A portable band saw cuts metal by dragging a slow loop of toothed blade through the work, with no spinning disc and few sparks. Most saws here declare between 74 and 84 dB(A) at the operator's ear.
Fifteen portable band saws sold in the US carry maker figures we could read. At the ear they run from 71 to 90,2 dB(A). But those numbers were not all measured the same way, and that shapes everything below.
The test behind the numbers
Makers selling in Europe declare band saw noise under a harmonised standard. The current one is EN IEC 62841-2-20, the part of EN 62841 for band saws. Its predecessor was EN 60745-2-20. Each 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 saw here.
We rank on LpA and show LwA beside it. The two measure different things and never belong in one ranking. The sound power vs sound pressure explainer covers why.
The difficulty with band saws is that the makers are mid-switch between standards, and they label it differently:
- Bosch's 2026 manual for the GCB 18V-63 names EN IEC 62841-2-20.
- Makita's manuals for its cordless saws say "determined according to EN60745/EN62841", naming both at once and no part number.
- DEWALT names EN60745-2-20, Hilti names EN 60745, Makita's corded 2107F manual names EN60745, and Bosch's GCB 18V-127 manual names EN 60745-2-20.
- Milwaukee's European pages list figures but name no standard.
- HiKOKI's European page lists figures in "dB" with no A-weighting and no standard.
A new edition of a test can move a figure a long way. The clearest case is Bosch's own GCB 18V-63: its 2022 manual declared 79 dB(A) under EN 60745-2-20, and its 2026 manual declares 71 under EN IEC 62841-2-20. Same saw, eight decibels apart. So we group by what the maker names and rank only inside each group.
The ranking, group by group
Under EN IEC 62841-2-20 alone: Bosch GCB18V-2N at 71. It is the only saw in that group, so we make no ranking claim for it beyond that.
Under Makita's EN60745/EN62841: XBP03Z at 80, XBP04Z and GBP01Z at 81, XBP05ZB at 82 and XBP02Z at 84. Sound power follows the same order, from 88 to 92.
Under EN 60745: Hilti SB 4-22 and DEWALT DCS377 at 77, Bosch GCB18V-5N at 79 and Makita 2107FZK at 86. Hilti and DEWALT both declare 88 dB(A) sound power; the Bosch manual gives none; the Makita declares 98.
On Milwaukee's pages, with no standard named: 2429-20 at 74, 2529-20 at 76, 2829-20 at 82.63 and the corded 6232-20 at 90,2. Sound power runs from 85 to 101,2.
Unranked, with no A-weighting shown: Metabo HPT CB18DBLQ4 at 78 dB and 89 dB.
Inside each group, smaller saws tend to declare less. Milwaukee's two M12 saws sit below its M18 and corded saws, and its corded 6232-20 is the highest in its group. In the EN 60745 group the two compact saws from Hilti and DEWALT sit below the deep cut Bosch and Makita. Makita's own group is the exception that shows the limits of the rule: its smallest saw, the 2 in. XBP05ZB, declares 82, two above the 2-1/2 in. XBP03Z.
None of it is printed for US buyers
Not one US product page or US manual we opened for these fifteen saws prints a noise figure. Every figure comes from the maker's European documents, and each listing sets out how we matched the US saw to its European twin.
Hilti's SB 4-22 and DEWALT's DCS377 are sold under the same name in both markets, and their manuals match on speed and blade. Hilti's match on every listed dimension.
Makita's cordless saws change names, but the manuals line up pair by pair. The US XBP03 is the European DPB182, the XBP04 is the DPB183, the XBP05 is the DPB184, the XBP02 is the DPB180 and the 40V max XGT GBP01 is the PB002G. Capacity, blade speed, blade length and dimensions match exactly in each pair. The corded 2107FZK links the 2107FZ manual, which covers the 2107F; capacity, speed, blade and weight match, though the listed dimensions differ.
Bosch's links are through item numbers. The US GCB18V-2N is item 06012A0415 and the European GCB 18V-63 is 0 601 2A0 400. The US GCB18V-5N is 06012B7010 and the European GCB 18V-127 is 0 601 2B7 000. In both pairs the blade length and speed range match too.
Milwaukee's pairs rest on platform, blade length and speed. The M12 BS matches the 2429-20 and the M12 FBS64 the 2529-20 on all three plus capacity. The M18 FBS85 and the 2829-20 match on blade and speed, but the European page gives 85 mm capacity against 3-1/4 in. in the US manual. The corded BS 125 and the 6232-20 share a speed range and a 5 in. class capacity, and the European figure is for the mains version sold there.
Bosch, and two sources that disagree
Bosch shows why the date on a document matters. Its web pages for both the GCB 18V-63 and the GCB 18V-127 list "Sound pressure level 79 dB(A) Sound power level 90 dB(A)", with no standard. The 2026 manual for the GCB 18V-63 replaces that with 71 dB(A) under EN IEC 62841-2-20 and gives no sound power at all. We use the current manual.
For the GCB 18V-127, the manual Bosch links still gives 79 dB(A) under EN 60745-2-20, while its 2026 declaration of conformity already names EN IEC 62841-2-20:2025. A newer figure may exist; we could not find a document that prints it, so the GCB18V-5N stays in the EN 60745 group at 79.
Makita, and a label that spans two standards
Makita's five cordless declarations are the tightest cluster here, 80 to 84 at the ear and 88 to 92 sound power. They are also the most internally consistent: the sound power figure sits eight decibels above the ear figure on every one. The "EN60745/EN62841" label is Makita's own. We do not know which test produced the numbers, so we keep them in their own group rather than guess.
Milwaukee and the saw we could not rank
Milwaukee's European pages give figures to two decimals for the M18 FBS85, 82.63 and 93.63, and with decimal commas for the BS 125, 90,2 and 101,2. We quote them as printed. With no standard named, they sit in their own group.
HiKOKI, which sells in the US as Metabo HPT, lists 78 and 89 for the CB18DBL in plain "dB". It may well be A-weighted, as the other makers' figures are, but the page does not say so, and we do not add a label the maker left off.
What the spread means
With a K of 3 on every figure, saws a decibel or two apart may sound the same in use. Makita's 80, 81 and 82 are a group, not a podium, and so are Hilti's and DEWALT's matching 77s. The larger gaps are real: inside the EN 60745 group, Makita's corded 2107FZK declares nine decibels more than the Hilti and DEWALT, and Milwaukee's figures span more than sixteen decibels from the M12 sub-compact to the corded deep cut saw.
A declaration is one standardised cut. Blade pitch, feed pressure, the material and whether it rings as you cut it all change what you hear. Thin-wall tube and strut can ring loudly under any saw. Use the figures to compare saws within a group, not to predict your exposure on a given job.
The silent aisle
DEWALT's US manual for its 5 in. DCS374 deep cut saw prints no noise figure, and DEWALT's UK band saw range lists the DCS371, DCS377 and DCS378 but no DCS374, so we found no European declaration to use. Milwaukee's European page for the M18 CBS125, the twin of the US 2729-20 deep cut saw, no longer shows the product, and its page for the second-generation M18 FBS127 lists no noise values. HiKOKI's European and UK pages for the CB3612DA, sold in the US as the Metabo HPT CB3612DA, list no noise values either. Metabo's US site lists circular saws, multi-tools and reciprocating saws in its cordless sawing range but no band saw. These saws may be quiet or loud. Their makers' US documents do not say.
We did not measure any of these band saws. Every figure is the maker's own, quoted as published, with the standard, K value and document identified wherever the maker identified them.
