Just saw this thread. Gave a couple recommendations in a PM.
JB Industries makes a quality pump. So does Yellow Jacket. This is from a lot of reviews I read while shopping. Basically you want a quality HVAC vacuum pump. There are some cheapo ones made in China for 100 bucks or less. I started with one of those and it overheated easily and stopped working after a few months.
You’ll want a CFM (cubic feet / minute) of at least 1.0. My cheapo one was 1.5 CFM and it pulled a plenty strong vacuum. The replacement I got is a 3.0 CFM and that’s fine too, but going beyond that is probably overkill.
The JBI one I got was 300 some bucks and with regular oil changes it will probably still be pumping long after I’m in the ground. It also has a flow governor valve so I can adjust how fast it pulls. Set it low enough and it won’t even pull 5”Hg. At about 1/3 - 1/2 flow it will pull a full vacuum in a few seconds. At full power it will pull the full vacuum in about 1 second.
By “full vacuum” I am talking like 95%+ of atmospheric pressure. For our purposes the difference between 29” Hg and 29.5” Hg isn’t that important. These pumps are designed to pull down to within 50 microns Hg of full atmosphere pressure, though that does require leaving them on for several minutes. Realistically, the seal between a pumping tube and our skin isn’t tight enough to get that. I digress.
The pumps have excellent resale value and you can find them at pawn shops for about 40-80% of retail depending on how used they are.
Couple things to keep in mind are that they require oil changes. For HVAC purposes (draining a system of coolants or other such things) they get an oil change after every job. However, for PE we’re not actually draining anything into the oil, except the dust in the air, and maybe some tiny molecular amounts of lube or precum that get through. In other words the oil stays cleaner longer, and can be used longer. That said, the maintenance cost is relatively higher than other PE devices (generally zero). I ordered 8 quarts of oil online for 50 bucks or something, and it’d probably be enough to last me several years even if I pumped every day with it.
They’re also noisy as all hell. I live in an apartment building and even though it’s a fairly noisy part of the city, only use mine during rush hour traffic out of respect to my neighbors. They vibrate the floors and so on. Hard to imagine a 1/2 HP electric motor is that noisy, but it is.
And PEforFun’s warning about getting some kind of padding for the tube is important. The larger diameter tube used, the more force that is going onto the pelvic bone. With a 1.5” tube it was tolerable but annoying. With a 1.75” tube I needed some kind of padding, and the VelSeal tubes worked great for that.
I wasn’t able to replicated PEforFun’s gains rate with the method. But it does have its merits. It’s basically being able to turn on and off a full atmosphere of vacuum pressure in about 1-2 seconds. I probably didn’t stay with the routine long enough to give it a full review, but I did initially gain some quick girth (0.2”) from it.
At that time I was doing flaccid pumping in a 1.5” tube. And it worked really well flaccid since I was close to the max girth for the tube. Now I”ve stepped up to a 1.75” tube and I’m swimming in it. There’s no option but to do erect pumping until I gain another 0.1” or 0.2” girth to keep my balls from getting sucked in. The other thing is, if you pump flaccid in a tube too big at these pressures, it will come out looking like the newart photos. Since the switch to erect, the gains slowed down and I haven’t used it as much. PEforFun did say that a well fitting tube is crucial and I’d have to agree with him.
He had already PE’d for about 5 years if memory serves me, doing manuals, and gained something like 1” length and 1” girth. Then with the pump he gained another 1.5” x 1.0” in a year and a half. No matter what method you use, you’re unlikely to reproduce a gains rate like that. I was very excited to try his method since it was a very specific change that led to a very significant increase in gains rate. But didn’t work for me. Perhaps I didn’t give it my full efforts.
Anyway, all this to say don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t immediately gain you 1 cubic inch every couple months, but congratulations to you if it does! It is still an excellent way to pump at high pressure. Short bursts of high pressure with some manuals in between will reduce the edema build-up of high pressure pumping and it has its place in my routine. I may give it a go in earnest again while flaccid when I get closer to my current tube size. Also have considered making a custom tube to bridge the gap, but have never gotten around to the time commitment for that project.
