Trying to quiet down the compressor

[car-nut]

Has anyone installed some sort of muffler set up on the compessor to quiet it down? Did it work? How exactly did you do it?

The guy that comes into our shop to maintane our shop compressors was telling me about being able to install a muffler setup through a outside wall to quiet down the noise.

Has anyone done this and how much did it affect the noise levels?

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Its true that intake noise is the largest part of a (normal) compressors noise output. With oilless units they run faster and produce alot more mechanical noise from the thin aluminum housing. Muffling the intake on a oilless unit I suspect would not achieve much, but on a standard compressor, especially a large stationary unit (5 hp and up) I suspect it would be very effective, as most of the noise is air being sucked in the air filter.

Charles

 

[Itzkwik]

Saw this posted somewhere. Maybe here? Gonna try it when I get my new IR.

 

[russlaferrera]

I have a 2 hp Quincy. I tried a test putting the air intake into a 5 gallon bucket filled with insulation with the factory muffler attached. This did reduce the noise a fair amount. Most of the noise came from the pump.

My next idea is to enclose the compressor with insulation (R30) or spray foam with a 2x4 frame leaving a 2 ft clearance and put a small fan for cooling at the top and see if it's any quieter.

Hope this gives ya some ideas....russ

 

[Fueler]

Piece of cake. Here is what I did.
My intake was pipe thread. Installed short piece of pipe.
Clamped a universal radiator hose to it.
Clamped a 20 dollar turbo muffler on the other end of the hose.
Used another radiator hose on the other side of the muffler.
Made a wall adapter with a K&N filter mounted on the outside of the wall.
That's it.

I can stand next to the compressor running and talk on the phone. The spooky thing is that now I can hear all the internals thrashing around.

Perfect project and cheap for a any DIY.

The muffler will cut the noise at the least in half. The outside air filter is probably another 20-30% quieter.

 

[Flathead Youngin']

on the short...

i priced original filter- they were HIGH $$

with the air filter removed, and the machine running, i placed my hand over the intake of the compressor- cut the sound by at least 80%

so, i took an old 350 6cyl chevy steel intake and welded a 1-1/2" steel coupler to it...bought some pvc pipe and was going to run the pipe to my upstairs and mount the air filter assembly i made..

however, when i tested the filter assm. about a foot above the compressor, i stuck my hand over the inlet....didn't make near the difference it did when put my hand over it right on the compressor....

i think the large, basically hollow filter assm. quited it down...it's still not as quiet as i'd like..

mine's a 7.5hp Belair compressor.....fairly quiet to begin with..

EDIT: i even tried the little rubber pads that go under the feet.....to be honest, when i did my first test with my hand over the intake, the compressor was sitting in the middle of my garage with nothing around it.....i tried the second time with it up against my wall....i think the wall resonates the sound and amplifies it.....just my opinion..

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Has anyone installed some sort of muffler set up on the compessor to quiet it down? Did it work? How exactly did you do it?

When I strike it rich, I'm going to buy a nice 2-stage IR, put it in my detached barn, and plumb it underground to my garage. I buy some nice high density polyethylene pipe from work that we use for high pressure gas mains to do the underground part with. It would be nice.

Phil

 

[MyDomain]

My next idea is to enclose the compressor with insulation (R30) or spray foam with a 2x4 frame leaving a 2 ft clearance and put a small fan for cooling at the top and see if it's any quieter.

I've got a buddy that makes custom sound-deadening enclosures for compressors. If anybody would like more info I can give you his contact info.

 

[Winmon]

I just built a "compressor room" behind the garage.

 

[bmwpower]

Winmon,
That's cool. I think I'm going to have to do the same if I get the compressor I'm looking at...eats floor space and would be nice to have a quiet work area.

You have any details on the room?
How do you deal with heat?
How do you deal with cold?

 

[DynoDave]

I just built a "compressor room" behind the garage.

I've given a great deal of thought to doing something like that when the time comes. Did you put footings down so it won't pull away from the main building? I'd like some more details on how you built it, if you don't mind sharing.

 

[TNToy]

Has anyone installed some sort of muffler set up on the compessor to quiet it down? Did it work? How exactly did you do it?

Has anyone done this and how much did it affect the noise levels?

What kind of compressor do you have? An 80-gallon 2-stage, or a 15 gallon oil-less?

Piece of cake. Here is what I did.
My intake was pipe thread. Installed short piece of pipe.
Clamped a universal radiator hose to it...

I can stand next to the compressor running and talk on the phone. The spooky thing is that now I can hear all the internals thrashing around.

What kind of compressor did you do this to?

 

[Winmon]

Did you put footings down so it won't pull away from the main building? I'd like some more details on how you built it, if you don't mind sharing.

The room is 5' x 5' x 8' tall with a concrete pad and was framed up with
2"x4"'s and sided with OSB (just continued from the expansion of the master bath we did at the same time that the garage was built). I wanted it to be large enough to be able to get almost completely around the compressor in case I need to service it. As you can see in this pic, I have not bought the compressor yet. Still trying to recover from the bills of the build!

It has a incandescant light in it. I also had the electrician wire the 220 into a relay so that when the light is turned off, power to the compressor is cut. That way if the compressor springs a leak when I am not there, the compressor won't come on. Don't know how big of a concern that is, but while researching I came across a couple guys on another forum who suggested it.

You have any details on the room?
How do you deal with heat?
How do you deal with cold?

For the cold, I am going to use insulation on the walls and ceiling (which will also help with quieting it down). For the heat, I am thinking of installing a vent fan, wired to the 220 on the regulator pressure switch so when the compressor came on, so will the fan, along with putting a louvered vent in the wall that holds a home A/C air filter inside the shed. That way every time the compressor kicks on the fan blows out the hot air and ***** in fresh filtered outside air. Just like this guy did.....

 

[bmwpower]

I'm thinking a temperature switch might work better, like you might find on your attic fan. When the compressor shuts down, the temps will still be high in there and may "cook" everything. I would be more inclined to wire in a temp switch that you can dial in which temp you want the fan to kick on.

How about in times of cold weather? Is the room heated in any way? How about the drain? I'm also concerned that:

- If water freezes in the tank or valve, it will never drain in cold weather or it will kill the electric drian
- If it's cold out and the compressor kicks on, am I going to have thick oil - too thick to make it hard for the thing to operate, maybe hurting it over time.

I like the idea, though. I'm going out in the garage now to measure up...

 

[Winmon]

How about in times of cold weather? Is the room heated in any way? How about the drain? I'm also concerned that:

- If water freezes in the tank or valve, it will never drain in cold weather or it will kill the electric drian
- If it's cold out and the compressor kicks on, am I going to have thick oil - too thick to make it hard for the thing to operate, maybe hurting it over time.

Hopefully the insulation will take care of these issues.

 

[bmwpower]

Hopefully the insulation will take care of these issues.

Unless it's heated, I don't see how it's going to. Assuming you don't use the compressor all day long, there are going to be periods on inactivity and, during the cold weather, the temp inside the room will eventually reach equillibrium with the outside temp.

I'm thinking about running some heat tracing around the valve and maybe the pump, but I haven't look into it too much yet. At my old job, we used heat tracing wrapped around the drain of an outside sink to keep the water from freezing.

 

[TNToy]

Run some Royal Purple synthetic in the compressor head.