Pump exchange

[Dingo Dash]

Hello,

I bought a VPP655 PWM on November the 16th, and received it few days later to replace my faulty EK pump. It's massive and I love it, but I discovered too late that the whinning it does is unbereable on full speed. I'm the kind of guy who loves silence but wanted a robust pump to deal with my cooling system. The thing is, I expected it be silent on almost full or medium throttle because I'm able to manage the RPM through my Corsair Commander as I used to do with other pumps before this, but unfortunately it's not even close. I'm forced to keep it up on very low RPM (800) making the system bubble a bit because of the heat produced under gaming, meaning an insufficient pressure/flow (I have a transparent front plate for my GPU + flow indicator).

Can I still exchange it with another - quietter - solution? How do I do?

 

[Eddy]

Can you please show me a picture of your system. The VPP655 is a original Laing D5 pump like all brands are selling and that is the best an most quiet pump on the market. Full speed is not needed, but 800rpm is .... well... not enough and out of the specifications of the pump. 1500rpm is minimum or the pump will be dead after a while.

 

[Dingo Dash]

Can you please show me a picture of your system. The VPP655 is a original Laing D5 pump like all brands are selling and that is the best an most quiet pump on the market. Full speed is not needed, but 800rpm is .... well... not enough and out of the specifications of the pump. 1500rpm is minimum or the pump will be dead after a while.

I see, I was concerned too about the RPM, but, to get in more detail, my very first pump was and still is an EK DCC 4.0, very loud on high RPM and also prone to vibrate doing a low "hum" even on low, replaced it like 13 years later with a EK-XTOP DDC 3.2 PWM. Lasted 5 months until this november, but even at high "revs" never did this much much noise as this VPP655 does. I don't know the specifics of Laing pumps but honestly they're way different because, I think, it's half-sphere shaped rotor/blades while some EK are not and used kinda ceramic ball bearings. Anyway, here are a few pics. The pump is positioned horizontally - because of space restrictions and the cooling scheme adopted - the only space I was able to use in one of the frontal radiator fan slots. I also needed a fan adapter plate which I bought along with the pump and its brackets.

 

[Eddy]

Where is the reservoir?

 

[Dingo Dash]

Where is the reservoir?

Hidden, in the other side of the case (Corsair 680X RGB), in a highest position than the pump.

 

[Eddy]

Actually it is enough to run the D5 on level 2 or 3 which is about 1500-3000 rpm. At about 2400rpm you can't really hear it out of a case. If this is the case, you might have to decouple the pump. If it is a clear fountain, then it could be micro bubbles, i.e. the system is not completely vented or air is moving from the AGB to the pump. If it is more of a grinding noise, it is also possible that you have screwed the pump's retaining ring too tight. It can help if you loosen the screws by half a turn. But I wouldn't do that in aluminium operation because I can't estimate how tight or loose you have screwed it on.
That is all I can think of spontaneously.

 

[Dingo Dash]

Actually it is enough to run the D5 on level 2 or 3 which is about 1500-3000 rpm. At about 2400rpm you can't really hear it out of a case. If this is the case, you might have to decouple the pump. If it is a clear fountain, then it could be micro bubbles, i.e. the system is not completely vented or air is moving from the AGB to the pump. If it is more of a grinding noise, it is also possible that you have screwed the pump's retaining ring too tight. It can help if you loosen the screws by half a turn. But I wouldn't do that in aluminium operation because I can't estimate how tight or loose you have screwed it on.
That is all I can think of spontaneously.

Thanks for the advice but this pump doesn't have a speed selector to adjust manually, if it's that what you mean by "levels". It also came ready to use out-of-the-box. Everything was in place and screwed except for the brackets.
The pump has been running at different speeds for about two weeks now, plus I tried tipping my case on different positions while going full speed to be certain is wasn't caviting. Right now it's been a couple or so days I've been running on 1500rpm to not cause any damage as per your suggestion. I still can hear the distinct humming at 1500 and of course it increases going higher. It is very noticeable when your hearing doens't get used, but no, no grinding at any speed luckily nor leakings of sort meaning everything has been properly put together.

 

[Eddy]

Ah, if there is no possibilitys to adjust the pump you have the PWM version, sorry, never used the PWM version. But makes nor different. Maybe you should try to decoupleing the pump.
I wouldn't have any more ideas here either. The D5 is generally considered one of the most powerful pumps on the market, but with a different noise level than DDC pumps. Maybe you are just more sensitive to the audio frequency than to the audio frequency of the DDC pumps. This is very subjective and the reason why many arguments about which is quieter. Everyone perceives sounds differently.
Alternatively, it can of course also be due to the lateral alignment. Maybe you should hold it upright for a test and see what the noise is like.

 

[Dingo Dash]

Ah, if there is no possibilitys to adjust the pump you have the PWM version, sorry, never used the PWM version. But makes nor different. Maybe you should try to decoupleing the pump.
I wouldn't have any more ideas here either. The D5 is generally considered one of the most powerful pumps on the market, but with a different noise level than DDC pumps. Maybe you are just more sensitive to the audio frequency than to the audio frequency of the DDC pumps. This is very subjective and the reason why many arguments about which is quieter. Everyone perceives sounds differently.
Alternatively, it can of course also be due to the lateral alignment. Maybe you should hold it upright for a test and see what the noise is like.

I will give it a try, maybe tomorrow.

 

[Dingo Dash]

@Eddy
Okay, I have managed to NOT dismantle half of my cooling system to put my pump upright but man it did require some thinking and not screweing up with the vga. Talking about screwing, thumbs down to Alphacool for not including any screws with the plate or to fix the two plates (got them from what remains of the last EK pump). The noise lowered a bit and, to my surprice, the stream became stronger like, the flux indicator stated spinning at a constant (low) rate while usually would I get no spin and stuck on both 800rpm and 1500rpm unless "pulled" by a pulse of the pump on max speed first. This lead me to think that the axial strain on the pump's rotor would be considerably higher - more than it's supposed to be - while lays in a horizontal position. Anyway, the noice is now kinda bearable but doesn't quit.

P.s.= Since it's not a pump with a selector, do you think it's still unsafe to run it on 800rpm?