How loud is your compressor!!!

Is there any way to quiet up my air compressor. I get home late in the evening and the other day the Police paid me a visit because some one in the neghborhood complained about my compressor keeping them awake. The police said I had to cut the noise out or he would have to write me a sitation. So has any one had luck with getting there compressor quiet?

 

No...but how about turning it off when you're not using it?

 

Build it a home.

 

Make an enclosure that sits over it. Try the 2" foam that you use to insulate metal roofs, concrete walls... Its light, easy to cut, and it works

second, get better neighbors.

Adam

 

Build an enclosure around it and sound proof the crap out of it. Make sure to allow for good ventilation, but trick will be to do it in a way that still maintains as much sound proofing as possible. Fireproof it well too. Wood studs, fiberglass insulation and and a layer or 2 of drywall and some sort of baffled ventilation.

 

What did you say?.......I can't hear you!


My compressor is too loud.

 

I wouldn't put an enclosure over it, if it is of any size it needs cooling. Try piping your intake outside, a large amount of noise comes out of the intake.

If it is an oil-less compressor, you're screwed. They will always suck and be loud.

 

I hate the noise of my compressor. I am moving into a new 24'x40' shop and am also looking into ideas on how to quite the noise (in the shop). I'm tempted to mount it in a in a small shed attached to the backside of the shop, but am concerned with the compressor being in an unheated shed in the winter.

Anyone have any suggestions?? enclosures, sound-deadening material, etc...???

 

I do my best not to use mine, I use my speed wrench as often as I can, it builds the fore arms up too.

 

My dad has a devilibiss that is creepy quiet. But, I do agree with everyone else about building it a "home". If I ever build my dream shop, the AC will be in a separate shed. As for the guys asking about that, I have worked at places with outside air comps and we never had any problems that I remember. I think a little google research on sound deadening, and you will be good to go.

 

when I built the garage I added a small room for the compressor with vents top and bottom, external air shut off, drain and disconnects and used rigid foam to keep the neighbors happy and keep the noise out of the garage. I have a removeable wall to allow access for maintenance and it has worked well for the last five years. I also shut down the garage when I leave(except the fridge plug)!
I also adapted a 14" air cleaner to the intake, it makes it louder but it is a real filter.

 

I made a muffler for the air intake on mine. It also is outside the shop in its own encloser .Can't hear it run inside the shop.

 

What!?!

 

my compressor is old, as far as i know it was installed new in 1939, then in the late 50's it was allowed to run low on oil and burned up a rod bearing, then sold to the current owner who redid the bearing and it has been in use to this day, its mounted up high in the shop, about 12 ft up, it is very quite for its size, not sure of the cfm, before i moved here i had a newer 5HP, that thing was so loud i put it outside under a roof, that reminds me i should go check the oil in the old comp, they dont make em like they used to.

 

Dave, whatever you do, DO NOT put it outside in the cold weather. I guarantee you that if it gets below 40 degress, it will not run and only blow circuits as the 30w oil gets thick and the hoses get hard and makes for 1 hell of a disappointment.

 

buy a rotary style, nice and quiet

 

what do you use for a water separator in NOLA? that humidity is killer.
I have a small enclosure in the corner with a door to the outside only. I usually keep the mower in there. most of the time though, I just take it outside and let the neighbors hear it.

 

Make sure that the "feet" are on a rubber/or surface . A lot of vibration can be absorbed by this method.

 

I bought a Kellogg American three phase "commercial" compressor, and a three phase rotary connverter. You can talk over the motor while running, and my tools make more noise than the compressor does. Creepy quiet.

 

the more you spend, the more cfm/decibel you get

I put my old big 5 hp unit outside the shop, but made the mistake of putting it on the side of the shop that the house is on. I hear it at night occasionally. Shutting off the air valve and making sure there are no leaks keeps it from running if you're not using it...or just kill the power to it, and let it pump up again every time you turn it on.

 

I have a pair of compressors - an older CH and a Speedaire. Speedaire is Grangers industrial house brand. THey are made in Ohio last I checked. They are both 3.5hp compressors, but the Speedaire is half as loud as the CH, but was twice as expensive when new. I guess

I have them both in a seperate room in my shop, and you can't hear when the speedaire is running if you are not in the room, and can barely hear the CH.

 

Mount it high as you can , mount it on isolaters (sp) run a car air filter complete with snorkle .
It helps and it frees up some floor space .
Brian

 

I have a two-car garage attached to my house. My compressor is in the basement of the house, with a line run out to the garage. I mounted the comp to two large chunks of wood and the bottom of the wood is insulated from the floor using rubber from an old tire. I can't hear it when I am in the garage, and to be honest it really doesn't make much noise inside the house either.

 

There are a lot of "5hp 10 -13.5 cfm" compressors out there that are not really 5hp at all (there is a big class action suit about that - for another forum) and I had one. Stupid motor ran backwards and was not the kind of motor that you could re-wire to reverse it's rotation - cheap ass foreign crap. I pillaged a buddie's compressor (threw a rod) and got a proper 5hp motor and bought a bigger two stage compressor pump that runs at 1/2 the rpm and makes nearly twice the air. I had to figure out the correct pulleys for the desired r.p.m., but I love it and am not in near as much of a hurry to get it the F%#& out of the shop and Hide it. It also recovers and shuts off while using body shop tools - very cool

If you put it in it's own shed, there are reasonably cheap ways to keep it warm (unless you live in Alaska or someplace like it) but be sure that you want to keep it atleast above freezing... And NEVER use rigid PVC plastic for high pressure air lines. Mine exploded - shards of plastic EVERYWHERE and some would have been in me if I had not gone in for a coffee refill when she blew.

 

I have a Brunner v4 reciprocating compressor from 1955, with a newer 230V 5 horse baldor motor,you know when its on but you just barely have to raise your voice to talk over it

 

Expensive but a screw compressor will be very quite. They IR has small versions that would suit a medium home shop. OR

Since 95% of the noise comes from the intake, plumb the inlet out side and through a muffled filter.

 

An enclose does work, you simply have to have a path for air to pass over the fan blades, and to allow a hot air to escape. The 2" thick blue foam at Lowes (or 4+ sheets of the thinner pink stuff, works great. I also made rubber mounts for mine where it attaches to the floor. made a world of difference.
If you have the money, a new CP or Kaiser is the answer, they are amazingly quiet.

 

Awesome units for sure but unless you are going to use enough air to keep them running for at least 4hrs or more you will run into service issues and premature failure of parts. Wich can cost you severly in the long run. I work on and install these units for a living and I see it everyday. As for your noise issue to the op you can plumb the inlets or inlet further away or outside somewhere but you will have to double the size of your piping every 8 feet or so to compensate for the demand.
Should you choose the enclosure route remember like someone already said you have to be able to cool the unit otherwise it will fail for sure,you can add an electric fan to the enclosure to help it. Make sure to have adeqate space around the unit inside the enclosure to prevent a fire and aid in airflow ,if you are a homeowner check your insurance before you take the chance. Honestly if you can get around doing an enclosure I would because it will probably cause more problems.And last if it is one of those oilfree units niether one of these options will really help you.

 

its a 60 gallon oil unit from harber freight, it prity quiet for what it is. its quiter than the small compressor I have in my truck. Thanks for the advice im going to try the enclosure. It crosed my mind a few times but I was worried about over heating. cant go up the garadge is only 7foot 6 in tall. any one care to show a pic of the muffler system they made and explaine what they used. And to the guy with the dryer question we use a Devilbiss dryer in the Bodyshop where I work.

 

Mine is a Black Max unit from Sam's Club, bought about 15 years ago. 220v, 5hp, either 60 or 80 gallon tank. It sits in one of them pre-fab wooden garden sheds like you see in the parking lots of Home Depot and Lowes, along with all my garden tools and stuff. Steel pipe thru the wall brings the compressed air into the 2 car garage and is plumbed to a regulator/separator. Neither the garage nor the shed is heated, and I was working out there a few weeks ago in mid-20's temps. In the house you can't hear it at all, but in the garage I can just hear it turn on and off if I don't have the stereo on.