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How to deal with a noisy sewerage treatment plant


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It makes a massive difference moving the air pump from the GRP compartment in the top of the unit to a solidly built housing.  I made a stone chamber on a solid concrete base to house our pump and alarm system.  Not only did it reduce the noise so that it's now practically silent, but it also makes checking and servicing the pump a great deal easier.

 

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Thanks for the replies. Yes it seems that the Tricel sewage treatment plants with the pump above the ground in a green box makes it noisy. It's also not very attractive having that protruding from the lawn. Definitely a make to avoid! Not sure what to do as it's not going to be easy to dig it out and put a different one in, never mind the expense.

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I have recently looked at the Tricel unit, I don’t think @mnt you need to be looking into digging the unit out, you need to look into re positioning the pump unit, just like Jeremy has done in a brick surrounded box with a bit of added insulation, some shrub planting and you should be able to get it a lot quieter. 

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Apart from the noise, the Tricel does have a large protruding green box which isn't very attractive and there are occasional whiffs of sewage if you stand next to it. It is positioned on a lawn so we could plant shrubs around it but it wouldn't fit so well in the garden scheme. It is mainly the humming that is the problem. I'm not sure how to place the pump somewhere else. I could unscrew the lid and have a look but I'm not confident about taking it apart. I've asked the guy who installed it to come back but he doesn't seem very enthusiastic. Do these things have settings? Perhaps it's on the maximum setting and could be turned down? Are the settings inside the device?

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17 minutes ago, mnt said:

Apart from the noise, the Tricel does have a large protruding green box which isn't very attractive and there are occasional whiffs of sewage if you stand next to it. It is positioned on a lawn so we could plant shrubs around it but it wouldn't fit so well in the garden scheme. It is mainly the humming that is the problem. I'm not sure how to place the pump somewhere else. I could unscrew the lid and have a look but I'm not confident about taking it apart. I've asked the guy who installed it to come back but he doesn't seem very enthusiastic. Do these things have settings? Perhaps it's on the maximum setting and could be turned down? Are the settings inside the device?

 

As above, there shouldn't be smells from the unit, as that suggests that the foul drain isn't well vented.  The pumps aren't usually variable speed, but the way they are mounted can make a big difference to the noise level.  At first I just lifted the pump out and put a layer of dense neoprene foam underneath it and that reduced the noise level a fair bit.  I went on to glue some acoustic foam inside the GRP housing and that quietened it down even more.  My reason for moving the pump up to the new stone and concrete box was as much to do with making access to the pump for annual maintenance easier as anything else.  The fact that it almost completely reduced the humming noise from the unit was a useful additional benefit.

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Joe, where have you got to with this? Mines just being installed.

 

One suggestion the guys installing it had was to mount the pump on strings, ie suspend it, so its not actually  touching anything.

 

As mines only 8 meters from the house, its a concern ive had right fro the start, but figured i will have to adapt/modify etc.

 

Its a beast though..................

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Ours is also about 8 mtrs from our house. I have mounted our MVHR on suspended mounts from the roof so as to not transmit noise. With our Vortex the pump housing was fixed to the lid and acted like a drum, I moved it onto a concrete pad next to the unit, lined the box with acoustic foam and also under the pump. It still can be heard in the garden (a very quiet rural location) I intend to build a brick box around the pump like Jeremy did as I understand “mass” is great for sound insulation but that is a job fir next summer.

 

we would not want the chickens kept awake would we? ?

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Edited by joe90
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21 hours ago, joe90 said:

Ours is also about 8 mtrs from our house. I have mounted our MVHR on suspended mounts from the roof so as to not transmit noise. With our Vortex the pump housing was fixed to the lid and acted like a drum, I moved it onto a concrete pad next to the unit, lined the box with acoustic foam and also under the pump. It still can be heard in the garden (a very quiet rural location) I intend to build a brick box around the pump like Jeremy did as I understand “mass” is great for sound insulation but that is a job fir next summer.

 

we would not want the chickens kept awake would we? ?

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Thanks for the update. Will see how mine goes. its pretty quiet here too and next door is a super light sleeper. We shall see!

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Well mines in all and running.

 

The box is temprarily mounted on a paving slab as ive got to lay a patio etc round it.

 

However, it is quite noisey. Having had the dubious privelege of looking inside it this morning (and more than halving the noise with a towel) i think its fair to say that minimal engineering thought has been applied to this.

 

The compressor sits on rubber feet, but has 2 plasctic upstands each side of it, with a hole in the top of each and a tie wrap strapping it into position, thus bypassing any benefits the rubber feet might have!

 

Standing next to it, you can feel the vibration through the ground!. Plus the lid rattles when its closed. 

 

Addtionaly, the rubber output pipe is in hard contact to box, as are the pipes to the tank where they pass through the box..

 

Upshot is, this lot is destined for the skip.New design required.

 

Im thinking something similar to Jeremys, but buried, and built into an insulated "well" to cut down virbration transmission. And suspensd the compressor on "strings". And rubber mount the pipework.And, and and,................................

 

In fact i might put 2 compressors in there, so when one fails, i can switch to the other one.

 

 

 

 

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Just sticking the compressor on a pad of firm neoprene foam makes a big difference to the noise.  Making any enclosure from something like block or brick also makes a big difference.  The lid of mine is made from two layers of 18mm ply, glued either side of a layer of 6mm neoprene foam, with the underside lined with acoustic foam.  The lid is hinged at the rear and has a strip of 6mm neoprene foam all around the edge as a seal.

 

The only slight  source of noise I had initially from the box was from the air inlet hole, which I had made from a bit of 40mm waste pipe sealed into the enclosure with sealant and fitted with a rod end type screw cap, with the lid bored out and a mesh fly filter fitted.  Noise from that was fixed by fitting an elbow inside the box and short length of 40mm pipe running inside, perpendicular to the pump.

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26 minutes ago, PeterW said:

I wondered this too although you would have hoped that the Installation instructions would have indicated to remove it ..!

No they don’t! But I cut mine off anyway.  I lined my box with sound absorbing foam and under the pump but still noisier than I would like. I’m with @Roger440 about redesigning it. I like the idea of burying it (eyesore as well) but with high water table I have to be careful, perhaps a drain down to the rumble drain below?. Mass and below ground seem a very good idea. I have much to much to do to finish the build but it’s on my “to do” list for next year.

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The housing for the air pump for my system can be either surface mounted or semi buried. I fitted ours semi buried and bedded on sand with the air pump standing directly on the base of the housing. The hum from the air pump can't be heard more than a couple of meters away and we live out in the sticks where it's pretty quiet.

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7 minutes ago, Roger440 said:

At the moment it’s been running for 3 days and it smells quite a lot. Does a new plant take a while to get established? It was full of water to start with.

 

 

ours didn’t smell at all, I think I remember from years ago that septic tanks needed a starter and kit (bugs) but this is not mentioned in the vortex blurb.  I got a treatment plant “person” to set it up. Ours (Vortex) has adjustable valves to regulate large and small bubbles, the chap had a vortex himself and is very pleased with it and recommends them to others, he is booked to come back soon (6 months since it was installed) to make sure it’s all working ok and adjust as necessary.

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13 minutes ago, Roger440 said:

At the moment it’s been running for 3 days and it smells quite a lot. Does a new plant take a while to get established? It was full of water to start with.

 

 

Old trick was a roadkill rabbit into the tank - and it’s the wrong thing to do... search for EnBac and other products that can be used as kick start

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What sort of smell?  I assume you mean sewage smell?

 

Ours does not smell at all. And certainly the discharge (into the burn) is completely odourless. 

 

Are you sure the pipe feeding it is vented properly at both ends?

 

Yes the old recommendation was throw a dead rabbit in to get it "started"

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4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

What sort of smell?  I assume you mean sewage smell?

 

Ours does not smell at all. And certainly the discharge (into the burn) is completely odourless. 

 

Are you sure the pipe feeding it is vented properly at both ends?

 

Yes the old recommendation was throw a dead rabbit in to get it "started"

 

A septic tank kind of smell!

 

my understanding is the soil pipe on the house, which, logically has a clear path from tank to stack was all it needed.

 

That said, it a 16 man unit with only 4 people, so it needs turning down. From the blurb, whilst it trumpets the fact you can turn it down, it doesn’t actually tell you how,

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 26/10/2018 at 08:40, JSHarris said:

It makes a massive difference moving the air pump from the GRP compartment in the top of the unit to a solidly built housing.  I made a stone chamber on a solid concrete base to house our pump and alarm system.  Not only did it reduce the noise so that it's now practically silent, but it also makes checking and servicing the pump a great deal easier.

 

1386070368_Pumpbox1.thumb.JPG.e2f23987abcfd14516b71d447aaa357e.JPG

 

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This is a really nice solution to noisy air blowers. The housings most manufacturers use seem to resonate with the blower making noise a problem. 

 

If anyone is planning on doing this, just make sure there is a way for fresh air to get into the housing and if at all possible, pus some sort of mesh to prevent pollen or grass cuttings in. This will prevent the air filter in the blower getting blocked and still allow fresh air into the housing. Staving the blower of oxygen will cause poor treatment. 

 

This example is good, but if you go too far away from the treatment plant you may also want to increase the size of the blower to maintain oxygen levels in the plant (increasing the diameter is also advisable if you are going further than say, 20m (admittedly it's not common to go that far away).

 

Other nice housings can be bee hives, they look good and the wood does a reasonable job at dampening the sound. 

 

Also: if anyone is planning on doing this, and you have choice of where to put the blower and housing, pick somewhere shaded. It can make a big difference to the temperature in the summer months, prolonging lifespan of the blower. 

Edited by Pauljg79
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