Water pumps too loud - building a soundproof box - ventilation needed?

Growroom Design
#1

Hi,
I only knew the sound levels of submersible pumps and they are very quiet, obviously because they are underwater.

This time I decided to go with a pump like this

gardena_zahradni_cerpadlo_1707-20-3-1000x1000.jpg1000×1000 196 KB

This one sucks the water from the outside. I did choose it because it is strong and has no parts which can be corroded from fertilizer, which was a concern with a submersible pump.

Unfortunately the pump is too loud. Maybe it has to do because there is still a bit air in the system when sucking water automatically. But of course it is because these types of pumps are much louder than submersible pumps.

I was thinking to build a soundproof box of osb/drywall with some soundproofing material.

I need to know if the pump can overheat if it runs in such an eclosure and if I need to do some sort of air hole? On the website is written: “A thermal protection switch protects the motor against overload.” https://www.gardena.com/int/products/watering/pump/garden-pump-3000-4/966625801/ So that means it will shut off before it starts to burn itself to death? :smiley:

How to do an airhole so the noise doesnt get trough it? Space is restricted, so no sonoduct construction :wink:

What is best material for soundproofing?

#2

Is the noise from the actual pump itself, or is it transferring vibrations through what it is sitting on?

I built an external enclosure for my reservoir and pumps and ended up mounting my water pump on a piece of plywood that is sitting on a thick piece of foam to dampen the vibration – after that I can barely hear it make any noise.

Another alternative is what I did with my air pump that had the same issue. For that I used heavy gauge wire to hang the pump and eliminate all transfer of noise. Both pumps run near silent now.

I haven’t had to deal with venting any heat yet since it’s the middle of winter. I’ve actually had to insulate my enclosure to keep warmth in.

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#3

Gardena makes nice pumps for the price, but they are air cooled and far from silent!

So either make the box big enouh, or make some sort of ventilation.

Have you tested it without yur feeding system, to see if it’s running under too much pressure?
If it can’t deliver around 3000L/h thru your manifold and feeding tubes, the pump will work under strain and it will complain by making alot of noize.

On the other side, it’s a 600W electric engine.
I looked in my old manual, it’s 78-80 dB running normal.

Fairly noizy, so a insulated box with some air vents.
And a rubber mat, to kill vibration noise.

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#4

What pumps are you running?

The pump sits already on styrofoam. I guess I will build an enclosure and somehow make an entry for ventilation. Also I will try to make the door of the room soundproof. But do you have any idea how the ventilation for the box is done??? It needs an air entry and air exit hole???

Another important topic is that I need to make sure that the suction hose stays on the bottom of the reservoir and doesn’t move too much and stays submerged in the nutrients. How can I do that? I was thinking about attaching something heavy at the end of the hose, but what???

#5

I would just make a passive air intake and outlet, and if it get’s hot in there.
The hot air will go out the top places vent and natural draw in cool air at the bottom inlet, so I would just place a vent at the bottom and the top of the box.

For the reservoir, if you ask me there is only one solution when your pump is external.
Drill the reservoir and put a drain fitting in like this.

Anything else is just asking for disaster, the day the other thing fails it could kill your crop.

Other option, would be build a “siphon” from PVC pipe. Going from the bottom of the reservoir, over the edge and down to the pump.
That would be easy to do, if drilling isn’t an option.

And I run submergeable pumps now days, for Koi ponds.

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#6

I agree with Palindrome.

If you are doing a semi-permanent set-up, try to obtain some bulkheads and plumb it up so that things will stay put. Water loves to find it’s way out of it’s constraints. And, always when you are not around :fearful:

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#7

Can you recommend me some good submersible pumps? You have no problems with corrosion?

Why use a siphon? I dont understand the logic behind. Can you shortly explain?

#8

I have used this kind of pump for a year, they screws are stainless and so far no issues.
Besides the price is so low, If it breaks now I’d just buy a new.

The “siphone” was just a referance to the shape of the pipe, we could call it a horse shoe shaped PVC pipe.
But it won’t be flexible, and it go as deep into your res as you make it.

1 Like
#10

How much water are you needing to be moving?

I did a similar thing with a server power supply I hacked as a COB power supply because it was too loud, unfortunately it got way too hot in a sealed cooler box and kept shutting off. Likely the pump will have an overheat trip as well. You could put it in a cheap esky (cooler) and add fans to that. One feeding air in, one blowing out?

Here is my set up, which has an inline pump and res underneath so that the pump fills the buckets from the bottom and the overflow runs by gravity back down into the rez. This way I only need a small 12l a min pump which is completely silent.

Overflow gravity drain

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Crappy pic but this is the pump side.

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The whole thing is plumbed in so that I turn one tap to drain it, and one tap to refill. Makes for the easiest refill ever.

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#11

I use central heating pumps. They are virtually silent and move a lot of water (3000l/hr) and have a good head (up to 6m). The flow at 3000l/hr is at a head of 1.5m, and the 6m head has a flow of 650l/hr. They can be fitted easily to standard plumbing pipe. The most silencing I have had to do it put a sponge scourer behind one to stop it vibrating against a plaster partition wall.

One of the best bits is that if you get Grundfos, and they break in the first five years, for any reason, they get replaced.

I second the call to have things plumbed in properly. It is nice to not be worrying about leaks.

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#12

Never had the budget for a stainless Grundfos, the cheaper models I have looked at are all with brass or cast-iron houses.
My floor heating is run by a Grundfos pump, but it’s a brass model that can’t handle acidic water.

Could you link to the model you are using or is it the UP 20-30N model, very nice but not cheap.

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#13

I use the Alpha 2-l. Not cheap but very good. On the page where you can see the performance graph

https://product-selection.grundfos.com/product-detail.product-detail.html?custid=GMA&productnumber=95047568&qcid=465712046

it has options to show flow for ‘any newtonian liquid’ ‘emulsion’ and also water and antifreeze so I guess it is rated for them.

I have replaced pumps with them before, the only question they ask is ‘is the pump within the warranty period’ and if it is, they accept it.

EDIT :

From the datasheet

  1. ConstructionGrundfos ALPHA2 L is designed for long and trouble-free operation due to the canned-rotor type, i.e. pump and motor form an integral unit without shaft seal and with only two gaskets for sealing. The bearings are lubricated by the pumped liquid. These constructions ensure maintenance-free operation.The pumps are characterised by the following:• Permanent-magnet/compact-stator motor which contribute to high efficiency and high starting torque.• Ceramic shaft and radial bearings which contribute to long life.• Carbon thrust bearing which contributes to long life.• Stainless-steel rotor can, bearing plate and rotor cladding which contribute to corrosion-free long life.• Composite impeller which contributes to corrosion-free long life.• Automatic air venting which contributes to easy commissioning.• Compact design featuring pump head with integrated control box and control panel which fit into most common installation.

EDIT 2 :

Pumped liquids

The pump is suitable for clean, thin, non-aggressive and non-explosive liquids, not containing solid particles, fibres or mineral oil. The pump must not be used for the transfer of flammable liquids, such as diesel oil, petrol and similar liquids.

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#14

It’s a Cast-iron housing, so the housing is not corrosion free.
It just corrodes much slower, then a brass housing would, but it will leache out into your reservoir over time.

Question is if’s so little it don’t matter, only tried the brass housing and that messed my plants up fast. It might also be the coating protecting it, and once the coating is gone, it might corrode much faster.

Would be nice, if it’s just so slow it won’t harm the plants.
Fingers crossed for you, that would be really cool.

2 Likes
#15

So the worst that could happen is some iron in my nute solution?

I have no worries about that.

I have been using them for well over a decade now with no issues. Using a 3-year-old set of pumps I recently got 1.3GPW from HPS. I do recall once using copper pipe to build a system which made my plants rapidly head in the direction of death because copper blocks iron absorption, isn’t brass an alloy of copper and zinc? That might be the issue you had.

I even started using old central heating pumps taken out of an old central heating system which were given to me by a plumber friend (although they were also decent Grundfos ones ). I have tried cheaper brands but some of them did not even last a single veg/flower cycle.

Whatever they do at the Grundfos factory, it is the right things.

Now I think, I have never seen a brass casing on a central heating pump in the UK.

1 Like
#16

Since we’re talking pumps. I am using the DCT-6000 for my secondary system – it’s nearly silent and handles up to 1585 gallons per hour (just under 6000 liters per hour). Hard to beat $90, the only issue I had was the pump is BSPT so I had to find specific adapters to get the threads to match perfectly.

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#17

Yeah cast Iron is not as bad as brass it seems, and might work fine when you just change the pump once it’s been eaten.

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijc/2011/506501/tab3/

Most of the minerals it will leach, will be eaten by the plants.
It’s micro nutes, Mn, Mo and S that worry me. But if you have been running hydro with these, and don’t see issues with odd difficiencys and/or over feeding. Im guessing it’s not as big a deal as I assumed, it might be.

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#18

A small update, I am changing pumps and fittings to remove all metals in contact with my nute solution. Turns out you were more on the money than me and because of a situation last year where I had PH 1.5-2 solution pumping round for a few hours corrosion started in my fittings and pumps. This did indeed lead to an S def from copper interaction AKAIK. I have replaced them like for like but I will be replacing them again very soon with plastic fittings.

I had a nice surprise in getting an Iwaki MD55 pump for under 1/5th of the retail price which has only had about 100 hours running time.

I have decided it is far better to not need a replacement schedule.

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#19

Well i’ll be buggered, as they would say here.:joy: That is something I would not have thought of.

I skimped on my last pump and am totally regretting not buying the exact Iwaki pump you have got. In the end I probably will anyway. I have seen those things in all sorts of adverse conditions just pumping away, day in day out. They make awesome beer sludge pumps. They are about as reliable as you are ever going to get would be my take.

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#20

I got the MD55 for ÂŁ100 for the main system, and a MD40 for the chiller. Should just about cope :wink:

The guy I got it from said it would happily suck up and pump out pebbles then just keep on truckin. His exact words were “Would you be interested in a pump that would last you 40 years and has an acid proof neoprene/polyproply/(whatever the exact plastic is) sealed head and a magnetic drive?”

Obviously I said yes.

It was interesting finding a coupler to go from 26mm rubber hose to 22mm UK pluming fitting.

The noisiest bit is the fan at the back that keeps the motor cool. The MD40 is even more quiet.

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#21

I have another pump. It is a water pump which is pumping water through a gas heater so there is CO2 produced. The pump has rubber feets but still when it is operating there is humming and vibration noise in the whole house. The Vibration is coming from pump but also from the hose and the reservoir connected to it. Does the pump give the vibrations to the reservoir??? How can I get rid of the vibrations

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