Quiet. The Neighbors Can Hear You (Sound Control Thread)

Astaldoath

Well-Known Member
hey guys over all which is quieter? A vortex fan or a centrifugal, both being 6 inch pushing around 450 cfm?

Im gonna get a fan controller, carbon filter and line my cabinet with fiberglass and egg crate foam. Just need my next door neighbors need to not here it (half a double)
 

Cap'n Jack

Member
If you add a length of 8 inch ducting lined with egg foam to your 6 inch ducting, you should see a reduction in air noise. The closer to the exaust end the better.
 
"WHITE NOISE"

I was concerned about the sounds of my new, larger exhaust fans. I had to think about finding some way to "mask" that constant noise from the neighbors.


I had a "Dream Machine" (a multi-sound generating device) that I bought some time ago at a yard sale. Other manufactures have similar 'sleep machines' too.


I first installed my Machine outside and I made sure my Machine was weather protected. Install the machine outside somewhere between your fan exhaust and your neighbors. You may need a extension cord if you don't have a convenient AC outlet outside?*


Turn your Machine on and select
"BABBLING BROOK". That sound mimics "WHITE NOISE" very well. Now over a few days slowly turn it up just enough to "mask" the fan noise and no higher. Now I know my fans are running, but I have to really listen to hear it. Now my backyard sounds like a babbling fountain is gently running 'somewhere' and my neighbors love it ~ I do too!

A easy way to test if this approach is good for your needs is to get a used FM radio and tune it
between stations where a similar "WHITE NOISE" is heard! Don't pick on a ratty portable, but try to use a smaller desktop radio. A FM radio with tone control is even better so you can tailor your 'brook' for best sounds. This approach should serve you well too. If you are satisfied with the approach, you may want to invest in a 'real' sleep machine... the choice is yours!

Also important ~ No matter what you do, keep your equipment dry.

I remain,

SOGLAD

*NOTE: What I actually did was to unplug the Machine, remove 3 screws and I drilled one hole in the plastic body just big enough for the smallest speaker wire I could find.


I soldered the 2 speaker wires to the internal speaker and added a simple knot in the wire to help keep the speaker wire from pulling out. I ran the speaker wire outside to my new speaker up perched up in a eave under the roof line. I picked on a smaller inexpensive speaker to compliment the high-frequency part of the sound(s).
Once I had the wire and speaker this less than 15 minutes to complete.

The eaves added sound depth and dispersion. You may not choose to go through this kind of effort, but so far this very inexpensive project is serving me extremely well!

I bought my sound machine for $4 used. Check eBay for: "sleep sound machine". Or, place a ad on CraigsList looking for a used one.

 

happihour

Member
There is a building material called donna carra it is like a cork board type of material it is extremely sound absorbant and very lightweight so not to stretch the bungees too much
 

cymbaline

Well-Known Member
I did away with the exhaust and turned the room into a CGE and now the filter acts as a scrubber.
Cut off 4 feet from my insulated ducting and put it on the exhaust part of the fan as a muffler.
It's much quieter now than when it was acting as an exhaust. I think part of my issue on the exhaust was I had too long of the insulated flex duct
and it was working the fan overtime. Either way it's all moot now.. I don't even have the foam surrounding it like before.
I still want to try some of that mass loaded vinyl I found that seems like a very good way to deaden noise.
 

meetzu

Well-Known Member
Any tips on quieting an air pump ?
Sx
I am curious on this as well. I can keep the vibrations down but if i do any kind of padding box shit with mine it will get ridiculously hot and then that makes for a hot res. In the winter I think I could with temps in the 10's-40's with the pump intake running outside.. but for now I have no ideas.
 

nog

Active Member
i used to worry about the hum from my air pumps, but when i had fish tanks the pumps were running and no one said anything so why should they now? some pumps are louder than others, i have bought "silent" air pumps that sounded like a jackhammer, i have found that Rena and JUN pumps are fiarly quiet. i use 6 through a 6 way manifold into a 13mm pipe, then at the other end is another manifold, i can run upto 12 buckets from this. 6 smaller pumps are better than 1 big one, and running them through a manifold is good because if one pump pcks in the other 5 still areate the buckets, if one big one packs in your knakered. oh, the pumps are situated well away from the grow area, in a quiet isolated place.
 
what about those acoustic and ISO box fans, how quiet are they really compared to a similarly rated regular inline fan? im tempted by some of these despite their higher prices and lower air rates (mm for mm compared to regular inline fans)
 
I would think that in an effort to avoid IR helicopter detection, walls should be covered with insulation anways. That in itself is quite a potent noise reducer
 

curioushiker

Active Member
G'day

does reducing the size of the duct on the input of an inline fan increase the noise?
Most certainly will. You want to go the other way. If the intake duct and exhaust duct is larger that the diameter of the fan that will help to decrease the noise.
If space permits, use insulated duct and stay away from the flexible aluminum duct.
Also, if space permits. use a larger fan with longer ducting. This will allow you to direct the sound farther away from the source.
When running the ducting bends are fine as long as it does not restrict the airflow too much but remember to keep the last two or three feet as straight as posssible.
 

The Grinch

Well-Known Member
hey curious, thanks for the reply.

the problem is that i can't find a cooltube the same size as my fan - fan 200mm, cooltube 150mm.

i'll be going from cooltube, through sound proofed ducting into fan - which will be in one of those boxes from page 1 - from that into a can fan silencer, and from that into a carbon filter. the air is then output into a smallish chamber lined with audio sound proofing foam, and goes through a few bends before outputting into another room (baffle?).

would i be best attaching the reducer directly to the fan, and putting that into the sound proofed box, or attach it to the cooltube, or will it not matter and be about the same for each?

alternatively, could i just attach the 200mm ducting to the 150mm cooltube and use duct clamps and a lot of duct tape or would that lower efficency?

thanks
grinch
 
I just got a variac transformer for 45 bucks .... man did it do wonders !!!!
The sound of the fan is gone if i need to lower the power , with the speedster , it hummed like crazy , now at nite
I can have the fan on at less than half speed and it is no sound what so ever , period !!! I was going crazy with the sound at nite
the Ol lady was gettin paranoid about the neighbors as well . So i did the research and found out about the variac transformer . It fucken works , and if that is your problem , i would suggest you getting one . Make sure that the thing can handle twice the amps you need , for instance , my fan is 1 .19 amps so i got 3 amps . The fan will charge up a lil over the listed amps so you want the extra coverage to ensure safety . Other than that , No worries .

here is the link
http://www.officebeyond.com/vaau.html?gclid=CLzNiLeq06QCFQwDbAodQ2ROLQ
 
Top