Generac generator quiet muffler

[Bob - MI]

Due to severe winds (70~90 mph on Sunday) coming off Lake Michigan, we got to put more hours on my 9-year old 10 hp 5000/6250 surge generator this weekend than I have in the total time that I have owned it. Up 'til now I had put about 1 hour of excercise time on it and she now has roughly 10 hrs. May God bless those who are linesmen.

During this latest outage it became clear to me and the family that this thing is REALLY loud. It has the old Tecumseh HM-100 single cylinder side valve engine. I have read that the lo-tone muffler p/n 37350 will help a bit but there is so much mechanical noise that it will never get quiet.

I wonder if any of you guys have installed one of these muffler kits and if you think that it's worth the $75~$85 that they go for. I did see one guy suggesting that the best approach is to build a 3-sided enclosure and line it with sound proofing foam and direct the exhaust away from the house. Makes sense to me I guess.

Frankly I would like to get a different unit but with the need hours being so low I can't justify it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Gun guru]

The 3 sided structure is the best way to cut down the noise. I have a 10HP coleman with a Suburu motor....far quieter then my old Techumseh generator that I sold to a buddy of mine that needed a generator.

As for those whole house generators, they are nice but a 60 amp Generac costing $3,500 and power only goes out for a few hours a year it aint worth it. And those are noisy too even with the enclosure.

 

[Haywood]

A structure would be good...However I know for fact that a good muffler will really quiet them down.

The Toro Commercial triplex Greensmowers I assembled years ago with a 12 HP kohler K series had huge round mufflers that made them very quiet.

The structure will help with the mechanical noise for sure.