Is there a quiet air compressor?
 

We’ve got a dry sprinkler system in our clubhouse. It has a small Husky air compressor to refill the air as needed. It sounds like a jet engine when it runs and can be heard throughout the bldg.

We are trying rubber feet, another muffler and maybe an insulated box to quieten it down.

If that doesn’t work, well look at other compressors, but we want a quiet one. Are there any out there?

Any suggestions?

To my knowledge there are no " quiet " compressors but there are quieter . You don't mention if the current compressor is an oil less or oil type . Generally the oil less are noisier . My best suggestion is small oil type compressor and then get creative on noise suppression in the area that the compressor is mounted . Build a room within a room ? Heavy insulation , double thickness sheetrock ? But keep in mind you would probably need a source for incoming air to cool the unit when it is running .

The only way to make a quiet compressor would make it really slow.

At one of my former offices we had air ported to lots of places in the building. The compressor was in a back room up in the ceiling, hanging from four rods on spring mounts. The ceiling tile panel made it pretty quiet. We put in a high quality oil field grade stainless steel ball valve in the bottom of the tank. Just kill the compressor and and turn the handle and drain the tank. It worked great for 25 years. Changing the oil on the compressor was a pain, but not horrible. If you were in that room you could hear it but having a conversation was not a problem.

It was an expensive and complex solution, but it worked great. The easy choice is put the compressor outside.

I think you can get a screw drive compressor that is a lot quieter.

It’s an oil less system located in our riser room, which is in the middle of the building. At this point, there is no way to move it, double the drywall or insulate it.

The sprinkler trade says it should not come on very often. Only if there is an air leak. When it does come on though, it’s very loud. There is a check valve in the system as well.

Put a silencer on the suction side.

have you experimented with acoustic foam and the like?

would be interesting to put a spectrum analyzer in the room and search for materials that absorb the prominent frequencies.

Eastwood is now selling a scroll type compressor that is extremely quiet. Its not cheap but I think its the least expensive scroll type compressor on the market. They sold out of the initial run and are taking orders now for April delivery.

https://www.eastwood.com/scroll-compressors
https://www.eastwood.com/images/emai...ll_bot_top.png

LOOKS LIKE THEY STILL HAVE IT'S BIGGER BROTHER.


https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-qst-30-60-quiet-scroll-air-compressor.html
https://www.eastwood.com/images/3170...e640_chart.jpg

Ho
Lee
Sheet.


That has got to be the greatest innovation in amateur wrenching since the ratcheting wrench.

A quick search shows a lot of quiet compressors. We only need a 6-10 gallon unit. I saw that some were 45 to 60 dB’s. Cheap too...$350 and less.

+1

And if it's $1300 at Eastwood, the exact same unit is probably available somewhere else for $400.

Have you looked at California Air Tools? California Air Tools

I have this one (which is much smaller than you require):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TDNKBMC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is a great little QUIET unit.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1516119989.jpg

We run a couple of small Thomas compressors on our job. I love them as they are so much quieter then the home depot jobs but they are about 50% more money but worth it too my poor ears.

I have one of these... Shockingly quiet. Great compressor.

That Eastwood unit looks good but too bad it's only 12cfms. Can't do much with that if you are a home mechanic using air tools or a blast cabinet.

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Acoustical drywall

https://www.acousticalsurfaces.com/soundbreak/soundbreak.htm

Just saw this on a DIY program. Absorbs 8X more sound than normal drywall.

Any chance to replace the existing drywall?

Simpler to line the walls with sound absorbing material, something like roxul works great. I have similar drywall on the wall shared with my garage. Works, and an improvement but there is more to it than just drywall.

Here's my question about the Eastwood scroll compressor: if the pump is really so badass, why give it a tank only 1/2 the size of a normal compressor? They cite 2:50 to fill the tank, but as a metric, it's interesting but useless - how often do you really fill the tank from empty?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1516133192.png

With a 100% duty cycle I would expect it to be running all the time, at least with any high use tool.

Interesting Evaluating True Horsepower and CFM Ratings of Air Compressors

Is there a quiet air compressor?
 

If you put in a box you’ll need to force vent it or it’ll overheat. Look up “Rotary Vane Compressor”. Not cheap, but dead quiet and very high output.
Quincy makes a fine unit. https://www.aircompressorsdirect.com/Quincy-4152002723-Air-Compressor/p10831.html

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You guys know damn well that California air compressor ain't gonna run no air tools. A air brush or a finish nail gun, that it.

That's the brand I did a search on. Very quiet.

The dry system is less than 100 gallons, so a small compressor that kicks on every so often will work.

It fills tires. Not much more. Not designed for heavy use. It is aluminum and easy to transport.

I use battery impacts. For high output I use PowerTank.

Now with all of that said, read the original requirement. Does not include high consumption tools.

My recommendation? Stay away from oil less. Not only are they objectively louder, their sound quality is much "harsher" than an oil type. I've owned the Makita MAC700 for years, and it's a powerful little workhouse. Decently quiet and trouble free.

Nonsense....I have a large tank in my garage, and picked up a small tank compressor for flooring projects and wanted something portable years ago. I don't use air tools that require a constant flow usually, so my small tank does great with all my nailers, powerful impact wrench, etc....90 psi is all that matters....rarely do I use my large tank any more...

I have used isolation feet under the compressor which helps. The big improvement I have made is to fab up a hose adapter and use radiator hose (and tube if it is a long run) to pipe the air inlet outside and put a protected air filter outside. That move most of the noise outdoors, which may not thrill your neighbors.
With the popularity of "cold air intakes" I have seen custom intake "kits" at the auto parts store, which might be easier than my solution with radiator hose.

You can also use compressed air or nitrogen in bottles for your dry system but there are some code requirements for monitoring pressure.