Noisey House Generator
We were at the beach this last week and due to use of laptops we had to run the Onan to recharge the laptop batteries. Our genny is an ONAN 4GBEF82 and it is 26 years old. I feel it is very noisy an...
Forum Discussion
joebedford wrote:
Personally, I can easily block the sound of the Onan - it's background white noise. I find inverter generators to be much more annoying - UP down UP down etc. but they are inherently quieter at full throttle because they're usually small.
X10!
The Honda 1000 and 2000 inverter generators are spec'd to top out at a noise level of 59dB. I assume this noise level means "out in the open", since they're portable generators designed to be carried and used in their case anywhere outside.
My 4000 watt Onan is spec'd at 66 dB ... I assume this also means if one should measure the Onan "out in the open". However since our Onan is never out in the open but enclosed in a storage cabinet, it sounds to me to be quieter than Honda 1000 (900 watt) and 2000 (1600 watt) inverter generators I've heard running full bore out in the open. Our Onan sounds about the same up to it's full 4000 watts output - little difference from putting out 100 watts to putting out full power.
I also prefer the low muffled humming plus cooling air sound of the Onan to the Hondas at full (high rate battery charging or microwave or air conditioning) power. I'm guessing that the reason users consider their little Hondas to be so quiet is because they seldom demand full power from them - or when they do - not for very long.
