Easiest way to soundproof water pump?

solomafioso

Looking to soundproof a pump that, every few minutes, will loudly whirr.

It's grand during the evening as it's not that noticeable, but have found that during the night it's a pain in the hole.

The pump is set on the floor and has four connections coming from it. If I prop it up on something will that reduce the noise? Can I easily make an enclosure for it?

Thanks!

Dammer

It should not be going off every few minutes. Check that first before you look at getting an enclosure built.

I had a similar issue with my pump. Turned out to be a leak in one of the toilets causing it to refill every few mins and turning on the pump 5-6 times an hour.

Maybe talk to a plumber see if that sort of behaviour is normal for a water pump.


Good luck

solomafioso

Dammer wrote: »

It should not be going off every few minutes. Check that first before you look at getting an enclosure built.

I had a similar issue with my pump. Turned out to be a leak in one of the toilets causing it to refill every few mins and turning on the pump 5-6 times an hour.

Maybe talk to a plumber see if that sort of behaviour is normal for a water pump.


Good luck

Cheers! Yeah, thought as much. The frequency of the "whirrs" increases if there's a tap that hasn't been tightened properly.

Calibos

First off, the 4 pipe connections should have flexible hoses connecting them to the pump. Do they in your installation? No point in doing anything else unless you already have flexible connections. If you don't its the first thing you need to remedy before anything else.

My pump has flexible connections and rubber boots on the feet and was sitting on the Plywood subfloor. Made a really loud racket. ie. The rubber feet aren't enough to reduce vibrational noise by much.

After research on the issue I did the following. Got 2 spare wall tiles. Squirted a thick bead of silicone adhesive around the 4 sides on the surface of the first tile. About an inch in from the edges. I then placed some matchstick shims around the four sides. Then gently placed the second tile on top of the first. Let the silicone adhesive set and then removed the matchstick shims. Then I put down some matchstick shims around the pump. Squirted a silicone bead on the underside of my pre siliconed tile sound insulator. Got someone to lift up the pump an inch or two off the subfloor while I placed my Siliconed tile sound insulator under the pump on top of the matchstick shims. Placed the pump back down on the tiles. After the silicone set I removed the remaining matchstick shims. Job Done. Pump noise massively reduced.

It works by using a high mass base (in my case two tiles) decoupled from each other and from the subfloor with the flexible silicone adhesive. The vibrational energy of the pump direct on a subfloor is converted to sound. By decoupling, that vibrational energy is instead converted to heat (think friction) in the tiles instead of sound. The bigger and heavier the tile you can fit in the available space the better.

This won't totally eliminate the pump sound but be assured it makes a massive and worthwhile difference.

Calibos

Re-read your OP and see your main issue is actually the random activation of the pump and the resulting noise.

My sound decoupling of my pump has actually been a problem in that regard. Sometimes the toilet cisterns get stuck open and keep filling (refill mechanism gets stuck) I always cop it when this happens and press the flush button again which closes the refill valve. The rest of the family are seemingly in such a hurry to get out of the bathroom that they rarely realise its happened. With the pump quietened down so much now, its only luck if I happen to pass that area of the house and realise the pump is on continuously and yet there is no one in the bathroom or showering and thus realise its the toilet cistern valve stuck open again. Not a huge problem now but when the water charges come in I'll have to get up of my @rse and fix the cistern valves once and for all.