A power planer is one of the loudest tools a carpenter carries. The cutter head spins at 12,000 to 17,000 RPM with one or two knives, and every revolution takes a slice off the board. The chips blow out of a chute a few inches from your hand, and the tool rides flat on the wood, so the board itself carries some of the noise. A few passes to fit a door can take several minutes of run time, and on a deck or a timber frame the planer might run far longer.
Twelve 3-1/4 inch hand planers sold in the US carry maker noise declarations we could read and match to the US model. Eleven have figures under the current planer standard, EN 62841, and at the operator's ear those run from 85 to 92 dB(A). One more, Milwaukee's, has figures on a maker page that names no standard at all, and we keep it on its own.
The test behind the numbers
Makers selling in Europe declare planer noise under EN 62841-2-14, the part of the handheld tool standard written for planers. It gives two quantities. LpA is sound pressure at the operator's position. LWA is sound power, the tool's total output. Each comes with a K value, the uncertainty, which is 3 dB for every planer in this guide.
We rank on LpA and show LwA beside it. Both come from the same test, but they measure different things and never belong in one ranking. The sound power vs sound pressure explainer covers why.
Two more rules shape the ranking. Figures under the older EN 60745 standard are not ranked against EN 62841 figures. And a figure that comes with no standard named is kept apart as well, because we cannot tell how it was measured. No maker here gives separate figures for different modes or materials, so every EN 62841 figure in the ranking is a single declaration per tool. Festool labels its rows "Planing"; the others give no condition.
None of it is printed for US buyers
Not one of the twelve planers has a noise figure on its US product page, and none of the US manuals we opened prints an EN 62841 figure. Every figure here comes from the same maker's European documents: Makita's EU manuals, DEWALT's UK manual, Bosch's European original instructions, Milwaukee's EU page, Festool's international page and HiKOKI's European manuals for the Metabo HPT planers.
Where the model number is the same in both markets, as with the DEWALT DCP580 and the Makita KP0800 and KP0810, the match is direct. Makita's cordless planers carry different names in Europe, but the US and EU manuals print the same specification tables: the US XPK02 and the EU DKP181 both list 82 mm width, 3 mm depth, 12,000 per minute and 366 mm length. Bosch makes the check easy with shared part number families, so the US GHO18V-26N, part 3601EB50B0, matches the European GHO 18V-26, article 3 601 EB5 0... Metabo HPT's US pages link manuals for the P20ST and P18DSL, the same model names HiKOKI uses in Europe. Each catalog entry states the pairing and the evidence.
One pairing is looser than the rest. Bosch's US PL1632 has part number 3601EA4010, in the same family as the European GHO 16-82 at 3 601 EA4 0.., and both cut 1.6 mm deep. But the European manual lists 18,000 RPM and the US page 16,500. We include it, with that difference stated, rather than guess at a better twin. A caveat also applies to every corded planer: the declarations describe the 230 V European tools, and the US versions run on 120 V.
Cordless planers
DEWALT's DCP580B leads the EN 62841 ranking at 85 dB(A) at the ear, with 96 sound power. It is a brushless 20V MAX planer with a 2 mm cut, and its UK and US manuals share the model number and speed. Makita's brushless XPK02Z comes next at 87 and 95, through the DKP181, and it takes a deeper 1/8 inch cut.
The other cordless planers declare more. Makita's brushed 18V XPK01Z and its 40V max XGT GPK01Z both declare 90 dB(A) and 98 sound power. Bosch's brushless GHO18V-26N declares 91 and 99. Metabo HPT's 18V P18DSLQ4 is the highest EN 62841 declaration in this guide, at 92 at the ear and 100 sound power.
Milwaukee's M18 BP, the European twin of the US 2623-20, shows 82.8 dB(A) at the ear and 93.8 sound power on Milwaukee's EU page. The page does not say which standard or test produced them, so we list the 2623-20 in its own group and do not rank it against the EN 62841 planers.
Corded planers
Among corded planers, Metabo HPT's P20STQS and Festool's HL 850 E-F-Plus tie at 87 dB(A) at the ear and 95 sound power, the lowest EN 62841 sound power figure in this guide, which Makita's XPK02Z shares. The two are very different tools. The P20STQS is a light 5.5 amp planer with a 1/16 inch cut. The HL 850 is a heavy 850 W planer with its head mounted to one side, so it can cut a rabbet of any depth flush to the edge, and at a $799.00 compare at price on Festool USA's reconditioned store it is the only planer here with a maker price.
Makita's KP0800K declares 88 and 96 and is the lightest corded planer here at 5.7 lbs. The KP0810 declares 89 and 97 and takes the deepest corded cut, 5/32 inch. Bosch's PL1632, through the GHO 16-82, declares 91 and 99 in Bosch's 2025 manual. The 2022 edition of the same manual gave 88 at the ear with the same 99 sound power, and the documents do not explain the change.
One old declaration we leave out
The instruction manual Makita links from its US KP0810 page is an older international edition. For the KP0810 it gives 87 dB(A) at the ear and 98 sound power, "For European countries only", obtained according to EN60745, the older standard. Makita's current EU manual for the same model gives 89 and 97 under EN62841-2-14. We rank the current figure and keep the old one out of the comparison. It shows why mixing standards misleads: under the old test the KP0810 would look quieter at the ear and louder in sound power than it does today.
We also left out Makita's KP312. Its EU manual declares 91 dB(A) and 99 under EN62841-2-14, but it is a 12-1/4 inch beam planer weighing 40.6 lbs, a different class of tool from the 3-1/4 inch planers here.
The silent aisle
DEWALT prints no noise figure in the US manuals for its corded DW680K and D26676 planers, and we did not find a current UK or EU manual for either one to quote. RYOBI's US operator's manual for the P611 18V ONE+ planer prints no figure either. These planers may be quiet or loud. The documents we read do not say.
What the spread means
Seven decibels separate the lowest EN 62841 declaration here from the highest at the ear, a narrow spread next to the 24 decibels among routers. Every EN 62841 figure in this guide is 85 dB(A) or more at the operator's position, and the Makita, Bosch and HiKOKI manuals all tell you to protect your hearing. In use, sharp knives, a sensible depth and a steady feed rate matter as much as the choice of planer. Two light passes are usually easier on your ears and the wood than one heavy one, whichever planer you own.
We did not measure any of these planers. Every figure is the maker's own, quoted as published, with the standard, K value and document identified wherever the maker identified them.
