Quiet Gadgets and Products helps you to source sound mitigation products, or appliances and other gadgets with reduced noise levels. The Right to Quiet Society provides this list merely for its readers' convenience. The society does not endorse any of these products or companies, and reserves the right to limit postings at its discretion.
Backup Warning Devices
Dishwashers
Range Hoods
Dog collars, Anti-bark
Garage Door Openers
Headphones and Headsets
Lawn Mowers—Push-Reel
Lawn Mowers—Electric
Leaf Collection
Personal Computers
Sound Localization
Soundproofing
Sound Level Meters
- SenseTech
Senses objects behind a vehicle and alerts the operator to their presence, eliminating the need for a backup warning device.
- ASKO
In consumer tests, 91 percent rated ASKO as quietest; 30 percent of the unit’s weight is sound deadening material.- Bosch
A highly advanced, integrated sound reduction system makes the Bosch SH dishwasher series “so quiet you almost have to touch them to know they’re running.”- Electrolux AEG
Has the lowest noise level and water consumption (15 litres) on the market.
- Sears
The “Kenmore Elite” line of range hoods fan noise is some 50% reduced.Dog collars, Anti-bark (stops nuisance barking)
- Citronella Spray Collar
Emits a mild citric acid mist with each bark. Multivet International, Inc., Quebec.- Bark Control Collars
Electric-shock and other types of bark-control collars. Company: Secure Pets.com.- Tri-Tronics Bark Limiter, avialable from U.S.-based Gundog Supply.Com. Emits mild electric shock with each bark.
- Whisper Drive by Liftmaster
Ideal for garages with living space above or directly attached.
- Bose QuietComfort Headset
Bose offers a 30-day free trial of this noise reduction headset.- Noise Cancellation Technologies Inc.
Headphones and earmuffs that use active noise control to cancel rather than muffle low-frequency noise. We have reviewed one of their models, the Noisebuster Extreme.- Plantronics PC Headset
A “lightweight, portable, and private alternative to PC microphones and speakers.”Lawn Mowers—Push-Reel
Yep, they still make the motorless reel mower. We find it just as easy to push as the heavy, noisy gas-guzzlers. Once you’ve used one, you’ll wonder what all that weekend racket is accomplishing.
- American Lawn Mower Co.
“Founded in 1895... largest producer of push reel mowers operating in the United States.”- Sunlawn
Lightest, Quietest push reel mower available—“#1 Selling push mower in Europe.”
- RoboMow
This battery powered robot mower is “practically silent, with low energy consumption and no pollution.”- Husqvarna Automatic Battery Powered Mower
Fully automatic. Even returns to its own charging station as needed.- Husqvarna Solar Mower “Almost Soundless”
The Solar Mower won’t annoy anyone. Both you and your neighbours can enjoy an afternoon lazing in the sun.
- LEAF IT Netting
Netting allowing silent collection of fallen leaves and undisturbed growth of newly seeded grassy areas underneath.
ChatterBlocker is a Mac & Windows app that helps mask unwanted conversations in the workplace. There are white papers, "Coping with Speech Noise in the Modern Workplace," and "Learning to Tune Out Distraction" at the link. The site also has a free "Quiet Please" poster.
- End PC Noise
Sales of quiet computers and computer products. You can buy products to silence your computer yourself or have them build you a customized computer.
A computer “ready to use and quieter than a whisper.”
- The Silent PC
- "Silent" BTX Rackmount PC— 3U Micro BTX model has advanced cooling to eliminate noise. From General Technics Industrial Rackmount Computers.
- Brown Innovations Virtual Audio Imager
Concentrates sound where it’s intended, reducing the intrusion on those nearby. Outside the “intended listening region” sound levels drop by over 80 percent.
- Noise Reduction Enterprises—Marine Products Division
Primarily for boats, but applicable to “automobiles, recreational vehicles, generators and other sources of noise. Not recommended for rooms inside a house.”
- Sound Seal makes industrial noise control products to sound-proof buildings etc.
- ATCO Noise Management—Builds enclosures to contain industrial noise.
- B-Quiet Sound Deadening—Sound deadeners, dampers, and absorbers for vehicles.
Sound Level Meters
Note: Sound level meters like Radio Shack’s are useful for approximating sound levels, but for measurements of a more precise nature such as those submitted in legal proceedings, a calibrated professional-grade meter meeting certain ANSI standards is usually required.
- Ono Sokki
LA-1200 Series.- Radio Shack
Inexpensive, popular meters for approximating decibel levels.
London
To the untutored ear it might just sound like a load of quaking, but researchers have discovered that Britain's ducks, much like its people, have distinct regional accents.
Ducks from London make a rougher sound which resembles shouting so that fellow birds can hear them above the hubbub of city life, whereas their country cousins make a softer sound, a study found.
The differences were uncovered after academics at London's Middlesex University recorded the calls of ducks at a city farm in the capital and at a tranquil location in Cornwall, southwest England, the Guardian newspaper reports.
—The Province,
June 2004
—Noiseletter,
Fall 2004
