Very noisy water pump

[extopia]

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

 

[extopia]

Here’s the setup:

 

[RichInSpirit]

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.

 

[Leo]

If you replaced them with more flexible pipes it would also help.

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.

 

[jpd]

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

 

[Buddyboy]

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.

 

[ashambles]

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.

 

[jpd]

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.

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

 

[ashambles]

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.