Quietest Air Pump?

[sir_keith]

Collecting opinions on who makes the quietest air pump on the market these days. My fish room is a pretty noisy place, so it doesn't matter in there so much, but I have two tanks that have 'escaped' the fish room: one in my living room and one in my TV room, and I like those tanks to be quiet. I'm not talking big pumps here, just something to run a couple of airstones. Currently using Tetra Whisper and Fusion pumps, which tend to get noisy with age. Are there better choices? Thanks!

 

[DMD123]

I used to use the Tetra Deep Water Whisper air pumps. Quiet at first and then with time slowly get louder.

I have been curious about the Eheim air pumps. They have these little hanging holes that make me wonder if it were hung up on it, would it be quieter?

 

[Jexnell]

I have been running Ehiem 400s on my 125s since I got them. The bubbles make more noise than the pumps do. Honestly not joking here.

Edit: I just have them sitting in my stands, not hanging or anything


The brand new ones have a new case, I just bought it.

Not sure the noise on these as I have not even plugged it in yet.

 

[sir_keith]

I used to use the Tetra Deep Water Whisper air pumps. Quiet at first and then with time slowly get louder.

I have been curious about the Eheim air pumps. They have these little hanging holes that make me wonder if it were hung up on it, would it be quieter?View attachment 8597

I've used that trick in the past- just hanging a pump from a cup-hook with a piece of string or whatever. Without being able to transfer the vibrations to a solid, resonating surface, the pump is much quieter. You'd never really notice that except in a quiet place like a bedroom.

 

[sir_keith]

Does anybody remember those little mechanical pumps with flywheels and pistons, before magnetic oscillators ('vibrator pumps') became the industry standard? They were noisy but pumped a lot of air. My Dad had one running a 29/20L stack; pretty little thing with brass parts; it looked like something from the 19th century. He liked to tinker, and took the pump apart at least once a month to clean and lubricate everything. It actually made quite a difference in airflow. It's hard for me to imagine watching TV as a boy in my parents' living room without that little pump chugging away in the background.

 

[clownie]

This is the one i used to own!!!

 

[sir_keith]

View attachment 8606
This is the one i used to own!!!

Cool! My Dad's pump looked more like this-

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[fishguy1978]

I have several Whisper, a commercial Chinese made, and one Topfin. Whisper are definitely the most quiet. The commercial is suspended from the ceiling with a rubber bungie because even with using zip ties the vibration was coming through the kitchen floor. It runs the 29g rack. The Topfin (rebranded Danner) produces a lot of air for a reasonable price but noisy. Runs the 60g cube and an airstone in the 220.

 

[DMD123]

@fishguy1978, I forget about the Petsmart house brand. In the past I owned a Topfin 120 gallon aquarium (60" x 18" footprint) made by Marineland. It had a lifetime warranty on it. When I was upgrading to a 210g, I found the Topfin tank had a crack in the lower plastic frame. I had filed the receipt, so I pulled it out and called the store. Sure enough I was able to return it for a full refund years later. I think they used to all have killer warranties on the Topfin stuff but now I think there are more limitations.

 

[DMD123]

I was going to mention I do use a Penn Plax unit on occasion. It is a plug in with a built in battery back up. Pretty quiet but I have not ran it long term yet to see how it holds up or if it loosens up and gets noisy.

 

[Jexnell]

So the new Ehiem air pumps are hang only. They do not have any rubber isolation feet like the old model.

 

[sir_keith]

Yes, I noticed the same thing. I bought an Eheim Air200 last week, and the first thing I noticed was how heavy it was, way more substantial than other pumps in this price range. And then I noticed the lack of feet. Eheim clearly wants you to hang this thing, because the loop with the hanging eye is made of soft rubber, presumably to further isolate noise and vibrations. That's fine for where I plan to put this pump, but there are other places in my fish room where the pumps sit on top of the tanks. I suppose those little rubber feet with an adhesive backing would work for that.

 

[sir_keith]

Yes, I noticed the same thing. I bought an Eheim Air200 last week, and the first thing I noticed was how heavy it was, way more substantial than other pumps in this price range. And then I noticed the lack of feet. Eheim clearly wants you to hang this thing, because the loop with the hanging eye is made of soft rubber, presumably to further isolate noise and vibrations. That's fine for where I plan to put this pump, but there are other places in my fish room where the pumps sit on top of the tanks. I suppose those little rubber feet with an adhesive backing would work for that.

CORRECTION- In addition to some tubing and two air diffusers, the pump comes with a plastic package of accessories that includes two check valves, a Y-connector, and four black rubber feet that fit into the screw holes in the bottom of the pump. So you can go either way. It just didn't make sense that Eheim would do otherwise.

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[Jexnell]

It's funny I forgot about the bog O goodies till you just mentioned it, the 400 came with the same thing.