Pump Making Noise

tiride

Active member
Apr 30, 2015
36
Neptune Beach, FL
I have a Pentair VS pump. This morning I noticed the pump noise is much louder. It's a fluttering or ticking noise. I'm not sure where it's coming from but could be the fan. I posted a link to a short video so you can hear it. I'm looking for thoughts on what it could be before I start disassembling anything.

I've tried changing the pump speed and the noise is still there. The flutter is just faster at high speed and slower at slower speeds.

 
I have a Pentair VS pump. This morning I noticed the pump noise is much louder. It's a fluttering or ticking noise. I'm not sure where it's coming from but could be the fan. I posted a link to a short video so you can hear it. I'm looking for thoughts on what it could be before I start disassembling anything.

I've tried changing the pump speed and the noise is still there. The flutter is just faster at high speed and slower at slower speeds.

No Video
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Sounds like the fan or fan shroud. I would not worry about it.
 
Sounds like a fan or a piece of junk in the fan cage to me. Take the cover off and check... may just be a twig.
 

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OK, I removed my pump to access the fan. The three screws on the fan shroud are insanely tight. There was no rust or corrosion on the screws but I applied penetrating oil to try and loosen them. Even with a power screw driver on max torque the screws wouldn't budge.. Amazingly I didn't strip the screws but one did eventually snap in half. I stopped after that and now I'm going to buy an impact driver to try and remove the other two screws. It's ridiculous how tight those screws were put on at the factory.

I was able to see the fan and there was nothing inside the shroud or on the fan. I washed the fan with a gentle spray of water and lubed it with some silicone spray. That didn't help any but this morning the sound is not nearly as loud as it was over the weekend. I'm going to give it a few days and see if the sound will completely disappear. If not, I'll give it another go when I have the impact driver.
 
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Ti,

Get a screw extractor. There are several brands and some work better than others. I used these thousand's of miles from Home Depot when we were sailing the eastern Caribbean. They work well when you can get enough vertical force straight down on the head of the screw. This video indicates the DeWalt brand works better... I haven't confirmed that. Another alternative is to order another shroud and break the original off then remove the screws with vice grips. Use a lot of penetrating oil and even more patience. You may have to drill them out and re-tap. If you do put some anti sieze on them to prevent this happening again. It's likely dissimilar metal corrosion just like you see on the long pump motor screws. A little anti seize will make it possible to remove them forever.

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I hope this is helpful.

Chris