Mag Drive 7 sounds like a freight train!

[coralgazer]

I briefly plugged my new Mag 7 in to make sure not DOA... it sounds like a freight train... I mean excessively noisy.
Is this normal? Any way to fix this short of sending it back?

 

[NY_Sea]

Is it pumping water? Sounds like a broken impeller to me. Take it apart and see if the ceramic part on the impeller is cracked

 

[balto777]

Be very careful when you take it apart. If you tweak it to one side or the other, you can break the ceramic shaft just by taking it apart.

Mine was also very noisy. In fact I made a thread about it on another forum to discuss the same thing. Here is a video I made of it:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="Mag7PumpNoise.wmv - YouTube" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The best advice I was given was to suspend the pump above the floor of the sump by hanging it from the pipes. That is exactly what I did. I cut the spaflex above the pump by about an inch, and now the pump hangs in the water column about a half inch above the sump floor. This quieted down the pump immediately. It further quieted down over the first month of use.

 

[Steelerfan747]

I don't have a mag but may have to try that anyways as my eheim has a but of a hum to it

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

 

[coralgazer]

correction: sounds like a freight train out of water, but still pretty noisy in water. But it seems to pump pretty strong.

 

[mcarroll]

correction: sounds like a freight train out of water, but still pretty noisy in water. But it seems to pump pretty strong.

Whoa.

Rule of thumb: Never, ever, ever, ever turn on a pump out of water/dry. :-) They pretty much all sound like a freight train in that mode.

While there are some that can handle it, it's also possible to ruin a pump immediately, or after a little while, upon running dry. Especially if something isn't 100% right with the pump.

If the pump isn't broken, a Mag 7 should be pretty darned silent underwater. You'll know it's on though - still a pretty big pump.

Last, in addition to other suggestions, check the pump cover (the intake that covers the impeller well) for cracks/breaks. That can also cause a lot of noise cuz that supports the impeller shaft.

Good luck!

-Matt

 

[maddog2002]

put sponge foam under the the pump will make the pump very silence.

 

[STL]

My return pump is a Mag 7. I bought a 100% silicon trivet pad from Target and put that underneath it to dampen the vibrations - that made a decent improvement, but it still makes a buzzing noise somewhat like a cheap fluorescent light.

To contrast it, my skimmer has a much larger pump on it (a Bubble Blaster 5000) and it's a very soft, low frequency hum. It's obvious when the return pump is on, but you have to listen carefully to tell if the skimmer is running.

Anyway, my Mag is at the top of my hit list for equipment upgrades, but is tolerable for the time being. Definitely nothing like a freight train...