NOISY AIR PURIFIERS: THE GOOD AND THE BAD
Some air purifiers make more noise than others, even at the same air flows. There are many factors that make one machine noisier than another.
The biggest reason there is noise is from poor construction, the second is the gauge of the frame holding the motor.
You can have a louder motor but if it has a superior sound enclosure then it will block much of the noise.
Noise levels are "logarythmic? (not sure if I spelld it right). My spell checker won't fix it.
The faster the fan the louder in a way like, if you turn it up twice as high, instead of being twice as loud, it can be 4 times as loud. This is all a factor of how fast the fan is moving and the size of the fan, and also the components of the motor.
A motor can be quiet at first but once the lubrication wears away it can get noisy. If you really don't care about noise then you can probably save a lot of money on a cheaper air purifier that will still work like the high end models that do nearly the same job but at a much more expensive price.
Many people get purifiers with timers so that they can get a loud one that is on all day and at night they can turn it down low. Some people get more than one purifier and set them all on the quietest setting instead of having one on set on a higher level making more noise.
When the purifiers are set on high, the most noticeable notice before the motor is the fan. The blades moving that fast will make noise as they bring in air into the purifier.
Some fans are made of plastic and others made of steel. The louder fans sometimes are from off-balanced fans, but again, rarely this is a problem until after the warranty period is up.
Different air purifiers make different noises. Don't just go by the decibel level. This is a measure of loudness. Some purifiers have a more "bass" noise and others a more harsher shrill noise that is very piercing to the ears. Some people are bothered by cars on the road with pounding bass that vibrates every car near it. Others are bothered by very high pitch noises, such as even a very low noise but very high pitch, for example, when kids in the class room used to scratch their nails on the chalk board and pissed all the people off that had to cover their ears. Stupid class clounds. I remember the kids that used to do that when the teacher was out of the classroom.
If I was truly concerned about noise, the first thing I would do is try to get the purifier that had the largest capacity that I could find and then go down from there. A purifier with a big fan that can intake air at lower speeds because the motor doesn't have to work so hard can make much less noise than a smaller fan with a smaller motor working at its highest amperage capacity.
Smaller air purifiers are noisier on high than larger ones on high taking in the EXACT SAME AMPERAGE from the outlet. You can take a kill-o-watt meter if you want to check for yourself.
I am sorry to say that most of the cheaper brand out there are the ones that get noisier over time after their warranty period. If you are only concerned about noise not being loud within the warranty it is usually not a problem because you can always return it as it is under parts and labor.
On my air questionnaire, let me know if noise is an issue for you and I will do my best to pick you out a purifier based on your answers you choose.
Noise
Sound levels under 20 db is whisper quiet
20 to 25 is very quiet
25 to 35 is quiet
35 to 45 is medium quiet
45 to 52 is loud
REmember that a bigger purifier fan and hepa filter and more carbon will purifier smaller rooms quieter than the smaller ones. Make sure it is a brushless motor. A lot of people complain about their older purifiers and usually its the brushed ones.
Most peolpe had to turn their purifier off when the TV is on with the early generation air purifiers.
The cheap ones might sound quiet but they can get loud if bearing gets loose, especially if the copper windings oxide and the motors becomes imbalanced. Oxidation is what kills it. see my motor page. Some of the motors are actually loud but insulated so they sound quiet. The plastic ones. The metal ones depending on the gauge they can block more sound. The wooden air purifiers dampen it totally differently.
The purifiers that most people complain about have a pitch they dont like, its not necessarily the volume. Some sound like more like a baritone subwoofer and others a high pitch noise, treble. The more it sounds like white noise such as a white noise machine that delivers a similar sound as a pleasant sounding air purifier, the less people complain. If you are keeping it in the bed room at night, a high pitch one might not be the one to get.
The little tiny air purifiers have the harshest pitch but sound lower at low speeds but on high they not just get louder but the pitch is so freakin annoying.
If someone really has to get a high pitch one, having it behind the couch or having plants around it can block some of the noise.
...because they sold me the wrong one twice
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