Pump causing vibrations

[OzzyC]

Hey,

I have an Eheim pump (Aquacomputer Aquastream XT) that seems to be causing a lot of noise lately and im trying to decide if I need to find a way to get rid of vibration or if the pump is failing. During first power on, the pump revs up to 100%, back to 0%, and then goes to a normal RPM (something like 75%? not sure exactly but its 'normal' range). If it sits on the desktop for the most part its fine, but if I do something like launch a game, or sometimes mid game, or during video transcoding, the pump will start to cause the case door (Corsair 800D) to vibrate. Additionally, at times I hear the pump restart and do its 0-100% and back to normal, or sometimes I will hear what I can only describe as a chug sound 2-3 times and then back to normal.

I highly suspect the pump is failing as it was given to me used by a friend for my 1st loop build and has been running for about 2-3 years in my loop. I am not sure how to verify if the pump is truly failing or if there is something else at play here. 

 

If the pump really is failing, I am thinking I want to switch over to a D5, but had some questions about that as well. I know the 'good' D5 is made by Laing, do these always say Laing on them? I would really like to go to a pump res combo, but considering I already have a res, has anybody come across pump tops for it that I can attach a res to or do these only come as full res and pump?

 

thanks!

[W-L]

1 hour ago, OzzyC said:

-SNIP-

Not too certain about the pump's ramping up and down but as for the D5 they are all Laing, just rebranded from different manufacture's and sometimes with extra features like temp sensors and such built in. 

[OzzyC]

55 minutes ago, W-L said:

Not too certain about the pump's ramping up and down but as for the D5 they are all Laing, just rebranded from different manufacture's and sometimes with extra features like temp sensors and such built in. 

any that I should aim for or avoid?

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, OzzyC said:

any that I should aim for or avoid?

Nothing out of major concern, just make sure you get one either with PWM control or the manual dial (vario) so you can change the speed of the pump. There are versions which will only run at 100% and can be quite audible. 

[OzzyC]

4 hours ago, W-L said:

Nothing out of major concern, just make sure you get one either with PWM control or the manual dial (vario) so you can change the speed of the pump. There are versions which will only run at 100% and can be quite audible. 

Hm, not sure pwm has much purpose in that what I have read shows pump rpm does have impact on temps but seems to be very little. Constant rpm should be fine but rpm signal would probably be nice. 

[W-L]

4 hours ago, OzzyC said:

Hm, not sure pwm has much purpose in that what I have read shows pump rpm does have impact on temps but seems to be very little. Constant rpm should be fine but rpm signal would probably be nice. 

You see only a couple of degrees of difference but mainly it would be for running it at a comfortable level so it’s not overly noisy. All the units I have seen though at the very least come with an RPM line back to the motherboard.

[OzzyC]

11 hours ago, W-L said:

You see only a couple of degrees of difference but mainly it would be for running it at a comfortable level so it’s not overly noisy. All the units I have seen though at the very least come with an RPM line back to the motherboard.

good to know, I plan to use the RPM signal to CPU headder so if the pump dies and RPMs hit 0, the computer shuts off (or at least I think if it sees the RPM go to 0 the BIOS should have some uh-oh reaction, right?)

I guess it almost seems more logical to avoid PWM and just set to a constant good performing RPM that is avoiding harmonics and such, what ever is the most quiet at decent RPM, as having PWM means it could decide to sit at an annoying loud/vibrating speed

[For Science!]

1 hour ago, OzzyC said:

good to know, I plan to use the RPM signal to CPU headder so if the pump dies and RPMs hit 0, the computer shuts off (or at least I think if it sees the RPM go to 0 the BIOS should have some uh-oh reaction, right?)

I guess it almost seems more logical to avoid PWM and just set to a constant good performing RPM that is avoiding harmonics and such, what ever is the most quiet at decent RPM, as having PWM means it could decide to sit at an annoying loud/vibrating speed

I think you're misunderstanding PWM. PWM is merely a method to control the speed of an electronic item. In this case the pulse width determines the RPM of the pump, so even if you set it to a constant rpm, that is ultimately being controlled by a certain pulse width. So you cannot "avoid PWM" per se, that would by definition mean running at 100% duty cycle. This is simply in contrast to voltage regulation where the voltage is varied from ?V ~ 12V to get the desired "speed", PWM on the otherhand maintains a constant 12 V but achieves speed regulation by effectively turning the signal "off" at a regular interval (the pulse width) which determines how frequently the fans/pump spins.

[OzzyC]

1 hour ago, For Science! said:

I think you're misunderstanding PWM. PWM is merely a method to control the speed of an electronic item. In this case the pulse width determines the RPM of the pump, so even if you set it to a constant rpm, that is ultimately being controlled by a certain pulse width. So you cannot "avoid PWM" per se, that would by definition mean running at 100% duty cycle. This is simply in contrast to voltage regulation where the voltage is varied from ?V ~ 12V to get the desired "speed", PWM on the otherhand maintains a constant 12 V but achieves speed regulation by effectively turning the signal "off" at a regular interval (the pulse width) which determines how frequently the fans/pump spins.

 

Hm, so I think what I am wanting to find is a D5 res combo that can provide PWM info to the motherboard, but not one that is having its voltage controlled by the motherboard.

[For Science!]

Just now, OzzyC said:

 

Hm, so I think what I am wanting to find is a D5 res combo that can provide PWM info to the motherboard, but not one that is having its voltage controlled by the motherboard.

You mean RPM info. The pump is receiving PWM. As far as I know, there are no voltage controlled D5s out there, so you don't have to worry about that.

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, OzzyC said:

 

Hm, so I think what I am wanting to find is a D5 res combo that can provide PWM info to the motherboard, but not one that is having its voltage controlled by the motherboard.

As said your option is to go PWM control, as long as you plug it into a CPU header you will have the ability to change the speed of the pump. The other option is a vario pump which has a potentiometer on the bottom to manually set the speed of it, basically all D5 will have an RPM line back to the motherboard. 

[OzzyC]

1 minute ago, For Science! said:

You mean RPM info. The pump is receiving PWM. As far as I know, there are no voltage controlled D5s out there, so you don't have to worry about that.

any idea if all D5 varios provide RPM info or only specific ones? I would ideally like to just get a pump top i can screw into the base of my res and a pump, but if the only option is to buy a combo i guess that's fine, just trying to avoid buying parts i already have

[For Science!]

20 minutes ago, OzzyC said:

any idea if all D5 varios provide RPM info or only specific ones? I would ideally like to just get a pump top i can screw into the base of my res and a pump, but if the only option is to buy a combo i guess that's fine, just trying to avoid buying parts i already have

#most do I believe, I do not know of any that do not. Just check whether they have a fan header or not.