Fan Noise Test: Vortex v. Active Air v. Ecoplus Classic 6" Inline Fan Comparison Video Review
Video Transcript:
"Hey everyone this is Nate with Growers House and today we're going to be running a test on 6 inch inline fans. Now, we've got a fan from about every CFM of the spectrum as far as [6"] inline fans go. We have the Ecoplus starting at 340 CFM (discontinued), the Active Air at 400 CFM, and the Vortex at 452 CFM. What we really want to measure today is how loud are these fans in decibels? We have a lot of people asking, "what's your quietest fan?" I know it's going to depend on the amount of air it's pushing, but 6 inch fans are some of the most common sized fans, so we want to do some testing on decibels to unearth some of the mysteries of how loud 6 inch fans are.
We're going to measure the fans from the front and the side, and we'll record the decibel readings we get, and we'll see what we find out. Right now we're measuring 24 inches from the exhaust point of the fan and we're going to turn the fan on and measure the decibels here and then I'm going to take the this sound level meter and also measure it from the side to see what we're getting from a different perspective. Let's plug this fan in and see what happens.
So it looks like we're staying steady between 87 and 84 decibels on the front. Well it looks like it may be settling around 85 or 86. Okay, now lets take the decibel meter a few inches from the side and see what we read. Still very similar we're running from about--let me speak a little quieter--but about 82, it looks like it went up a little bit from my voice, but about 82 when I'm not talking.
Now we just measured this out to 24 inches and turned the Ecoplus on. Looks like we're pushing actually close to about 100 decibels. Let me stop talking for a moment. Yup, this one, although less CFM is actually louder than the Active Air fan. Let's bring the decibel meter to the side. It looks like we're reading actually very similar to the Active Air when we're reading from the side, but from the front it looks like the Ecoplus is quite a bit louder.
M'kay, we're turning the Vortex on and we'll see what kind of reading we get. Yup, looking lead steady around 1000 decibels. Let's move around to the side and see what we get. A little louder than the others, staying at about 90 decibels or 89. Okay, let's take another look at those readings.
Going back over our measurements, it actually looks like the least loud fan was the Active Air by Hydrofarm even though it was in the middle as far as CFM. The Vortex fan was the loudest, which was to be expected, but the surprise was the Ecoplus, which was about as loud if not louder than the Active Air fan, although having 60 less CFM. Now of course, this is just testing in this environment. It's not accounting to differences in ducting--silencers can make a big difference, but we thought this would shed some light on how loud some of these fans actually are, at least from one perspective. Well if you're thinking about buying a fan based on how loud or quiet it is, this might help you quite a bit. This is Nate from Growers House. Have a great week."Shop Inline FansShop Oscillating Fans
"Hey everyone this is Nate with Growers House and today we're going to be running a test on 6 inch inline fans. Now, we've got a fan from about every CFM of the spectrum as far as [6"] inline fans go. We have the Ecoplus starting at 340 CFM (discontinued), the Active Air at 400 CFM, and the Vortex at 452 CFM. What we really want to measure today is how loud are these fans in decibels? We have a lot of people asking, "what's your quietest fan?" I know it's going to depend on the amount of air it's pushing, but 6 inch fans are some of the most common sized fans, so we want to do some testing on decibels to unearth some of the mysteries of how loud 6 inch fans are.
We're going to measure the fans from the front and the side, and we'll record the decibel readings we get, and we'll see what we find out. Right now we're measuring 24 inches from the exhaust point of the fan and we're going to turn the fan on and measure the decibels here and then I'm going to take the this sound level meter and also measure it from the side to see what we're getting from a different perspective. Let's plug this fan in and see what happens.
So it looks like we're staying steady between 87 and 84 decibels on the front. Well it looks like it may be settling around 85 or 86. Okay, now lets take the decibel meter a few inches from the side and see what we read. Still very similar we're running from about--let me speak a little quieter--but about 82, it looks like it went up a little bit from my voice, but about 82 when I'm not talking.
Now we just measured this out to 24 inches and turned the Ecoplus on. Looks like we're pushing actually close to about 100 decibels. Let me stop talking for a moment. Yup, this one, although less CFM is actually louder than the Active Air fan. Let's bring the decibel meter to the side. It looks like we're reading actually very similar to the Active Air when we're reading from the side, but from the front it looks like the Ecoplus is quite a bit louder.
M'kay, we're turning the Vortex on and we'll see what kind of reading we get. Yup, looking lead steady around 1000 decibels. Let's move around to the side and see what we get. A little louder than the others, staying at about 90 decibels or 89. Okay, let's take another look at those readings.
Going back over our measurements, it actually looks like the least loud fan was the Active Air by Hydrofarm even though it was in the middle as far as CFM. The Vortex fan was the loudest, which was to be expected, but the surprise was the Ecoplus, which was about as loud if not louder than the Active Air fan, although having 60 less CFM. Now of course, this is just testing in this environment. It's not accounting to differences in ducting--silencers can make a big difference, but we thought this would shed some light on how loud some of these fans actually are, at least from one perspective. Well if you're thinking about buying a fan based on how loud or quiet it is, this might help you quite a bit. This is Nate from Growers House. Have a great week."Shop Inline FansShop Oscillating Fans