The compressor is louder than you expected

This is the complaint that arrives about three weeks in, and it is never phrased as a complaint about the chamber. It is phrased as “we cannot hear the television,” or “my wife works in the next room.” The chamber is fine. The machines that feed it are in the wrong place, and they were put there because nobody thought about it and the hoses happened to reach.

You cannot compare compressor noise on published data

We would like to give you decibel figures to plan with. They mostly do not exist. OxyHealth publishes the compressor type for the Fortius 420 — double-headed, oil-less, 1/3 hp — with no sound level at all (OxyHealth Fortius 420). The Revitalair 430+ clearance describes an oil-less compressor housed in its own separate cabinet, and publishes no noise figure either (FDA 510(k) K220290). For chamber compressors, the honest answer is Not published, and any dealer who quotes you a decibel number should be asked which document it came from.

Concentrators are the exception, and they are instructive because they are the quiet half of the pair. CAIRE publishes 48 dB(A) for the NewLife Elite, 52 dB(A) for the Intensity 8 and 55 dB(A) for the Intensity 10 (CAIRE NewLife Intensity), while the specification sheet and the operator manual both put the Intensity 10 at 58 dB(A) (specification sheet; operator manual). We are not going to split the difference. The point is the scale: the machine that is designed to be unobtrusive is still in the mid-to-high fifties, running for the whole session, and the compressor sitting beside it is louder and unmeasured.

For a yardstick you can use by ear rather than by spec sheet, NIOSH sets its recommended exposure limit at 85 dBA averaged over an eight-hour day, and notes that sounds around 85 dBA are typically loud enough that you raise your voice to be heard by someone three feet away (NIOSH, Noise and Hearing Loss Prevention). Stand in the room with everything running and try holding a normal conversation at arm's length. That tells you more about whether the arrangement is livable than any published figure would.

The code already contemplates moving it

Here is the part most owners do not know. NFPA 99 requires the room housing a Class A or Class B chamber to be for the exclusive use of the hyperbaric operation while it is being used, but it expressly permits service equipment — and it names compressors as the example — to be located in multi-use spaces (NFPA 99 (2015), 14.2.1.1.7 and 14.2.1.1.8). A closet, a utility space, the other side of a wall. Not a sealed cupboard with no air movement, and not somewhere its intake can pick up exhaust or solvent fumes, but genuinely not in the room with the person.

The oxygen side has more reach than people assume too. CAIRE publishes a maximum tubing length of 200 ft (61 m) for the NewLife line at a 20 psig outlet (NewLife specification sheet). That is a manufacturer-stated maximum rather than a recommendation, and it is plenty of length to put a concentrator in the next room and run a line through the wall.

What we would do differently on day one

Decide the compressor's location before the chamber arrives, and check three things about that location: it has air movement and is not a sealed box, its intake is nowhere near a vehicle, a dryer vent or anything with solvent in it, and the hose route to the chamber is one you can inspect without moving furniture. Then read your manual before you commit, because line length, intake conditions and enclosure are the manufacturer's call, not ours — following the instructions for use is the first thing FDA asks of owners of these devices (FDA Letter to Health Care Providers, 25 August 2025).

One warning, because it is the wrong fix and we have seen it tried: never quiet a room by reducing chamber ventilation. Ventilation is loud on purpose. The reasoning, and the oxygen-accumulation problem behind it, is in Ventilation and safety, and telling a new noise from an inherent one is covered in Troubleshooting.