A router is one of the loudest tools in a woodshop. The motor spins at up to 30,000 RPM or more, the bit chops wood hundreds of times a second, and the cooling fan blows air and chips out around the base. Unlike a saw cut, a routing pass can last a long time: an edge profile around a tabletop or a set of dados for a bookcase keeps the tool running for minutes at a stretch.
Sixteen trim, compact and plunge routers sold in the US carry maker noise declarations we could read and match to the US model. Eleven of them have figures under the current standard (one, Milwaukee's, names no standard at all), and at the operator's ear those run from 74 to 98 dB(A). Five more have figures only under an older standard, from 82 to 87.
The test behind the numbers
Makers selling in Europe declare router noise under EN 62841-2-17, the standard for handheld routers and trimmers. 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: 3 dB for most makers here and 1.5 dB for Festool's corded routers.
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 ranked only against each other. And where a maker declares a figure only for a named work mode, such as rotation without load, we compare it only with figures in the same mode.
Almost none of it is printed for US buyers
Only one router has a noise figure on its US page: Festool's OF 1400 EQ-F-Plus. None of the US manuals we opened prints one. Every other figure here comes from the same maker's European documents: Makita's EU manuals, Bosch's European original instructions, Milwaukee's EU pages, Festool's international pages and HiKOKI's European manual for the Metabo HPT M3612DA.
Where the model number is the same in both markets, as with the Metabo HPT M3612DA and the Makita RP1800 and RP2301FC, the match is direct. Bosch makes the rest easy to check, because the US and European versions share a part number family: the US GKF12V-25N carries part number 3601FB0010, and the European GKF 12V-8 manual gives 3 601 FB0 0.. with the same 13,000 RPM speed. For Makita and Milwaukee we paired each US router with the European one that has the same speed range, size and weight. Each catalog entry states the pairing and the evidence. One caveat applies to the corded routers: the declarations describe the 230 V European tools, and the US versions run on 120 V.
Trim and compact routers
The quietest router in this guide is also one of the smallest. Bosch declares 74 dB(A) at the ear for the GKF 12V-8, the twin of the US GKF12V-25N, a 12 V palm edge router with one fixed speed. Bosch gives no sound power figure for it.
The 18 V compact routers come next. Milwaukee's EU page gives 80.02 dB(A) at the ear and 91.02 sound power for the M18 FTR, which matches the US 2723-20, though it names no standard. Makita's DRT50, the twin of the XTR01Z, declares 81 at the ear and 89 sound power, the lowest sound power here, and it is the only router whose manual gives figures both at no load and while cutting grooves in MDF: the same 81 and 89 in each. Bosch's 18 V Colt, the GKF18V-25N, declares 87 and 95 through its European twin.
Plunge and full size routers
Among plunge and full size routers with current-standard figures, Bosch's MRP23EVS is lowest at 86 dB(A) and 97 sound power, through the GOF 1600 CE that shares its part number family and speed range. Its manual leaves the words "sound pressure level" out in front of the 86, and we read it as the pressure figure because it comes first, where Bosch prints the pressure figure in its other manuals.
The Metabo HPT M3612DA, the only cordless plunge router here, and the corded Bosch GOF13-25 both declare 89 and 97. Festool's three corded routers sit well above them: 95 and 103 for the OF 1010 REBQ-Plus, 96 and 104 for the OF 2200 EB-F-Plus, and 98 and 106 for the OF 1400 EQ-F-Plus, each with a K of 1.5. Festool is also the only maker here with a price on its own US store, through the compare at prices on its reconditioned tool shop, from $599.00 for the OF 1010 to $1,219.00 for the OF 2200.
Five routers on the older standard
Five routers have declarations only under EN 60745-2-17, the older router standard. Festool's cordless MFKC 700 edge router and Makita's corded RT0701C both declare 82 dB(A) at the ear, with sound power of 90 and 93. Festool's corded MFK 700 declares 84 and 92. Makita's big RP1800 and RP2301FC plunge routers declare 86 and 97, and 87 and 98.
Makita has moved its European range on to newer models declared under EN 62841, and some of their figures are higher. The RP2303FC, the current European relative of the RP2301FC, declares 91 dB(A) at the ear, but it also runs to 23,000 RPM where the US tool stops at 22,000, so we do not treat it as a twin. That is the reason these five stay in their own group.
Makita's European manual for the RT001G, the twin of the 40V max GTR01Z, declares 84 dB(A) at the ear and 92 sound power, but only in the work mode "rotation without load". Most routers here have no stated mode, so we do not rank the GTR01Z against them. The one fair comparison is with the XTR01Z's twin, which declares 81 in that same no-load mode.
The silent aisle
DEWALT prints no noise figure in the US manual for its DCW600 cordless compact router. Bosch prints none in the US manual for its corded GKF125CE Colt palm router, and we did not find a European twin to quote. Milwaukee's EU page for the M18 FR12, the European version of its 1/2 inch cordless router, lists speed, collet and plunge capacity but no noise values, so the US 2838-20 is not ranked. These routers may be quiet or loud. Their makers' documents that we read do not say.
What the spread means
Twenty-four decibels separate the quietest declaration here from the loudest at the ear, far more than the spread among jigsaws or circular saws. Much of it follows the size of the tool: small edge and trim routers declare the least, big plunge routers the most. In use, the bit, the speed and the depth of each pass move real world noise as much as the choice of router. Several light passes at a sensible speed are easier on your ears than one heavy one, whichever router you own.
We did not measure any of these routers. Every figure is the maker's own, quoted as published, with the standard, K value, work mode and document identified wherever the maker identified them.
