How To Make A Portable Generator Quieter For Camping - 10 Best ...

If it proves too challenging to move the generator father away from your house, there are still ways to keep some of the noise levels down.

One easy trick is to have the exhaust pipe which in some cases can be the principal cause of the noise, facing away from your house.

As you can probably picture in your mind, sound waves created from noise will travel towards the direction it’s facing. Making the sound waves travel away from your house can make a significant difference when comparing having the exhaust pointing directly toward your home.

6. Set the Generator Away from Your Home

We all know that the farther you are from the source of noise the less you will hear it; So use the same common sense approach with a noisy generator.

Distancing yourself from the generator is easier if you live in a rural area. The homes are not as close to one another as they are in an urban subdivision.

A common generator will produce between 70 and 80 decibels at 20 feet away. 80 Decibels is certainly loud enough for you to hear the noise quite well.

By using a long extension cord, you will be able to move the generator farther away from your house. Better yet, If you have a detached garage, or a storage shed you could move the generator and place it behind one of these buildings. If your extension cord is long enough to do this, you should be very satisfied with the results!

7. Place the Generator in a Storage Shed

Again, if you have a long enough extension cord or if the storage shed is close enough from your home you could place it in there.

There are two things you will need to consider when doing this, the echo and the fumes.

1. The echo; If you place the generator in a relatively empty shed there would be a significant amount of echo caused by the sound waves bouncing around on the empty walls inside. One trick to avoid echo is to place some acoustic panels on the walls and ceiling inside the shed. This way the noise won’t echo, and it’s an inexpensive way to make use of an oversized sound box.
2. Heat; I for one never really concern myself with an overheating generator since I live on the very eastern edge of Canada and it is usually well below freezing when the power goes out due to a snow or ice storm. If you concern yourself with overheating you could easily place a fan inside the shed to keep the generator cool. You can find battery powered fans online at reasonable prices.
3. Fumes; My small storage shed has two small round vents on each end of the building. The vents are approximately six inches in diameter and I would think this would be enough to take care of any fume issue from the generator. If you don’t have any ventilation, you can attach a muffle type hose on the end of the existing muffler and have it come out of the barn either from a small opening of the door or better yet, a hole in the wall specifically made for this pipe. You can always seal the hole with a thick piece of rubber and reuse the hole whenever you need to run the generator.

8. Sound Absorbing Mat

All of the loud noise coming from the generator doesn’t come from the motor and the moving parts; there can also be noise coming from the vibration of the generator.

Place the generator on top of a thick piece of sound absorbing mat so the vibrations can be absorbed and hopefully bring the noise level down a couple of notches.

A sound absorbing mat is what I used to make my pool pump run much quieter compared to when it was sitting on top of a cement block. You can find all the information as to what I did to reduce pool pump noise by clicking the link.

9. Replace the Generators Muffler if Faulty

If you’re stuck with an older generator that sounds a lot louder than it used to then you might have a faulty muffler. Bring your generator to a small engine mechanic to see if you need to change the muffler.

There might also be something wrong with the engine itself making the generator louder than it should be when properly working. If you only have a cheap generator, then this might not be worth the money. But some generators can be worth thousands of dollars and having a few parts replaced might be the best idea to fix this particular problem.

10. Install a Generator Silencer

I’ve mentioned different types of silencers before, and some do work as described. So I did a bit of digging and tried to find the same type of silencer that would be specifically made for portable generators.

There a few on Amazon that I saw other people recommending online but from what I read in the review section of the product on Amazon, I won’t even mention that piece of junk!

There are a couple of generator silencers that I did find that might help to mediate some of the noise. The Silencer that I will talk about is from GenSilencer.

GenSilencer makes generator silencers for a wide range of generator sizes and brands. I could link an Amazon link, but it’s much better if you go directly on their website and find the silencer that will perfectly fit your generator.

The silencers from Gensilencer are easy to install and have a matt black finish. A good reason to go with these silencers is that they provide a 1-year warranty and a 30-day money back guaranty. If you don’t hear any difference before and after installation, you can send it back!

Conclusion

My best advice would be to buy the quietest generator you can find if the noise level will be your primary concern. Trying to figure out how to solve a noise problem that could have been avoided seems a bit pointless.

It is true however that the quietest generators are the new types of inverter generators. Inverter generators are pricier compared to a conventional portable generator.

If you need a quiet generator for camping I would suggest the Honda EU2000i. This generator is rated the best small portable generator out there according to Amazon.

The Pros are that it runs extremely quiet; that is probably the main reason you’re reading this article. It only weighs 46 pounds when empty, making it easy to move around a campsite. Honda’s EU2000i generators also have excellent performance as it will run for approximately 8 hours on 1 gallon of fuel, meaning you won’t have to stock a lot of gasoline in the RV.

The only con I would have to say about the Honda EU2000i is the fact that it only offers 2,000 watts.

Let me know in the comment section if you tried any of these 10 tips to make a generator quieter.

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