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Fresh water Pump--which one?


monkeyhanger

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I have a par max 2.9 water pump for my fresh water system. My previous pump packed in when my son was using the boat and he ended up going 9 days without fresh water. (24 volt system, not easy to get off the shelf) I intend to buy a spare pump to keep on the boat just in case. However,I find the Par Max quite noisy. I've been considering buying a whale pump as I've been impressed with their quietness in the past and they look to be a straight swap with the Par Max. I'd appreciate peoples opinions. Thanks.

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1 hour ago, fudd said:

Jabsco  do a variable speed pump that is 12/24. Very quiet but not cheap. Sensor- max I think it’s called. 

I used to have one of those. Wonderful pump, almost totally silent. However when it broke "no spare parts are available for this pump" was the answer. Very frustrating, especially as  it was, as you say "not cheap"

Edited by monkeyhanger
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34 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Just make sure the cut off pressure is similar and doesn't exceed the pressure of any pressure relief valve on a calorifier, if the boat has one.

The old Par-Max is nice and quiet now! ?

I've adjusted the pressure in my pressure vessel to the recommended settings, but the pump still makes a racket, even when it's surrounded by insulation and inside 

a sealed box which is inside a bed base with spare bedding around it.

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I have been a fan of jabsco and dont mind a noisy pump as it can alert you to other issues such as a leaky tap etc. However my present ParMax 4 has a terrible built in pressure switch as did one I sent back as faulty...Ive now fitted a square D external switch and all is well....the built in switch had very little pressure differential between on & off...I actually thought I had a faulty accumulator at first and fitted a new one before after a lot of faffing about with pressure gauges etc traced it back to a switch....I had some long conversations with both Jabsco tech support and Mid Chandlers with no real resolution so that's when I just fitted the external switch!

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10 minutes ago, monkeyhanger said:

I've adjusted the pressure in my pressure vessel to the recommended settings, but the pump still makes a racket, even when it's surrounded by insulation and inside 

a sealed box which is inside a bed base with spare bedding around it.

 

Are you sure its on proper flexible pipes and only scrwed down  through the rubber bushes until the screw heads touch the bushes, no more.

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16 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Are you sure its on proper flexible pipes and only scrwed down  through the rubber bushes until the screw heads touch the bushes, no more.

My pump is connected to Hep2O pipe using flexible tap connectors and it is not actually screwed down. It sits on a pad of rockwool type rigid insulation, and is surrounded by the same material. All this is tightly enclosed in a demountable plywood box, which is inside a side bench filled with spare bedding. I would have thought that those things might have been enough to deaden the sound, I must admit that initially I was a little concerned that the pump might overheat with all the padding around it, but I don't think that should be a problem as it always has cooling water flowing through it.

In your experience, have you found Whale universal or Flojet pumps to be any quieter?

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Just now, monkeyhanger said:

My pump is connected to Hep2O pipe using flexible tap connectors and it is not actually screwed down. It sits on a pad of rockwool type rigid insulation, and is surrounded by the same material. All this is tightly enclosed in a demountable plywood box, which is inside a side bench filled with spare bedding. I would have thought that those things might have been enough to deaden the sound, I must admit that initially I was a little concerned that the pump might overheat with all the padding around it, but I don't think that should be a problem as it always has cooling water flowing through it.

In your experience, have you found Whale universal or Flojet pumps to be any quieter?

 

It seems that you have done all you can to isolate the noise unless a plastic pipe is vibrating against a board that is vibrating in sympathy with it - unlikely I would have thought.

 

I always use Jabsco as longer lasting pumps are no longer manufactured/easily available. As far as I can tell from the net the not submersible Whale water pump is a multi-chamber diaphragm pump just like the other makes so I can see no reason it would be more or less noisy than any other make.

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2 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

It seems that you have done all you can to isolate the noise unless a plastic pipe is vibrating against a board that is vibrating in sympathy with it - unlikely I would have thought.

 

I always use Jabsco as longer lasting pumps are no longer manufactured/easily available. As far as I can tell from the net the not submersible Whale water pump is a multi-chamber diaphragm pump just like the other makes so I can see no reason it would be more or less noisy than any other make.

Thanks for the info.

 

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We have always used Shurflo.

For what its worth, our current solution for an easy 24v pump replacement is to buy a readily available 12v equivalent and swap the pump head over onto the existing 24v motor.

Our experience is that the pump head will fail after a couple of years of continuous use but, so far, the motor just goes on forever. In fifteen years we have got through seven or eight pump heads but still have the original motor (now kept as a ready assembled spare pump) and we still have another spare motor left over from the days when we would buy a complete 24v pump. The other advantage of this approach is that, keeping a careful eye for bargains, it is often possible to find a cheap industrial pump (either 12v or 110v) that has an identical pump head to the much more expensive 'marine' variety.

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1 hour ago, monkeyhanger said:

Thanks for the thought. My wiring is plenty big enough -2.5 sq mm-and I'm 24 volt.

 

I suspect you are right but mainly for others the cable CCSA (the 2.5 sq mm above) is not the be all and end all in cable sizing and neither is the cable capacity quoted in catalogues. The vital missing piece of data is the actual and the acceptable volt drop and that depends upon cable length as well as the CCSA and Amps. 2.4 sq mm CCSA cable on a 2 metre run is very different when used on a run of twice the length (out and back) of a narrowboat.

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