Noisy pump - soundproofing question

dryan

Hi Folks,

I have 2 pumps installed (Geothermal heat pump and water pump) inside a walk-in area underneath the stairs. Every time the pump is running, its quiet noisy. The stairs is located at the end of a hallway and is seems that this noise gets louder as it travels down the hallway.... strange, but true.
The area under the stairs has been partitioned off with a timber frame with plasterboard with a plaster finish. It has a door opening - 1M (wide) x 2M (high) and is fitted with 2 solid doors.

I have the option to fill this area between the timber in the timber frame structure with some material that will absorb the noise.

I was thinking of fitting plywood/mdf/fiberboard on the inside of this partition and underside of the staircase to try and seal the area up so that it would in turn reduce the noise.

Can anyone recommend the correct materials to use?
Is there any materials out there that are designed for this purpose?

Thanks

builditwell

Hi Dryan,

The plywood is a good start but will only improve the acoustics outward as in make a box for amplifying the sound. If you got you hands on a roll of sound deadening material, like heavy felt with a foil type backing and covered all surfaces this would reduce significantly(alternativly cork tiles even onto back of the door), but (there's always a but) you still need to allow air to circulate around these pumps particularly the water one as they run a bit hot sometimes. As far as im aware they must have a good air flow around them.

Regards
Builditwell

ART6

builditwell wrote: »

Hi Dryan,

The plywood is a good start but will only improve the acoustics outward as in make a box for amplifying the sound. If you got you hands on a roll of sound deadening material, like heavy felt with a foil type backing and covered all surfaces this would reduce significantly(alternativly cork tiles even onto back of the door), but (there's always a but) you still need to allow air to circulate around these pumps particularly the water one as they run a bit hot sometimes. As far as im aware they must have a good air flow around them.

Regards
Builditwell

+1 to the airflow comment, and i'd agree that plywood won't necessarily help a great deal. There are two considerations here: First, the lower the frequency of the sound (ie a deep hum rather than a whine) then the heavier the sound insulation needs to be, and second, sound from opumps often travels through the mountings into the surrounds. So, the first step is to use something thick and heavy to enclose the pump, but as Builtitwell says, with somewhere for cooling air to get in and out. Flooring grade board is heavy and can work fairly well, and if its inside a cupboard it won't be too obvious. Then, the pump should be sat on antivibration mounts, which are basically rubber cushions with a bolt out of each end. I'd imagine that heating equipment suppliers might have them, or you could make your own if you can get hold of some thick rubber. Pumps also often transmit noise through their pipework, and the only way to overcome that is to fit flexible hoses between the pump and the pipes, but obviously it has to be heat resistant. Hydraulic hose would do it, and you can get it with whatever fittings you need from agricultural merchants and hydraulic firms.

landydef

if its a pump for a pressurised cylinder in the geothermal heat pump its most likely to be water-cooled instead of air-cooled although you might want to make 100% sure,even still from what ive been told in the past is that 95% of pump noise is vibration so +1 for the cork tiles or sheet rubber!

gsxr1

place the pump on top of a 9" solid block on the floor. this deadens the vibration to the timber floor. It really helps. even 2 blocks .

I have tried boxing them , but it has poor results for the effort made.

a rubber draft seal around the door would help. draft seal was just a thought I had with no backing. SOUNDS like it would works:D

brendansmith

gsxr1 wrote: »

I have tried boxing them

Throw in the odd kick or headbutt aswell!:D

Qwerty?

I have the same setup as you but the Geo Heat pump makes very little noise, the water pump however was extremely loud even when it was on a 100mmm thick piece of aeroboard.

I found out it was water cooled, and boxed it in with 100mm of Rockwool insulation, and problem was solved.:D But as stated earlier, make sure its a water cooled pump before you do this.

dryan

Regarding the cork tiles, what thickness are they - What sizes can i get them in? do they vary??
I was thinking of the following idea.

Fill the spaces in the timber partition with some sort of heavy sound deadining material or thick rockwoll and then cover all surfaces with the cork tiles as well.

what ye think??

Allabaah

Qwerty? wrote: »

I have the same setup as you but the Geo Heat pump makes very little noise, the water pump however was extremely loud even when it was on a 100mmm thick piece of aeroboard.

I found out it was water cooled, and boxed it in with 100mm of Rockwool insulation, and problem was solved.:D But as stated earlier, make sure its a water cooled pump before you do this.

Being an amateur in this game and really annoyed by the sound of my water pump, how do you know if it is water cooled? Also seeing our builder who installed ours in the first place boxed it off, is it just a case so for me to wrap the pump with the Rockwool??

Sorry if the quetsions seem a bit stupid but ................

contakt23

I would blame the people that sold the geopump who failed to make you aware of the noise level especially as the machine generally runs at night, not much good as a solution but..you got dumped on.

GreeBo

maybe try suspending the pump off the ground?

cnocbui

You are commenting on a thread where the last post was over a year ago. :rolleyes:

GreeBo

cnocbui wrote: »

You are commenting on a thread where the last post was over a year ago. :rolleyes: