Truckmount noise

[Walt]

The builder will tell us the cfm and the heat potential. Why don't they rate the noise levels in decibels? Wouldn't you be interested in knowing before you bought your next machine?

 

[Mikey P]

How did you deal with your FMI head ache Walt?

 

[Rex Tyus]

The builder will tell us the cfm and the heat potential. Why don't they rate the noise levels in decibels? Wouldn't you be interested in knowing before you bought your next machine?

Only if I had to deal with people in Washington State or Oregon. Rednecks like me think the louder the better. 8) You should see the crowd I attract when cleaning in a trailor park. :wink:

 

[Walt]

I installed an additional silencer. That helped a lot. But it is still not a quiet machine. Impossible to dual wand or run on high doing town homes. Far to loud. It's fine in a standard residential in single wand mode. Dual wand mode is a little much but doable. Frequently on short runs I'll run the machine at 1250 rpm and then it's just fine. I was cleaning until 8:30 on friday in a really nice neighborhood with no complaints.

 

[Brian R]

I installed an additional silencer. That helped a lot. But it is still not a quiet machine. Impossible to dual wand or run on high doing town homes. Far to loud. It's fine in a standard residential in single wand mode. Dual wand mode is a little much but doable. Frequently on short runs I'll run the machine at 1250 rpm and then it's just fine. I was cleaning until 8:30 on friday in a really nice neighborhood with no complaints.

Doesn't that cut performance all to hell? I was told the lower RPMs would put stress on the pump. My manual says to cut downs the RPMs for doing upholstery but my mechanic says don't do it.

Anyone have any input on this?

 

[Larry Cobb]

Walt;

Our TMs have had DB levels posted for about 2 years now.

DB levels can be confusing because there are different scales, and measurements are taken at different distances from the equipment. In spite of that, they are the best indicator.

Silencer design is what separates the various TM's out the in the market.

One other aspect is silencer corrosion. It creates a noisy TM in a short period of time.

We have changed to stainless steel for all of our TM silencers.

Stainless is probably less than 5% of the silencer market.

Larry Cobb

 

[joey895]

I installed an additional silencer. That helped a lot. But it is still not a quiet machine. Impossible to dual wand or run on high doing town homes. Far to loud. It's fine in a standard residential in single wand mode. Dual wand mode is a little much but doable. Frequently on short runs I'll run the machine at 1250 rpm and then it's just fine. I was cleaning until 8:30 on friday in a really nice neighborhood with no complaints.

Doesn't that cut performance all to hell? I was told the lower RPMs would put stress on the pump. My manual says to cut downs the RPMs for doing upholstery but my mechanic says don't do it.

Anyone have any input on this?

I'm pretty sure in an air cooled machine if you run the rpms too low it will not get enough airflow to keep it cool enough. At least that's what I've been told. I wouldn't think it would hurt a water cooled engine.

 

[adamh]

The builder will tell us the cfm and the heat potential. Why don't they rate the noise levels in decibels? Wouldn't you be interested in knowing before you bought your next machine?

Having played with a decibel meter alot I can tell you that would not tell you much. If you hold it 2 feet from the machine or 3 feet from the machine it makes a huge difference. If the wind blows a little bit the readings bounce all over the place.

If I told you a machine runs at 87 decibels would that mean much to you? The difference between 97 decibels and 87 doesn't sound like much but it is the difference between covering your ears and talking next to the machine.

 

[Spurling]

18hp Kohler .. what rpms should it be running at?