Product Review: Wacko RV A/C Silencer
This product review is our opinion. We do not get any perks or compensation for this review. All links in this post are non-affiliate.
When one's mother/mother-in-law is an audiologist, we take noise very seriously. We always make sure to wear ear plugs when extending our stabilizer jacks, and whenever we're doing renos to our rig, we keep hearing protection close by in case it's needed. So when we first started using our RV air conditioning on a regular basis, we knew we'd be in for some loudness. Perhaps it would keep us up at night, or drown out the sound of the TV when we're trying to have a movie night. But could the decibel level actually be detrimental to our hearing?
We tested it with our sound meter app and it read anywhere in the range of mid-60s to high 70s, depending on our positioning. Into the 80s is where you need to start worrying about damage to your hearing, so when that's considered, RV ACs are pretty darn noisy! For our ears and our sanity, we knew an AC Silencer was in our future. We thought we'd be able to hold off, but when the Florida heat wave struck hard in April, we bumped the silencer up on our priority list.
The concept is simple. The silencer muffles the intake on the air conditioning vent, among other things. We've known RVers who have fashioned their own silencers, but we were willing to spend the money to buy the one we knew would fit and work in our GE air conditioners. So we ordered ourselves some Wackos.
Our travel trailer is equipped with two air conditioners, connected by ducts in the ceiling. Each AC has its own intake vent and surrounding output vents all along the ceiling. The main issue with the intake vent is that, not only does it pull the air in, but it also lets out a lot of cold air after it's mixed with the intake air. Not an efficient set-up. We noticed that this led to tons of condensation on humid days, and also was a source of the noise. The Wacko solves this in the simplest way: by offering foil to literally tape over the vent. In addition to the tape, the kit includes a better filter screen, as well as a cover that also helps to decrease the noise level.
Our Wacko works for both GE and Dometic air conditioning units, though the instructions are slightly different for each. We diligently watched videos and read the steps to ensure proper installation, and while this took a little while, it was overall a very straightforward process. The main goal was to cover the intake vent and any other holes that would increase the sound, add the new air filter, and add the silencer cover.
With GE units, we need to drill two new holes to get the new filter screen to fit. We decided we didn't want to make holes unless absolutely necessary, so instead we used the two existing holes that did fit, half-securing the screen, and then for the other half we used more of the included foil tape. We knew it probably wouldn't be a permanent solution, given the foil crackling sounds as the tape was slowly getting blown off. However, it's still held on with the two screws, and if it does come too loose, we can always use heavier duty tape, or just drill the remaining holes. (UPDATE: Due to the changing moistures and temperatures inside the vent, all adhesives we tried to use kept losing their stickiness. We did in fact need to eventually drill the holes).
Only downside is, if you look closely at the complete unit, you can see the foil through the vents. Definitely not a big deal to us, since who is going to be coming into our trailer and staring at the ceiling?! (Oh, except Anthony's dad who wanted to see our AC silencers in action, but it was all compliments from him)!
The aesthetics aren't important, but the volume of the unit is! The day we did the installations, we ran a few more sound meter checks and also took this video, comparing our living room AC (silenced) to the bedroom AC (before it was silenced). What do you think of the difference?
And the moment of truth with the sound meter
Right in keeping with Wacko's predicted noise level change, at around -10dB. That is not only a huge change, but it brings the level down to a volume that's far from damaging, and we can actually hear other things besides blasting white noise! We think the animals appreciate it, too. Lily no longer gets startled out of a deep sleep whenever the AC kicks on.
Not only is the AC so much quieter, but we could immediately feel the difference in efficiency. The cold air wasn't dropping all in one place (aka on Nicole's head when she's trying to do work), but instead was actually being dispersed through the ducting. We have noticed that the bedroom doesn't seem to cool as readily, which is a 180 from how it used to be. Must be something with the airflow through the ducts. Not a huge downside, as the bedroom is controlled by its own thermostat anyway, so we just set it a couple degrees cooler.
The price for the Wacko is fairly hefty, at $189 (at the time of writing this post) for what is really just some plastic, foil, and mesh cloth. However, for the sake of ease, we feel is was well worth the price. Could we have made our own makeshift silencer? Sure, if we decided to use some ingenuity. But in the RV life, there are ample opportunities to be problem-solvers. Sometimes, we just want some gosh-darn peace and quiet!