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Looking for the Quietest Dual Fuel 9000w+ Generator?

OK...

The build a generator quiet shed, it needs air intake and exhause with air sound dampers. The FLOOR needs to be lines with foam, or some sound absorbing surface, the 2x6 walls need dense pack fiberglass open face with sealed surface on the outside of the building. No sheetrock reflecting inside noise.

The generator needs to be mounted to the concrete with isolation mounts.

The exhaust needs to be double wall pipe, and have a thimble wall penetration.

Airflow is key to keeping a portable generator functional.
 
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All the noise from an internal combustion engine is "mechanical" and that’s what mufflers are built to suppress.

Cut the muffler off a car and you’ll definitely hear a difference.
No...
The exhaust noise from an air cooled motor is about 1/3 the noise of the setup.

Yes, you can silence the exhaust tone with a large well designed muffler, but you will drasticly reduce the horsepower of the motor if you do.

A large reflective design resonator can help though.
 
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Run a generator off a car engine with a muffler and see if it makes it louder.
Not sure what you are suggesting here.

A car engine has a water jacket and a LOT of metal dampening mechanical noises.

An air cooled generator engine does not... the exhaust is a very small part of the noise.
 
No...
The exhaust noise from an air cooled motor is about 1/3 the noise of the setup.

Yes, you can silence the exhaust tone with a large well designed muffler, but you will drasticly reduce the horsepower of the motor if you do.

A large reflective design resonator can help though.
A had a VW with an air cooled engine and it wasn’t very loud until the muffler fell off.
 
I've never tried one but there are add on mufflers for generators. They get decent reviews.
I'd recommend that if you try one you should mount it with vibration dampening pads and washers.

Some even incorporate extension pipes with through wall mounts.

Click here
a lot of the sound is coming from the moving parts through the casing. If slapping a big muffler on would quiet them down to a level like a quiet fully enclosed inverter generator then we wouldn't be having this conversation.
 
That is kind of like my setup in case a SHTF type situation comes along.
I have two Honda EU-3000is and one Chargeverter along with another Meanwell charger that will put out 2500W.
I like having the redundancy in case one Charger dies or one Generator fails, but your case is different!
Based on your statements I assume this will be used every day?
Not every day - just as emergency backup. Part of this is I'm just annoyed at how bad noise mitigation turned out with shed! so I want to continue to experiment.

I'm going to try the dual GenMax 4600 wtih parallel kit. I can compare this with my existing Champion and report back eventually.

My new plan is to run the generator on the outside of the shed - you can see the Champion 8000w here - and measure dBA at the property lines and compare. One neighbor is behind the shed, the other neighbor is to the right ~10ft with fence.
1721949876322.png

Eventually I may try to build a non-flammable gen box with Rockwool to dampen things a bit or even just along the right hand side
 
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Not every day - just as emergency backup. Part of this is I'm just annoyed at how bad noise mitigation turned out with shed! so I want to continue to experiment.

I'm going to try the dual GenMax 4600 wtih parallel kit. I can compare this with my existing Champion and will report back eventually.
If you still have the shed, pull off all the indoor drywall, have batts of rockwool installed tight, and mount the generator to the floor with rubber pads.
Use a metal thimble to safely vent the exhaust.
 
If you still have the shed, pull off all the indoor drywall, have batts of rockwool installed tight, and mount the generator to the floor with rubber pads.
Use a metal thimble to safely vent the exhaust.
Thanks for the encouragement but the shed was a DISASTER. Overrun with exhaust (Co2 Monitor >200/beeping), too hot (>110F in summer) inside the shed, and what really did it was my DIY exhaust thimble caused a fire in the wall which reached 100lb propane bottles which cascaded to venting/blowtorching - horrible!. Not going to risk any of that again. From my point of view, just a bad, bad, bad design/experience all for a modest reduction in terms of noise abatement. :(
1721950280355.png

Just finished rebuilding everything and going to try quieter generator out of the gate and run it outside the shed :)
1721951156930.png
 
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Tons of videos on how to extend your generator muffler to make it run quiet(er) ... out here the guys get something from Advanced Auto that looks like some muffler that has flexible tubing on it .... they also will simply lay plywood or insulation board against it like a teepee and that helps significantly also
 
Thanks for the encouragement but as I said at the beginning - the shed was a DISASTER. Overrun with exhaust (Co2 Monitor >200/beeping), too hot. and exahust thimble caused a fire greatly enhanced once it reached the 100lb propane bottles which caused venting/blowtorch affect. Not going to risk that approach again - just a bad, bad, bad design/experience all for nothing in terms of noise abatement. :(
View attachment 231218
Rebuild with concrete blocks, fill all the cavities with concrete. Then figure out the roof and door insulation
 
Rebuild with concrete blocks, fill all the cavities with concrete. Then figure out the roof and door insulation
Yes sir - Thinking about a cannot-possibly-burn shed enclosure *outside* in the front of the shed. I have been thinking Unistrut framework and left over metal roofing and rockwool but I could also do concrete block retaining wall 'walls' - just stack some blocks and maybe attach some rockwool. I'm thinking about focusing on directing sound away from the west and south (neighbors) toward the north (100ft to street) and east (60ft to our house).
1721953766415.png
If I could get it down to <60dbA at the property line (instead of my previous 70dBA) this would be approaching success in my mind.

First up - I'm going to compare 2 x paralleled smaller / quieter units based on @robby comments instead of going with another 8000-10,000w unit and compare with the 8000w Champion and establish some data.
 
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Yes sir - Thinking about a cannot-possibly-burn shed enclosure *outside* in the front of the shed. I have been thinking Unistrut framework and left over metal roofing and rockwool but I could also do concrete block retaining wall 'walls' - just stack some blocks and maybe attach some rockwool. I'm thinking about focusing on directing sound away from the west and south (neighbors) toward the north (100ft to street) and east (60ft to our house).
View attachment 231229
If I could get it down to <60dbA at the property line (instead of my previous 70dBA) this would be approaching success in my mind.

First up - I'm going to compare 2 x paralleled smaller / quieter units based on @robby comments instead of going with another 8000-10,000w unit and compare with the 8000w Champion and establish some data.
I think i could build a shed to get the generator noise below 50db
...
I have a lot of generators, i will make some plans up, and build something this fall...
 
On thing to keep in mind on these 6kw and larger generators were running is a LARGE part of the noise and I mean a LARRRRRGE part of the noise is not coming out the exhaust pipe like on a car. Its coming from the motor casing ITSELF. No muffler is going to silence one of these completely.

Whatever you use for an enclosure is going to make the biggest difference for serious noise reduction.

The old iron block generators didn't have these problems. My friend has a 20kw water cooled generac and even with the muffler removed from it the thing sounds like a honda compared to my 12kw pulsar generator.
 
I think i could build a shed to get the generator noise below 50db
...
I have a lot of generators, i will make some plans up, and build something this fall...
That would be cool. :)

Part of this is defining exactly what one wants. This thread/discussion has helped clarify that what I actually want is low noise (<50db would be fantastic) *for my neighbors*. Originally I thought shed/containment - but now I'm thinking quieter gen + redirect away from neighbors would also work.

And then to avoid the zombies of course - but this is secondary.
 
On thing to keep in mind on these 6kw and larger generators were running is a LARGE part of the noise and I mean a LARRRRRGE part of the noise is not coming out the exhaust pipe like on a car. Its coming from the motor casing ITSELF. No muffler is going to silence one of these completely.

Whatever you use for an enclosure is going to make the biggest difference for serious noise reduction.

The old iron block generators didn't have these problems. My friend has a 20kw water cooled generac and even with the muffler removed from it the thing sounds like a honda compared to my 12kw pulsar generator.
Exactly.
Some on here think the noise is from the exhaust, and most of the noise isnt...

Then again... some of us just like to argue.
 

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