If you want more Iwaki RD-30 specifications and details check out Iwaki's RD Series website.

Hydraulics Pump Testing

The most scientific way to determine a pumps performance is to plot the entire pump pressure vs flow rate curve. This can be done by measuring pressure at the outlet of the pump with a digital manometer and using a gate valve immediately after this pressure measurement point.  Then utilizing this gate valve, adjusting the amount of restriction will net different flow rates and coinciding pressures the pump is producing over its curve.  All of this is preferably done at a very precise 12.00V or the tested voltage as needed.  While testing for pressure and flow rates, data was also collected using multi-meters to capture voltage and current in amps for power consumption data.

I've also since learned and adjusted my method of pressure testing to capture "Totat Dynamic Head" in pressure (PSI) format.   Previously my testing only captured "Dynamic Discharge Head" which is pressure on the outlet line only.  The inlet line is the suction line and some suction occurs as flow rates increase due to pressure drop in the suction line feeding the pump.  This new method is consistent with the recommendations by gouldspumps.com pump field testing technical article for field testing and I believe more accurately captures the entire power provided by a pump and will provide more accurate curves for estimating flow rates.

You'll see the pressure axis for this new testing method is labeled as "Total Dynamic Head Pressure which is equal to the "Discharge Pressure" - "Suction Pressure".  You can think of this as the reverse of pressure drop, it is "Pressure Gain" from the pump.  I believe most manufacturer pump curves follow this same testing method for developing pressure.  It's actually more common to refer to "Head" rather than pressure, but in water cooling we're always dealing with water, so I've had the habit of just reading in PSI and leaving it at that, so it's consistent in units with pressure drop in PSI.

I'll be working my way back through my previous pump testing to update the curves so the flow rate estimator is more accurate.

Equipment:

• Dwyer Digital Manometer 477 Mark V - Accuracy .5% of Full Scale.  Range 0-20.00 PSI range, Resolution .01 PSI
• King Instruments 7520 Series 0-5GPM, 250mm scale - Accuracy 2% of Full Scale.  Range 0-5GPM, Resolution .1 GPM (can be interpolated to .02GPM)
• Water Source - Household water pressure - 50PSI at >5GPM - Because flow rate readings are instantaneous, household tap water and water pressure are a good and powerful source for pressure drop testing.
• Samlex PSA-305 Variable DC Power Supply - Adjusted voltage to be at 12.00V +-.03V.
• Calterm 66430 Multi-meter - Measured Voltage (DC Volts to .01V resolution)
• Cen-Tech Digital Multi-meter - Measure Current (Amps to .01 Amps Resolution)
• Mastech MS8209 Auto Ranging Multi-meter - Used for sound level decibel measurements. (.1db resolution)

And my results are as follows:

First up 12.0Volts performs just under what a DDC 3.2 with top will do, still admirably well.  I actually found I could start the pump with as little as 6.7V, so it's very capable of under-volting.  Pressure at 1.5GPM is now running at about 4 PSI, this is slightly lower than a single DDC 3.2 at 12V.  The efficiency curve peaks around 2.1 GPM and power consumption is a low 12 watts at 1.5 GPM, nice!.

Sound Level

With about a 44db ambient noise level and placing my decibel meter about 6" away, the RD-30 rose the sound level as follows:

• 12V - 50.9 db = 6.9db Gain
• 15V - 51.7 db = 7.7db Gain
• 18V - 53.4 db = 9.4db Gain
• 21V - 54.4 db = 10.4db Gain
• 24V - 55.8 db =  11.8db Gain

And for some general comparisons, I found this chart that relates decibel gain to perceived sound gain:

Perceptions of Increases in Decibel Level
Imperceptible Change	1dB
Barely Perceptible Change	3dB
Clearly Noticeable Change	5dB
About Twice as Loud	10dB
About Four Times as Loud	20dB

And this environment general level condition:

Environmental Noise
Weakest sound heard	0dB
Whisper Quiet Library	30dB
Normal conversation (3-5')	60-70dB
Telephone dial tone	80dB
City Traffic (inside car)	85dB
Train whistle at 500', Truck Traffic	90dB
Subway train at 200'	95dB
Level at which sustained exposure may result in hearing loss	90 - 95dB
Power mower at 3'	107dB
Snowmobile, Motorcycle	100dB
Power saw at 3'	110dB
Sandblasting, Loud Rock Concert	115dB

And the following is a simple recording of that test.  Late at night when the house is very quiet, I recorded the sound with my JVC GZ-MC500U mini video camera which has stereo recording capability.  Then converted in windows movie maker to VHS quality and uploaded to YouTube.  It's still kind of hard to get a sense of loudness from the recording, but it does present you with a good indication of the type and tone of sound. Subjectively, the pump is much quieter than I expected, just a slight medium pitched whine that doesn't really become apparent until 21v and above. It is a big pump though so I can only expect vibrations would quickly be the primary culprit as with any pump in noise related issues.  As with any pump I would suggest a very isolated on a soft pad like Petra's Gel Stuff to isolate pump vibrations.  NaeKu mentioned the pump likes to walk around with vibrations so you'll probably have to strap it down loosely somehow.  I didn't notice that on my test bench, but it is a big solid pump so any vibration will have some energy behind it.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the smooth operation and sound level.  I expected the size and power of the pump would relate to much more noise.  I really don't consider the pump that much louder than a lot of pump I've tested and probably more quiet than the Alphacool AP1510.

Construction

While the pump internals are without concern, I must note that the aluminum feet that are cast into the bottom of the pump housing are extremely fragile and easily broken.  During shipment of this pump to my house for testing even when wrapped in a dozen or more layers of bubble wrap, one of the aluminum feet broke.  I could not see any apparent abuse on the box package and the bubble wrapping almost seemed excessive as I could tell NaeKu really cares about this pump.  The exterior of the pump is cast aluminum, and like any cast metal, casting generally lowers the tensile strength and increases how brittle metal is.  The footing bolt flanges don't have any sort of webbing support to provide rigidity, so the can and have now shown that failure of the cast aluminum metal is possible.   I would be extremely cautious of the metal footings and ship the pump only on it's side in solid pieces of foam or other to protect the feet from damage.  Watch out for those aluminum mounts, they break easily!!

Conclusion

Wow, that's a lot of pump and it's also very flexible in the amount of voltage it can operate on.  It is however a very large pump making the large Laing D5 feel tiny in comparison.  This would be a great pump for a highly restrictive loop that needs a more powerful pump as it can handle anything you want to throw at it.  I would recommend over-sizing your radiator capacity if you intend to run higher voltage settings as upwards of 50watts of pump heat can really make diminishing returns on flow apparent sooner than you'd think