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Noisy faucets
October 25, 2004If loud plumbing fixtures get on the neighbour's nerves, the responsible plumber has to pay. Acoustic quality seals ought to help, but they are rarely found on cheap fixtures. Researchers tested the noise emission levels of bargain products.
After a long day, your only thought is to fall on the sofa and enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet. Then the neighbor opens a faucet. So much for the silence you've been longing for. Such nerve-wracking noise is no exception when plumbing companies install low-priced fixtures sold dirt-cheap in home improvement stores.
A quality seal clearly visible on the outside of the package gives both customers and plumbers an indication of the soundproof level. The Group I noise level peaks under 20 dB(A); Group II lies between 20 and 30. The specification for each group can be found on the quality seal to the right of the slash character.
To date however, such seals are generally only carried by expensive branded products. What about bargain fixtures that do not carry the seal? Are they noisy? How reliable is the quality seal? In an acoustic test facility, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP examined the noise emission levels of various low-priced and name brand single lever bathtub faucets with handshowers. As water flows through the fixtures, vibrations are created that are transmitted through the pipes and onto a standardised wall. The wall emits the vibrations as sound waves into an adjoining room where a microphone records the noise level.
Lutz Weber, who oversees the testing, summarizes the results: "Low-priced products frequently exhibit acoustical defects. 70 percent of the fixtures we tested exceeded the allowed noise emission level of 30 dB(A). The highest measurement was 47 dB(A). This is about the same as soft radio music which many people already find disturbing."
In contrast to low-priced fixtures, brand-name products that come with test seals stay within allowed noise limits, even when some from the Group I category do not always fulfill their threshold values. Built-in sound absorbers are one key reason for the low noise level.
Although costly, they reduce noise levels to around 13 dB(A). Weber concludes: "Wherever soundproof regulations are in force, we advise plumbing companies as a matter of rule to only use brand-name fixtures with test seals."
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
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