Intermittently loud furnace: call the landlord?
November 14, 2019 12:11 PM Subscribe
We have a gas furnace that intermittently sounds very noisy upon starting up, like a small prop plane. This seems to happen when it's running a lot, such as during cold nights. At other times it makes only a very faint humming/whooshing sound when starting up. Is this a "contact the landlord" situation, if it is otherwise functioning fine?
Possibly relevant: according to the sticker on the furnace, it's about 20 years old, and hasn't had any kind of maintenance in the last 14 years. We've been at this place for about a decade and it's had no service during that time, although we are fairly good about changing the furnace filter regularly. No smell of natural gas and CO2 monitor indicates no issue there. The furnace heats the house fine, other than the noise.
Large, potentially explosive appliances make me nervous but I don't want to unnecessarily bug the landlord if this is just typical furnace behavior. Is it something that would be worth letting them know?
Possibly relevant: according to the sticker on the furnace, it's about 20 years old, and hasn't had any kind of maintenance in the last 14 years. We've been at this place for about a decade and it's had no service during that time, although we are fairly good about changing the furnace filter regularly. No smell of natural gas and CO2 monitor indicates no issue there. The furnace heats the house fine, other than the noise.
Large, potentially explosive appliances make me nervous but I don't want to unnecessarily bug the landlord if this is just typical furnace behavior. Is it something that would be worth letting them know?
Just to be clear, this is a new thing that it wasn't doing last year? I'm going to answer assuming that this is a new thing: call your landlord.
The way I see it, this could be benign, but it's more likely one of the components is on the verge of wearing out. 20 years old is modern enough in terms of safety features that you're probably not looking at a catastrophic failure, but you might be looking at a problem that could cause you to lose your source of heat at an inconvenient time. It's worth the piece of mind, and if you're not otherwise a problem tenant I doubt your landlord would hold it against you if it turns out to be nothing.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:29 PM on November 14, 2019
The way I see it, this could be benign, but it's more likely one of the components is on the verge of wearing out. 20 years old is modern enough in terms of safety features that you're probably not looking at a catastrophic failure, but you might be looking at a problem that could cause you to lose your source of heat at an inconvenient time. It's worth the piece of mind, and if you're not otherwise a problem tenant I doubt your landlord would hold it against you if it turns out to be nothing.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:29 PM on November 14, 2019
I would record a video of it to send over, along with the observation that there hasn't been any maintenance done on the thing in at least 10 years.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:30 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Lyn Never at 12:30 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
If I were your landlord I would want to know. If it needs repair, better do it with a regular appointment than having to pay for rush emergency service in the middle of winter.
posted by exogenous at 12:39 PM on November 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by exogenous at 12:39 PM on November 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
Draft inducer blower motors are among the most common furnace components to fail - this may be what you are looking at. It is a minor expense in the grand scheme of things. Tell the landlord.
posted by Glomar response at 12:59 PM on November 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Glomar response at 12:59 PM on November 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone--we will tell the landlord.
posted by whistle pig at 1:39 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by whistle pig at 1:39 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Seconding inducer blower, and it sounds like it will fail soon.
When it fails the furnace won’t light so you might want to expedite this.
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:46 PM on November 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
When it fails the furnace won’t light so you might want to expedite this.
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:46 PM on November 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
you know those things are supposed to be cleaned, maintained and inspected annualy in many (most?) places in north america by law anyhow and i suspect this holds true globally.
14 years without maintenance is like a miracle everyday it works safely.
posted by some loser at 5:16 PM on November 14, 2019
14 years without maintenance is like a miracle everyday it works safely.
posted by some loser at 5:16 PM on November 14, 2019
what im getting at is that your landlord may want to look into what the local/state regulations have to say about maintenance on domestic gas fired furnaces. If it says something like "must follow manufacturer's approved maintenance schedule" or something like that, it's likely that it the manufacturer says "must be maintained anually"... if something were to happen due to equipment failure, landlord may be in trouble.
posted by some loser at 5:21 PM on November 14, 2019
posted by some loser at 5:21 PM on November 14, 2019
Thirding the draft inducer. It’s just a little blower, smaller than your range hood or bathroom vent fan, but it’s exposed to larger swings in temperature. The plastic impeller fractures, warps and starts colliding with its housing (thus the clatter). Eventually it will distort enough to hit its housing so hard that it will stop turning altogether. A sensor will detect the resulting incorrect air pressure and then the furnace will suddenly stop working. Get it fixed now, in non-emergency circumstances.
posted by jon1270 at 5:40 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by jon1270 at 5:40 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Agree with the others that this requires service. If it is intermittent, it might be a good idea to get a recording on your phone so when the service person arrives, they can more easily diagnose if it doesn't do it when they are there.
Also, to put your mind at ease, this isn't a real safety issue to worry about. There are multiple sensors in the furnace to detect various abnormal conditions and will safely shut off the gas if they occur. This is more a convenience issue in that you could be suddenly without heat some cold morning.
posted by JackFlash at 5:51 PM on November 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Also, to put your mind at ease, this isn't a real safety issue to worry about. There are multiple sensors in the furnace to detect various abnormal conditions and will safely shut off the gas if they occur. This is more a convenience issue in that you could be suddenly without heat some cold morning.
posted by JackFlash at 5:51 PM on November 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by whistle pig at 12:13 PM on November 14, 2019