A circular saw is the loudest tool most people own that they hold at arm's length. Every saw in this survey declares at least 90 dB(A) at the operator's ear. What the declarations do show is a nine decibel spread, from 90 to 99, and that spread lines up more with maker and motor than with whether the saw runs on a track.
Fourteen circular saws and track saws sold in the US carry maker declarations we could read. At the ear they run from 90 to 99 dB(A). Sound power runs from 98 to 107.
The test behind the numbers
Makers selling in Europe declare saw noise under EN 62841, and circular saws have their own part, EN 62841-2-5. It gives two quantities. LpA is sound pressure at the operator's position. LWA is sound power, the saw's total noise output. Each comes with a K value, the uncertainty, which is 3 dB for every saw here except one.
We rank on LpA and show LwA beside it. The two come from the same test but measure different things, and never belong in one ranking. The sound power vs sound pressure explainer covers why.
Festool is the only maker that names a cutting condition for noise. It declares separate figures for sawing wood and sawing metal, and for every saw that lists both, the two are identical. We quote the wood figures. Metabo, Hilti, Bosch and Milwaukee each declare one figure per saw with no condition named. Hilti's and Metabo's manuals and Bosch's name EN 62841; Metabo's and Bosch's name part 2-5. Milwaukee's page names no standard. Because each of these is a single declaration per saw, and Festool's own wood and metal figures do not differ, we rank them together and mark where each figure comes from.
The ranking
By declared sound pressure at the ear, lowest first: Festool TS 60 K and Metabo KS 18 LTX 66 BL at 90, Festool TS 75, HKC 55 K and TSC 55 KS at 91, Milwaukee 2831-20 at 92.4, Festool TS 55 F, Festool TSV 60 K and Metabo KT 18 LTX 66 BL at 93, Metabo KS 18 LTX 57 at 95, Festool TSC 55 K at 96, Hilti SC 6WP-22 at 98, and Hilti SC 6WL-22 and Bosch GKT18V-20GC at 99.
Sound power does not follow the same order. The TS 60 K is joint lowest at the ear but declares 101 sound power, while the TS 75, HKC 55 K and TSC 55 KS declare 99 and Metabo's KS 18 LTX 66 BL 98. If other people share the room, the sound power column is the one to read.
Festool publishes a full noise table for every saw on its international site. Its US pages use the same specification tables with the noise rows gone. We quote the international figures and match each US article to its international twin by power or battery voltage, no-load speed, blade diameter and cutting depth, which match for every saw here. Weight matches too where both pages give it, except the TSC 55 KS, listed at 3.538 kg in the US and 3.30 kg internationally. The names differ only in suffix letters: the US TS 60 KEB-F-Plus is the international TS 60 KEBQ-Plus. The corded declarations describe the 230 V tools, and the US tools run on 120 V.
On those figures, Festool's newest brushless TS 60 K is its quietest saw at the ear. The cordless line splits in two. The single battery TSC 55 KS declares 91, while the twin battery TSC 55 K declares 96, five decibels more, with a tighter K of 1.5. Prices come from the compare at prices on Festool USA's own reconditioned tool store, because festoolusa.com shows none.
Metabo prints noise figures on its US product pages, the only maker here that does. As with its sanders, they disagree with its manuals. For the KS 18 LTX 66 BL the page says 90 at the ear and the manual 87. For the KT 18 LTX 66 BL plunge saw it is 93 against 89.5, and for the KS 18 LTX 57 95 against 92. The sound power figures agree or nearly so.
We rank Metabo on the higher US page figures. Even so, the KS 18 LTX 66 BL ties for the lowest figure at the ear and has the lowest sound power in the survey.
Hilti, Bosch and Milwaukee, declared in Europe
Hilti sells its Nuron saws direct in the US under the same names as in Europe. Its EU manuals declare 98 dB(A) at the ear and 106 sound power for the SC 6WP-22 plunge saw, and 99 and 107 for the SC 6WL-22 circular saw. Its UK pages repeat the ear figures. Its US pages and manuals print none.
Bosch's US PROFACTOR track saw, the GKT18V-20GC, has an EU twin now sold as the EXKT18V-52G. The two manuals share speed, blade, blade thickness and depth. The EU one declares 99 dB(A) at the ear and 107 sound power under EN 62841-2-5.
Milwaukee's European page for the M18 FPS55 plunge saw lists 92.4 dB(A) and 103.4. We match it to the US 2831-20 by platform, blade and speed range. The two documents give maximum depths 2 mm apart, so we flag the match. The Milwaukee EU circular saws we checked with figures use 190 mm blades, which differ from the 7-1/4 inch US saws, so we did not map them.
The silent aisle
DEWALT prints no noise figure in the US manual for its DCS520 track saw. Milwaukee's US manual for the 2831-20, Bosch's US manual for the GKT18V-20GC and Hilti's US manuals for both Nuron saws print none. Makita's UK page declares 95 dB(A) at the ear and 103 sound power for the DSP600 cordless plunge saw, but Makita's US site would not open for us, so we could not tie that figure to a US model and it stays out of the ranking. These saws may be quiet or loud. Their makers' US documents do not say.
We did not measure any of these saws. Every figure is the maker's own, quoted as published, with the standard, K value, condition and document identified wherever the maker identified them.
