Do you really concern about the noise of an air compressor? Read the 9 easy noise deduction tips on how to quiet an air compressor to quiet your machine !
An air compressor is, no doubt, one of the most useful and important tools in your workshop. Whether you are using a couple of air tools or merely filling up the tires of your car, an air compressor can make your life a lot easier. The level of versatility it brings to the workshop is unmatched.
However, for all its benefits, it has one fatal flaw; it can get deafening. That is why it is essential to know a few tricks on how to quiet an air compressor. The high levels of noise produced by this machine can be not only annoying but also harmful when you are using it for an extended period.
In this article, we will give you a complete guideline on how to make an air compressor quiet so that you can enjoy using this tool without having to deal with this issue.
Contents
What is the Level of Air Compressor Noise?
The first thing that you need to understand is how much sound an air compressor actually produces. Keep in mind; the human body can tolerate only a certain level of noise, above which it can be harmful to the ear and cause you to lose your hearing capacity.
The unit for measuring sound level is decibels or dB. For human hearing, 80dB is often considered to be the most you can tolerate without any trouble. If the noise exceeds this level, it will not be comfortable for you to work with the air compressor.
If you are using an ultra-quiet air compressor, you can expect the sound level to be somewhere between 40 to 60 decibels, which is not that bad. Even modern air compressors tend to stay under 70 decibels without any ultra-quiet features.
However, even though 70 decibels is under the tolerance threshold, if you are exposed to this amount of noise for an extended period, the experience will not be very pleasant.
If by chance, you have an older air compressor, you might look at sound levels exceeding the 80 decibels mark, sometimes reaching as much as 95 decibels. Understandably, that is not a noise level that you should be okay with.
Besides, when you are working at your home, you want the noise level to be as low as possible regardless of the air compressor that you are using.
What Causes Noise in an Air Compressor?
There are a couple of reasons that can cause your air compressor to be noisy. Now that you understand the sound levels of typical compressor units, you might benefit from learning where the issue comes from in the first place.
Knowing and understanding the problem is the first step to dealing with it and finding a workaround to reduce the noise levels from your air compressor.
1. Vibration and Friction
Vibration and friction are the most common causes of loud noise levels in air compression. It might not be the only reason, but it is certainly something you need to think about. Depending on the type of air compressor, the amount of vibration can be higher or lower.
Remember, an air compressor contains a lot of small moving parts on the inside. When in use, the components move around, creating friction with each other. Besides, sometimes errors in assembly can also be the cause of unwanted vibration. So it is always important to make sure you assemble your unit properly.
2. Materials of the Air Compressor
Another sector that might affect the noise level is the material of the air compressor. Units that contain cheap and thin metal components are more susceptible to higher levels of noise. Since those parts move around a lot and cause vibration, the overall noise floor increases.
As a result, it is always important to look at the quality of materials when choosing an air compressor. Thick and high-quality metal is always better than cheaper ones and will cause a lot less noise. Since they vibrate less, they help keep the noise at a tolerable level.
3. The Location of the Air Compressor
Where you place the air compressor also plays a large role in the amount of noise it generates. Keeping it in a place surrounded by solid walls might make a lot more noise than if you have it with padded walls. The floor surface also matters when it comes to noise.
The hard wall of a basement or similar rooms can bounce the sound coming from an air compressor and increase it by quite a large margin. That is why, typically, you do not want to place an air compressor in a room that has really bad acoustics.
4. Intake and Exhaust
Both the intake and exhaust component of an air compressor can cause a lot of noise. The intake of the compressor sucks in air from the surrounding, which can generate loud sound making it extremely uncomfortable to be in the same room as the machine.
Similarly, the exhaust pipe or element, if it is located in the same room, can cause a lot of ruckuses. Typically, the exhaust component of the air compressor is one of its noisiest elements. In addition, this component also vibrates a lot, which enhances the noise by a large margin.
How to Make an Air Compressor Quiet – 7 Steps You Must Know!
Now that you have a basic understanding of the things responsible for generating that annoying noise coming out of your air compressor, you can do something about it. Thankfully, most of these steps are quite easy to follow, and you should be able to reduce the noise by a large margin if you follow a few of them.
That being said, unless the noise is absolutely intolerable, there is no reason to do all of them at once. Here are a few hacks to reduce the air compressor noise.
1. Use Rubber Grommets or Feet
One of the easiest ways to reduce some of the noise coming out of the air compressor is by simply using rubber grommets or feet between the surface and the bottom of the compressor. Noise is a natural noise absorbent material and can reduce a lot of the noise that comes out due to vibration.
Although it might not reduce the noise drastically, it will bring it down to a tolerable level. Besides, since rubber grommets are so readily available in any pawnshop or departmental store, it is an easy fix that can help you out a lot in reducing the annoying noise from your compressor.
2. Clean out the Filters
An air compressor has filters on the intake that protects the unit from bringing in dust particles or small elements inside the machine. It serves as a protective feature that ensures your device stays in good working order.
However, as the filter gets dirty and clogged, the efficiency of the unit decreases, and the noise level rises. Sometimes a simple fix to reducing the noise is to take some time and clean out the dust filter in the air compressor. In fact, it should be one of your first troubleshooting steps for reducing noise.
3. Lubricate the Bearings
Remember, an air compressor comes with a lot of moving parts, and it also has a few bearings on the inside. As you operate the compressor, the bearings move in different directions, causing friction that can generate a lot of unwanted noise. If you are using an old unit, the bearing noise can become extremely annoying.
You can fix this problem quite easily simply by lubricating the bearings. Over time, the bearings can lose some of the lubrication that they originally come with, causing the amount of friction to increase. Lubricating the bearings not only reduces the compressor noise but also enhances the lifespan of your unit.
4. Position the Intake Outside
We have already mentioned how the intake of the air compressor is one of the main culprits for the loud noise coming out of your air compressor. Well, if you have a particularly noisy intake, you can simply move the air compressor in a way that it is facing outside.
This can be done by making a hole in the air compressor room that is large enough to let the intake pipe get outside from where it can draw in air. You can even use rubber putties to block the hole, opening effectively cutting off any noise coming out of this element.
5. Soundproofing the Room
If you have some money to spare and want to limit the noise of the air compressor to a single room, then soundproofing might be a valid way to go. You need to insulate the wall of the room where you keep the air compressor with sound-absorbent materials such as drywall or thick blankets.
This would ensure that the sound that the air compressor is making will not reach the rest of the house. In addition, with proper soundproofing, the sound inside the room will not bounce around. The most annoying thing about the air compressor noise is how it bounces off solid surfaces, and with soundproofing, you will be able to remove that issue.
6. Isolation Box for the Air Compressor
If you cannot afford to soundproof or simply do not want to, there is another alternative to this process, the isolation box. In essence, this is a small box with thick padding on the inside, which serves to lock the sound of an air compressor inside, cutting it off from the rest of the room.
An isolation box is a common tool that most music producers use to isolate the sound coming out of an amplifier. Using it for an air compressor is quite similar in theory and can work wonders in reducing the overall noise level of your air compressor.
7. Use a Blanket
Using a blanket under and over the air compressor is also a viable way to reduce some of the noise coming out of your compressor unit. It might not be as effective as some of the other fixes that you see on this list, but it is no doubt an easy fix to do if you need something right at that moment.
Remember to use the thickest blanket you can for the best effect when using it to reduce compressor noise. In addition, you want to engulf the entirety of the compressor, which means putting a blanket or carpet under the compressor and another thick blanket over it.
8. Wearing Ear Protection
We know it is not a fix for your air compressor but rather a fix for yourself. But it is still one of the most effective ways to make it easier to work with an air compressor.
As a DIY enthusiast, you should be wearing ear muffs or noise-canceling earphones anytime you are working with an air compressor. This might not reduce the overall noise of the compressor, but it will make sure that you can have an easier time working on your project.
9. Just Buy a Quieter Unit
If none of the tricks above are working for you, then your only way to go is to simply bite the bullet and buy a new compressor. Even though all of the hacks here should have some effect in relation to the noise, sometimes a compressor is just too noisy to control.
In those situations, it is almost always a better idea to buy a new one instead of running around in circles, trying to fix something that cannot be fixed. If you do decide to get a new unit, make sure you are buying something that has a noise level of 70 decibels at best.
Final Thoughts
We hope our guidelines on how to quiet an air compressor could help you deal with the loud noise coming out of your machine. By following along with a couple of steps mentioned above, you should be able to bring down the noise level and enjoy a productive workflow with your air compressor.
