Air King's commercial wall fans set the low mark
The 9012 lists 45 dBA on High, 41 on Medium and 36 on Low, the lowest row among Air King's 15 wall fans. Its two commercial siblings follow closely.
| Model | Size | dBA High / Med / Low |
|---|
| 9012 | 12 in. | 45 / 41 / 36 |
| 9016 | 16 in. | 51 / 47 / 42 |
| 9018 | 18 in. | 51 / 48 / 43 |
Airflow pays for that low row. On a 1/50 HP motor the 9012 moves 940 CFM on High, against 1,955 for the 9018. Lasko's store pitches the 12 in. model at "offices, schools, and tight spaces", a fair guide to the room it suits. No distance, standard or method appears beside these figures. The industrial wall fan page says the fans are tested to AMCA 230-99, an airflow standard, and never says the dB row comes from that test.
Air King's industrial wall fans run 62 to 75 dBA on High
On Low the twelve industrial models list 48 to 67. The 20 in. 9020 is lowest on High, and the 9020 and the 24 in. 99539 tie lowest on Low.
| Model | Size and sweep | dBA High / Med / Low |
|---|
| 9020 | 20 in., fixed | 62 / 55 / 48 |
| 9518 | 18 in., fixed | 67 / 58 / 49 |
| 99538 | 30 in., oscillating | 68 / 64 / 50 |
| 99539 | 24 in., oscillating | 69 / 65 / 48 |
| 9071 and 9074 | 24 in. | 69 / 67 / 59 |
| 9024 and 9025 | 24 in. | 72 / 69 / 64 |
| 9070 and 9075 | 30 in. | 72 / 70 / 64 |
| 9030 and 9035 | 30 in. | 75 / 71 / 67 |
Each pair is one fan sold with and without oscillation: the 9074, 9025, 9075 and 9035 sweep 90 degrees and can be locked, while the 9071, 9024, 9070 and 9030 stay put.
Quiet is the name of a bottom speed
The 99538 and 99539 are the wall fans Air King sells as quiet, and their spec sheets call the bottom speed Quiet rather than Low. On it the 30 in. blade turns at 530 RPM and the 24 in. at 480, each on 70 W.
On High, though, the 99539 lists 69 dBA, the same as the plain 24 in. 9071, while its Quiet setting sits 11 below the 9071's Low.
What is the quietest wall fan for a garage?
Air King's 20 in. 9020, with the lowest High figure of any Air King shop wall fan at 62 dBA. Its Low ties the oscillating 99539 at 48.
The sweep decides between them. Pointed one way, the 9020 moves 3,670 CFM. The 99539 oscillates and moves 5,030 on High, but lists 69 there, and the 30 in. 99538 adds the most air of all, 7,450 CFM, at 68.
All the industrial models share a totally enclosed ball bearing motor, powder coated steel blades and guards, a 9 or 10 ft cord and a safety cable. The lighter commercial 9012, 9016 and 9018 pair a steel front grill with an impact resistant plastic one at the back, run on 6 ft cords, and are listed by Air King for stores, salons, offices and schools rather than shops. For drum, floor and pedestal fans in the same space, see our garage and shop fan guide.
Big Ass Fans rates at full speed only
Each wall fan gets one figure, measured at maximum speed in a laboratory, and the 24 in. AirEye is lowest at 69 dBA.
| Wall fan | dBA |
|---|
| 24 inch AirEye | 69 |
| 36 inch AirEye | 72 |
| 30 inch Yellow Jacket | 76.6 |
| 5.5 foot Pivot | 78.2 |
Every one of those technical sheets carries the same footnote, that "Fans are sound tested at maximum speed in a laboratory environment", so these four rank against each other. None gives a distance. The AirEye's 20 and 30 in. rows are blank.
All four have variable speed control, and none prints a figure for slower speeds. Price sets them apart from household fans: $1,049 to $1,899 for the AirEye wall fan, $3,499 to $5,349 for the Yellow Jacket and $6,299 to $6,399 for the Pivot.
Is there a quiet wall mounted fan with a remote?
Not on any maker's numbers. Every remote controlled wall fan we checked leaves the decibel field out.
| Fan | Remote features | Noise figure |
|---|
| Air King 9850, 18 in. | Remote, 7-hour timer, $119.99 on lasko.com | None, and absent from Air King's wall fan tables |
| Lasko M18950, 18 in. | Remote, 7-hour timer, "3 quiet speeds" | None; sold out on November 7, 2026 |
| Lasko H20685, 20 in. high velocity, wall mount | Remote | None |
The lowest printed figures belong to fans you work by hand. On the 9012 and 9018 that means a front rotary knob and a pull cord, which on a high bracket is a reach or a step up.
Lasko's wall fans, Hunter, Maxx Air, iLIVING, Hurricane, J&D, TPI and Schaefer give no decibel figure for their wall mount fans. J&D goes further and says it does not test them.
Lasko's M16900 and M18950 pages have no noise row. On the page for its 20 in. pivoting high velocity fan, sold with a wall bracket, the "Noise dB-High" field reads "0 dBa", a placeholder rather than a reading. Hunter's 16 in. oscillating wall mounted fan and its Jan Fan industrial wall fans, the 38004, 38076, 38077 and 38078, list nothing. Neither do Maxx Air's HVWM 18 and HVWM 30 OSCUPS, or iLIVING's ILG8EOSC18, ILG8EOSC20 and ILG8IN18X.
Hydrofarm's Hurricane Pro and Hurricane Supreme wall fan pages give none. Asked about decibels on its wall fan page, J&D answers: "we do not test decibel ratings on each individual fan."
TPI's ventilation catalog prints airflow for its wall mount circulators and no sound level, and Schaefer's 24CFO-HE page mentions "lower noise" from its motor without a number. Vornado and Dreo sell no wall mount fan in the US that we found.
How should a wall mounted fan be mounted?
Into a stud. Air King's 24 and 30 in. Quiet manual specifies "a minimum of 2" x 4" studding".
The 12, 16 and 18 in. instructions say to "Locate a stud behind wall", with special anchors from a hardware store if none can be found. The Quiet manual adds that "The hardware to attach the wall bracket to the wall stud is not supplied." At 53.5 lbs, the 99538's shipping weight, that is not a detail, and the industrial fans also come with a secondary safety cable.
Nothing in these documents links mounting to noise, so no claim is made here that a firmer mount lowers any figure above.
