Ideas to silence Air Shamee In Bay Dryer

[Rudy]

My car wash has a residential house behind it. I just installed Air Shamee's in the self serve bays.

Today, my neighbor comes over and wants to know what the new noise is which is coming from the car wash. "It sounds like a buzz saw or something. At 11pm, it's annoying when we're trying to sleep.".

I need some ideas. The units are installed in bay....not on the roof.

Would it help with the motor noise to put some pink R-13 inside the dome?

The unit mounts against the wall with about a 2" standoff. Would it help to shield part of that space....especially the part that faces towards the house?

I could offer to put timers on the units. I'd put up a decal that says something like, "In consideration of our neighbors, the Air Dry function does not work between 11pm and 6am daily". I doubt I'd loose that much business between those hours.

Townships can be fussy.....and I'd like to nip this one early before he heads to the Town Hall.

Ideas?

 

[cwguy.com]

Do you get complaints about your vacuums? I would think the vacuums would be louder? Maybe even closer to your neighbor?

 

[Rudy]

No complaints about the vacs....however....they are located on the opposite side of the building. The building shields the vac noise from the neighbor.

If the neighbor looked out his bedroom window.....he couldn't see the vacs. He could, however, see the Air Shamee hanging on the bay wall. I think that's part of the problem.

 

[rph9168]

YOu probably need to check if there are any noise restrictions in you town/county. Even if you are within the law it would probably be a good idea to see if there is a way to reduce the noise to be a good neighbor.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

What about mounting the motors and Dome assembly in the equipment room and just running the hose to the SS bay that would be super quiet.

 

[washnshine]

My car wash has a residential house behind it. I just installed Air Shamee's in the self serve bays.

Today, my neighbor comes over and wants to know what the new noise is which is coming from the car wash. "It sounds like a buzz saw or something. At 11pm, it's annoying when we're trying to sleep.".

I need some ideas. The units are installed in bay....not on the roof.

Would it help with the motor noise to put some pink R-13 inside the dome?

The unit mounts against the wall with about a 2" standoff. Would it help to shield part of that space....especially the part that faces towards the house?

I could offer to put timers on the units. I'd put up a decal that says something like, "In consideration of our neighbors, the Air Dry function does not work between 11pm and 6am daily". I doubt I'd loose that much business between those hours.

Townships can be fussy.....and I'd like to nip this one early before he heads to the Town Hall.

Ideas?

If he has been a good neighbor and does not "nit pick" every little thing going on at the wash and this is his first complaint, it is probably legitimate and even if there is not a noise restriction ordinance in your municipality, it probably would be neighborly of you to find a solution. Although he can see the Air Shamee in the bay, I would not blame that on his complaint - motors at 11PM would probably disrupt me too - especially if it was a new sound that I was not already accustomed to hearing.

Do you have any ceiling space that you can mount the motors in? You could then just run the hose out of the ceiling directly down to the bay.

 

[Jeff_L]

As others mentioned, put them in the attic if you have space. Cuts down the noise and also keeps them from the harsh environment of the bay. If that's not possible, can they be mounted outside the bay on the same side as the vacs? Wouldn't be optimal though. Lastly, try building a stainless steel enclosure and insulate it, but make sure you maintain airflow through the device.

 

[Randy]

You’d better hope that your neighbor doesn’t file a complaint with city. Because they can make your life a living hell and cost you tens of thousands of dollars, been there and done that. Years ago we built a nice car wash. Everyone was happy that we built this nice facility except 3 of the neighbors behind the car wash across the alley, the closet neighbor is about 175 feet away. The 3 neighbor and their friends would constantly complain to the city, go to the city council meetings and complain about the noise from the car wash. We did everything humanly possible to appease the neighbors, they wanted the car wash gone. The city then revoked our business license and fined us $200 a day for running a business without a valid business license, the police would come every day and give us a citation. We hired a lawyer, he filed lawsuit in Federal court against the city for violating our Federal civil rights. All of this went on for almost a year. When the city realized that they were going to go Federal court and they were going to have to spend a whole lot of money they decided that they’d give us a business license with conditions attached, lights and power off to the equipment from 10pm to 6am and they’d rescind all but one of the citations for running a business without a business license. Fast forward 30 years, the 3 neighbors are all gone, moved away. The lights are still off from 10pm to 6am and no one ever complains about the car wash. If I were you I’d put a timer on the Dryers, shut them down from 10pm to 6am and call it good. If your neighbor complains your troubles might be just starting. How much night business do you do, we don’t do much at all.

 

[Waxman]

I'd just build some boxes to put over them; maybe aluminum with rigid foam insulation. they'd have to be ported so you get air in and out.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

A simplistic explanation is that mufflers work by changing the direction of the sound waves multiple times. So if you do build an enclosure of some sort, use a sound deadening material and put in a few baffles.

Also I'd suggest downloading a sound meter app, and take/document measurements at the property line. I'd do not just the air dryers, but also ambient sound levels at night and during peak hours of the day, car wash empty, car wash busy, traffic, etc.
FYI, a passing truck at my wash is louder than my vacs. So are a lot of the diesel pickups that rev their engines in the bays before they leave... etc.

I would definitely install timers... but sort of carefully, that could be a precedent. Thats one of the reasons I'd want sound measurements, I'm thinking along the lines of "Although this is a commercially zoned property, AND I am well below the sound ordinances, AND the equipment is quieter than passing traffic... in the interest of maintaining good relations I'm installing timers and sound baffles"... or something like that.

 

[soapy]

I don't have air shame's but have a couple of ideas. I think they use a vac motor. Could you install a Lamb quiet vac motor to help with the noise? Also on some of my metal vacs that have stainless steel domes I sprayed the inside of the dome with undercoat used on cars. It helped quiet them down a little.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I sprayed the inside of the dome with undercoat used on cars. It helped quiet them down a little.

I was thinking along these lines, but with that spray-on bed liner stuff. I think they can add rubber granules to it to make it rougher.

 

[Rudy]

Talked with the neighbor today. I think I dodged a bullet. I'll put the units on timers, disabling them from 10pm to 7am. The decals have been ordered.

I probed around today "listening" with a foaming brush handle as a stethoscope. Most of the "noise" comes from the space between the base plate, and the wall. There's a 2" gap between the base plate and the wall, and the sound really reverberates. It didn't seem like much noise came from the dome.

I had a piece of armorflex (foam) thick enough to strategically place between the unit and the wall along the outer perimeter (partially). I was careful to NOT block any holes. Although not dramatic, this setup DID seem to dampen the sound projected towards the exit to some degree. I'll play around with it more later....but every bit helps. The goal is to have the unit open towards the street, and have it somewhat sealed towards the rear (which is where the neighbor is located).

 

[Stuart]

I have turbo dryers at my two locations. location one - installed in the bay on the wall with the 2" gap. Yes it is loud and the bay actually helps direct the sound towards the entrance/exit (like a wind tunnel) the bay funnels the sound.

location two- located on the roof with a hole thru the concrete roof to the bay. I fabricated an air chamber box which the motor housing sits on. Chamber has a 4" PVC air supply port out the side. This chamber reduced the noise by at least half. I also have facia around the roof which helps block the noise.