Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Decibel Readings of Various Polishers

As I was getting interested in a new polisher I had kept researching decibel readings as I often try to work at night and in the garage and prefer to avoid annoying neighbors to the best of my ability. Polishing at night is beyond a rare occurrence but I was still intrigued. So when I got the Flex I knew I wanted to make this information known. I can't speak for the accuracy of this test but for reference OSHA recommends a maximum of 85 decibels constant for an 8 hour day. This adjusts for less time as decibels increase. Above that rating long term hearing may be affected. A 10 decibel change is registered as roughly twice or half as loud depending on the rating. So small changes and differences in readings can show noticeable change. This test was done using an iPhone 6 3 ft away from a polisher facing upward with no pad on it. Each polisher was turned on and tested multiple times via a locally sourced app. Here is a photo.
And the data in decibels for each polisher and backing plate combo. There was no difference in sound on the Porter Cable with a 3" backing plate or a 6 " backing plate.
Device Speed Decibels
PC 3" 1 81
  2 82
  3 82
  4 84
  5 87
  6 89
Griot's 5" 1 86
2 86
3 87
4 88
5 91
6 91
Flex 5.5" 1 85
2 86
3 86
4 86
5 88
6 89


And a final photo of the equipment.



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