Eheim or D5 pumps. Any quality differences?

[3DVagabond]

Just curious if there's any difference quality wise between D5 pumps from different brands? There's a decent difference in price but are the pumps all the same just rebranded? I'm not talking feature differences, like PWM vs vario. Or different reporting sensors. I mean reliability, noise, flow rate...

Or, are Eheim pumps better. I've used them with aquariums and they are dead silent and reliable for 24/7 on aquariums where fishes lives rely on it. I've never run them 12V though.

 

[EXCellR8]

d5 pumps are cheaper than eheim pumps to manufacture, therefore the quality is relatively consistent across the board.

eheim specializes in aquarium pumps, but they work well for PC's and as you said they are extremely quiet.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

eheim specializes in aquarium pumps, but they work well for PC's and as you said they are extremely quiet.

+1 on eheim. My experience is limited to aquarium use and they have a great reputation. The costs associated with aquaculture and nice aquarium setups dwarfs anything we are doing with case cooling. Nobody wants to see 10's of thousands of dollars of exotic fish belly up. They tend to trust eheim pumps to keep that from happening.

 

[aigomorla]

sorry to bust your bubble guys... but a D5 has a far better reputation then ehiem due to its parent company Laing.
They originally are used in solar water heaters, hot tubs, and other industrial / comercial products and other equipment for moving water.

Were comparing a hobbist pump company vs a full bloated industrial pump company which laing represents.

Just make sure the Pump is a Laing D5, and not a (insert some chinese factory name) D5, that costs half the price of a D5.
eK / Swiftech / AquaComputers / Koolance will use genuine Laing D5's so you cant go wrong getting a D5 from one of them.

Now if you asking what the main difference is, its head pressure. Its mostly on impeller design.
The Ehiem was designed for FLOW and silence.

The D5 was designed for Head Pressure, and FLOW. (PWM feature added more silence)

Already off the bat you can see the D5 has a much more durable impeller, however it requires it to spin faster, which in turn creates more noise, however u get greater head pressure.

The Ehiem was just designed to move water, however it was not intended to be used with high restriction or generate a lot of head pressure.

Most Ehiems are not 12V, they run at 120V, require a switch relay if you want them to turn off with PC. AquaComputers does make a 12V version, however it costs as much as a D5.

D5's are 12V and a varient called the D5 Strong being 24V. 99% of all watercoolers will swear on them for reliability, and durability, also for quiet if you get the PWM version. Its truely a great pump for most applications where you don't require a high head pressure or a small foot print which something like a DDC excels at even more.

The D5 was brought from mostly solar powered water heater setups, to our PC hobby as it did the same job required.
Move Water to a Heat Exchanger / Heat collecter, and bring it down.

D5 has far more reservoir options since our hobby has accepted the pump more.

In short, if u havent gotten a pump yet, and you want to use it for watercooling, get a D5.

 

[3DVagabond]

sorry to bust your bubble guys... but a D5 has a far better reputation then ehiem due to its parent company Laing.
They originally are used in solar water heaters, hot tubs, and other industrial / comercial products and other equipment for moving water.

Were comparing a hobbist pump company vs a full bloated industrial pump company which laing represents.

Just make sure the Pump is a Laing D5, and not a (insert some chinese factory name) D5, that costs half the price of a D5.
eK / Swiftech / AquaComputers / Koolance will use genuine Laing D5's so you cant go wrong getting a D5 from one of them.

Now if you asking what the main difference is, its head pressure. Its mostly on impeller design.
The Ehiem was designed for FLOW and silence.

The D5 was designed for Head Pressure, and FLOW. (PWM feature added more silence)

Already off the bat you can see the D5 has a much more durable impeller, however it requires it to spin faster, which in turn creates more noise, however u get greater head pressure.

The Ehiem was just designed to move water, however it was not intended to be used with high restriction or generate a lot of head pressure.

Most Ehiems are not 12V, they run at 120V, require a switch relay if you want them to turn off with PC. AquaComputers does make a 12V version, however it costs as much as a D5.

D5's are 12V and a varient called the D5 Strong being 24V. 99% of all watercoolers will swear on them for reliability, and durability, also for quiet if you get the PWM version. Its truely a great pump for most applications where you don't require a high head pressure or a small foot print which something like a DDC excels at even more.

The D5 was brought from mostly solar powered water heater setups, to our PC hobby as it did the same job required.
Move Water to a Heat Exchanger / Heat collecter, and bring it down.

D5 has far more reservoir options since our hobby has accepted the pump more.

In short, if u havent gotten a pump yet, and you want to use it for watercooling, get a D5.

Thanks. Differences, if any, was my main concern about the D5's. Because there is quite a difference in pricing.

I this a "real" D5, or a Chinese branded one?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M6Z3MBB?tag=pcpapi-20&pldnSite=1

 

[aigomorla]

That is a real Laing. A new version with PWM.
Primochill wouldn't use a fake one and tarnish their reputation.

However u will need a housing for the unit as it comes with just the base pump.
Meaning u will need a res option or a pump head, otherwise u wont even be able to connect barbs to it.

If you already have a res, you may want to buy one with a housing like this, however these old designs lack PWM.

 

[3DVagabond]

Thanks. This is all early days but the plan for now is to pair it with the Monsoon MMRS. Something along these lines.

 

[aigomorla]

ahh yeah it should just screw on the base of that res.

 

[EXCellR8]

there are some Eheim pumps that have been "repurposed" for use with computers, like the AquaStream series under AquaComputer. They are a bit more expensive but after (reluctantly) trying one I will probably never buy a D5 again. Not only is it super quiet and efficient, but there are models with LCD component that monitor water conditions quite accurately. Not saying D5 are junk by any means, but I'm sold on the aquarium pumps.

the only downside is the Eheim is pretty large, and the fittings for G1/4, 9 times of 10, need to be purchased separately.

 

[Rubycon]

D5 is more appropriate for a closed circuit system with head pressure.
Eheim, Danner-Supreme, OTTO, Rio, et al. are designed for circulation duty.
Their flow rates are impressive but will produce head pressure immediately that slows it down considerably in any pc circuit.
They also run on AC mains power and have been known to leak current into the coolant which at mains voltage is going to be bad.
DC versions will use a chopper circuit to produce a rotating field to spin the magnet, the physical limitations will be the same.

The D5 has an Achilles heel, however. It cannot be run dry, ever, even for a few seconds! Dry runs will gall the bearings taking considerable lifetime away.
Caution must be used when starting for the first time and priming/bleeding air as the pump needs have its bearing wetted at all times.

There are other proper pumps (Iwaki) as well producing higher flow rates with higher head pressure abilities for larger, serial circuits.

 

[EXCellR8]

With PC cooling you don't really need high pressure... just good circulation. Slower flow is going to absorb and move heat more efficiently then coolant that is just rapidly being pumped through hot bits. That's just fluid dynamics 101. More pressure just forces water through fittings and radiators faster, meaning it doesn't have as much time to cool off.

I dropped my Eheim down to around 3000rpm and temps went with it. Granted I have a oversize rad but it does make a difference.

 

[aigomorla]

With PC cooling you don't really need high pressure... just good circulation. Slower flow is going to absorb and move heat more efficiently then coolant that is just rapidly being pumped through hot bits. That's just fluid dynamics 101. More pressure just forces water through fittings and radiators faster, meaning it doesn't have as much time to cool off.

I dropped my Eheim down to around 3000rpm and temps went with it. Granted I have a oversize rad but it does make a difference.

this is false...

you need a good head pressure to work out restrictions which comes with tubing lengths, 90 degree fittings, quick disconnects, and waterblocks which use injector plates.

More head pressure -> greater turburlance -> more efficient head exchange -> greater performance.
expecially when you look at waterblocks which use injector heads.

Without proper head pressure you lose a lot in performance on the injector blocks especially.

More pressure just forces water through fittings and radiators faster, meaning it doesn't have as much time to cool off.

....

please go study thermodynamics again... especially in regards to a closed loop system with equilibrium.
meaning this statement is wrong on many many levels.


More flow = more passes = better performance.

 

[EXCellR8]

lol thermodynamics... really? it's a 12v computer pump, not an industrial steam engine. concept of moving water is basically the same, except most PC loops have just a few feet of tubing which is maybe 1/2" ID tops.

we're talking about less than 500ml of water here mr super mod

 

[Rubycon]

When flow increases, head pressure increases. This decreases flow and the (circulation duty) pump isn't designed for this. Straight blade impellers used in aquarium power heads are designed for high flow, low head pressure applications. The components in a PC water cooling circuit have many galleries, passes and turns which will present lots of resistance to a circulation pump. The holy grail for efficiency in typical PC cooling is 1 gallon per minute or 60 gallons per hour. This is typically 10% of the zero head rating of the power head. A pump capable of 40' head and has a 5' rating at 230 gallons/hour will have far better performance than the power head.

 

[aigomorla]

lol thermodynamics... really? it's a 12v computer pump, not an industrial steam engine. concept of moving water is basically the same, except most PC loops have just a few feet of tubing which is maybe 1/2" ID tops.

we're talking about less than 500ml of water here mr super mod

...

then try not to pass wrong info like its correct info without the science behind it and not expect to get called for it.

No one in the right sense of mind should even pick up a ehiem pump over a D5 as it has 0 advantages, and even less port options now that the D5 is mostly main stream to our hobby.

 

[Sean J Sauve]

Anyone ever try both ? I mean I would seem like you could have more control both aspects by dynamically adjusting one vs. the other during different protocols. IE bleeding and filling or clearing out pockets of air on a large loop?

 

[aigomorla]

i used to use an ehiem a long time ago.... but havent touched one since 2006...

aquacomputers still makes them with a aquaport, but they are mostly old legacy products to them, and they are trying to push out the d5's with the aquaport added onto them.

But again why would you want to get an ehiem in today's market?

The PWM D5's can even adjust pump speed dynamically via cpu load now, if you after silence.

 

[Sean J Sauve]

But again why would you want to get an ehiem in today's market?

The PWM D5's can even adjust pump speed dynamically via cpu load now, if you after silence.

I have a huge loop and always have the following issues with my d5;

The D5 has an Achilles heel, however. It cannot be run dry, ever, even for a few seconds! Dry runs will gall the bearings taking considerable lifetime away.
Caution must be used when starting for the first time and priming/bleeding air as the pump needs have its bearing wetted at all times.

2 d5's won't actually resolve this problem if like me you are needing to bleed and refill the line a lot. Granted the D5's are rated for 1500 lp/h whereas the ehiem top model has 300 lp/h less. But during line fill routine you could utilize the befits of one over the other.

Or are you implying that 2 D5's will be better in circulation duty than both at once ?

 

[aigomorla]

how complicated is your loop?
What kind of res are you using?

If your having problems bleeding, and refilling, care to share me your loop?

I might be able to offer some advice in optimizing it, or even adding a bubble trap to help you bleed better.

 

[Sean J Sauve]

Thank you very much for your response. If there were complicated loops out there mine would be a 9/10. Its taken me 2 years to get it to where it is finally arriving. I stumbled accross this thread as I am practically trying to decide if I should add a d5 and get the ekwb kit to make them serial acetel, or use the eheim. I have a MO-RA 360 stainless steel. A 40 cm acrylic reservoir from ek a custom flight case which has 4 gpu's, 2 ram blocks, to water cooled M2 drives, aquacomputer 5 with watercooling and a x99 waterblock, mosfet and southbridge blocks custom. The rad is at the end of a 10 foot insulated hosing and the rad sits outside in the Canadian winter. Been having a lot of issues as of late, mostly because I have no use for acrylic, I used a rusted air compressor as a last resort to flush the line. CAUSE IT NEVER EVER could do this with a single D5. I am thinking of adding a eheim aquacomputer and like the idea it can even push air down the line at the end to flush. !