How silent is the silent in SilentAire?

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Painting and airbrushing
1

first off sorry, because Im sure this topic has come up hundreds of times already, but im looking at a Silentaire compressor, which i think is the lower end one ( one piston $134.00). so how silent is it? say compared to maybe a vaccume cleaner or some other practicle comparison. Db #'s really mean nothing to me. im using a campbell hausefeld (wal-mart brand) one right now, and my neighbors don’t like it too much, that thing is really loud and shakes the whole balcony so pretty much anything will be an improvement.

thanks alot for the help, and once again sorry for bringing this up up yet again.

Wes[:D]

2

Wes,

I believe you are referring to the Silentaire Scorpion 1 compressor correct?
It is rated at 20 db which is the volume of a whisper or rustling leaves in comparison. That is very quiet. Your vacuum cleaner is probably 70 db or more.
Here is a comparison chart of decibel ratings of ordinary everyday sounds: http://www.chem.purdue.edu/chemsafety/Training/PPETrain/dblevels.htm

Mike

3

Thanks! Thats a cool link to have anyway, i need to start wearing ear plugs more often! that compressor i have now is at least 70 db!

4

Glad you liked the link.
Isn’t it interesting how decibel ratings are exponential?
For instance 80 db is twice as loud as 70 db and 90 db is four times as loud as 70 db. I never knew that. [:O]
That is similar to a Richter scale for earthquakes isn’t it?

Mike

5

I have a silentaire and it is really silent. I live in ana apartment and i can use it any time that it wont bother no one! It´s more silent than my refrigerator

6

I have a silentaire and it is really silent. I live in ana apartment and i can use it any time that it wont bother no one! It´s more silent than my refrigerator

7

I have a Silentaire 20-A. Very quiet. A whisper is 30 dB and the 20-A is 30 dB. Listen to the sound of your refrigerator and you will get an idea how quiet the compressor is. I can easily hold a phone conversation right next to the compressor. One time I put my cell phone INTO the compressor box and my friend on the other end of the phone still couldn’t hear the compressor.

NOT LOUD…but very quiet. Shhh…go to sleep next to the compressor. It purrs…quietly.

8

thanks for the help everybody, i think thats what i’ll get
[:D] Wes

9

Yes, decibels and the Richter scale are both logarithmic scales. The reason for using it is so a very large range can be dealt with.

10

Thanks for that information Hungfarlow. Was the term “exponential” that I used the correct terminology? It’s been a while since math class. [%-)]

Mike