Time to ban air-cooled DIY engines
Discussion
Grumpy old man time.
Trying to work from home... window open.
Noisy bloody lawnmowers, streamers, leaf blowers, etc.
Why are home DIY engines air-cooled? Cost? Why can't they be better sound insulated or silenced? Aside for rechargeable or mains powered, what advances in engines to we need? We don't tolerate such noise from (most) cars or appliances, so I want half the noise please.
A two stroke doesn't even sound nice.
/lame rant over
Trying to work from home... window open.
Noisy bloody lawnmowers, streamers, leaf blowers, etc.
Why are home DIY engines air-cooled? Cost? Why can't they be better sound insulated or silenced? Aside for rechargeable or mains powered, what advances in engines to we need? We don't tolerate such noise from (most) cars or appliances, so I want half the noise please.
A two stroke doesn't even sound nice.
/lame rant over
Vaud said:
Grumpy old man time.
Trying to work from home... window open.
Noisy bloody lawnmowers, streamers, leaf blowers, etc.
Why are home DIY engines air-cooled? Cost? Why can't they be better sound insulated or silenced? Aside for rechargeable or mains powered, what advances in engines to we need? We don't tolerate such noise from (most) cars or appliances, so I want half the noise please.
A two stroke doesn't even sound nice.
/lame rant over
Mine's 4 stroke.Trying to work from home... window open.
Noisy bloody lawnmowers, streamers, leaf blowers, etc.
Why are home DIY engines air-cooled? Cost? Why can't they be better sound insulated or silenced? Aside for rechargeable or mains powered, what advances in engines to we need? We don't tolerate such noise from (most) cars or appliances, so I want half the noise please.
A two stroke doesn't even sound nice.
/lame rant over
I'm surprised they're not already banned given how much pollution they chuck out.
Can't find the link but from memory, something like 20 mins use is equivalent of driving 2,000 miles in a pickup.
edit: here we go
Can't find the link but from memory, something like 20 mins use is equivalent of driving 2,000 miles in a pickup.
edit: here we go
link said:
The two-stroke leaf blower was worse still, generating 23 times the CO and nearly 300 times more NMHC than the crew cab pickup. Let's put that in perspective. To equal the hydrocarbon emissions of about a half-hour of yard work with this two-stroke leaf blower, you'd have to drive a Raptor for 3,887 miles, or the distance from Northern Texas to Anchorage, Alaska.
http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/emissions-test-car-vs-truck-vs-leaf-blower.htmlEdited by budgie smuggler on Tuesday 7th June 11:10
ApOrbital said:
Try living/working from home with a cockerel in the garden two doors away it's driving me nuts they belong on farms.
Lived on a farm, and many a time, at stupid o' clock in the morning, I did consider having a chicken breakfast. I could handle the cows, sheep etc. doing their thing, But that damn bird, on a Sunday morning, He was almost lunch a few times. 
Edited by QuantumTokoloshi on Tuesday 7th June 12:18
A few years back my neighbours got chickens. The eggs were lovely. Then he got a Cockerell. It was quite a weedy looking thing, but it did make a loud enough noise. Then one morning there was no noise. It appeared to have been done over by the hens.
Even fertile hens hate a noisy cock that's up at the cracking of dawn.
Even fertile hens hate a noisy cock that's up at the cracking of dawn.
Vaud said:
Grumpy old man time.
Trying to work from home... window open.
Noisy bloody lawnmowers, streamers, leaf blowers, etc.
You must live in a area where people have gardeners - my neighbours are all at work.Trying to work from home... window open.
Noisy bloody lawnmowers, streamers, leaf blowers, etc.
What I hate is the way these machines seem to be used sequentially at weekends. It's like there's just one, and the neighbours pass it around to use in turn.
It is pretty surprising how good the cordless stuff is now since the move to lithium ion batteries. The lighter duty tools (strimmer, hedge trimmer, etc) seem to work just as well as corded electrics and more heavy-duty stuff (usually doubling up on batteries) coming along all the time.
I suspect my current mower will be the last petrol one I own, the battery ones are already good enough and they'll just get cheaper. At this time of year being able to get in a midweek evening mow without disturbing the neighbours would be great.
I suspect my current mower will be the last petrol one I own, the battery ones are already good enough and they'll just get cheaper. At this time of year being able to get in a midweek evening mow without disturbing the neighbours would be great.
RizzoTheRat said:
How much heavier would a water cooled engine need to be? Would they really be much quieter?
The weight of a water jacket, a rad, pump and some water. Not trivial. It would only be quieter if it were bulky. More noise comes from the exhaust and intake.My strimmer/hedge trimmer/tree pruner is stickered at 111dB. I kid you not. It *howls*. 26cc 2T running 50:1.
battered said:
The weight of a water jacket, a rad, pump and some water. Not trivial. It would only be quieter if it were bulky. More noise comes from the exhaust and intake.
My strimmer/hedge trimmer/tree pruner is stickered at 111dB. I kid you not. It *howls*. 26cc 2T running 50:1.
This makes a lot of sense, we all want petrol powered stuff that is quiet, a neighbours boy has a scooter and I swear it has a chainsaw engine and no silencer, just full throttle all the time.My strimmer/hedge trimmer/tree pruner is stickered at 111dB. I kid you not. It *howls*. 26cc 2T running 50:1.
Water cooling is going to help a little bit as has already been said, adds to the weight.
Is the answer to have better cordless engines with enough power to do the job, and is priced at a level that you would buy it rather than petrol power.
I've had to listen to some guy grinding his wall all morning. Occasionally he stops for a minute to stand back and stare at aforementioned wall. He's been staring at this wall for the last two weeks.
I thin he's grinding the dirt off, why he can't just use a pressure washer like any normal person I don't know.
I thin he's grinding the dirt off, why he can't just use a pressure washer like any normal person I don't know.
Vaud said:
Grumpy old man time.
Trying to work from home... window open.
Noisy bloody lawnmowers, streamers, leaf blowers, etc.
Why are home DIY engines air-cooled? Cost? Why can't they be better sound insulated or silenced? Aside for rechargeable or mains powered, what advances in engines to we need? We don't tolerate such noise from (most) cars or appliances, so I want half the noise please.
A two stroke doesn't even sound nice.
/lame rant over
Agree. Awful things. Gardening labour is also so dirt cheap why wouldn't someone pay the small amount for their EU labourer to use a rake instead of one of those ghastly machines. Strangely, lawnmowers seem a less offensive noise for whatever reason but those little engines on leaf blowers, strimmers, trimmers etc are abysmal and enormously uncivilised.Trying to work from home... window open.
Noisy bloody lawnmowers, streamers, leaf blowers, etc.
Why are home DIY engines air-cooled? Cost? Why can't they be better sound insulated or silenced? Aside for rechargeable or mains powered, what advances in engines to we need? We don't tolerate such noise from (most) cars or appliances, so I want half the noise please.
A two stroke doesn't even sound nice.
/lame rant over
It's also made worse by the fact that people seem to have lost all notion of what times and days it is acceptable to be making a god awful racket also. We had the cretinous staff next door waving around a leaf blower and shouting at each other at 7pm yesterday. At least they had the good grace to stop when asked and went home. Small mercies.
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