Very noisy water pump

E

extopia

Registered User
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3,153
3 story timber frame house, 5 years old (we purchased last year).

Electric pump in utility room pumps hot and cold water to all taps (except kitchen sink cold). Pump brand is Wilo Hi-Multi

Pump is very noisy - located under stairs.
Sitting in some type of acoustic board but the sound reverberates everywhere and there is no acoustic damping anywhere in the house that I can see.

Any suggestions for a quieter pump or how to make this one quieter?

Thx
 
If you could get a bit of rubber the same thickness as the board underneath the pump it would help.
Also are the pipes that are covered by the insulation made of copper?
If you replaced them with more flexible pipes it would also help.
 
RichInSpirit said:
If you replaced them with more flexible pipes it would also help.
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Exactly what I was thinking, many of the booster pumps will specify to use flexible braided hoses for this reason. Indeed the shower booster pump I recently installed came with flexi-hoses and the warranty demanded that they be used. I looked up the Wilo manual for this one and it states rigid or hose can be used. The one I looked at (not sure which exact model you have) specifies noise rating of 63dB, you'll get pumps that are quite a bit quieter than that.
 
Can you tell if the noise is coming from the pump itself or from the pipes vibrating or both?

Without determining the source of the noise, it is difficult to offer a useful solution
 
And looking at the acoustic board, my guess is that is actually sound proofing for walls, i.e. it deadens airborne noise in a room. It seems to be used here instead of vibration proofing material, which is what should have been used. As RichinSpirit says, replacing it with rubber to vibration proof the pump should help.
Second thing is to replace the pipes with flexible, as he said.
 
It's just one insulated pipe in and out, so just hot water? OP say it doesn't kick in when the cold in kitchen runs which makes sense as that's on mains, but I think it shouldn't kick in if any cold tap is turned on anywhere in the house. Presumably doesn't kick if a toilet is flushed.

Is there a hot water cylinder in the house? Shower pumps seemingly are supposed to be as close as possible to that. But I'm guessing if it's the utility room - they're pumping water from a combi-boiler? The 3 story house is probably a factor in this setup.

Have you tried seeing if the pressure downstairs is acceptable with that pump switched off. Maybe the pump in reality doesn't need to be on 24 hours a day - though that's far from an ideal solution.
 
A water pump has only one input and one output pipe.

The output pipe provides pressure to the cold water supply, excluding the cold water in the kitchen, which is fed from the mains, and including the cold feed to the hot water tank and hence to the hot water supply.

Any tap, hot or cold, other than the cold water in the kitchen, opened, or toilet flushed, will cause the pressure to drop and the pump to activate
 
I was thinking of twin shower pumps - which pump hot and cold (afaik but could be wrong).

The insulation on the pipe though is why I'd guess at a glance it's hot water. No need to put that on cold water pipes in a utility room.
 
jpd said:
Can you tell if the noise is coming from the pump itself or from the pipes vibrating or both?

Without determining the source of the noise, it is difficult to offer a useful solution
Click to expand...
It's both really - the pump itself is quite loud and the casing sometimes rattles a bit. But when it comes on you can hear it in every room in the house - the noise basically travels up the stairwell which is at the centre of the house so the vibration seems to be transferring to the walls from the pipes.
 

Interesting - and ironically there is none of this stuff in the walls or floors themselves - the developer seems to have cut plenty of corners.
 
Kicks in for cold taps as well - basically anything that's running from the storage tank I reckon. But I've never noticed it kicking in after a toilet is flushed, now that you mention it (it's possible it does, although I'm surprised I haven't noticed).

Hot water is heated by heat pump (NIBE), and the tank is in an enclosure/cabinet in the same area.

Yes I've tried turning off the pump and there's no pressure upstairs where the bathrooms are.
 
Last edited:
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You won’t have huge results as water pumps are inherently noisy. We have one on an upstairs circuit to feed a shower from the immersion tank and it would wake the dead. We put in an absorbent panel recently and it reduced the sound a bit but only in the room below but that’s no good to you as you are downstairs. Luckily we have a switch to turn it off.

One option might be to put the electrics on some kind of timer so it doesn’t kick in before 7am or 10pm. It won’t wake anyone but you will have lower pressure.

Maybe you could build some kind of cabinet around the pump and soundproof it but I’m not sure about how effective it would be and if there would be fire risk.

A plumber also once opened my pump for me and cleaned the filter but it didn’t seem to make a difference.

Finally it’s not clear from the picture but is it possible to lower the pressure? That might give you less noise. Likewise if pressure is low from the mains due to leak the pump will have to work harder.
 
extopia said:
Where might I find a piece of rubber the same thickness as this board, do ye think? Or layers...
Click to expand...
Get a proper anti-vibration matt.

That alone will only solve part of the problem though, until you switch to flexible connectors, the vibrations will continue to travel through the pipework throughout the property.

In terms of noise reduction, as above, those pumps are rated at 63dB, you will get ones that are significantly quieter, int he low to mid 50's (similar noise level to ta fridge compressor). I replaced my shower pump with one of these (52dB) last year, made a huge difference.
 
Maybe it's simply a pump with poor acoustic specs?
Edit: oh, I see that @Leo already mentioned this above.
Anything about this on the label?
Maybe a quieter model might help?
And/or an acoustic enclosure for the pump?
 
I replaced my shower pump with one of these (52dB) last year, made a huge difference.
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Slightly off topic I know, but was that an expensive job or did they accept the old pump as a decent trade in ?
 
elcato said:
Slightly off topic I know, but was that an expensive job or did they accept the old pump as a decent trade in ?
Click to expand...
Oh, I fitted it myself. The old pump was quite old and had a slow leak so I just disposed of it. The model had been discontinued quite a few years back.
 
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