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Noise from water pump

15 years ago

Hello everyone,

I hope someone here can help me with a problem I have. I just built a drip hydroponic system. It consists of a submersible water pump with a magnetic drive I found at the hardware store that is intended for ponds. It can displace 178 gph. From the water pump I attached a 3/4" tube that branches off into 4 3/4" tubes using T's. In the tubes I inserted Gardena drip nozzles that hang over my baskets. The problem is that when I turn on the pump the pump makes a LOUD buzzing. If I disconnect the tube allowing the water to flow freely the pump makes very little noise. This leads me to believe that the pressure is causing something inside the pump to rattle. Does anyone know what I can do to fix this? Should I use a pump that displaces less water? Is this not the right kind of pump? It is an Algreen Statuary pump.

TIA!

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Comments (6)

freemangreens
15 years ago
If you suspect "head pressure" is causing the noise, merely decrease the distance between the pump and the outlet. In other words, lower the outlet, so the pump doesn't have to push the nutrient so high.

If you do this, the pump will "magically" pump greater volume, so you'll have to readjust all the drip heads.
grizzman
15 years ago
I concur. whenever I hear a "buzzing" it because the pump is spinning but not moving any water. This is often due to too much head, though it could also be due to a low reservoir level.(probably not in your instance though)
When something is broken in the drive its more of a rattle than a buzz; if it works at all.
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nextguy
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the info but...

When everything is properly connected and the buzzing is occuring, my drip heads drip fine. Doesn't this mean that distance between the pump and the outlets is ok? Maybe I designed the system incorrectly. When the outlet pipe comes out of my pump, it hits a T. The two pipes coming out of the T are then branched again using more T's for a total of 4 pipes. These pipes have multiple drip fittings for the pots. At the end of each pipe is a cap. So as the water comes up, it hits the caps at the end of each pipe forcing water out of the drip fittings. Could the pump be building too much pressure due to this? I can't adjust these drip heads to drip more. I hacked together a valve just above the pump to shoot water back into the nutrient bath. I tweaked it so that I release just enough water back into the bath, thereby releasing pressure, so that the drip fittings still drip but the pump still makes an unacceptable amount of noise.

To move the pump closer to the outlet, I need to make a lot of adjustments to my system so before I do that I was wondering if with my new information anyone could see why this problem is occuring.

Thanks again!
nextguy
Original Author
15 years ago
I remade my release valve so that it releases even more water. The buzzing has stopped and the drips still work. In fact the air pump feeding my air stones actually make more noise now. I haven't read anywhere about this being necessary. I wonder if I chose the wrong components for my drip system. Oh well. For now everything works.

Thanks for all your help!
grizzman
15 years ago
Interesting. Not a problem I've encountered, but the cause of the noise is still the same. not enough water moving through the pump. Still a 'head' issue, just not in the sense we normally think of it. head is just a generic term used to indicate how much pressure is being supplied. When we say "too much head" we're in fact saying the pump is not strong enough to overcome atmospheric pressure at the height above the pump at which the water stops rising.
freemangreens
15 years ago
Sooner or later you're going to find out like I did (the hard way!) that pumps and timers often fail. When your plants' lives depend on being watered and fed on a regular basis, it only takes one big boo boo to open your eyes and make you realize a more-constant method is necessary.

I now use gravity-fed drip irrigation systems. Clogs can still be a problem, but using gravity circumvents even needing electricity at all in my greenhouse. I hand-fill the reservoirs, but they last about a week.

Gravity, it turns out, is the ONLY constant I've come to realize in my first 60 years!

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