It's not very loud. It did kind of echo when it was upstairs so we heard it downstairs. Now that everyone is downstairs I don't hear them except a small amount of noise when in that room. Being powder coated it can be cleaned with anything in any fashion you want. Every wheel is going to make some noise. The quietest is probably a chin spin. They are big, bulky, and expensive. They might need some extra support to stick on the bars of some cages without breaking them. However, they are very quiet and usually last longer than the life of your chin. Occasionally very destructive chins do accomplish overly damaging the wheel. It is a wood core with metal over it. The original flying saucers that mount can be very loud and damage bars if you don't do some modifications. At minimum the wheel has to be put at a height you can slide a piece of board under it to prevent bouncing. Some also run a board down the outside of their Critter Nation to attach to instead of relying on the wires because flying saucers are the most common ones to break cn bars.
