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In a small-scale test, Adam built a crude hydrometer, weighted to float at a certain height, and placed it in a fishtank full of water. The device did not sink when he bubbled air in, but he and Jamie thought that this was the result of upward water currents. Jamie then built a larger bubbler to place in the 10,000-gallon tank used in the "Whirlpool of Death" myth, and Adam donned a wetsuit and carried enough weights to leave only his head above the surface. When the bubbler was turned on, the upwelling pushed him to one side, where he sank in a downward current.
In order to eliminate these wall effects, Adam and Jamie built a 4-by-16-foot bubbler to place at the bottom of a swimming pool. After they added weights to keep the rig from floating up, Adam tried to swim across the pool and back through the bubbles. The trip proved difficult at 25% power and impossible at 100%. Adam and Jamie classified the myth as plausible, but for a different reason from the one expected - water currents holding the swimmer at the surface, rather than a density reduction causing him/her to sink.