Brand new Polaris Pump is very noisy

Hello all,

I just installed a replacement Polaris PB4-60 pump to replace my old unit. Everything seemed to hook up okay, I wired the unit for 115V usage like the old unit, attached all the existing lines and fired her up. The pump was very loud. The noise sounds like loud compressed air. There is good outflow into the pool and apart from a few bubbles at start up there are no bubbles coming out into the pool. My Hayward filter pump is running quietly with no air under the cover.

Any ideas?

Oh, I replaced the old pump because it was getting louder and louder all the time. I figured it was bearings but now I'm not so sure!

Thanks!

In my experience, the worst thing about Polaris pressure side system is how noisy they are. Without hearing it, I can't tell you whether your is noisy-but-normal or noisy-and-abnormal. We have sometimes been able to diagnose pump problems by YouTube videos (with sound), so you want to take a video with your camera or phone, and post it, that may help.

Things that will make your pump noisier include:

+ pump is vibrating against a resonant surface, like a plastic platform.
+ pump is connected to a rigid but small surface, like a concrete platform
(You can test the above with a door mat under the pump, to see if it the pump quietens.)

+ poor flow INTO the pump causing high turbulence or cavitation.
(You have to check your piping or pump situation to determine this.)

+ debris in the impeller.
(In your neck of the woods, pine needles can make their way through various strainers, and then lodge in the impeller -- especially an impeller with small ports like the Polaris impeller.)

. . . membership upgraded.

Hi. One year when we opened our pool, the pump was much louder than I remembered it ever being. It turned out that the 2 drain plugs were not tightened into the underside of the pump housing. When I inspected the plugs, based on a recommendation from this forum, the o-ring on one of them was missing. So I got 2 new drain plugs, made sure they were snugged down, and it solved my problem. I hope your solution is as easy.

Tom

Thanks, Tom.

I just installed a new PB4-60 yesterday. I wired mine for 230 and yes, it's loud.