Very noisy water pump on new Swift Sprite Alpine 2
In case this is of any help to anyone else with the same issue. I have managed to sort the issue, given that Swift were no help at all.
Having taken delivery of our brand new Swift Sprite Alpine 2 end of April 2024, we went directly to a CL for a couple of nights. There were three major, extremely disappointing, faulty manufacturing issues, but this is only about the water pump.
(Just for reference, the other two were a badly leaking front window, and a sheared grab handle bolt. But the dealer sorted both those well for us. Under warranty of course.).
So the water pump issue. We have never had a caravan with internal water pump before, so were shocked when it made so much noise. A real loud rapid hammering through the caravan body, not just a tapping sound, but really loud hammering. Meant could not run a tap at night else wake everyone else up!
Swift no use whatsoever. Talked about adjusting the pressure at which the pump turns off - totally inappropriate for the noise it made while the pump was turned on. i.e. All the time a tap is running. But its seems like the stock answer they dole out for a problem people seem to have been encountering for more than 10 years from what I can see.
So I've now managed to investigate it myself, and I'm pretty shocked at how bad Swift's production engineering, and/or quality control must be.
To investigate, I first removed the 4 screws which hold the pump's four rubber mounted feet to the bulkhead it is attached to. I then ran the pump with me just holding it. Yes you can still hear it - it's a diaphragm pump after all - but much much quieter, with no ghastly banging. I then realised the issue!
The way Swift had routed the inlet pipe meant there are a couple of plastic bend couplings to turn it round into the pump. But done so that the plastic coupling was up against the bulkhead. So as the pump moves on its flexible mounting, this was hammering against the bulkhead. I've now rerouted the pipe so the elbow is away from the bulkhead, and no more horrible hammering noise!
But I realised there was still a nasty "motor whine" noise coming from the bulkhead, so detached the pump again, and held in my hand, the noise stopped. But each time, with the pump running, I pushed it to the bulkhead, the noise reappeared even before the rubber mounting feet touched! And again it is a terrible bit of manufacturing by Swift. The whole point of the pump having its flexible mountings, is that no part of the pump should touch the bulkhead, except those flexible mountings, which absorb the noise so it does not transmit to the bulkhead. But swift have routed some of the wiring, which is pretty heavy gauge, so that it gets jammed between the motor body and the bulkhead, and so the pump body is then directly connected, acoustically, to the bulkhead!
I did not want to rewire this given it is a new caravan under warranty (wiring too short to re-route), so I adopted another, possibly better solution. Four half inch tap washers (the old fashioned flat rubber ones), between the bulkhead and the pump's four rubber feet. This has moved the pump away from the bulkhead by a further 4mm, and the wiring no longer touched the bulkhead. And some longer mounting screws. And that has also worked. No whining sound from the bulkhead any longer.
So although you can still hear it pumping, it is vastly better than before. I cannot understand why Swift have never sussed this. It is such basic stuff.
Hopefully this might help anyone with the same issue.