Quieter Water Pump

This thread has turned into a flame war so I am closing it down.
Barney

SoundGuy wrote:

2oldman wrote:
This pump is quiet.

This one is very noisy.

Place both of those pumps on a workbench and I'd bet one wouldn't be much different than the other.

It's how the pump is installed in the trailer that makes the difference

- any opportunity for minor pump vibration to radiate out into the trailer and it will, along with being magnified in intensity by the use of hard wall PEX rather than soft wall braided hose, by contact with the floor and walls of the trailer. In my experience not much of this problem is related to the pump's intake hose but rather it's output - dampen that effectively and you'll significantly dampen the vibration and thus noise that would otherwise radiate out to the rest of the trailer.........

wrong.
I can personally "from experience" 'disagree' with you.
It DOES make a difference which pump is installed.

My Factory installed water pump = didn't even know it was there. Replacement pump while on the road which was a different model number. LOUD and shuttering.

Don't need no stinkin science, I personally saw it, heard it and experienced it. Read my post about it on previous page.

DutchmenSport wrote:
The pump reverberates through the entire plumbing in the camper, making it sound much louder than it really is. Actually, the pump itself is very quiet. But the pulsing of the water beating against the pipes is what you're hearing.

In the past, someone posted a modification they did to their water pump. It was quite impressive. They used several feet of flexible hose rolled up in a coil (for space) and then attached the flexible hose to the normal RV water system. The principle was to use that flexible hose to absorb the sound of the pulsating and not in the actual pipes of the camper, that touch walls and floors, and every spot it touches works as an amplifier, amplifying the sound.

This was by far the best cure ever posted on these forums for noisy water pumps.

As long as your pipes are connected to the pump, and those pipes are touching anything in the structure of your camper, that sound will be amplified. That is the problem.

I completely agree based on my own experiments, all of which have been mentioned.

The accumulator works, but it forces the pump to run longer. Worse, if demand comes from more than one end point, pressure drop lasts for significantly longer duration.

A high end pump with soft coiled hose on attached to the inlet and outlet is by far the best option to quiet things down.

2oldman wrote:
This pump is quiet.

This one is very noisy.

Place both of those pumps on a workbench and I'd bet one wouldn't be much different than the other. It's how the pump is installed in the trailer that makes the difference - any opportunity for minor pump vibration to radiate out into the trailer and it will, along with being magnified in intensity by the use of hard wall PEX rather than soft wall braided hose, by contact with the floor and walls of the trailer. In my experience not much of this problem is related to the pump's intake hose but rather it's output - dampen that effectively and you'll significantly dampen the vibration and thus noise that would otherwise radiate out to the rest of the trailer.

The proof is in the pudding, as my video clearly demonstrates, in fact the pump is so quiet in operation I had to add a light to the pump circuit so I would know when it is running. :B

SoundGuy wrote:
Same old guesses as to quieting a "noisy" water pump, some more effective than others but none being an absolute solution. :R I've tried 'em all as well but do now have that "absolute" solution, 3 pics / 1 video as proof start here.

No need for an accumulator and proves that the pump itself is actually not noisy at all. ;)

SoundGuy! You're the MAN! Yes! It's your photos and write-up that I remembered. I just couldn't remember who originally posted it. I do know your original write up (post) how you did this was quite impressive!

THANKS FOR JUMPING IN!

This pump is quiet.

This one is very noisy.

Same old guesses as to quieting a "noisy" water pump, some more effective than others but none being an absolute solution. :R I've tried 'em all as well but do now have that "absolute" solution, 3 pics / 1 video as proof start here.

No need for an accumulator and proves that the pump itself is actually not noisy at all. ;)

mike-s wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
In the past, someone posted a modification they did to their water pump. It was quite impressive. They used several feet of flexible hose rolled up in a coil...

Seems a traditional accumulator tank would do even better. Air will absorb the pressure vibrations much better than water in a soft pipe.

A lot of trailers don't have room for an accumulator tank in the area where the water pump is located and you might still need to isolate the tank since it's the vibrations transmitted thru the structure that causes 99 percent of the noise. Finally, IMO you want to hear when the water pump comes on since if it starts short cycling it's time to look for a leak, not when you start wading thru the water that has drained onto the floor after it's soaked the floor and walls in the area of the leak and caused $$$$$$ damage already.

Larry

DutchmenSport wrote:
The pump reverberates through the entire plumbing in the camper, making it sound much louder than it really is. Actually, the pump itself is very quiet. But the pulsing of the water beating against the pipes is what you're hearing.

In the past, someone posted a modification they did to their water pump. It was quite impressive. They used several feet of flexible hose rolled up in a coil (for space) and then attached the flexible hose to the normal RV water system. The principle was to use that flexible hose to absorb the sound of the pulsating and not in the actual pipes of the camper, that touch walls and floors, and every spot it touches works as an amplifier, amplifying the sound.

This was by far the best cure ever posted on these forums for noisy water pumps.

As long as your pipes are connected to the pump, and those pipes are touching anything in the structure of your camper, that sound will be amplified. That is the problem.

CORRECT and the solution you described will make the pump whisper quiet. Another way and one I used was to take and isolate the first few feet of the outlet piping by putting hard foam around the pipe to lift the pipe off the floor/wall. An excellent foam to use is the water pipe insulation foam that is already split, just cut it into 1 or 2 in lengths and slip on the piping. You can also then secure the pipe with some conduit clamps loosely over some of the foam isolation mounts.

Larry