WhisperFlo Concern?

[rockyboy]

Hi all. My daughter officially opened the pool last weekend with outside temp near 80 and water temp a blamy 73 :-D So let the pool games begin!
I had a post last year about picking a pump for our new pool. We ended up going with a WFE-3 whisperflo and it has been performing well. However, I am a little concerned about how much noise the pump makes. Perhaps the name is not all it's cracked up to be. The pump is outside my son's bedroom wall and you can hear it from his room although he doesn't complain. Neighbor has same pool with 1.5 horsepower superflo that is standard for PB. His pump seems quieter but I have no way to measure for sure. Noise is not painful...just annoying. Shouldn't a 3/4 HP whisperflo be noticeably more quiet than a superflo. Am I being paranoid or are my expectations too high? First thought was to contact PB but interestingly, he has been MIA since I disputed his final bill last summer. Still haven't finalized the contract despite best efforts and not sure if this impacts my warranty although I did purchase the pump on my own and PB installed. Is it worth contacting a pentair service rep? Sorry about so many questions....Thanks in advance!

 

[JasonLion]

How the pump is sitting on the pad and how the pipes that connect to it are arraigned has a lot to do with how much noise it makes. Often, putting a rubber pad underneath the pump can help quiet it down. Likewise, some people use sections of flexible pipe to keep any vibration from being transmitted to other pieces of equipment.

No pump will be silent. While the WhisperFlo is one of the quieter pumps, how it is installed is more important than the difference between the WhisperFlo and a noisier pump.

 

[rockyboy]

Makes sense. In our case, pump is sitting directly on concrete pad and connected to valves and filter by PVC. Same under performing PB built my neighbors pool so both pump installs are very similar. Assuming the installs are similar, should a super flo be more quiet than a whisper flo? Not sure if I can get a piece of rubber under the pump at this point or not since everything is glued in. Is it worth trying?

 

[learthur]

My personal opinion is that my tristar pump is only slightly quieter than my prior or current Whisperflow. But every little bit counts.

 

[mas985]

rockyboy,

One thing to consider is that if your neighbors Superflo is a two speed, which most are, he/she may be operating most of the time on low speed which would make it much quiter.

Otherwise, there are several things which could make your pump louder than your neighbors even though it was built by the same PB. Some have been addressed above but if there were any other differences in the build such as number of skimmers, pipe size, filter size, heater, spa, etc. Any number of these things can change the plumbing enough to make a difference.

The two usual culprits for a loud pump are high flow rates, a good thing, or high suction, a bad thing. It might be helpful to understand your plumbing a bit more to see if any of these things could be a problem.

# of skimmers, main drains, # of returns, # of pool runs for suction and return, pipe size, distance pool to pad, features, etc.

 

[rockyboy]

Just for grins...here is some plumbing info:
Suction Side:
two skimmers with their own valve at the pad
dual main drains (single line) with valve at the pad
dedicated suction line with valve at the pad

Return side:
six wall returns with single valve at the pad
two swimout returns with single valve at the pad
two step returns with single valve at the pad
four deck jets with single valve at the pad

PB used 1.5" flex lines to the pad...same as neighbor. Only difference on their pool is a heater, one less wall return and they do have a smaller sand filter...sd80 vs my TA100. Honestly, I may not have an issue at all since I really don't have much to compare it too. It's not like it hurts my ears or anything, just expecting a whisperflo to live up to its name! My wife thinks the case is getting really hot but hey, its a motor in a metal casing, of course it's gonna be hot. I won't burn you...just pretty warm. I appreciate all of the input but it looks like my one year mfg warranty is up anyway and I am not planning on replacing this thing on my dime until it quits! Thanks again.

 

[mas985]

With that setup, you are probably getting pretty good flow rates which may contribute some to the noise. A 3/4 HP Whisperflo will have about the same flow rate as a 1.5 HP Superflo on high speed. But again, if your neighbor has a two speed, then that is probably why their pump isn't as noisy. As others have pointed out, placement of the pump in the corner of the fence probably doesn't help either.

If you want to experiment some, you can try to restrict the flow rate on the returns a bit to see if the noise goes down. Watch the filter pressure as you do this and let it rise 4-6 PSI or so. See if the pump quiets down some. If it does, then it is just a high flow rate issue and you can trade off energy efficiency for lower pump noise if you want.