Quiet water cooler pump?

My TIG torch cooler is loud. Very loud.

Any easy path to a quiet pump? Would a peristaltic pump work maybe?

Mine too. Mine is a gear pump. I had another before it that was also loud. Putting the whole thing on some rubber pads helped.

I don’t know what type of pump is used in the newer Miller Coolmates, but they are almost silent.

Garwood said:

My TIG torch cooler is loud. Very loud.

Any easy path to a quiet pump? Would a peristaltic pump work maybe?

Click to expand...

A peristaltic will not deliver the required pressure. Due to the small hose size and restriction at the TIG torch, a relatively high pressure is required, I think usually around 60-90psi.

That is why a fixed displacement pump is used with a pressure regulating valve.

Usually the pumps are relatively quiet. It is the fan mounted on the end of the pump motor shaft and all of the sheet metal rattling and resonating that makes the noise.

When Miller went to the plastic cooler bodies, that in itself did much to lower the noise. Not sure if they did anything on the pump side to lower sound.

City water.....

Try placing the pump vertical, and submerging the pump itself in the water tank.

Been done many times for hydraulics.

Also, place soundproofing around the box.
Sonex is a maker of the foam.

I have two coolers for TIG that I use alternately. Both have Procon pumps and both are very quiet. There is a fan on one of the units and that's all that you would hear.

I solve problems like these with the volume knob on my radio... what cooler do you have? My Bernard stand alone cooler is loud as hell, the factory miller cooler in my other Syncrowave is very quiet. I will also say the inverter machines are just in general way quieter than the old transformers. The fan in the power unit of a Syncrowave 250 is loud as hell by itself.

I think "loud" is EXTREMELY subjective in a welding shop. yes, some units can be quite noisy, especially if they are the only source of noise, but with all that is going on in a larger fab shop, the TIG cooler is not even going to be noticed.

I have used a number of things, from city water (only as an on site temporary setup), to a little giant submersible in a compound bucket, to a carbonator pump and an evaporator coil.

agree that the sheet metal and perhaps bad bearings are going to be the major sources of noise in a commercial tig cooler. I filed and sanded the leading edges of the fan blades on the current unit I am using (Tweco TC900), and think that actually helped.

the submersible pump, while VERY quiet, is highly inefficient, (using a shaded pole motor), and actually heated up the water to quite warm, like 100F, by its self, so stopped using that!

the carbonator pump is basically the same setup as the tig cooler as far as the motor and pump go, but being in NYC, I have found them fairly often in dumpsters outside bars and restaurants that are turning over.

the pressure required is really not as high as the typical preset on a TIG cooler of 50 psi or so. the fact that the little giant submersible could circulate a useful quantity of water despite being rated at 12 psi or so proves that. it does depend on the type of welding being done obviously. 400+ amps on aluminum ship hulls, or .020 stainless for delicate medical gear, wide range of heat dissipation needs.

all that said, these commercial TIG coolers are inefficient, annoying, noisy and way overpriced. ridiculous watt hogs for the task they do most of the time.

The Procon pump on my Miller Coolmate can't be heard over the roar of the fan on my Lincoln 300/300 welder. Fan on demand is one of the great advantages of newer welders.

i used a Procon pump when i built my tig cooler and its quieter than the fans that i used for the radiator.

I really prefer the refrigerant coolers for TIG welders. Sick of the carbonator beverage pumps after using them for so many years. Nothing wrong with them just didn't know anything else was out there.

I use the S&A CW-5200DH and have been for a couple years with no issues. Very very quiet while the pump is running and just some fan noise when the compressor kicks on. Amps was below .6 120v with just the pump running and 6 amps with the compressor running. Depending on your usage and temp parameters you set it doesn't kick on too often and stays on for around a minute and a half. When welding low amps I was able to crank down the temps of the coolant to where I only need 2 sec post flow because the tungsten cooled down so fast.

Seen some people run submersible pond pumps normally 2-3 in series to get the pressure and it gets the job done with low noise.

Ziggy2 said:

A peristaltic will not deliver the required pressure. Due to the small hose size and restriction at the TIG torch, a relatively high pressure is required, I think usually around 60-90psi.

That is why a fixed displacement pump is used with a pressure regulating valve.

Usually the pumps are relatively quiet. It is the fan mounted on the end of the pump motor shaft and all of the sheet metal rattling and resonating that makes the noise.

When Miller went to the plastic cooler bodies, that in itself did much to lower the noise. Not sure if they did anything on the pump side to lower sound.

Click to expand...

Googling peristaltic pumps says many are 125 PSI. Not sure if an old Ebay one will do that, but I might give it a try. I'd think a peristaltic pump is just limited by the hose you use.

Mine is "Dynaflux" with a bronze gear pump. I bet it's from the 80's. The Procon pumps sound pretty nice. that might be the easiest route.

My shop is just me. If I'm TIG welding there probably isn't anything else going on. And that little pump is just ear piercing loud. The tone of it is horrible.

when i was looking for my procon pump, there was 2 different ones, a low pressure and a high pressure. the high pressure is what you want. they are the same body’s just different pressure relief springs if i remember right. you can get the high pressure rebuild kit and put it in a low pressure pump.

i would look on ebay, try to find one that has the motor with it.

Garwood said:

Googling peristaltic pumps says many are 125 PSI. Not sure if an old Ebay one will do that, but I might give it a try. I'd think a peristaltic pump is just limited by the hose you use.

Mine is "Dynaflux" with a bronze gear pump. I bet it's from the 80's. The Procon pumps sound pretty nice. that might be the easiest route.

My shop is just me. If I'm TIG welding there probably isn't anything else going on. And that little pump is just ear piercing loud. The tone of it is horrible.

Click to expand...

Does a peristaltic pump deliver the flow rate? Don't think so. Those pumps are used in closed systems for medical use.

Take apart the little pump, the bearings probably have had it.

It's hard to beat a Procon pump. They are very quiet and adjustable to 50-60 psi very easily. I've got a Bernard cooler and also a home built one both with Procons and both have performed perfectly for more than 20 years on my TIG welders.