Soundproofing

doctorcilantro

I'm moving to an apartment that has a somewhat loud air handler. I was thinking about deadening the door of the closet its in with some soundproofing.

The vents were also a bit noisy in three or four rooms. All were inner fins were locked closed/shut and whistling until I unscrewed them and manually cranked them open. It's amazing how much quieter the air flow is w/o any air vent blocking the flow.

Wondering if I can dampen the fin or even simply remove the inner adjustable fins.

The apartment is pretty big and it seems the CFM of air moved is quite a bit more than my our house (sadly on the market due to crime!).

Looking here for ideas:

Super Soundproofing Site

Thoughts?

DC

doctorcilantro

If this thread is better suited somewhere else, please move it to a new home.

madmax

Anything with weight would help the door. Sealing around the seams should help too.

hearingimpared

I went through this drill Doc as I have a heat pump and main air exchange is in the utility room next to my audio room. I don't know about the fins but I put a nice sized piece of Sorbothane on the inner side of the access door on the unit and covered the main output with insulation. I stil get noise and it comes through the vents too. This unit is only 4 1/2 years old. I've toyed around with the idea of putting some sound deadening material on the door between the rooms on just the utility room side but as I said the noise comes through the vents.

I finally gave up and just turn off the unit when listening to music. In the winter it can get a little cool in room which is just fine by me but in the summer with the AC off and the tubes glowing it can get stuffy and hot in that room.

I just don't know what else to do. If you find a fix PLEASE let me know what you come up with.

Thanks,
Joe

Polkersince85

See if the apartment maintenance person can slow the fan down. It would be quieter and probably cool better, too.

doctorcilantro

Thanks for the input. Last comment has me thinking; it does seem to be pushing REALLY hard. If there is a way to tone down the blower/fan that would be great.

I'll check this weekend to see if there is anything lying around I can try to dampen the door with as a test.

DC

hearingimpared

hearingimpared wrote: »

I went through this drill Doc as I have a heat pump and main air exchange is in the utility room next to my audio room. I don't know about the fins but I put a nice sized piece of Dynamat on the inner side of the access door on the unit and covered the main output with insulation. I stil get noise and it comes through the vents too. This unit is only 4 1/2 years old. I've toyed around with the idea of putting some sound deadening material on the door between the rooms on just the utility room side but as I said the noise comes through the vents.

I finally gave up and just turn off the unit when listening to music. In the winter it can get a little cool in room which is just fine by me but in the summer with the AC off and the tubes glowing it can get stuffy and hot in that room.

I just don't know what else to do. If you find a fix PLEASE let me know what you come up with.

Thanks,
Joe

Fixed!

j allen

From what I remember of HVAC school, duct noise means someone f***ed up. Either by undersizing the ductwork, not calculating the appropriate cfm of air, not putting proper cross breaks in the ducts (if sheet metal), or even not sizing the air handler appropriately to the load. Hell, could even be how they installed it (ex brackets or something sticking out into the airstream causing ripples) This is all really easy stuff, that doesn't take much time to do when installing, that is a huge pain in the **** to go back and fix later.
Seems like everywhere I look I see work that I could've done better, but no one wants to hire me

hearingimpared

j allen wrote: »

From what I remember of HVAC school, duct noise means someone f***ed up. Either by undersizing the ductwork, not calculating the appropriate cfm of air, not putting proper cross breaks in the ducts (if sheet metal), or even not sizing the air handler appropriately to the load. Hell, could even be how they installed it (ex brackets or something sticking out into the airstream causing ripples) This is all really easy stuff, that doesn't take much time to do when installing, that is a huge pain in the **** to go back and fix later.
Seems like everywhere I look I see work that I could've done better, but no one wants to hire me

I'm going with everything you wrote above.

The previous owner, who rebuilt the house back up using only the original 1/3rd of the house frame, had his son, who is a chimney sweep (no where nears a professional in heating/cooling systems), installed the whole heat pump system and he did a shoddy job. As a matter of fact, he didn't put the sufficent heater coils in.

Thank God the guy I used for my house inspector stood behind HIS work and upgraded the heater coils to the proper spec for the square footage of the house. It wasn't until after we had moved in that we found out that most of the work in the house was done by his son. :eek::eek::eek: harrrrrrrrrrrr