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by David M. Sykes, Vice Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Heres’ some good news: Popular Mechanics magazine has published a review of quieter, battery-powered electric lawn mowers. The bad news is they didn’t measure their noise levels! How bizarre is that? Consumer Reports also tests lawn maintenance equipment, so you may want to check there too.
In the EU, manufacturers are required to test the noise levels of over 50 classes of products, including household appliances and construction equipment. So if you’re concerned about noise levels, look for European-made equipment because the manufacturers can tell you exactly how loud their products are–they’re required to do this following standardized procedures.
The difference in the american and European approaces are discussed in the 2011 report from the National Academy of Engineering, “Technology for a Quieter America. TLDR: The Europeans have a big head start on us.
