Vacuum pump noise??

[Inuyasha]

Swim was wondering how loud a 6 cfm robinair vacuum pump is?
He lives in a townhouse and was wondering if he was distilling /w vac in the middle of the night would his neighbors hear it? Also is there alot of smoke comming from the engine?

thanks

[Bond_DoubleBond]

once it's done evacuating air out of the distillation apparatus, it's pretty quiet.  unless your neighbors live directly above or below your pump, you should have little problem.

[abolt]

I have heard that A ghetto silencer consisting of a 1 inch neoprene base which was covered with a polystyrene fruit box lined with egg cartons and also containing small tight fitting hole for the exhaust port worked well.

The neoprene base was glued to a ply wood base that the pump could be fixed to. The neoprene absorbs a lot of the vibration that causes most of the noise and the upper cover helps contain the left over noise.

Use your imagination

[ScuzZ]

Swims advice would be to encase the vacuum pump in styrofoam. Once fully encased in styrofoam is would be very quiet. Your only problem would be ventilation to keep the pump cool.

That may be remedied by the use of small holes throughout the styrofoam. Small holes won't change the amount of noise coming out of the pump too much.

Hope that leads you onto the silent trails.

[yinga]

And don't forget to attach a garden hose to the exhaust port of your vacuum pump if you are concerned about noise.  This muffles the sound drastically.

[IsoPure]

[9873468096]

Swim was wondering how loud a 6 cfm robinair vacuum pump is?

I highly do not recommend robinair vacuum pumps, they are fairly loud. 80Db. And if operated out of a plastic bin lined with acoustic foam, which takes care of the noise 99%, overheat like a mother.... And not only that, they pull shit vacuum.

My advice: Look for a better pump, it might be more expensive, but you are better off saving up for one, then waisting your time with a crap pump. Take it from someone who tried and get youself an aspirator. It makes for a fairly fumeless emvironment, and much better performance.
You will not regrett it.

[Phlegm]

I agree that the Robinair pumps leave a lot to be desired. Mine is a POS; it's loud, spews an oil mist, and gets pretty hot on its own, let alone being encased in styrofoam. Totally unsuitable for an apartment\townhouse. A good pump I've been using (can't remember the brand) is one of those  used by phlebotomists. I don't know exactly what they use them for, but they are compact, very quiet, and pull a very strong vacuum. However, the volume of air it will pull might not be that great. They are perfect for filtering purposes, though.

I'm now thinking the brand may be Gomoz, but I don't believe that that's not quite right.

(87...,

What exactly are you meaning by "Aspirator"?

[DrLucifer]

Swim employs the services of his 240V air compressor to create vacuum. He paid $50 for a special 3way brass manifold which links to his compressor hose and serves its purpose very well. Swim has only used it a few times but he assumes the vacuum could be made very high.
Obviously a compressor is not viable in a lab confined to an apartment, but it works a treat when living rural!