Its a little hard to miss even when facing away from it. What a waste! They are slip-ons. They have an astonishing sound which never sounds harsh at all. But so far, we are very happy ! I also recorded noise via a celphone app, but this was an open air test 6" from unit and was wind noise dominated, not the fan itself. Excellent choice for a reasonable price. Heats your towel only in the middle. We?ll see how this one arrives. Lets not even get into how dysfunctional it is without this sound leak issue.