I just picked up my first compressor cooler, the Dometic CFX 28 and have given it a test. Whilst I wasn't expecting it to be silent, plenty of forum comments across the internet had led me to believe it's not noisy enough to disturb you from being able to sleep with many saying they barely notice it when it's on. However having now experienced the motor running and cooling it down I have to say it sounds like it's powered by a swarm of angry mechanical mosquitoes. I can't understand how anyone could not notice it being on. I set mine up in the kitchen and my partner went in and jumped when she heard the noise.
Hard to explain the noise but it essentially sounds like the kind of very cheap noisy fridge I'd have expected in a student flat. Or a loud freezer you'd have in the garage. I really can't see myself having this set up in my tent unless I want to be jolted awake every 15 minutes.
Does anyone else have a similar Dometic and get this kind of noise? If it's expected then fine, I'll just keep it in the car rather than the tent over night. Just a bit disappointing.
We have the Waeco CF25, and since new it has remained almost silent, every now and again the compressor will kick in, but the sound is more like a gentle purr, and has never caused me to wake from my slumber during the night, and I am a very light sleeper.
Our CF25 is 13 years old, so it’s not as though it is new.
We also have a Mobicool C40 (8 years old) which uses a larger domestic type compressor as it’s mains only, that does make make a little more noise when it shut’s of the compressor, more of a clunk type sound, but when the compressor is running it is still very quiet even in the dead of night, again it has never caused me to wake.
That sounds like a variable speed drive. They slow down and quieten down when they get nearer to the set point. Well air conditioners do, they've been variable speed for 20 years. They just tick over quietly when they've been on a while.
It is possible the fan is slightly out of alignment & the blades are touching the housing. I had this once with a cheap electric coolbox. After a couple of years it started to rattle quite loudly so I took it to pieces pulled the fan along it’s spindle slightly & job was done. If it is new I would take it back for a replacement.
We have the Mobicool FR40, and yes, we can hear the motor when it kicks in. But not enough to wake/disturb us once we are asleep.
When it's out in our awning, (One sheet of canvas between us, and about 4m from our heads) we leave it on all night.
When it's in our main tent (no "wall" between us, and about 3m from our heads) more often than not, we turn it off through the night, and even in The South of France in September, it's still the same 4degC when I switch it back on in the morning.
Works for us.
We had a Waeco compressor fridge on our boat and the wind through the leaves on the trees on the riverbank made much more noise than our fridge. In the caravan we have now someone has previously fitted a normal mains-only household fridge and we don't really notice that running overnight. It certainly doesn't keep us awake.
If your compressor fridge keeps you awake you are either an extremely light sleeper or something is wrong with the fridge. I would get it checked out if it's making that much noise.
Thanks for all the feedback. I found an app on my phone that seems to be accurate enough at recording db levels. It's saying my ambient home background noise is around 30db. My boiler (in a cupboard) and home fridge both register 36db. That's a perfectly quiet volume I could sleep with. The Dometic, however, is registering up to 46db. In the handbook it states the CFX 28 should be 34db. Apparently a 10db difference is considered a doubling in audible volume, so that does seem some way off.
I've gotten in touch with Dometic so let's see if they have anything to say.
It's been 48 hours now. Not sure if longer would make it quieter. Also wondered if 12V would be quieter than 240V as it does seem to become higher pitched on 240V. But monitoring sound volumes on 12V is at best maybe 1 or 2db quieter.
Best I an find and from some comments here is it could be related to the fan. That does seem to come up a few times across the internet.
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Topic: Dometic cooler noisy?
via mobile 02/4/2021 at 7:22pm
