Alphacool AP1510 Pump on the Test Bench

[Martinm210]

This test is brought to you by Kriegen from Overclock.net (http://www.overclock.net/member.php?u=35795), he sent me his brand new pump to test for the community. I'm going to test it at several voltages and create pump and power consumption curves that I'll later add to the Flow Rate estimator. Then I'll be sending Kriegen his pump back. Thanks Kriegen!!!

But before I run all of the tests, I figured I'd first post some information about the pump, a few pics, and give you all a chance to guess how well it will do.

Performance-pcs appears to be the only vendor with them:
Alphacool AP1510 (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=4505)


Product Details:
Maximum output new defined! New revision!

With the external adjustable DC voltage converters (12, 15, 18, 21 and 24 Volts) you may adapt the delivery rate of your pump to your own configuration. The 1500 litres which are achieved at the highest level satisfy even the most pretentious expectations.

The pump is attached at the transformer, and the transformer at the power pack of the PC.

NO 115/230V connection is needed! The extra power cable is superfluous as the pump turns on/off automatically with the PC.

This centrifugal pump is conceived for the thoroughgoing continuous use. The pump sells with 36 months warranty. Due to the G1/4" internal screw thread, the pump is compatible with all types of connections.

Specifications:

Powered by OASE !
Pump performance: max. 1500 l/h
Delivery height: 6m
Power consumption: 17 W
Connection: G1/4"-connections
Sound level: approx. 21-35 dBA
Dimensions L x W x H: 115 x 100 x 80 mm
DC-voltage converter L x W x H: 118 x 75 x 60 mm
Weight: ca. 720g

The "6m" delivery height has my interest...

And a few pics I've taken before the testing:

The pump and voltage converter next to a Laing D5 for scale
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2576/alphacoolap15101gn4.jpg

Impeller:
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2051/alphacoolap15104fx3.jpg

Test Setup:
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7476/alphacoolap15105jw8.jpg

Ready for data:
King Instruments Flow meter, Dwyer Digital Manometer, Voltage Meter, Amperage Meter, One variable PSU.
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8548/alphacoolap15106vs7.jpg

And the magic question...

Will it outperform a D5? A DDC with top?...:confused:hmmm
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I'll let you know later this evening..
.
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To Be Continued...:p:

Update, results are in...

Here are the tests, I really didn't expect this at all, but the pump scales extremely well with increasing voltage. Keep in mind these tests were all done straight from my PSU where I closely monitored voltage to be precisely 12,15,18,21,& 24V to the nearest .1V. The supplied DC-voltage converter must draw some power in spikes because it continually tripped my bigger power supply, although I did test the voltage converter with another less sensetive power supply and it worked fine up to 18V where it started hitting the maximum 65 watts. So be forwarned on the voltage converter, it's probably only 50% efficient and will draw nearly double the power.

Regardless, the pump efficiency itself is very good, better than the D5, I'll be back shortly with some curves to try and show an efficiency comparison of Water Horsepower per watt.

Anyhow, here is the final set of curves with the associated power consumption...very good! I couldn't even test the 24V curve all the way out, it maxed out my 200" manometer, so I estimated two points based on the trend I was getting from the lower curves.
http://webpages.charter.net/matejsek/MCWC/img/AlphaCoolAP1510-7.jpg

And to get some perspective on how this relates, I've taken the same and compared it to my D5 setting 5 @ 12V curve, as well as some published curves that Alex sent me.

http://webpages.charter.net/matejsek/MCWC/img/AlphaCoolAP1510-8.jpg

Bottom line:

It gets about D5 or DDC performance at 15V, and RD30@18V performance at 24Volts...very impressive.

A couple of other observations to note:
Pressure was rather difficult to read in that it jumped around alot more than I saw with my D5 testing. I think this is associated to the impeller construction. A D5 impeller has a very rigid construction and ceramic bearing whereas the AP1510 does not.

Bottom line, the performance is outstanding, but longevity is unknown. I would probably run this pump with a meanwell or other higher quality PSU rather than the supplied voltage converter. The supplied converter was designed for it, so I can only assume it would work ok, but keep in mind the efficiency and extra power draw. I'm guessing you could see as much as 100 watts of power draw at 24V using the supplied voltage converter, but that's just a quick guess based on my quick test and tripping of my 65watt PSU at 18V.

I'll be back in a bit after I finish the Efficiency Curves....

Update Efficiency Curves done:

Ok, the first thing that came to mind after running the curves was that I needed to somehow compare the efficiency of the two pumps, to give you an idea of how much work you're getting per watt. More than anything I thought this might be a good general comparison of heat dump.
After doing some digging on the net I found a handy little equation for converting flow rate and pressure into "Water Horsepower". I was then able to make a nice comparison of "water horsepower" per watt.

So here that is:
http://webpages.charter.net/matejsek/MCWC/img/AlphaCoolAP1510-9.jpg

It turns out the Alpha Cool pump is fairly efficient too. For most water cooling systems in the 1.5 GPM range, you get more work done per watt with the AlphaCool using the 12-18V settings compared to the D5. They are about equal when the Alpha Cool is running at 21V, and the D5 start being slightly more efficient after the Alpha Cool is set to 24V. All in all though, probably close enough to be insignificant, but it goes to show you that the motor efficiencies are pretty close per watt used.

One more note I forgot to mention, the pump undervolts very well too. I continually started and ran at 7V without any problem, so you could undervolt pretty easily as well.

Now what setting to run...good question. I'd probably start at 18V and tweak from there.

Update 11-23-07 Heat Dump Test

I ran one heat dump test to give a rough idea.

I decided to run the pump for one hour in my test loop, log temperatures with one of my waterproof thermometers and plot the increase in temperature. This gave me a decent set of information that I could figure a relatively accurate temperature change over one hour.

Results:
2,440ml of water = 2,440 grams of water
5.87 degrees C rise in temperature over 1 hour

Then taking the following equation I solved for heat

q=(specific heat of H20)X(grams of H20) x dT
=(4.18 J/g-K)x(4,440 grams H20)x(5.87)
=59,869 Joules

There is 3,600 Joules per watt-hour, so
Watts = 59,869/3600 = 16.63 watts.

My power consumption measurement at that particular setting was 24.84 watts.

So the percentage of heat dump is 16.63/24.84 or 67% of the pump power consumption.

This is the first time I tried to calculate heat dump, so let me know if I'm off base...

[perfection]

Powerful headpressure and high flow rates!
Eagerly waiting for results :)

[STEvil]

looks like a newer style for a Mag 5 ;)

[eva2000]

Yay looking forward to your results since i have my Alphacool AP1510 paired with my DTek Fuzion + 4.5mm nozzles http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=167980 :)

[Fairydust]

Looking forward to see the power draw at 24 V and hear about the noise :)

[Martinm210]

I have an old Radioshack sound meter somewhere. It's definately more noisy and viby than a D5, but not terribly loud.

I'll see if I can dig out that old sound level meter....probably in the attic somewhere. Then I could do some sound level comparisons.

[Martinm210]

Some results posted in the OP...I'll be back with more in a bit..:D

[eva2000]

nice.. good to put some figures to this pump..

interesting about the transformers power draw.. probably why when i set mine to 24v i only get 21-22v as it's being powered by custom 100w meanwell psu heh

[Martinm210]

nice.. good to put some figures to this pump..

interesting about the transformers power draw.. probably why when i set mine to 24v i only get 21-22v as it's being powered by custom 100w meanwell psu heh

Yeah, the voltage converter is a bit power hungry. I heard my variable PSU was sensetive to power spikes and can only handle small capacitors, etc. That seemed to hold true, it didn't even like kicking the pump on past 21V without the converter, I had to start it down lower and bring it up.

Anyhow, these curves are actual voltage to within .1V. I usually kept the 12, 15, and 18V within less than that, but after 20, the multimeter has to switch to .1V resolution.

Anyhow, I also updated the OP again with some curves comparing efficiency with the D5. Not sure the best way to do it, but I used Water Horsepower per watt..:shrug:

[Fairydust]

Thank you Martinm210, power draw figures are in line with my measurements. Personally I prefer the D5 or DDC though, the imo misleading advertisement (6 m, 17 W) really annoys me and the few loops i build with the 1500 and 1510 were all run at 12-15 V in the end as customers found noise on the higher levels unacceptable (they wanted WC for a quiet system in the first place).

[Martinm210]

Thank you Martinm210, power draw figures are in line with my measurements. Personally I prefer the D5 or DDC though, the imo misleading advertisement (6 m, 17 W) really annoys me and the few loops i build with the 1500 and 1510 were all run at 12-15 V in the end as customers found noise on the higher levels unacceptable (they wanted WC for a quiet system in the first place).

Yeah, I like how they use the max head for 24V and wattage for 12V..:D

Have you had any problems with failures, that's something I'd be curious about.

I could see that about the noise too. The pump itself isn't very noisy when you hold it, but it's heavy and it vibrates much more than the D5. I could easily see that vibration transferring into case noise.

I'm a bit wore out right now, but I'll try to gather some noise data.

This is what it's telling me right now with the pump floating on some foam, ant the sound meter about 1' away:

Ambient: 54db
Pump running at 12V-24V: 64db

There was really no change in db measurement between 12 and 24V but there is an obvious change in pitch. A much more pleasant low hum at 12V.

[Fairydust]

Can't say much about failure rate, only build a few systems with these pumps (one 1510) and didn't get a report about it breaking down, but then again I only ever had 1 first generation DDC fail.

[dinos22]

nice pump it seems

costs a lot too lol

when are they going to give us a powerhouse for $30 :D hahahah j/k

[NaeKuh]

Martin how wouldl dual DDC-3.2's in a series rank up there? Im about to retire my RD-30 to an external and drop 2 DDC-3.2's in a series. If i drop in your heat exchangers i'll need the room for it.

So just curious on how dual DDC's would handle on your curve.

[Martinm210]

Martin how wouldl dual DDC-3.2's in a series rank up there? Im about to retire my RD-30 to an external and drop 2 DDC-3.2's in a series. If i drop in your heat exchangers i'll need the room for it.

So just curious on how dual DDC's would handle on your curve.

I have to run around town a bit this morning, but I'll try to get two DDC comparison going and maybe included in the estimator later.

Two DDC3.2 with tops would slightly outperform this pump at 24V

DDC3.2 @ 1.5GPM is around 4.9 PSI, so two would be 9.8 PSI. This pump is about 7.7psi@1.5GPM@24V.

[MrToad]

First and foremost thank you for yet another very interesting and informative thread.

It looks like we've got another potential contender in our hands. However, there's three key factors yet to be determined:

- Availability.
- Reliability.
- Heat dump.

For instance, it seems that the general consensus is that the Iwakis are great pumps, but here in the UK you can't get one (neither the MD20 nor the RD30) for under £200 ($410), and the lead times range for three weeks to one month, depending on model and supplier.

Such price tag and poor availability plus the cost of the PSU makes them prohibitive on this side of the Atlantic, especially considering that you can buy two DDC3.2s with aftermarket tops for half that money and have a better performing solution.

Anyway, is something worth keeping and eye on and see how it develops :)

[NaeKuh]

heh toad you got pm.

im sure alex would mail and sell you one cheaper then 400 dollars.


I wonder why jab-tech and petras are the only ones selling the RD-30 :wasntme:

[Martinm210]

First and foremost thank you for yet another very interesting and informative thread.

It looks like we've got another potential contender in our hands. However, there's three key factors yet to be determined:

- Availability.
- Reliability.
- Heat dump.

For instance, it seems that the general consensus is that the Iwakis are great pumps, but here in the UK you can't get one (neither the MD20 nor the RD30) for under £200 ($410), and the lead times range for three weeks to one month, depending on model and supplier.

Such price tag and poor availability plus the cost of the PSU makes them prohibitive on this side of the Atlantic, especially considering that you can buy two DDC3.2s with aftermarket tops for half that money and have a better performing solution.

Anyway, is something worth keeping and eye on and see how it develops :)

Yeah, I've been thinking about a good scientific method for determining heat dump. You could do with with flow rate and temp in/out, but I think that's just too small a number to accurately capture. I'm thinking about measuring temperature change of a determined volume of water but not sure on the setup yet.

It should be a fairly specific percentage of the power consumption, like 75% or something along that line.

I know heat dump is key in determining where more pumping power has a diminishing return. I don't quite have my hands around it. I have to think radiator capacity is also an imporatant part of that.

Maybe for starters I could at least have these power consumption curves added into the estimator to give you wattage consumed for the pump....it would be a start anyway.:shrug:

[iandh]

Yeah, I've been thinking about a good scientific method for determining heat dump. You could do with with flow rate and temp in/out, but I think that's just too small a number to accurately capture. I'm thinking about measuring temperature change of a determined volume of water but not sure on the setup yet.


Yeah, I think you could get a good measurement by taking a fixed amount of water such as 1 gallon and running it for a set amount of time in a fixed ambient temperature and then calculate heat dump based on the temperature rise vs. heat dissipation. You would have to heat the water up and then let it cool back down to calculate its dissipation though I think.

My boss used to teach thermodynamics at UCLA a long while ago so I am sure that I could get some methods and equations from him if you want.

[Martinm210]

Yeah, I think you could get a good measurement by taking a fixed amount of water such as 1 gallon and running it for a set amount of time in a fixed ambient temperature and then calculate heat dump based on the temperature rise vs. heat dissipation. You would have to heat the water up and then let it cool back down to calculate its dissipation though I think.

My boss used to teach thermodynamics at UCLA a long while ago so I am sure that I could get some methods and equations from him if you want.


Yeah, I know it's a simple matter of getting unit's straight using the heat capacity of water.

Water has a heat capacity of 4.184 J cm-3 K-1, so it should just be a matter of solving the units over to watts and time, gallons, and Celcius. Maybe I'll make a quick run on this pump before I send it back and just measure temperature change over a unit time along with the volume.

[MrToad]

Yeah, I know it's a simple matter of getting unit's straight using the heat capacity of water.

Water has a heat capacity of 4.184 J cm-3 K-1, so it should just be a matter of solving the units over to watts and time, gallons, and Celcius. Maybe I'll make a quick run on this pump before I send it back and just measure temperature change over a unit time along with the volume.

If you can cook as well I will marry you :D

[Martinm210]

I did a heat dump test, I just havn't figured out my specific heat units. Someone want to help me with this?

Tested at 18.0V at 2.0GPM, so the pump consumption was 24.84 watts so the heat dump should be less than that, I would think somewhere between 50 to 75% of that.
My results:

Volume = 2,440 ml = 2,440 grams of H20
Temperature change over 1 hour = 5.87 degrees C rise

I know this is all you need to figure out watts of heat dump, but my head is congested today.:D

[Martinm210]

Ok, I got it. Had to break out an old chemistry book..:D

My test at 18V at 2.0GPM gave me 16.63 watts of heat dump. So about 67% of the pump power consumed is lost in the water, the other 33% is lost in the pump casing..

[croaker]

I've had one for about a year and have not had a problem yet (knock on wood). Pretty much have been running it at 24v the entire time.

Cheers

Croaker

[OdinEidolon]

I could replace my D5, anyone could voice for these pumps regarding noise profiles and durability/longevity?
thanks in advance!

[Eddie3dfx]

I could replace my D5, anyone could voice for these pumps regarding noise profiles and durability/longevity?
thanks in advance!

For that price, you could also do what naekuh did, which is to pickup a dual ddc/top.