Tumbler sound proofing in 1 bedroom apartment
I got a tumbler at the start of this year and knew it was gonna be pretty loud. But oh boy is this thing a constantly running engine. I purchased a tumble bee which I learned after is slightly louder than other tumblers. So I went down the sound proofing journey.
I first started with cheap amazon foam pads but it was too thin. Next thing I did was put the tumbler in the smallest cabinet I had which led to the entire cabinet feeling dangerously hot within a few hours. This did block the sound better though but I didn't want any fires. During this time I placed the tumbler on a few wash rags and a metal pan to keep it flat which did well to reduce vibrations.
So I moved it under the sink. This larger space did a lot better with heat. I decided this would be the permanent space for it. I searched around and decided to buy some butyl car deadening mats which I measured wrong a didn't buy nearly enough. Mostly because the right amount would be over one hundred. Using double sided tape and cardboard I did my best to put the foam pads and butyl rubber all around the space. I even found an extra piece of wood in one of the cabinets. All of this and the sound was still very loud. Too loud for me to comfortably relax with no sound but quieter than my AC unit.
After more and more searching I was left with two options buy an entire roll of mass loaded vinyl for hundreds of dollars or buy an entire pack of rockwool when I would only needed a few pieces. I went with rockwool and shoved it into every crevice along with one large piece to cover the door. This did the trick and the sound was significantly less. It was now around the same sound as my fridge. This wasn't enough for me though as the tumble bee has whining noise as it vibrated against the ground. I used a bunch of cardboard which worked very well but I knew I had a better option. I had some horse mats I bought years ago stored at my parents so I cut and used that. This stopped the whining noise. The noise levels are now around 39dbs which I've been happy with. I placed a thermometer inside and the temperature reached 90°f which I'm fine with. Now I only hear the deep sound of rocks tumbling but I'm happier with it.