An apartment changes the noise question. In a house, a loud machine mostly bothers the people who bought it. In a flat, the washer sits in a closet off the hallway, the dishwasher runs against a wall someone else sleeps behind, and your floor is another person's ceiling. So every machine has two audiences: you, and the people next door and downstairs.
This page ties our apartment guides together. We cover noise only. For anything about leases, building rules or noise ordinances, check your lease and local rules.
The reference points
There is no official noise figure for an apartment. The ones that exist are the same as for any home:
- Bedrooms at night. The World Health Organization's community noise guidelines recommend less than 30 dB(A) in bedrooms during the night.
- Everyday sounds. The US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders puts whispering at 30 dB, a humming refrigerator at 40 dB and normal conversation at 60 to 70 dBA.
- Loudness. The National Park Service says an increase of 10 dB causes a doubling of perceived loudness. So 40 sounds about twice as loud as 30.
These describe a whole room. A maker's figure describes one product, at a distance the maker almost never states, so use it to compare products with each other. For the same points room by room, see how quiet is quiet enough.
Sound in the air, and vibration through the floor
A dBA figure describes sound in the air: the hum of a fan, the spray of a dishwasher, the whine of a vacuum motor. Walls and closed doors cut that down, so most of it stays in your rooms.
It says nothing about vibration traveling through the floor. A washer shaking on its feet during the spin, or a foot landing on a treadmill deck, passes into the floor and the walls and arrives next door as a thump. No figure on the box describes that, which is why the manuals put so much of the fix in installation: remove the shipping bolts, level the feet, and set the machine down on a firm surface.
The machines your neighbors hear
The washing machine. Our guide to the quietest washing machine for an apartment ranks compact and stackable washers on the published spin figure, because the spin is the part that reaches the people below. It covers turning the spin speed down and what that costs in wetter laundry, how the machines react to an uneven load, what the makers say about wooden floors, and which run on a standard 120 V outlet. Bosch, one of only two brands that publish a figure, lists 51 to 52 dBA for washing and 72 to 75 dBA for spinning. A spin at 72 dBA is louder than conversation.
The dryer. Our guide to the quietest dryers finds that every dryer with a maker figure is a 24 inch compact, and that no full size dryer publishes a number at all. It compares heat pump and vented compacts, and notes which one ships with its stacking kit.
The treadmill. Our guide to the quietest treadmills for an apartment makes the point that matters most downstairs: footstrike impact, not motor hum, is the noise that travels. It explains why walking is gentler than running, why a dense rubber mat beats thin foam or plush carpet, and why the published walking pad figures cannot be put in order.
The robot vacuum. Our guide to the quietest robot vacuum for an apartment separates the robot's quiet-mode hum from the short, loud burst when the dock empties the bin, which is the part more likely to reach a neighbor. It sets out what each brand's do-not-disturb setting actually blocks, plus voice prompts, carpet boost and the dock's footprint. The robots list 52 to 65 in their everyday modes, and the self-empty dock lists 70 to 78.9 where a maker publishes it.
The dishwasher. Our guide to the quietest 18 inch dishwashers for an apartment ranks compact built-ins dBA against dBA, and covers delay timers, run times, which models let you mute the beeps, and the hookups a rental sink cabinet already has. For a kitchen with no dishwasher hookup, our guide to the quietest countertop dishwashers compares faucet-connected countertop and rolling portable models, explains why their figures cluster so tightly with no method given, and says how to check your faucet first. If your kitchen opens onto the living room, our page on planning a quiet open-plan kitchen covers the fridge and the hood too.
The machines you hear yourself
Air conditioning. Our guide to the quietest window AC for a bedroom sizes each pick to the room, compares figures only at the same named setting, and reads the manuals for sleep modes, display lights and energy saving modes that restart the fan. Where the building allows one, our guide to the quietest mini-splits for a bedroom compares the wall units their makers rate speed by speed. Our guide to the quietest portable air conditioners explains that a portable puts the whole machine in the room, compressor included. Its lowest published figures are 42 to 44 dBA, at the lowest speed or in a sleep mode, and a window unit is quieter on the makers' own figures.
The dehumidifier. The quietest full-size units list 43 dBA on low. Our guide to the quietest dehumidifiers shows that the quieter-looking figures belong to units that remove very little water, and how to check capacity claims.
The air purifier. Our guide to the quietest air purifiers for a bedroom compares the makers' published figures at the settings you would sleep next to, and reads each manual for the display lights and night settings.
The fan. Our guide to the quietest fans for sleeping compares tower, box and ceiling fans each within their own type, at the speed they run on after the lights go out, and reads what each sleep mode really does.
The mini fridge. In a studio it may sit near the bed. Our guide to the quietest mini fridges explains that most brands publish no figure, how compressor, thermoelectric and absorption fridges each sound, and that a steady figure misses the compressor switching on at night. The lowest published figure we found is 32.3 dB, for Summit's fanless CM42PL.
Running machines at considerate hours
- Know what the timer sets. Bosch's washer timer, Finish in, sets the program end time, and the spin comes at the end. A cycle set to finish early in the morning spins just before then.
- Plan for the run time. The 18 inch dishwashers in our guide run their Normal cycles for more than two hours, so a late start is still running well into the night. In a studio, a delay that runs it while you are out may be the quieter answer.
- Check what do-not-disturb covers. Some robot docks hold the emptying burst during the window, and some only stop scheduled cleans. Holding the dock means the bin stays full until the next clean.
- Switch off the chimes. Through a shared wall, an end-of-cycle tone can carry further than the machine. Several washers and dishwashers in our guides let you turn it off.
Which hours count as quiet is a question for your lease and local rules.
Small-space constraints
- 18 inch dishwashers. The smaller cabinet has less room for insulation, and the 18 inch figures run higher than full-size ones.
- The outlet. Many apartment closets have only a standard 120 V outlet. Some compact washers need a higher-voltage circuit, and so do the compact dryers in our guide. If you rent, ask before you touch the wiring or the plumbing.
- Stackables. Stack only with the kit the maker names. Bosch says not to put a washer-dryer stack on a platform, because the pair may tip over.
- Closets. A closed closet door helps with noise, but a stacked closet needs air, so plan louvered doors rather than leaving the door open.
How to read a maker's figure
- The setting or cycle. Which part does the figure describe? Wash or spin for a washer. Quiet mode or the dock for a robot. Low fan, sleep or a quiet mode for an air conditioner. Idle or under load for a walking pad. If the maker does not say, treat it as the quietest setting.
- dB or dBA. dBA, also written dB(A), is weighted to follow how people hear. Do not rank a dB figure against a dBA figure. See dBA explained.
- The distance. Makers almost never state it, and OSHA notes that indoors, sound falls away more slowly than in open space because it reflects off surfaces. So small gaps between brands mean little. See why you cannot compare dB ratings across brands. If a machine that used to be quiet no longer is, see why your appliance got louder.
We did not measure any of these products. Every figure in our guides is the maker's own, quoted with the setting it describes.