i am looking for the quietest hob filter. the newer aquaclears are just not as quiet as they use to be. so i am looking for a quieter hob filter.
what the quietest hob filter?
- Thread starter cornbread_5
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All HOBs have similar design and probably made from the same factory floor in China. So there is no one brand that is inherently quieter than the other if it is new, and maintained properly.
The noise of HOBs came from two sources: cascading water and mechanical noise from the impeller.
You can reduce the cascading noise by raising the tank water level to submerge the outflow, and changing the filter pads as soon as it is clogged. A clogged up media will force water to spill over the intake pipe up high making cascading noise despite high tank water level. If you want quite operation, you cannot be lazy to procrastinate replacing clogged up media.
A new filter should not generate mechanical noise from the impeller, and if so, it is a manufacturing defect. The impeller will worn out in 3 to 5 years, faster if it sucks sand. A worn out impeller is like an unbalanced tire and will make mechanical noise. An unbalanced impeller cannot be fixed and need to be replaced. Unfortunately, replacement impellers don't come cheap as manufacturers price replacement impeller at half the price of a new filter.
I discover a way to safe money by buying replacement impeller the next model below, for example, a Penquin 330 impeller can be replaced by a Penquin 170 , and a Whisper 60 impeller can be replaced by a Whisper 40 as long as the length of the impeller is the same. A smaller impeller will pump less water, but the media will last longer so the effectiveness of the filter is not reduced.
The noise of HOBs came from two sources: cascading water and mechanical noise from the impeller.
You can reduce the cascading noise by raising the tank water level to submerge the outflow, and changing the filter pads as soon as it is clogged. A clogged up media will force water to spill over the intake pipe up high making cascading noise despite high tank water level. If you want quite operation, you cannot be lazy to procrastinate replacing clogged up media.
A new filter should not generate mechanical noise from the impeller, and if so, it is a manufacturing defect. The impeller will worn out in 3 to 5 years, faster if it sucks sand. A worn out impeller is like an unbalanced tire and will make mechanical noise. An unbalanced impeller cannot be fixed and need to be replaced. Unfortunately, replacement impellers don't come cheap as manufacturers price replacement impeller at half the price of a new filter.
I discover a way to safe money by buying replacement impeller the next model below, for example, a Penquin 330 impeller can be replaced by a Penquin 170 , and a Whisper 60 impeller can be replaced by a Whisper 40 as long as the length of the impeller is the same. A smaller impeller will pump less water, but the media will last longer so the effectiveness of the filter is not reduced.
only hobs i run are ac110s and i dont hear anything, theyre dead silent.
only thing i hear is water some times due to evaporation and if not i only
hear the hum of the air pumps.
only thing i hear is water some times due to evaporation and if not i only
hear the hum of the air pumps.
The reason you don't hear anything is because the background humming noise of your air pump. Turn off the air pump and tell me what you hear. Background noise is often employed to make a room or car to feel quieter.
without the pumps its silent when the tank is filled to the top.
This I cannot agree with. There is a reason that we have mechanical engineers continually trying to improve designs using the same materials and likely the same manufacturer. Some designs are much better than others. Quietflow for example is inherently loud because they have cascading water in several portions of the filter. Emperor bio wheel filters have 3 times the moving parts as most filters AND have jets of water that spray out into open air. These are all sources of more noise.
If you want quiet I'd look for simplicity. The aquaclear is simple as it gets and in my experience very quiet. I have also read good things about the H.O.T. Magnum. Emperor filters are an example of the "More Features!" montra run amok and the Quietflow are just cheap and designed more to force you to buy their replacement cartridges than anything else.
I have had good luck with ac 110 and ac 70 being dead silent but I do agree if you get sand in the impeller a few times they start making noise. But I will say they are quieter then my sump lol