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

I.P.J.

I.P.J.

New Member
Notillcanna96 said:
Point is, don’t worry about noise. That’s the last thing to worry about. More important aspects of security to think about is visibility of the operation from within your home never mind outside. And the most important of all, smell. If you’re good on those 2, then you have no worries. Unless you don’t pay your electric bill. Luckily I live in a state where it’s legal to grow cannabis whether it’s recreational or medical. All I gotta worry about is jackboys and I live in a quiet community with security cameras and dogs.
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I humbly beg to differ. Both noise and smell are just aspects of the 'visibility' you mention. Assuming we're talking about a residential grow in a block of flats for example, ignoring the you and/or your equipment create can lead to somebody unintended perform the harvest for you. Not to mention actually taking the fruits of your labor and incinerating them in a giant pile of dope or whatever it is that happens to confiscated plant material. Sure, I used to think exactly like this, that is until a neighbor kindly slipped me a note under the door basically saying "dude, the sound coming from your tent, fans etc is so obvious it's making me paranoid! I hope you got the smell part covered... p.s. don't worry, won't tell". I'm a very quiet person in general, no visitors, definitely no partying, use headphones etc, but holy shit was that dude right. All I had to do was listen and it didn't take more than a few days to figure out he is definitely a hydro guy using clay pebbles as substrate. Neither one has light leaks, there's no smells, no usual clues to the outside.

I seriously had no idea how loud the structural vibrations from fans can get and how funky are their ways of travel.. if I closed the door to that grow room and you were standing on the other side, chances are you wouldn't have heard a thing. When I left the apartment however... well let's just say you could hear that damn exhaust fan (which was inaudible from behind the grow room door) a couple floors up or down and even smell would have been less obvious as to where exactly is it coming from! Not only do vibrations like to travel through structures, they often get amplified on top of it too.

Bottom line, noise is just as important as light and odor when it comes to stealthiness. Sure grandma living upstairs might not recognize the sound a hydro setup makes or could mistake your grow room fans for the HVAC system of the house, but if that's the attitude might as well not care about any smells either because what are the chances people living in your neighborhood recognize it as weed specifically? :P

Also, hello everyone, first time poster here! Migrating from another forum as I'm looking for a place for hobby related discussion ;)
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
I.P.J. said:
I humbly beg to differ. Both noise and smell are just aspects of the 'visibility' you mention. Assuming we're talking about a residential grow in a block of flats for example, ignoring the you and/or your equipment create can lead to somebody unintended perform the harvest for you. Not to mention actually taking the fruits of your labor and incinerating them in a giant pile of dope or whatever it is that happens to confiscated plant material. Sure, I used to think exactly like this, that is until a neighbor kindly slipped me a note under the door basically saying "dude, the sound coming from your tent, fans etc is so obvious it's making me paranoid! I hope you got the smell part covered... p.s. don't worry, won't tell". I'm a very quiet person in general, no visitors, definitely no partying, use headphones etc, but holy shit was that dude right. All I had to do was listen and it didn't take more than a few days to figure out he is definitely a hydro guy using clay pebbles as substrate. Neither one has light leaks, there's no smells, no usual clues to the outside.

I seriously had no idea how loud the structural vibrations from fans can get and how funky are their ways of travel.. if I closed the door to that grow room and you were standing on the other side, chances are you wouldn't have heard a thing. When I left the apartment however... well let's just say you could hear that damn exhaust fan (which was inaudible from behind the grow room door) a couple floors up or down and even smell would have been less obvious as to where exactly is it coming from! Not only do vibrations like to travel through structures, they often get amplified on top of it too.

Bottom line, noise is just as important as light and odor when it comes to stealthiness. Sure grandma living upstairs might not recognize the sound a hydro setup makes or could mistake your grow room fans for the HVAC system of the house, but if that's the attitude might as well not care about any smells either because what are the chances people living in your neighborhood recognize it as weed specifically? :P

Also, hello everyone, first time poster here! Migrating from another forum as I'm looking for a place for hobby related discussion ;)
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Firstly I agree completely.
Noise is a big issue, some fans create tones than will pass easily through brick walls, such frequencies are almost impossible to soundproof against.
If I heard those noises late at night coming through my wall I would know exactly what is was.
In areas of my country there are gangs of kids going round listening out for fan hum and kicking peoples doors in with baseball bats in hand or worse knowing no grower is going to ring the police.

Secondly, welcome to RIU!
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
This seems to be a good place to post a link to the latest fan I bought.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hydroponics-Silent-6-Inch-150mm-370m3-h-GROW-ROOM-ACOUSTIC-BOX-EXTRACTOR-FAN/262879275996?hash=item3d34d36bdc:g:fMgAAOSwHSRbs0eh

It might look nothing special but it shifts air well through any resistance and is almost completely silent with ducting and filter attached. Only 25db.

I used to own this, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ISO-MAX-FANS-AIRFORCE-2-ACOUSTIC-SILENT-ALL-SIZES-HYDROPONICS/162140408109?hash=item25c052492d:m:mTEfo6p0w749D_9BROc94SQ

Nothing quiet about it at 50bd.

Main difference is in the type of motor and blade. Box fans that use squirrel cage fans don't hum like inline motors
 
Puff_Dragon

Puff_Dragon

Well-Known Member
I grow with an indoor tent (the largest fan vibrates the tent which then travels downstairs).
So I put the tent on a big (foam) sheet of boat sound proofing (ordered from eBay), which stopped these vibrations.
I also found you could simply 'roll' the fan up in one of these thick sound proofing sheets ..then add some duct tape to seal the deal. A 'little' DIY ..but worked surprisingly well to quiet the fan noise overall :)
 
Brycec

Brycec

Well-Known Member
john cutter said:
Hey guys, I just moved to a new apartment this weekend. Went from a place with no worry about noise issues and now I am getting nervous about this new place.

My main concern is the humming of my ballast. I want to build a box for it and line the inside with foam. My concern is that it will get too hot. Earlier today I placed the ballast inside a cardboard box with towels wrapping the box, took care of the noise, but it quickly got too hot.

Any ideas? will a properly constructed box get rid of the heat issue?
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You can't do much about the ballast. They all tend to get hot. Your best bet would be to do what Gr8fulgreen suggests and use acoustic foam on the walls of the room your tent is in.
 
Blossom21

Blossom21

Active Member
I have a 5" fan and a 4x4 tent, would bigger (6") ducting be better than to just get matching 5" ducting to reduce sound? I already got a fan speed controller, but that doesn't magically remove all sound.

I tested the fan with some acoustic ducting and a carbon filter, most of the sound seems to be coming from the carbon filter side when i covered up my fan with some foaming. I could spend 40 bucks for a silencer and place that in between the fan and the carbon filter, but then i would need to make two 90* turns out of ducting so i can fit the whole thing in my tent.

Or i could try to make some weird system where i only put the carbon filter inside the tent and the fan outside, maybe even go crazy and add two silencers and make a big box on top of the fan. I just need to get the whole system as quiet as possible as i'm going to sleep next to it. All ideas are welcome :)

E: Just figured out that with a silencer i would just barely be able to fit the filter, silencer and the fan in a straight line in the middle of my tent and then have ducting coming straight out in the middle hole. If i need to build a silencer box around the fan then it has to be outside, but don't know how would i even mount it then. And need to figure out if the bigger ducting is better.
 
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Ozmap

Ozmap

Active Member
My spot is in a small tent in a cupboard, in my bedroom. While nobody has a reason to go in there, I do get visitors and I won't rule out that nobody would NEVER go in the room. ie: someone visits, says, "Hey I saw this bedside lamp and thought that you'd like it to match your curtains..." or something. While you are taking a pee, you hear, "I put it on your drawers for you." or whatever. While most people here might jump up and down about anyone going near their room 'uninvited', it would be out of character for me to do it with my visitors, because I have never cared before if someone goes in there, so why get weird?

I want people to be able to stand next to my cupboard (worst plausible case scenario) and not be suspicious. (..don't we all?)
My contribution to this thread of possible noise solutions is that I've been playing with the idea of a pedestal fan outside my grow that comes on when the door opens. I could probably just leave it on, but I am trying to reduce power in the room, as it has just the one double power point.

I was thinking that a reed switch in the door could either turn the fan on when it opens, OR the more power-saving and SILENT method, grow autos and have the reed switch in the door still, but it turns the whole setup OFF completely, when the door opens, and back on when it closes. Not sure how HIDs these days would like the quick off and on visit, but I'm not using them at the moment.

Maybe I'll just put a clock radio there with some static noise coming from it and say, "I'll tune that, one day" if anyone ever opens the door or follows me in while I get a jacket or something to put on.
 
S

sucker4sativa

Member
I stand in the basement next to my 6" AC Infinity Cloudline fan at 3/8 speed and I think it's pretty quiet. But go up stairs and the damn thing is reverberating thru the floor. I have it mounted to the floor joist so my first thought is that I should try some rubber pads between the metal mount and the joist. Research is in order but I just wanted to throw this out there. It may sound silent in the same room, but what about the next floor up/down?
 
Blossom21

Blossom21

Active Member
sucker4sativa said:
I stand in the basement next to my 6" AC Infinity Cloudline fan at 3/8 speed and I think it's pretty quiet. But go up stairs and the damn thing is reverberating thru the floor. I have it mounted to the floor joist so my first thought is that I should try some rubber pads between the metal mount and the joist. Research is in order but I just wanted to throw this out there. It may sound silent in the same room, but what about the next floor up/down?
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If you mount a fan to the floor or a wall directly, it will most likely vibrate through the floor/walls. The best option would be to hang the fan somehow so it doesn't touch anything, but i don't know how your setup looks like or if it is even possible to hang it like that in your situation. Some rubber pads or some other soft material could probably help, but i don't know how much.
 
SmoltimeGrow

SmoltimeGrow

Active Member
I live in a loft and my downstairs neighbors could hear the “humming” from my DWC buckets & pulp. So I used some soundproofing foam, cheap workout flooring, and some sticky Velcro strips to make these sound buffering mats for the setup. Can’t hear a single vibration, or feel one, after placing them in the tent. 92640C5C-3EA8-4F2C-88FC-56A2C50D4F2B.jpegF36E70DD-23EF-43A7-A914-20FFF0497FA9.jpeg5CCD707D-19C4-4621-99F1-6BBEAC7D2C07.jpeg16E3949A-A28B-4277-B91F-A72F49FA606A.jpeg6533D53E-B3D5-44B2-8574-1D43EA66E0DC.jpegE05B07F5-261A-4B8F-89D8-903E5CC27034.jpeg
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
A couple of things I've picked up that other people might or might not have tried, lol I didn't read all the posts I've no real noise issues personally.

No1) A variac is a superb tool to combat fan noise, you have control over the speed and 100% buzz free 0/100% its silent.

Buying a bigger fan than you need then turning it down 25/30% makes a huge noise difference for the same airflow.

Box it... Get a suitable box cut all the necessary holes then wrap the fan in plastic or cling film put it in the box then fill with builder's expanding foam.


Hanging fans... Fans imo should always be hung on elastic of some sort, vibration can't travel through elastic.
 
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