Ideas how to muffle continuous drip system totes

jin420

jin420

Well-Known Member
I've used drip totes awhile and am always annoyed by the loud hollow dripping sounds they create that are strong enough to pass through walls. I've thought of 2 ways to silence them and was wondering if anybody here had any ideas.

First would be the nylon tassle idea since I notice that once the roots hit the bottom of the plastic tote the noise goes away. That takes sometime though so I had a idea that would involve attaching few nylon ropes to the bottom of the net pots that would form tassles extending to the bottom of the tote. Then the nute solution would hopefully follow them down like roots instead of dripping down.

Second idea would be to order plain sheets of black neoprene foam rubber and lay out squares of it on the bottom directly under the net pots.

The nylon tassle idea would be cheaper but slightly tedious while the neoprene idea would require ordering 20$ sheets from amazon or something. Thanks for any alternative ideas or inputs because the echoing dripping sounds are annoying as hell.
 
heckler73

heckler73

Well-Known Member
Alienwidow said:
What about a sheet of plywood at an angle?
Click to expand...
It would be better to use something soft, like Rockwool.
Place it in the corners of the room (near the ceiling, and it will cut down a lot of high-frequency "reflections".
Why do you think Robert Johnson use to park his ass in the corner of the recording studio? To get mid-range BOOST.
But there lies a problem; we don't know what the sound is which is being discussed.
What is the bandwidth of a "drip"?
Are we talking about 1000s of drips or each individual drip or...? :-?
 
Alienwidow

Alienwidow

Well-Known Member
heckler73 said:
It would be better to use something soft, like Rockwool.
Place it in the corners of the room (near the ceiling, and it will cut down a lot of high-frequency "reflections".
Why do you think Robert Johnson use to park his ass in the corner of the recording studio? To get mid-range BOOST.
But there lies a problem; we don't know what the sound is which is being discussed.
What is the bandwidth of a "drip"?
Are we talking about 1000s of drips or each individual drip or...? :-?
Click to expand...
rock wool seems like a good idea. The drip sound is coming from what the waters hitting, so replacing what the water is hitting would stop the sound.
 
jin420

jin420

Well-Known Member
Alienwidow said:
What about a sheet of plywood at an angle?
Click to expand...
If you mean setting the tote on plywood that might help stiffen the bottom up and prevent the bongo drum like effect. I could also cut a plastic tote up and make internal alternating shelves though that will require some work.
 
jin420

jin420

Well-Known Member
Alienwidow said:
rock wool seems like a good idea. The drip sound is coming from what the waters hitting, so replacing what the water is hitting would stop the sound.
Click to expand...
It does setting some squares under the net pots would silence the sound. Rockwool degrades though so neoprene foam mats that would be reusable might be better.
 
Alienwidow

Alienwidow

Well-Known Member
jin420 said:
If you mean setting the tote on plywood that might help stiffen the bottom up and prevent the bongo drum like effect. I could also cut a plastic tote up and make internal alternating shelves though that will require some work.
Click to expand...
Not exactly, i was thinking placing the plywood piece under the dripping water at a sharp angle so it creates a slide for the water to hit and run down.
 
heckler73

heckler73

Well-Known Member
Alienwidow said:
rock wool seems like a good idea. The drip sound is coming from what the waters hitting, so replacing what the water is hitting would stop the sound.
Click to expand...
Yes it is a good idea. When I fabricated gen-set enclosures, we'd use something akin to rockwool as the insulation, to muffle the noise of the generators that would be inside.
Damn stuff works great!
But one can use any "soft" material, really. Even shit-mix foam cushions from a local "foam factory" (I don't know what they are called elsewhere) will work quite well.
It comes down to placement.
Even old carpeting would work. Egg cartons (old studio trick).
There are many ways to fuck with pressure waves. ;)
 
jin420

jin420

Well-Known Member
Plywood internally might cause mold issues so not sure on that. If I remove the cubes before the roots grow into them that'd prolly work good.
 
jin420

jin420

Well-Known Member
heckler73 said:
Yes it is a good idea. When I fabricated gen-set enclosures, we'd use something akin to rockwool as the insulation, to muffle the noise of the generators that would be inside.
Damn stuff works great!
But one can use any "soft" material, really. Even shit-mix foam cushions from a local "foam factory" (I don't know what they are called elsewhere) will work quite well.
It comes down to placement.
Even old carpeting would work. Egg cartons (old studio trick).
There are many ways to fuck with pressure waves. ;)
Click to expand...
May try that the totes are inside enclosed cabinets so I can try that but will need to learn more about acoustics. For now the best idea with my level of knowledge seems to be lining the inside bottom of the tote with rockwool cubes and removing them when the roots get to the bottom. I could make a hatch on the side that would let me access them before the roots grow into the cubes.
 
heckler73

heckler73

Well-Known Member
jin420 said:
May try that the totes are inside enclosed cabinets so I can try that but will need to learn more about acoustics. For now the best idea with my level of knowledge seems to be lining the inside bottom of the tote with rockwool cubes and removing them when the roots get to the bottom. I could make a hatch on the side that would let me access them before the roots grow into the cubes.
Click to expand...
That actually sounds more complicated (and messy) than what I was thinking, but if it works, GO FOR IT!
Just make sure you do a small test first, before going all out.


 
Last edited:
jin420

jin420

Well-Known Member
heckler73 said:
That actually sounds more complicated (and messy) than what I was thinking, but if it works, GO FOR IT!
Just make sure you do a small test first, before going all out.
Click to expand...
You're right and I imagine the cubes will get ripe after absorbing a lot of nute solution. I'm going to read up on what your talking about and see if I can't setup some noise cancelling stuff inside the box. For now I think I'll try the nylon rope idea and see how tedious it is and if it works. I'll report back in a day or 2 if anybodys interested
 
jin420

jin420

Well-Known Member
The boxes are 3'W by 4'L by 5'H so if I have to line the whole box that would be hard to get the materials. Home depot sells rolls of rockwool insulation but it'd cost some money to insulate the cabinets.
 
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