Koralia makes noise

[bcjm]

I bought two Koralia pumps. They are connected to a Red See Waiver maker. They make noise everything the start. I can hear it in another room with door closed. If I leave them running not connect to the waiver maker they are ok. Is this normal?

[sen5241b]

I bought two Koralia pumps. They are connected to a Red See Waiver maker. They make noise everything the start. I can hear it in another room with door closed. If I leave them running not connect to the waiver maker they are ok. Is this normal?

 

 

I have a pump making noise too but its mostly becuause its resting against a plastic wall. Did you try re-positioning it?

[Integral9]

Since it's brand new, it may just need some time to break in. Give it a couple of days, if not better, take it a part and clean it. While you have it apart, look for any thing stuck on the impeller from the manufacturing process that could cause it to be unbalanced. It took my Mag7 impeller about 3 days to break in and stop rattling like a toddler shaking a coffee can 1/4 full of marbles.

[jamesbuf]

I thought the directions specifically say Koralias aren't meant to be used on a wavemaker. The thing with these pumps is that the impeller can start one of two ways because of the AC that its connected to. If it starts in the reverse (wrong) directions, the impeller is forced outwards and hits the "stopbar", which then should force the empeller to revert back to the normal spinning direction. You will significantly decrease the life of the pump if you continue to use them on a wavemaker. The constant hitting of the impeller on the stopbar will eventually warp or break the impeller. Controllable pumps, like Tunze, get around this by switching to DC current in their powerbox. That way, the impeller only starts out going in one direction. Koralia does have controllable pumps, but they only plug into their own special controller.

[ChuckN]

I have the same exact issue. I have 2 koralia 3's on the Red Sea wavemaster and could hear mine on the opposite floor of the house. What I found that helped was not to have them pointed to far down. The further down they were pointed the worse it was. It is happening because the impeller is jumping in and out of the unit when it is turned on by the wavemaker , gotta love magnetics. The impeller shaft needs to be just a little bit longer to not allow it to move back and forth like it does. Hopefully someone will come up with a mod to fix this issue. Just play around with the angle you have it at and it wont be so annoying,

[Origami]

James hit the nail on the head. The Koralias are really not compatible with the Red Sea Wavemaster Pro. The Wavemaster operates by turning the voltage on and off to the receptacles in the back. The Koralias, on the other hand, have a preferred operating direction (unlike centrifugal pumps such as maxijets which will pump water in one direction regardless of the rotation of the impeller) and which have a mechanical design which stops a prop rotating in the wrong direction, and tries to get it going in the right direction. The banging or clicking sound that you hear is that of a mis-rotating prop running up against the stop and resetting its direction. It sometimes takes several bumps up against the stop to get things going the right way. That's the rattling sound that you hear. And, in many cases, you hear it each and every time the Wavemaster turns that pump back on as it rotates through the pump selection.

 

In addition to the annoying noise, the pump is probably suffering mechanical damage each time the power to it is cycled. The end result is that your pump will fail prematurely.

 

 

 

 

 

I have the same exact issue. I have 2 koralia 3's on the Red Sea wavemaster and could hear mine on the opposite floor of the house. What I found that helped was not to have them pointed to far down. The further down they were pointed the worse it was. It is happening because the impeller is jumping in and out of the unit when it is turned on by the wavemaker , gotta love magnetics. The impeller shaft needs to be just a little bit longer to not allow it to move back and forth like it does. Hopefully someone will come up with a mod to fix this issue. Just play around with the angle you have it at and it wont be so annoying,

 

It's not an impeller shaft length issue. It's the directional requirement of the pump design coupled with the bidirectional startup probabilities. The pump only operates if the impeller is rotating one way, but the motor design allows it to start up in either direction. To address this, designers put a stop in near the top of the impeller shaft to stop the wrongly rotating propeller as it corkscrews forward in order to get it to rotate the right way. Once it's rotating the right way, things settle and operate the way they should. The problem is, it has to resolve the directional question each and every time it's turned on which, for the Wavemaster Pro, is every time the pump is cycled.

 

(I had the same problem with my Wavemaster and Koralias. The wavemaster now sits on a shelf....)

 

I thought the directions specifically say Koralias aren't meant to be used on a wavemaker. The thing with these pumps is that the impeller can start one of two ways because of the AC that its connected to. If it starts in the reverse (wrong) directions, the impeller is forced outwards and hits the "stopbar", which then should force the empeller to revert back to the normal spinning direction. You will significantly decrease the life of the pump if you continue to use them on a wavemaker. The constant hitting of the impeller on the stopbar will eventually warp or break the impeller. Controllable pumps, like Tunze, get around this by switching to DC current in their powerbox. That way, the impeller only starts out going in one direction. Koralia does have controllable pumps, but they only plug into their own special controller.

 

By the way, the Koralias that you have are unlikely to be compatible with Hydor's Koralia controller because it's the wrong pump version. The newer, controllable Koralias are more expensive and use a DC motor instead of the AC motor in the more common Koralia design.

[ChuckN]

Thanks for the info guys. First thing I will do when I get home is remove those from my wavemaster. I did not know about the stop bar and it spinning in the wrong direction.

[bcjm]

Is there a solution for this other than buying new pumps and controler?

[jamesbuf]

Is there a solution for this other than buying new pumps and controler?

 

 

Yeah, don't use them on a wavemaker.

[lanman]

I bought two Koralia pumps. They are connected to a Red See Waiver maker. They make noise everything the start. I can hear it in another room with door closed. If I leave them running not connect to the waiver maker they are ok. Is this normal?

 

Yes... that is normal - for the older Koralia pumps. They weren't designed for quiet starts and stops, and controls in general. There is a new version that is - but I think it is quite a bit more expensive.

 

bob