How To Quiet Air Compressor's ?

[427HISS]

I've had a single stage 60g larger air compressor for years, and just now I'm getting  tired of the noise.

Mine is still sitting on the concrete floor, so I need some sort of product under the feet. It actually moves around a bit.

Should I anchor it to the floor even if I get rubber for the feet ? (or what ever product)

Can a different muffler help ?

[PaulProe]

They make what they call "isolation pads" to put under the feet of the compressor - anchoring to concrete floor will also help. If you can run a line, it helps to put the intake filters outside - run a large pipe to an outside wall. A lot of the noise comes from the intake cycle.

If it is one of the high rpm units (typical of the low dollar units) you may never be able to get rid of the noise. If it is a 1750 rpm motor and pulleys set to run in the 600-700 rpm range, you can quiet it down. The cheapy's use 3450 rpm motors and spin the pump at 1000+ to get more air flow out of a smaller pump so noise becomes an issue

Good luck

[Drew Pojedinec]

Wear ear plugs. 

When I got my compressor, a 60gal 5hp Quincy, I had saved some 1/4inch thick cork my neighbor gave me years before.  I took some thin plywood for each side and glued it all together and clamped it.  After it set up I used those under the feet and anchored it all into the concrete.
I'd intended to actually build a small enclosure to put the compressor in if the sound was too much.
To be honest it isn't that loud, tho I work on GM 2 stroke diesels for a living, so my tolerance for loud noises is abnormally high.

[chris401]

I've had a single stage 60g larger air compressor for years, and just now I'm getting  tired of the noise.

Mine is still sitting on the concrete floor, so I need some sort of product under the feet. It actually moves around a bit.

Should I anchor it to the floor even if I get rubber for the feet ? (or what ever product)

Can a different muffler help ?

My Hodgepodge compressor is made up of old parts mounted to a pallet. Adding the mass of the tank made the compressor quieter than when on the 30 gallon roll around. The pallet helped out even more.

[cjshaker]

Most of the noise comes from the intake. The biggest thing you can do to quiet it down would be to run the intake pipe outside and shelter it from the weather. Not difficult to do and it'll make a huge difference.

If that's not possible, or if you live in a really humid area, put a BIG filter on it that is contained inside a housing, like an older automotive air cleaner assembly. That will make a big improvement and still give you great filtering with little to no resistance. That's what I did on my 7.5 hp 80 gallon Quincy compressor. Since I get some pretty damp and humid days where I'm at, I wanted to avoid putting it outside where it would draw a bunch of moisture into the tank. I used an air cleaner assembly off of a '64 Mercury Marauder. It still scares the crap out of people when it starts up, but there's nothing that can be done about that (and I sort of enjoy it anyway )

Isolating feet, insulating the first feet of the pipe and other attempts will make small differences, but not enough to make a real difference from a compressor with an open intake.

[BattlestarGalactic]

Agree, it might have some vibration noise, but the intake is the biggest problem.  I've been thinking of running mine into the stall where the '69 F100 sits and not have to listen to it chug.  I have a 5hp, 60 gal version.

[427HISS]

I have thought of building a small shelter/shed, to place my compressor in and drilling a hole  through my garage wall into the shelter.
But, being in Nebraska our temps can get down very low, so I'm concerend about water in the air lines and compressor, thus freezing.

The shelter would have to be very,....well insluated  ! Not only for the air but also for noise with my next door neighbor !