Dad’s short answer: About like a regular vacuum while you're cleaning — louder on max, quieter on eco. The part that surprises people is the drying cycle, which on a fast five-minute setting is genuinely loud.

Cleaning noise

You're running a suction motor and a spinning roller, so it sounds like a vacuum. Nothing surprising. Auto mode is noticeably quieter than max because it only ramps up when it hits a dirty patch, which is another reason I leave it on auto.

It's louder than a robot vacuum and much quieter than a shop vac. You can't have a conversation over it on max, but you can on eco.

The dry cycle is the loud part

This is the one nobody warns you about. A five-minute flash dry has to move a lot of hot air through the roller quickly, and it is loud for those five minutes. If the machine lives in a kitchen that opens onto a living room, that's five minutes of noise after every clean.

The better machines give you a quiet alternative — on one I tested it's roughly forty minutes instead of five, at much lower volume. If you clean in the evening, use the quiet cycle and let it run overnight. That's what I'd do.

If your machine only has the fast cycle and it's disruptive, run the clean earlier in the day rather than skipping the dry. Skipping the dry is how the roller starts to smell.

Dad’s Take: The cleaning noise is ordinary. Plan around the dry cycle, and never skip it to keep the peace.