Quieting an Air Compressor

[Greg Rawls]

I'm stuck keeping my air compressor in my studio (aka garage) and the noise level is very high! I decided to use what I know about noise control (I'm a Certified Industrial Hygienist in my "day job"). The results were great! I achieved an 18 decibel noise reduction! If you would like to see how I built it, check out my web site:

http://www.gregorieglass.com

Click on the "Glass Artist Health & Safety" link, then click on "Health (Noise, Heat, Radiation)" then scroll down. Hope this is helpful! By the way, I spent only $60!

[Annah James]

Greg:
Where are the baffles located in the finished box?? On the top? Or is it wider than the compressor and they are on the sides?? Sorry - I got confused by the photos.

Great idea, btw. I hate wearing earplugs - I DO it, but I hate it. They bug me...

Annah

[jerry flanary]

Excellent!
It is wonderful to see Somebody talking about safety on their website as well as their glass. Leave it to a Safety Professional, I guess. Nice glass to boot. I have a friend in Tucson w/ a much larger compressor in a similar enclosure but a using a Granger muffler. It's a great solution. Thanks for all the pics.

[Brian and Jenny Blanthorn]

I'm stuck keeping my air compressor in my studio (aka garage) and the noise level is very high! I decided to use what I know about noise control (I'm a Certified Industrial Hygienist in my "day job"). The results were great! I achieved an 18 decibel noise reduction! If you would like to see how I built it, check out my web site:

http://www.gregorieglass.com

Click on the "Glass Artist Health & Safety" link, then click on "Health (Noise, Heat, Radiation)" then scroll down. Hope this is helpful! By the way, I spent only $60!

Hi Greg

Nice solution

My thoughts R

MayB use plaster board

MayB few more of the vents baffles U made as I would B concerned about heat build up

Is the sound insulation fire proof ?



Is the compressor on soft bace like rubber feet ??

Brian

[Tony Smith]

I like the idea of baffling the compressor to reduce the noise Greg, but be careful that your compressor doesn't overheat. The compressor head has fins on it to help dissipate heat, but it depends on having free airflow. You may find that you end up with premature failure of your seals.

Tony

[Ron Coleman]

I like the idea of baffling the compressor to reduce the noise Greg, but be careful that your compressor doesn't overheat. The compressor head has fins on it to help dissipate heat, but it depends on having free airflow. You may find that you end up with premature failure of your seals.

Tony

I second that motion.

And add that fiberglass duct liner would be a better sound absorbing material than the foam and not flamable either. See your firendly HVAC shop for duct liner. Attach with spray adhesive.

Ron

[Tony Serviente]

And with the enclosure and bafflling, don't forget to allow easy access to the drain plug at the bottom of the tank. If you don't make it easy to get to it you won't drain it often, and not only will your tank rust faster, but there will be more water vapor in the lines.

[Rick Wilton]

You can achieve at least a 100% reduction with an oil air compressor. When your oiless one dies, which it will especially enclosed. My new oil compressor you can stand right beside it and carry on a conversation with someone without yelling. Years ago I had put my oiless in a small room under my stairs and it got quite warm in there. Remember oiless compressors have no way to disipate heat other than the surrounding air.
If that air is already hot, your teflon rings in the compressor will fail sooner.


You do have some other good info on your site though
Rick Wilton

[Jackie Beckman]

Our compressor is loud and so I just showed your set-up to my husband. He says your pistons and rings are going to fail. I thought it looked like a good idea myself, because our compressor is just outside the garage and I'm sure the entire neighborhood can hear it.

Jackie

[rodney]

i like your work very much,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,use good ear plugs, AND get a set of those gun shooter ear mug looking things, that will help out

good luck
rodney

[charlie]

I'm stuck keeping my air compressor in my studio (aka garage) and the noise level is very high! I decided to use what I know about noise control (I'm a Certified Industrial Hygienist in my "day job"). The results were great! I achieved an 18 decibel noise reduction! If you would like to see how I built it, check out my web site:

http://www.gregorieglass.com

Click on the "Glass Artist Health & Safety" link, then click on "Health (Noise, Heat, Radiation)" then scroll down. Hope this is helpful! By the way, I spent only $60!

the generally acceptable way to do this is to build a room outside, insulate the room for sound (double, acoustically isolated walls, etc), and pipe the air into the shop through the wall.

building an insulated box for a compressor is a bad idea, especially using insulation used for temperature rather than sound isolation. you should add some sort of forced air duct to that with a blower and a tube from the outside, and a baffled exhaust, which would cause your compressor to have a much better lifespan.

[Jackie Beckman]

Our compressor is loud and so I just showed your set-up to my husband. He says your pistons and rings are going to fail. I thought it looked like a good idea myself, because our compressor is just outside the garage and I'm sure the entire neighborhood can hear it.

Jackie

Gee, I just re-read this and didn't mean to sound flip in any way. Sorry if I did. By the way, I just looked at your work - it's beautiful.

Jackie

[slats]

havent gotten to that yet but I must compliment you on your work....absolutely beautiful!

[Greg Rawls]

Thanks for the compliments/suggestions. Let me see if I can answer all the questions:

1) Yes there is heat buildup. I am going to add forced air exhaust this weekend.
2) Sheet rock will work too, but it is fragile. What about cement board? That would work too.
3) Flammability - I need to look into this.
4) "the generally acceptable way to do this is to build a room outside, insulate the room for sound (double, acoustically isolated walls, etc), and pipe the air into the shop through the wall. " THis is what I would do if not for (a) not allowed in my neighborhood (b) too loud for the neighbors.
5) Why would the pisotns fail? I'm adding forced air ventilation
6) Accessing the drain hole is not a problem. Turn off the compressor, open the door, open the drain hole.
"Is the compressor on soft bace like rubber feet ?? "
It sits on rubber gasket. Gives a good seal and provides vibration isolation.
9) "Where are the baffles located in the finished box?? " On the back.

This is an experiment to see what works. I imagine I will improve the design with all the good suggestions.

[charlie]

4: build a double box. have the connections between the two walls be as minimal as possible. insulate between the two with a better sound insulation than foam insulation. since there's not much base in compressor noise, it'll be better if you use a light substance like acoustical foam bats or loosely packed fiberglas wall insulation, or even a thin mattress pad. it's the air pockets that trap the noise. if there were a base problem, you'd want something dense in the wall. the noise will get conducted through whatever material you're using to connect the walls of the 2 boxes together, so you want to make them be foam blocks.

you'll still need baffled positive air flow, both in and out.

[Greg Rawls]

Update on the compressor enclosure. Added a bathroom exhaust fan to the enclosure and did not compromise the noise attenuation but fixed the heat problem.

[K Okahashi]

Greg (and the rest of the gang),

Thank you for sharing this. I normally wear good ear muffs and it has made a huge difference (forget the ear plugs- spend the $30 or so bucks and get some good muffs). This really helps me to decide on where to put the compressor and what I should watch out for. We are lucky enough to have a shed next to the shop so we'll just punch out a hole in the wall and run the lines (keeping the compressor in the shed instead).


Thanks again for sharing!
keiko

[Kevin Midgley]

Soft sponge rubber hockey pucks are great to stand noisy equipment on. Just be sure the machine cannot walk off them. Kevin in Tofino.

[Tony Smith]

Greg (and the rest of the gang),

Thank you for sharing this. I normally wear good ear muffs and it has made a huge difference (forget the ear plugs- spend the $30 or so bucks and get some good muffs). This really helps me to decide on where to put the compressor and what I should watch out for. We are lucky enough to have a shed next to the shop so we'll just punch out a hole in the wall and run the lines (keeping the compressor in the shed instead).


Thanks again for sharing!
keiko

I just bought a box of low pressure foam, 30dB earplugs http://www.galeton.com/item_group.asp?G ... egoryID=22 and they are amazing... I'll never use earmuffs again... the muffs don't compare in attenuation and certainly not in comfort.

Tony