The need for appliance sound ratings

Abstract

Home life has changed over the past 50 years with appliances, providing automated cycles to aid in storage, cleaning, and cooking. Appliances have proven to do tasks conveniently with more efficiency than people. Home designs have changed to adapt to the change in lifestyles. Locating the appliances close areas where they are needed is a highlight of home designs. Clothes washers, long relegated to the basement in older homes have found their way into the main living areas. The price of that convenience is the increase in background sound levels in typically quiet areas of the home. Consider that the sound emitted by a clothes washer in the spin cycle is of similar levels as a car passing a person standing on the side of the road or traffic noise. This level of sound can be disruptive in the home, especially if the appliance is in the main living space or near the bedrooms. In the early 2000s, a major appliance retailer implemented a sound level rating for dishwashers that provided data for customers to compare products. This paper will discuss the positive effects of that standard on dishwasher sound and discuss the need for additional appliance sound level ratings.