Electric water pump making constant noise, normal?

[banagan]

Moved into rental house. The electric water pump is right outside the bedroom window.

 

Every 30 seconds it makes a noise like a vacuum cleaner being turned on and off, very annoying.

 

At night, I just unplug it, but during the day, it would be nice to have water and not a constant repetitive vacuum sound.

 

Is this normal? Is it broken?

 

Cheers

[Crossy]

It sounds like you have a water leak or a drippy tap / toilet cistern.

 

Check all your taps and toilets.

[HauptmannUK]

A leak somewhere or an internal fault in the pump.  The constant cycling will also use quite a bit of electricity so get it fixed.

[banagan]

46 minutes ago, HauptmannUK said:

A leak somewhere or an internal fault in the pump.  The constant cycling will also use quite a bit of electricity so get it fixed.

Cheers, technician heading out in the morning.

[jacko45k]

On 08/04/2018 at 12:11 AM, banagan said:

Cheers, technician heading out in the morning.

Oh they are useless!

 

[Beats56]

On 08/04/2018 at 12:11 AM, banagan said:

Cheers, technician heading out in the morning.

What ...you can't walk around your.house to see if there is a leak. Now if it is underground that's a different story.

 

[4MyEgo]

On 4/8/2018 at 3:11 AM, banagan said:

Cheers, technician heading out in the morning.

We went through this a year ago, technician came out, put in a new part 300 baht including labour, a week later same problem, as we had the pump for 9 years, I replaced it, the builder who we use that built our house said what are you going to do with it, I said you can have it for your labour costs, fair, is fair, he almost did a back flip there and then.

 

He is a nice bloke, lives in a humble little timber house, so though it worth while going to a good cause, he has it stored in the back of his place, no idea what he is going to do with it, I though he might use it for showers, but you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

 

See how old it is and perhaps change it, cheap enough, 5k-6k baht at the most, problem solved.

[fakename]

We get water even with the pump unplugged, so we leave it that way, and save electric.

[jimn]

15 minutes ago, fakename said:

We get water even with the pump unplugged, so we leave it that way, and save electric.

OMG cheap charlie or what. No water pressure for showers just to save about 50 baht a month.

[bbudd]

Sounds like the pump is "waterlogged"

Just shut it off and drain pump by removing the lower cap and let it drain

Close it back up and re-start

It should pressure up correctly and then only cycle when it the water's running

[Pdavies99]

2 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

We went through this a year ago, technician came out, put in a new part 300 baht including labour, a week later same problem, as we had the pump for 9 years, I replaced it, the builder who we use that built our house said what are you going to do with it, I said you can have it for your labour costs, fair, is fair, he almost did a back flip there and then.

 

He is a nice bloke, lives in a humble little timber house, so though it worth while going to a good cause, he has it stored in the back of his place, no idea what he is going to do with it, I though he might use it for showers, but you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

 

See how old it is and perhaps change it, cheap enough, 5k-6k baht at the most, problem solved.

 

[Lacessit]

Some pumps operate with a rubber bladder filled with air at about 30 psi. If the bladder leaks and becomes filled with water, the pump will run a lot more frequently as the bladder can't compensate for the pressure loss.

[jacko45k]

4 hours ago, jimn said:

OMG cheap charlie or what. No water pressure for showers just to save about 50 baht a month.

My water MAIN is usually between 1.5 and 2.5 bar coming in, so the pump is for the times water is off or low pressure, or using sprinklers.

 

 

[GTgrizzly]

On ‎8‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 3:11 AM, banagan said:

Cheers, technician heading out in the morning.

If your water pump is the type with a large metal cylinder, there is a rubber diaphragm inside the cylinder

Sounds like the rubber diaphragm is bugger so pump is cutting in and out continuously trying to fill the diaphragm ..which wont happen if it has split 

[Stevemercer]

If there is a tap/valve immediately downstream of the pump (e.g. supplying water from the pump to the house) turn it off and see if the pump is still cycling.

 

If no, it mean there is a leak somewhere in the house plumbing. If it keeps cycling, it means there is a fault with the pump. As suggested above, unscrew any pressure plates on the pump and let them drain (with the electricity and water upstream of the pump turned off).

 

Sometimes it can be something as simple as pressure balancing bladder/cylinder being water logged (see above post) or something stuck in the water inlet not allowing the back pressure valve to shut.

[TPUBON]

Depending how deep the well is, the one thing that hasn't been mentioned is the check valve at the bottom of the well. My pump started cycling on and off. No leaks found anywhere. pulled up the plumbing from the well and replaced the check valve and that solved the problem. Been 8 years now and still works fine. As most people said, first check for leaks and water logged bladder tanks. Check valves are normally maintenance free so when all else fails, maybe its the check valve.

[Uncle95]

2 possibilities.

Leaking tap or toilet cistern not shutting off correctly (check inside bowl for tell tale signs of water running in)

 Pump malfunction. My version has a compartment in the top which must be filled with water for the pump to operate correctly. Unscrew the cap, top up the water and screw cap back on.

If above doesn’t fix it, see if you can turn off the water on the inlet side of the pump and turn on a tap in the house so the pump tries to pump water to the house but will fail as you have turned off the water. Run for short time only.

[whaleboneman]

4 hours ago, Uncle95 said:

2 possibilities.

Leaking tap or toilet cistern not shutting off correctly (check inside bowl for tell tale signs of water running in)

 Pump malfunction. My version has a compartment in the top which must be filled with water for the pump to operate correctly. Unscrew the cap, top up the water and screw cap back on.

If above doesn’t fix it, see if you can turn off the water on the inlet side of the pump and turn on a tap in the house so the pump tries to pump water to the house but will fail as you have turned off the water. Run for short time only.

What would be the purpose of this experiment since we already know the result?