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I am going to order 5 water pumps.

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BeerHunter

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2001
Location
Oil Country
OK I've searched and read almost every thread on pump head and quietness...needless to say there is no consensous. One guys says Ehiem 1250 another mag 3 yet another the swifty.. etc...

Therefore I'm forced to order several and test them myself. I have some thoughts on this but your input is aprreciated too as I hav'nt settled on methodlogy.

I plan to test all the pumps both submerged and inline. With a 3, 5, 7, 9 foot head. With equal intake and outtake line diameters. All the while measuring dB with a meter which is ultimatly the point of my test.. Noise level. But I'd also like to put some resistance on the line too.. like three RBX's and a radiator and see how long it's takes to fill a 5 gallon bucket.

Anyway I need some sugesstions on which pumps you'd like to see tested.

So far I have in mind:

1. Ehiem 1250
2. Danner mag 3
3. Swiftech
4. Hydor L30
5. ?

I live in las vegas if someone wants to help or contribute other pumps to testing LMK please.
 
You are wasting your time and your $$$ in this excercise... The L30 and the 1250 are almost identical in specs. You will see absolutely no temp diff between them. I bet you would see no temp diff with any of the pumps listed. If you want quiet and proven reliability, get the 1250. Better yet, instead of spending all the money on these pumps, just get an Iwaki MD-15R and call it a day.
 
Measuring the sound with a device is OK, but the affordable ones are very innaccurate and therefore a subjective approach is warranted too. What kind of noise does the pump make is also worth noting (such as frequency). Also, you may find that the sound meter can't pick up any sound at all, but you can still hear it. So you may end up with a favorite pump in the end that is hard to "back up" with numbers.
 
nikhsub1 said:
You are wasting your time and your $$$ in this excercise... The L30 and the 1250 are almost identical in specs. You will see absolutely no temp diff between them. I bet you would see no temp diff with any of the pumps listed. If you want quiet and proven reliability, get the 1250. Better yet, instead of spending all the money on these pumps, just get an Iwaki MD-15R and call it a day.

Well I did'nt think about temp diff... mainly I was concerned with power and noise each pump is capable of and most people ar'nt willing to spend $130+ just for a water pump so I thought It would be nice to have some testing done on these "mid range" pumps. Personally, I was going to go for the 1250, but I'd still like to see a price/performance test done on all these mainstream pumps. If you think it's a waste of time that's cause you have the best already and have little use for such an excercise maybe?
 
Just for the record, I'm only here (in the WC forum) because of the allure of silence. I'm more of a SPCR (SilentPCReview) person than anything else, but it also pains me to not get the most of my Athlon XP 2500+. So to get the most out of it, and still have silence, WC is the way to go. So anyways, I would find that sort of test very useful. :D
 
BeerHunter said:


Iwaki Pump WMD30RLT $ 125.99 ...Seems kinda expensive... Is the demand to see this one really here? I'm sure it's superior.
If you go the Iwaki route, DO NOT get the WMD series, get the MD series. The MD are quieter and smaller and produce less heat.

MD = Japanese made motor
WMD = American made motor

MD = approx 20 - 30% more in cost than the WMD series.
 
nikhsub1 said:

If you go the Iwaki route, DO NOT get the WMD series, get the MD series. The MD are quieter and smaller and produce less heat.

MD = Japanese made motor
WMD = American made motor

MD = approx 20 - 30% more in cost than the WMD series.

Just as a follow up, I have only found two places that sell the MD-20RLZT (if you go that route). They are:

depcopump for $242.00

and

customaquatics for $179.99

I have no idea why the price difference exists. I have contacted both companies and they are the Japanese models and both opperate at 115 VAC @ 60 Hz.
 
Your fogeting a big factor in choosing a pump is reliability.

Are you going to test this? or atleast factor it into your conclusions.

eg. Eheim 1250s are normaly recomended beacuse they have a better reliability & less noise than danner mag3s but have slightly less flow and are more expecive.

Theres no way to say the danner is better or the eheim is better. All the pumps you listed have their strong points and weak points. Its all down to what you rate higher: perfomance, noise, reliability?
 
gonna be a real short test of the Swiftech MCP600 submerged, -> don't
this is a rather well covered topic
pHaestus did it here
and Swiftech here (with the same results)

be cool
 
marc999 said:
Just for the record, I'm only here (in the WC forum) because of the allure of silence. I'm more of a SPCR (SilentPCReview) person than anything else, but it also pains me to not get the most of my Athlon XP 2500+. So to get the most out of it, and still have silence, WC is the way to go. So anyways, I would find that sort of test very useful. :D

Same here. Although I do have air OCing a PIV 2.4C to around 3.2 levels. Also plan to OC my 5900 to 5950 levels and this video card has 3 fans on it which are driving me crazy..

So essentially quietness is key for me in choosing these pumps.

I already have a fortron power supply which has a 120mm fan and is basically silent. If i can get a quiet pump and just one 120mm fan blowing over the radiator I should be satisfied.
 
If your doing those could you look at the 1048 as well might be interesting. I've always wanted to see a system with a 1048 in it then switch over to the 1250 and see if any improvement.

Rich
 
Which is the best high flow pump that plugs into a regular wall outlet and not the Power supply?
 
You do realize that most of the pumps you have listed are very near in spec to each other anyways, right?

The L30 and 1250 are still on your list, and nikhsub1 isn't lying when he says that they are nearly identical - a comparison is unnessacery here. The only differnece for you to really test is the size!

The noise level of most of them is less than that of your typical 120mm fan, and the pump is rarely a source of annoying noise anyways; if care is taken to reduce vibration. Go and buy a bicycle inner tube to use as a vibration killer, and you're all set.

Ratings for pump GPh, and pump max head already exist, and manufacturer's spec sheets are a valuable source of information. Testing them to see how quickly they fill a bucket with X amount of resistance is basically just re-testing the specifications we already know, but through the use of primitive testing methods that are inferior to those of the manufacturer, and which will almost certainly have a large margin of error.

How do you say which pump is "best"? The term is way too ambigious what with the *infinite* number of possible water circuit combinations, each with unique pump ideals and requirements:




I have very small circuit; only a single radiator, and waterblock. I need a inexpensive pump that will handle my circuit.

I have two restrictive radiators, three restrictive waterblocks, and a big case that needs lots of tubing, I need something more powerful.

I have an Evaporative cooling tower (bong) I will need a serious muscle pump for best results.

I have a circuit that can't handle much heat, I need a pump that produces very little heat.

I have a circuit that can handle a lot of heat, and needs a high flow, I could use a pump that is powerful, and I can handle the extra heat.

I use an impingement waterblock, my circuit will benefit from a high flow rate, and lots of pressure. I need a pump that can give me that.

My waterblock won't benefit from a high flow rate - it is a waste of money for me to buy a high-end, and powerful pump.

etc. etc. etc.





I hope you see what I mean.

I think that before you go out and spend a lot of money on a lot of pumps, that you should take a moment to think about what information you have to gain from such testing, that isn't already available to you already, from pump manufacturers who do testing in controlled laboratories.

The only reason to test all these pumps, that I can think of, would be to find out how much heat they actually put into the water out of their power consumption. And that kind of testing would best be done with high-end, and high-power-draw pumps like the WMD/MD Iwaki pumps.
 
I hope you see what I mean.

I do. Mainly, I'm interested in quietness/head flow. I really don't want to hear the pump but want excellent head flow. Like a nice quiet lexus motor which generates awesome horsees.:)

So even though I'll hold off this particular redudant testing I may end up with a couple pumps with what I've read here and decide for myself.

Thanks:)
 
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