, clean, and reassemble. It worked for me.

Bushman

Airzounds used* to be made with a spun aluminum air tank, a metal body valve assembly, metal shrader fillup port and a high impact plastic horn. Now they are cheap garbage that get bunged up with grit and stop working.

* i'm talking WAAAAAAAAY back ,like early 90s

Halloween

So, if I just swap the AirZound's PET bottle out for


a spun aluminum SIIG bottle...




or an aluminum Iron City Beer 'can',



will it be OK as long as I limit the air pressure to 80 psi or less?



As an ex-pat Pittsburgher, I think it's pretty funny (and sad at the same time) that Iron City beer is sold in aluminum cans.

Bushman

i would do a pressure test first in a controlled environment if you plan to use those for holding air pressure.

Halloween

I was only joking about the beer cans... but I think the SIIG bottle is a bit stronger than a PET bottle.

Still, I'll do some testing first... with appropriate shielding.

Shrapnel's no fun.

hotbike

I tried that and it worked!
I had to use two pairs of channel-lock pliers, but the diaphragm came out.

There is a thin aluminum diaphragm, a small piece of foam, and a spring.

I didn't see anything foreign in there, but when I put it back together, it worked.

Cyclist0383

Excellent! Glad to hear it worked for you.

hotbike

Yes it worked, and I want to say again, it takes two pair of pliers.
(or maybe a pair of pliers and a bench vise).

I had twice earlier tried to open the diaphragm with one pair of pliers, but the screw on cover was so tight, I couldn't hold it in my other hand. I gave up , thinking the cover was glued on. But it's not glued, it's simply screwed very tight.

T800

I get a couple of years' use out of them and then my AirZounds die. Is this a common problem?

The symptoms this time and last were pretty similar. I find that the bottle is pretty squeezable and has lost air. If I pump it up a bit, I might get a faint AirZound-like noise out of it, but then that's it. All that happens on subsequent activations is the whishing noise of air being lost.

If I pump it up to 80 PSI, the button won't depress. Even pushing down the pin in the middle of the Schrader valve won't release any air. If I undo the bottle's lid a bit and let some air out, the AirZound behaves as described in the paragraph above.

Does anyone recognise these symptoms, and have a solution for them?

I've tried taking the diaphragm out and running water through. There didn't seem to be any sign of an obstruction and when I put it back together the horn appeared to work. 24 hours later it was dead again, insofar as I was back to the symptoms described above in the "pump it up to 80" paragraph.

CabezaShok

Not even a year old, this Air Zound has stopped working. Holds pressure OK but only makes a hissing noise, no loud "HONK"... Tried the turning the large dial on the backside of horn like instructions say: "1/4 to the left/right" but it is frozen tight....so tight if i tried channel-locks it might break the horn, surely voiding warrantee. No replies yet from DeltaCycles.................. Any ideas how to fix this thing?

unterhausen

did you read THIS POST?

CabezaShok

Seriously? Thanks for huge input.

K'Tesh

There have been too many crashes between cars with 18 wheelers and trains to believe that... Pedestrians however...

unterhausen

did you try it?

ItsJustMe

Sorry for bringing an old thread to the top, but I thought I'd say thanks - I was about ready to buy a new Air Zound this spring, and I found this thread, cleaned the diaphragm and it worked again. Then after refilling last week, it stopped working, and again, this thread told me about the pulling on the tube and it's working yet again! Two saves!

Too bad I didn't find out it wasn't working this last time until after the big jerk in the F250 passed me a few days ago going HONK HONK HONK HONK HONK for the whole way past me. I don't even really know what he was getting at, unless he was bugged about the 60 lumen Serfas on my tail going FLASH FLASH FLASH

unterhausen

some zombie threads are better off closed, but this one seems to be useful

Carib Can

Better to leave them open so that we don't have a thousand threads about the same topic. I am looking at replacing my Hornit horn with one of these and found this tread useful.

It encourages people to research and read than to keep posting redundant questions about something's that has been covered in the past.

ItsJustMe

If we never had a post on Bikeforums about something that had been discussed before, we could shut the site down, or just make it read-only.