Pump seems to be buzzing...

[artoodeeto]

Hey guys, lately my Danger Den DDC pump w/acrylic top has started making a loud irritating buzzing noise. I initially thought it was one of the fans, but am now about 98.5% sure it's the pump. Before I go dismantling anything, I thought I'd see if anyone had any thoughts on possible cause.

my own theories - I'm using Feser 1 black UV coolant, could be that it's gooped up a bit in the pump and unbalanced the little wheel that spins around and circulates the fluid. Solution would be to replace coolant with water?

could be the acrylic top is screwed on too tightly? I don't really see how that could cause it to buzz, but ya never know...

could be the way I have the pump mounted, it could be vibrating more than if I mounted it on a solid flat surface. Solution would be to dismantle the mount it's on, re-do the hoses and screw it down to a flat surface (see pic for current mounting). I don't *really* think this is the cause, as it's been mounted this way since May 2010 and it only started buzzing in the last month or so. And, I've gripped the pump while it's running, and this doesn't seem to affect the buzzing noise much (although twisting its mount slightly does seem to lessen the buzzing).

[x88x]

Mine occasionally does that, but it's because my mounting system for it (heavy-duty velcro) occasionally works itself a little loose. I just re-secure it (ie, shove it down into the velcro again), and it's fine.

[artoodeeto]

hmmm...it *could* be the mount. The weird thing is it doesn't buzz all the time, and it buzzes more the longer it's on. IE, the first 10-15 minutes the computer is on, it doesn't really buzz at all. After that, it buzzes with increasing frequency til it's buzzing more often than it's quiet. Weird.

[x88x]

Hmmm, I wonder if there's a part somewhere that's expanding with heat...try running just the pump for a while, with the computer turned off, and see if it does the same thing.

[artoodeeto]

good idea I contacted outoftheboxmods.com (the one who sponsored me the pump, rad, etc) and asked him if he'd ever encountered that issue, and he said he had, he thinks it's something to do with the clear acrylic top, so he's sending me another top to replace this one. We'll see if it works, but in the meantime I can definitely try running the pump sans computer. +rep

[Oneslowz28]

I was going to post a link to danger dens 10% off coupon but it looks like you have it covered.

[artoodeeto]

heh...I just remembered that I have another pump (for some reason non-functional) with a clear acrylic top around somewhere, so I think I'll try running it sans computer tomorrow and see what happens, and if it still buzzes and if I can find that other pump, I'll switch out the top and see if it's fixed...and if not then there's another one on the way LOL. sadly can't buy anything right now, lost my job last month and am looking for a new one...

[x88x]

Bad luck on the job front dude, there seems to be a lot of that going around. Good luck with the hunt.

[Kayin]

Tell me what model DDC, I'll see which ones are in my grab bag.

[artoodeeto]

Hey Kayin, I have two. The one I'm using is a DDC-3. The extra one is a 3.25, but it doesn't really work. I took it apart, don't know if you've done that or not. I can get the central spinner to spin, but as soon as I cut power and then power it back up, it won't spin without help. Usually a "jump-start" spin from my fingers gets it going, but obviously I can't use it.
However, since that central spinner is the only moving part in the whole thing, it must be that it's wobbling slightly, which tells me that maybe my mounting method is at fault. I'm going to try remounting it in a different spot where I can hopefully get it level. But of course this'll involve draining the system, replacing a couple hoses with longer sections, and refilling it.
Let me know in the meantime though if you have one of these - I will likely be able to use another one on a future build.

The pump, sans top:

With the central spinner removed, and the inner workings removed from the outer shell:

Incidentally, the one pictured above is the not-really-functional DDC-3.25 pump. Haven't dismantled the other one yet, although visually I think it's the same.