Shop Heater is too noisy

[Kevin Johnson]

Last weekend I got my 45K BTU Mr Heater garage heater installed. It is similar to the Hot Dawg. Anyway, it is mounted to the ceiling on threaded rod and above that ceiling is living space However, whenever it comes on, it is extremely noisy upstairs. Because of that, I have started looking at isolation mounts. Most of the isolation mounts are pretty expensive, however I did find a system from a company called KNC Homeshop that was pretty reasonable. The only problem with it is that their system would require that I hang the heater from chains instead of threaded rod. Can anyone think of a reason that I would not want to use chains to hang the heater? Thanks

[David G Baker]

Last weekend I got my 45K BTU Mr Heater garage heater installed. It is similar to the Hot Dawg. Anyway, it is mounted to the ceiling on threaded rod and above that ceiling is living space However, whenever it comes on, it is extremely noisy upstairs. Because of that, I have started looking at isolation mounts. Most of the isolation mounts are pretty expensive, however I did find a system from a company called KNC Homeshop that was pretty reasonable. The only problem with it is that their system would require that I hang the heater from chains instead of threaded rod. Can anyone think of a reason that I would not want to use chains to hang the heater? Thanks
Kevin,
I don't think that chains will be a problem other than your having to re hang the heater. Have you thought of putting rubber grommets or pads under the upper mounting washers and nuts. My Hot Dawg is mounted using the threaded rod and it doesn't seem noisy as far as the mount goes but it sounds like a jet taking off when the fan comes on. The space above my heater is attic space. I am trying to visualize how yours is mounted with a living space above, is your shop ceiling open? I went to the KNC site and looked at the isolation mounts. I have used chunks of car tires as isolation mounts and it has worked great.
My bothersome noise is my fluorescent lights buzzing like crazy, wish I had installed T8 units in stead of 12s.
David B

[Al Willits]

Can't remember the name of it, but that compressed fiberglass with the foil backing makes a good sound deadner.
Also does this unit have a combustion air motor too, they can transmit noise up the vent
Al

[Kevin Johnson]

The ceiling of the garage is drywalled and there is a family room above. The noise of the heater's fan in the shop doesn't bother me, but upstairs it creates a racket from the vibration. I countersunk holes in some 1x and ran the threaded rod through that before attaching the 1x to the ceiling. I may try some old rubber first before I buy the mounts. The problem is finding some old rubber. Don't keep too many old car tires around anymore. :)

[Kevin Johnson]

Al, to answer your question - It does have a combustion blower on it. The unit vents horizontally out the foundation wall. However, I don't think noise from that is causing the problem.

[Greg Cole]

I have a similar issue with garage door openers being VERY loud in the bedrooms above my shop garage. Most of the time I just open the doors by hand, but I did have an old pair of "Teva" sandals that were well worn past their life expectancy. So on a whim, I cut them into cubes and punched a hole in them... dismounted the openers and inserted the recyled Teva piece. Works great for keeping the vibration from going from floor joist to living space... but from habit I still open the doors by hand.

[Al Willits]

Just a thought, we see noisy comb air motors all the time, also I doubt the fiberglass will help vibration as much as rubber will.

Al

[Roy Hess]

When I mount my air cleaner from the ceiling in my garage, I used chains and a heavy spring with each chain. May, or may not, be a good solution for your application.

[Ben Grunow]

Got these at local plumbing and heating supply store for around $6 each.

58078

The only way to really silence the heater is to mount it on spring dampeners which are expensive but they work.

Only other thought would be to build some type of strong bracket to hang the unit from the wall on the type shown in pic if possible (maybe this could be built around the exiting rods so the unit does not have to come down-just cut the rods off, one at a time above the new bracket and install washer/bolt This is assuming that the wall is masonry (you said it vented thru foundation wall)

[Greg Peterson]

My Delta air scrubber vibrated enough to knock a flourescent tube loose from the fixture. To reduce/minimize/eliminate this vibration, I installed a couple eye hooks and hung a spring off each one. Through the other end of each spring, I ran a 30" x 3/8" round bar. At this point I had a length of round bar suspend via springs. I then attached the air scrubber to the bar. The springs absorbed the vibration and the whole contratption only lowered the scrubber unit ~1 1/2".

[Joe Chritz]

You can find rubber in the form of old horse mats and/or truck bed liners.

I have enough scraps of horse mat here to hang about 500 heaters.

Joe