You should never rely on the bubbling or lack of on a cheap chinese plastic airlock as a "fermentation Gauge," it's not...It's an airlock, nothing more, a VALVE to release excess CO2, to keep from blowing the lid off the fermentor...If it's not bubbling that just means that there's not enough CO2 to climb out of the airlock, or the CO2 is just forming a nice cushion on top of the beer like it's supposed to, or the airlock is askew, or it is leaking out the cheap rubber grommet, or you have a leak in the bucket seal...all those are fine...if CO2 is getting out then nothing's getting in....
Over half of my beers have had no airlock activity...
The only gauge of fermentaion is your
hydrometer.
More than likely your fermentation is going nicely at it's own pace but for a dozen possible reasons your airlock isn't bubbling...simple as that. Get out of the habit of thinking it is a precision instrument and you will find you are less worried...The only precise methid of gauging fermentation is taking gravity readings.
Back in the bad old days, the predominant airlock was an s type...and often they were made of glass and sat relatively heavy in the grommet, and that's where people like papazain and those who influenced him got into the habit of counting bubbles...but now adays with 3 piecers being the norm, and most things being made crappy these days...it's just not a reliable means anymore.
Co2 is heavier than air...there can be plenty of co2 going on, plenty of active fermentation happenning but there is
not enough excess co2 rising or venting out to actually lift the plastic bubbler
The 3 piece airlock is the most fallable of them all, often there is simply not a strong enough escape of co2 to lift the bubbler. Or they can be weighted down with co2 bubbles, ir hteir is a leak in the grommet or the bucket seal, anynumber of factors.
If you push down on your bucket lid often you will suddenly get a huge amount of bubbling as you off gass the co2 that is there present but no needing to vent on it's own.
I find that the older S type airlocks, even plastic are much more reliable...in face I have started to use those old school ones exclusively.
Not to use them as a gauge of fermentation...but because I like to watch the bubbles..
But even those don't always bubble..BUT you can tell theres CO2 pushing out because the liquid will be on the farthest side away from the grommet or bung hole.
Even not bubbling. you can see that something has pushed the water to the other side...
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