Baldor Water Pressure Pump Vibration Issue Help

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Redddog

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Hey guys. I run a residential building in Philly. It's an old building conversion with some sketchy quality. We have a pump in the basement that is loud AF. We've tried vibtation sleeves, insluation etc but nothing has helped. The units on the first floor all complain that they can hear this pump ramping up and down constantly. We're running out of ideas and I thought I'd hit ya'll up.

Pic 1 is the sketchy set up. My questions are whether the entire ststem needs to be on some type of vibration pads. Also, there are 3 holding tanks. One of them is decomissioned and I wonder if that is amplifying the noise.

Pic 2 - vibration sleeve. Did absolutely nothing.

Pic 3 insulation - did nothing

Pic 4 This pipe is touching the plywood wall. I wonder if that is amplifying the noise through the wall.

Pic 5 is the holding tanks

Pic 6 another vibration sleeve. Did nothing. Also notice that the pipe coming from the holding tanks is sitting on wood framing of the ply wall. Wondering if that is amplifying noise

Pic 7 is this little pad thing the pump is sitting on. I'm thinking this isn't close to enough.

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Any ideas would be HUGELY appreciated. Been trying to solve this at great cost for literally years.
 
They do make pump bases with built in springs. I'm not sure trying to retrofit that pump with one would be very easy though.
 
You need to isolate all the piping from the hangers or whatever is attached to. Insulating them works pretty good. Make a solid pump base out of concrete. Get some of those spring pump base feet. A quick Google search should pull up something that you can fit up.

I've installed systems like this and they are pretty quite, but not silent. I assumed the spring pump base isolators were kind of specialty, but it looks like you should be able to order something online that'll work.

The other thing you could do is sound proof the room. But everything needs to be isolated. Sound proofing /elimination is one of the hardest things to do all the way right.
 
That is a Baldor motor but looks like a Gould 3696 pump. The pump is fairly silent. The motor is air cooled and the fan will make some noise, but shouldn't be that loud. Loud noise is usually from the motor bearings. You may need to have the bearings replaced. But there is a grease cert on the top of both ends of that motor. Hit both grease certs with 2 shots of grease and see if it gets more quite. Too much grease will get in the motor and cause problems, so no more than 3 shots to each cert. If that makes it more quite then you know it is the bearings making noise. Even with grease certs many times manufactures will still use sealed bearings and the grease will not help. It is all part of their planned obsolescence as a shot of grease every year or so would make those motors last forever, and they don't like that. So if you have to replace the bearings make them pop off the bearing seals so you can grease them when needed.

Other than that yes putting the motor on rubber feet and isolating the pipe from touching anything will help.

A Cycle Stop Valve would certainly be of benefit, but may or may not help with the noise problem. Restricting the flow with a Cycle Stop Valve will make the pump more quite, but puts more load on the bearings. If the bearings are good the CSV will make it more quite. If the bearings are bad the CSV will make it cause more noise. But that does just prove you need new bearings.

I assume you mean the people in the building hear the pump cycling on and off not ramping up and down? Ramping up and down while the pump never shuts off would mean a variable speed pump, and it looks like you have a regular pressure switch and the pump just cycles on and off? The CSV was made to replace variable speed pumps and works somewhat the same. So adding a CSV would mean the pump would run most or all of the time at reduced amperage, by just mating the flow being used no matter if it is a few leaking faucets at night or everyone taking a shower at the same time. Running 24/7/365 is good for the pump as they are made for continuous duty and delivers stronger constant pressure to the houses. It is the cycling on and off that destroys pumps and other controls, causes water hammer, and makes the pressure fluctuate up and down all the time.

CSV3 with booster pump.jpeg
 

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