Mitsubishi PEAD100 Outdoor unit louder than expected?

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bhad

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#318502 24-Jan-2025 16:01

I recently had a Mitsubishi Ducted (PEAD100 / PUZ-ZM100VKA2-A) and Lossnay (VL-350) installed.
Thanks to this forum for a lot of useful input into the decision.

Overall we like it (as you'd hope for a $19k setup) although we're a little surprised by noise and performance. It's OK - but I expected slightly more from Mitsubishi.

We're currently working through two issues:

#1 The static pressure is set to the factory default of 50kPa. I don't know how to calculate the correct static pressure - but given it is flexible ducting to 5 outlets (most within 3-4m, but two 10m away) I expected it to be higher. I am engaging with the installer to check if 50kPa is correct.

I've seen others on here whose lackluster performance was due to installers not paying attention to this.

#2 The outdoor unit is louder than expected.
I am unsure if this is normal or not. I've been Googling it to no avail.

Loud high pitched sound at all times when the outdoor unit is operating
The noise does seem to scale up/down (slightly) with load

VIDEO: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zeqERjXdRPt40ULhe8_EDvQP0Ut3GK1Z/view?usp=sharing

This video gives a sense of the noise, with the noise ramping down a bit half way through the video. It seems surprising to me that this is as quiet as the unit ever gets.. I've even played around with the "OU Quiet Mode" setting today which didn't seem to make a difference.

Appreciate if anyone has any input - particularly on the outdoor unit as the static pressure aspect may be hard to say without a lot more info about the design.

kaczor47

93 posts

Master Geek

#3337561 30-Jan-2025 23:03

We are getting this exact combo installed soon, so I'm curious about the noise issue in particular.
It does not sound normal in my opinion (the high pitch noise) - I'd definitely engage the installer

Goosey

2833 posts

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#3337569 31-Jan-2025 06:23

That’s an annoying sound but do you reckon that sound is under the rated 69 decibels for this unit?

what did the installer say when they fired it up?

are they an official Mitsubishi agent or just an installer?

timmmay

20581 posts

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#3337591 31-Jan-2025 08:45

Ramping up and down is normal. That unit sounds a bit like a circular saw, I'd definitely ask the installer about it.

My newer heat pumps outdoor units are all louder than my old heat pumps. The older Daikin 7kw and Fujitsu 9kw units I had were very quiet, you could barely hear them. My newer Daikin ducted 10kw makes a lower pitched noise that goes through the house walls more easily when it's quiet, like at night - we barely ever heard the old units, we hear this one. My even newer small office Daikin about 2.5kw is virtually silent any time, but it's pretty small. I wonder if the new refrigerants are the reason.

openmedia

3332 posts

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Trusted

#3337592 31-Jan-2025 08:48

We've got a similar setup and we had some initial issues with the outdoor unit.

First the compressor was hitting the case and moving around inside the unit. The installer tried a number of things to resolve it and escalated to Mitsubishi. We then found out we had a compressor fault and they sent out a replacement. Since then the noise levels have dropped off considerably.

To help expedite things we recorded a video near the unit one night which they passed onto Mitsubishi.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

bhad

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3337612 31-Jan-2025 09:42

Goosey:

That’s an annoying sound but do you reckon that sound is under the rated 69 decibels for this unit?

what did the installer say when they fired it up?

are they an official Mitsubishi agent or just an installer?

Interestingly the Mitsubishi website mentions the sound level as 49 dB for cooling. That was part of my reasoning for going for Mitsubishi. 69dB sounds about 4X louder due to the logarithmic scale of decibels.

The installer said it's a normal sound. Not sure re: agent or installer.. they're listed on the Where to buy page on Mitsubishi's site.

timmmay:

Ramping up and down is normal. That unit sounds a bit like a circular saw, I'd definitely ask the installer about it.

My newer heat pumps outdoor units are all louder than my old heat pumps. The older Daikin 7kw and Fujitsu 9kw units I had were very quiet, you could barely hear them. My newer Daikin ducted 10kw makes a lower pitched noise that goes through the house walls more easily when it's quiet, like at night - we barely ever heard the old units, we hear this one. My even newer small office Daikin about 2.5kw is virtually silent any time, but it's pretty small. I wonder if the new refrigerants are the reason.

Interesting! After posting this I was at a friend's house and noticed their neighbours had a similar sized Daikin heat pump.. It was very quiet.. could only hear the fan, no high pitched electrical hum.

bhad

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3337613 31-Jan-2025 09:44

openmedia:

We've got a similar setup and we had some initial issues with the outdoor unit.

First the compressor was hitting the case and moving around inside the unit. The installer tried a number of things to resolve it and escalated to Mitsubishi. We then found out we had a compressor fault and they sent out a replacement. Since then the noise levels have dropped off considerably.

To help expedite things we recorded a video near the unit one night which they passed onto Mitsubishi.

Is yours a Mitsubishi Mr Slim model also? If so - does your unit sound similar to mine since you resolved your issues? i.e. do you get the high pitched electrical hum or just a little fan noise?

timmmay

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#3337622 31-Jan-2025 10:13

bhad:

Interesting! After posting this I was at a friend's house and noticed their neighbours had a similar sized Daikin heat pump.. It was very quiet.. could only hear the fan, no high pitched electrical hum.

My larger Daikin you can only hear the fan on heating, on cooling there's a bit of extra noise but it's not offensive.

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tweake

2391 posts

Uber Geek

#3337821 31-Jan-2025 16:54

that noise is pretty loud. my heat pumps are all on full noise here at the mo and i can only hear that type of noise if i'm within 10cm of the unit (tho panasonic).

first thing i would check is mains voltage at the unit when under full load.

the other thing is if they forgot to glue the coils/caps/etc in the inverter and they vibrate causing noise.

if other units have a similar tone of sound, then its probably a design issue. an easy way to make inverters more efficient is to lower its carrier frequency, but it drops it down into hearing range. so you trade noise for efficiency. most commercial vfd's are adjustable and some even have an auto setting so it changes due to load.

insane

3240 posts

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#3337823 31-Jan-2025 17:07

I've got 5 outdoor heatpump compressors,

3x Panasonic

1x Mitsubishi

1x Hayward

Only my medium sized 5.4kw Panasonic gets close to that sound when going full beans. Your sound appears to be metal on metal, like a failing bearing.

Is your unit installed level and are the feet properly bearing the units load evenly? Else can you shim them with foam to try stop an errant vibration?

catdog

107 posts

Master Geek

#3338364 2-Feb-2025 19:16

I have a very similar (but presumably older) Mitsi PUHZ-RP140KVA2, and while the general behavior is similar to your video, mine doesn't seem quite so obnoxious with the higher frequency noises that yours exhibits. It's hard to gauge the absolute volume of the unit from your video. I'll IM you a video for comparison.

bhad

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3339844 6-Feb-2025 12:07

Thanks for your input everyone.

Catdog's video sounds similar to mine. I'm surprised that Mitsubishi Electric units seem to have such a prominent high pitched humm, given their reputation for being quiet.

As others have noted there could still be something a bit "off" so I'll probably send an email to BDT (NZ distributor) to get their input.

AlDrag

247 posts

Master Geek

#3384638 16-Jun-2025 10:34

bhad:

Thanks for your input everyone.

Catdog's video sounds similar to mine. I'm surprised that Mitsubishi Electric units seem to have such a prominent high pitched humm, given their reputation for being quiet.

As others have noted there could still be something a bit "off" so I'll probably send an email to BDT (NZ distributor) to get their input.

Hey did you end getting the issue resolved? I have a Mitsubishi PEAD outdoor unit also (Mr Slim) although the smaller version (6kw heating) and I have the same buzzing sound. It's bloody loud. We have a Panasonic unit - for our wall-split - right below it and it's whisper quiet in comparison.