Looking for a way to quiet down a lawn mower

[L.Cheapo]

Put an ad on craigslist:

TRADE: One good condition Honda lawnmower for two or three hungry goats. Leave his address.

 

[panknuckshovel]

The man has too much time on his hands and needs a quieter hobby. Buy him a TV. Or a fleshlight.

This makes sense, but more than likely if he is mowing everyday the loud mower is quieter than his wife.

 

[CNGsaves]

#1 choice will be an electric lawn mower. Stihl makes a bitchin' electric. I'd be pushing to convince him to buy that, because his daily mowing is barely cutting any grass at all, if any.
http://www.stihlusa.com/products/lawn-mower/homeowner-lawn-mower/rma370/

2nd choice would be get junk LawnBoy as all their old school two strokes have exhaust out the bottom. Steal the muffler baffle that is below deck with shaft going through the middle. Then fab some pipe to direct exhaust down to that below deck exhaust. My LawnBoy just hums along and I don't consider it loud.

With above setup, you'd have a "normal" muffler then direct the outflow to that below deck LawnBoy baffle system. That would about best you could do to quiet down a Honda 4 stroke.

 

[KnurledNut]

How about a propane buffer muffler piped and mounted on the front?
Ive never done this. Just a thought.

 

[tjpavlov]

A manual reel mower gives a very attractive cut. Maybe you could convince him to give it a try if he thinks it will make the lawn look more like a ballpark. Fiskars makes nice ones.

 

[94EG8]

My neighbor has a beautiful lawn, which he mows almost every day, and it takes him two hours with his self-powered walk-behind mower. The problem is - his Honda lawn mower is noisy. Even with my windows closed up tight, the drone penetrates throughout my house and drives me nuts.

I approached him and he agreed to install a quieter muffler (which I would pay for). My problem is, I can't seem to find a quiet muffler. I see them for other mowers though, just not this Honda.

Honda already makes about the quietest lawnmower you can get. The long and the short of it is there isn't much you can do to make it quieter. And yes, as others have said, a lot of the noise is from the blade anyway.

Another thing I see all too often is that everyone, gardeners included, run the mower full throttle. I run my edger just over idle and mower at about half speed.

Small engines are designed to the be run at full throttle. Running them a little above idle or even half throttle just causes overheating and excessive carbon build up.

 

[DenisG]

White noise generator:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KUHFGM/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[TigerDude]

Honda mowers don't have a speed control. It's on/off.

ed: found this https://www.briggsandstratton.com/us/en/innovations/push-mowers/qpt-quiet-lawn-mower-engines

 

[yamaha0343]

The guy is retired and somewhat reclusive. His yard is his pride and joy. He's very quiet and otherwise a great neighbor.

I actually know a few people who do this (mow lawn every day). Jesus, I hope I frackin' die before I reach that stage of life, LOL.............

If he really cares that much about his lawn, he'd use one of those manual mowers that cut the grass like scissors. They're supposed to be better for the grass. You should suggest he try one.

I don't care about my grass that much, so I use a loud *** Honda.

 

[rick carpenter]

Might also look into replacing the muffler with a generator muffler, they are pretty quiet. Also if the blade is a mulching blade, they tend to have a noise of their own.

Chevy-SS, if a regular blade is some quieter then maybe get him one of those. I don't think the neighbor needs a mulching blade if he mows every day! Can you re-route the exhaust into the deck? You could try mounting the muffler on a decklid cutout connected via a radiator hose. On air compressors, a lot of the noise comes from the intake. Any lawnmower intake mods out there?

Last resort might be to look into applicable HOA bylaws but that would more than likely end any friendship y'all have.

 

[928'er]

Almost every single nice day (without rain or snow or ice), the lawn gets mowed. Perhaps he has some OCD about it, or it may just be his way of relaxing.

I don't want to interfere with his routine. I just want to remain sane while he carries it out.

My Dad was like that - and we had 11/2 acres of lawn! Kinda harmless, but a sickness none the less....

Fortunately, we didn't have any close neighbors.

 

[1950mercury]

How big is his yard? If it's in a sub how long does it take to cut his lawn 15-20 min. I could see if it was a couple hours but if it's only 15 min I'd get over it

 

[GSMotorrad]

Upgrade to double-pane windows, and leave his damn lawnmower alone. My 600cc Kawasaki powered commercial mower is twice as loud as my Honda, so if someone complained and tried to bolt noise suppressors to my mower, I'd laugh in their face and tell them to go eat a bag of dicks. You seem like the ******* neighbor to me.

 

[Dhagan887]

^ basically, yeah.

 

[Chevy-SS]

How big is his yard? If it's in a sub how long does it take to cut his lawn 15-20 min. I could see if it was a couple hours but if it's only 15 min I'd get over it

He walks VERY slowly and the yard is 1/2 acre. It takes him TWO FRACKIN' hours, every day.

 

[Chevy-SS]

Upgrade to double-pane windows, and leave his damn lawnmower alone. My 600cc Kawasaki powered commercial mower is twice as loud as my Honda, so if someone complained and tried to bolt noise suppressors to my mower, I'd laugh in their face and tell them to go eat a bag of dicks. You seem like the ******* neighbor to me.

LOL, well if I was out in my driveway running my Harley for two hours a day, you'd eventually get sick of it too.

Noise pollution *****.

And if someone wants to run a 60,000cc Cummins diesel mower once a week, then that's fine. Just not every day in my ******* face.

 

[rr1963]

What about noise cancelling headphones? Or maybe look into noise pollution ordinances in your area since the neighbor will not change his routine? You will never have a quiet gas powered mower.

 

[Bdgjr215]

I think youre being way to nice about the situation.while he has the right to make that noise everyday if he wants,theres such a thing as being neighborly.There is no benefit to the lawn
By what this jerkoff is doing.I,d ask him nicely to stop and if he didnt , id have to get real
Unneighborly with him.

 

[GSMotorrad]

LOL, well if I was out in my driveway running my Harley for two hours a day, you'd eventually get sick of it too.

Noise pollution *****.

And if someone wants to run a 60,000cc Cummins diesel mower once a week, then that's fine. Just not every day in my ******* face.

Most Harleys I've heard aren't comparable to a little old lawn mower. They're much, much louder, and running an air cooled bike in your driveway for two hours doesn't seem like a good way to spend your money, but I wouldn't mind. I'd probably drown you out with my music if I got sick of hearing it, but that "potato potato potato" sound of an idling Harley is music to my ears.

If you're going to live near people, where grass grows, your life would just be a lot easier if you could accept the sound of mowers in the summer.

Cordless electric mowers used to not be self-propelled, but EGO has one that is now. Not sure if the motor is brushless or not, but you could buy him that, with batteries, for like $800 but you can't make him use it if he doesn't want to. If he's mowing every day, an electric mower like that would handle it just fine, and probably wouldn't even deplete one battery.

If I was your neighbor, would you let me bolt on some stock pipes to your Harley, to quiet it down, if I paid for them?

 

[Bdgjr215]

If he doesnt stop after you ask nice ,then what you do is go to the flea mkt.and buy
Three cheap skil saws.As soon as hes done walking his mower for two hours,hes old so hell
Be tired.take an extension cord and get the saws close to his house,and turn one on and walk away .couple minutes later ,switch to the next one and so on.he'll probably get the message then.

 

[gearhead1]

This is why I live in the country with neighbors that aren't close. I can't do in town, developments, or neighborhoods.

In town someone was always thumping music, the house next door selling drugs brought all kinds of seedy characters and none of them are quiet. Forget something in the car at midnight? Just yell to the person at th top of your lungs.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Even if you put a giant muffler on it, it is still going to make a lot of noise ! At least 1/2 of the noise is the internals of the engine. The blade also contributes some.

 

[miketyler]

True that on the reel type mowers. As said, those type are equivalent to a fine manicure for your yard and don't bring on the stress to the grass (yes, grass can get stressed) that conventional power blades do. They use this type on professional lawns and golf turfs. Obviously the push type reel would require more effort but you may find a self-propelled model that's quieter than the Honda. If it is quieter then could be potential win-win for you.

 

[L.Cheapo]

Get him a job application for a local landscaping company. Dude will be in utopia mowing lawns all day.

 

[CobraChevelle]

LOL, well if I was out in my driveway running my Harley for two hours a day, you'd eventually get sick of it too.

Noise pollution *****.

And if someone wants to run a 60,000cc Cummins diesel mower once a week, then that's fine. Just not every day in my ******* face.

lmao!!! now we are comparing a loud Harley to a f***ing lawn mower!!! !!!!!! Maybe I should enter my ported chainsaw in the rev contest with all those bikes at the car show since there the same... lol wow

People need to mind there own f***ing business!!!

 

[jhnlngn]

If the guy is that much of a freak about his lawn then go online and print out some info about how much better a reel mower is for his lawn. Then offer to buy him a manual push one. Problem solved.

 

[bsaint]

You'd hate me as a neighbor. I have a 61" walk behind with an 18hp Vanguard and 3 super high lift 21" blades. It sounds like a wind tunnel when I run it.

 

[Wakefield]

Get him a job application for a local landscaping company. Dude will be in utopia mowing lawns all day.

 

[gayler]

How about some Roundup?