I have a pump motor that is excessively noisy due to its location: near master bedroom, in a block walled area that seems to direct the noise into the bedroom. I was planning on building a wood panel "doghouse" to fit over the pump and motor. I would first see if it cut the noise down enough w/ just the wood box, and if not, attach some sound board (centolex?) to the box walls.

I have 2 concerns: 1) Would putting something like this over an electrical motor be a fire hazard? especially w/ the sound board. 2) Would this potentially cause the motor to overheat? I live in AZ, w/ summertime day temps usually over 100. I was thinking that the lack of ventilation would be compensated for by the reduction of direct sunlight on the motor itself.

Any comments appreicated. Thanks.

 

Make the box fairly big, and have air vents near the bottom and top, and you should be fine. Do the best you can to not restrict airflow.

 

Good idea on the size. I'm kinda limited width wise cuz of the filter, but I should be able to make this sucker fairly tall. Hopefully I can be liberal on the top w/ the vent holes, since any sound goin out there I would guess would go straight up and not bounce off the walls.

Thanks!

 

You will still get some noise, due to the air vents, but insulating it should help a lot! Be sure though to have both lower and upper vents in order to create convection to provide a natural airflow through the enclosure.

 

At a local pool the pumps are located in a maintenance room. They are powered by two 5 hp. motors. The surface temp. of the motors usually runs around 150-175 degrees f. You may want to consider an exhaust fan on your box.

 

Have you thought of a fiberglass wellhouse cover? Your local water well driller will have them. They come in several sizes and offer some insulating properties for wintertime. You can cut in vents if needed. Most of them in my area are dark green in color, but are available in greys and browns and shaped like boulders.

 

Here's one other thing you might like to try as well. This assumes your pump is sitting on a concrete pad. This trick was given to me by a neighbor who sells and services commercial industry pumps.

Physically bolt the pump to the pad using the anchors or your choice (lag screws and lead anchors for example). OPTIONAL: In between the pump and the pad, place a thin rubber mat or use rubber washers.

Think of it as as the equivelant of a "heat sink" for vibration. I did this on some power tools in my old workshop, and it did make a difference. Things were quieter.

This very project is on my Spring "To do" list.

Rob

 

Your post started me thinking. My pump isn't particularly noisey, probably because its already in a shed which helps some.

I had thought about building an additional enclosure but was concerned about heat build up.

Here's a great link I found that deals with enclosures for generators but could also be used for pools or compressors.

I'm going to use a product called homasote which would be far superior to plywood for this purpose.

Anyway, hope this link helps.

http://www.soundproofing.org/infopages/generator.htm

 

all these tips look great, thanks all.

buzz, that website looks really good. that box may be a bit beyond my ability, but we'll see. I'm definitely going to pick up that book.

 

If you were my neighbor, while I was making mine, I'd make yours for the cost of materials and a six-pack.