Planer noise figures cannot be ranked across makers because each one reports a different quantity: Makita an A-weighted level at the operator, Laguna a level at 1 m, and Grizzly a range with no method at all.
Makita's EU manual for the 2012NB gives two "typical A-weighted" levels. Sound pressure describes the operator's position, and sound power describes all the sound the machine puts out. The declaration in that manual names EN61029, and Makita's current EU declaration lists EN 61029-2-3, the part written for thicknessers.
Laguna's page for the PX|12 says "Noise (1m away): 92dB" and stops there, with no weighting and no word on whether the knives were cutting wood or spinning free. Grizzly's data sheets, and the Shop Fox sheet built in the same layout, give a "Sound Rating" range with no method.
Distance, weighting and the load on the cutterhead all move a reading, so an 86 at the operator and a 92 at 1 m do not show which planer is louder. Figures are compared only inside a group, such as Grizzly's G0939 against Grizzly's G0940, two sheets from one documentation team.
How loud is a thickness planer?
A benchtop thickness planer is rated from 83 to 98 dB on the data sheets we found, and Makita declares 86 dB(A) at the operator for its 2012NB. Every maker here tells owners to protect their hearing.
These are the five figures as each maker printed them:
- Makita 2012NB: 86 dB(A) sound pressure and 99 dB(A) sound power, typical (EU manual)
- Grizzly G0939: "83 - 85 dB" Sound Rating
- Grizzly G0940: "83 - 85 dB" Sound Rating
- Laguna PX|12: "92dB" at 1 m
- Shop Fox W1877: "96 - 98 dB" Sound Rating
The list spans 15 decibels, but its two ends come from sheets that never say how they were measured, and the Makita number belongs to a different kind of figure again. Read it as five separate statements. Each planer is grouped in the picks with the figures it can fairly meet.
Grizzly's manual for the G0939 and G0940 tells owners to wear hearing protection "when operating or observing loud machinery", and Makita's EU manual for the 2012NB says "Wear ear protection." No maker suggests its planer can be run with bare ears.
Is a helical cutterhead quieter than straight knives?
No, not on Grizzly's benchtop data sheets, where the three-knife G0939 and the helical G0940 share one 83 to 85 dB rating. Grizzly's 15 in. floor planers do split, 82 to 84 dB straight against 75 to 77 helical.
The G0939 and G0940 share an owner's manual, a 2 HP universal motor, an 8500 RPM cutterhead and a 25 FPM feed. Grizzly lists two differences: the head, three double-sided steel knives against 30 carbide inserts in two spirals, and the table, stainless steel against granite. Both data sheets carry the same rating.
Grizzly's G0940 page still says its inserts mean "lower noise levels", and the figure Grizzly prints does not bear that out against the G0939. On these two machines, the $454 extra pays for the insert head and the granite table rather than a lower number.
Grizzly's 15 in. floor planers tell a different story
Grizzly's 15 in. fixed-table planers are not benchtop machines and are not picks here, but they do show a gap. The G0890 with three straight knives is rated 82 - 84 dB, and the G0891 with a 48-insert helical head 75 - 77 dB, on matching sheets in one shared manual.
Both floor planers run a 3 HP induction motor and a 5200 RPM cutterhead, much slower than the 8500 RPM head on the benchtop pair. Grizzly does not explain why the head type moves the rating on its big machines and leaves it untouched on its small ones.
Laguna also calls its QuadTec insert head "quieter than conventional straight knives" without a number, and the Shop Fox W1877, with a spiral-style head, is rated 96 to 98 dB on its own sheet. An insert head is no promise of a low printed figure.
Makita publishes three figures for the 2012NB and explains none of the differences: Makita USA says 83dB, Makita UK lists 85 dB(A) at the operator, and the EU manual prints 86 dB(A).
Alongside its 85, the UK page lists 98 dB(A) sound power and an uncertainty, K, of 3 dB(A). The EU manual, which that same UK page links, gives 86 and 99 as "typical" levels with no K. Makita USA's 83 arrives with no weighting, quantity or condition, and the US instruction manual prints no noise figure at all.
The EU manual's 86 dB(A) leads this page because it sits in a document whose declaration names a test standard, and the UK page's 85 appears beside it. The US 83 is left out of every comparison: with nothing said about how it was taken, there is no group it belongs to.
Tying the European paperwork to the US planer is straightforward. Makita sells it as the 2012NB in both markets, and its US and EU manuals agree on the 304 mm (12 in.) cutting width, the 8,500 no-load speed, the 8.5 m per minute feed, the 304 by 771 mm table and the 27 kg weight.
How many decibels is a DEWALT planer?
DEWALT publishes no decibel figure for the DW735, its only thickness planer on dewalt.com. The US page and manual print none, and DEWALT's UK and EU sites sell the DW733, a model number that matches no US planer.
The US manual for the DW735 asks for hearing protection but gives no level. A European edition of the DW735 manual with noise values circulates on third-party manual sites, but we could not find it on any DEWALT server, and the product listings on DEWALT's UK, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch sites carry no DW735.
The DW733 is the 317 mm thicknesser DEWALT sells across Europe. DEWALT's US site has no page for the 12-1/2 in. DW734, and with different model numbers nothing from the DW733's paperwork was carried over to a US planer. DEWALT sits out of the picks.
WEN, Cutech and RIKON print no usable noise figure for their benchtop thickness planers, and RYOBI's site lists its 12-1/2 in. AP1305 as discontinued.
WEN's manuals for the 6552T, 6550T, PL1252, PL1303, PL1326 and PL1337, all linked from wenproducts.com, contain no decibel figure. Cutech's page for the 40700H lists motor, cutterhead and capacity but nothing on noise.
RIKON's manuals for the 25-130H and 25-135H give "Noise Level (no load)" as "≤ 100 dB". That is an upper limit with the knives spinning free rather than a declared value, so neither RIKON is a pick.
Our searches turned up no current Metabo HPT page for the P13F. Scheppach and Einhell sell thicknessers in Europe, but we found no US site from either, so there is no US model to tie a European figure to.
