Furnace making funny noise

[Carl_NH]

My neighbor has the Trane unit installed in 2009 with a bad fan motor and its out of warranty - $1500 to replace the blower motor/fan. A complete new unit is another $2K so he may go that direction.

 

[5030]

Hi, Folks, I need to identify a noise that my high efficiency propane furnace is making, and I am hoping some of you have heard this before. The supposedly experienced service guy could not tell what it was, and so he just "guessed" it was the ($800!) fan motor.

It is a Payne Model PG96VAT48080 furnace, installed in August of 2013, and has worked fine up until now. But just recently, every once in a while there would be this strange kind of buzzing/honing sound when the fan was going full blast (e.g, on AC).

Here is a video link:

IMG 1884 - YouTube

It is very intermittent, and seems to only come on when the fan is on high.

Any ideas, my fellow TBNers?

James

You have 2 shots, the distribution fan motor and the combustion air blower. One of them has failing bearings you can replace both yourself for a lot less than 800 clams. Better determine which it is before it gets cold and replace it. HF furnaces use a sealed combustion chamber that relies on a combustion air blower to provide air for the burn process. That will be on the front under the front panel. The distrubution air blower is underneath on the bottom.

 

[5030]

My neighbor has the Trane unit installed in 2009 with a bad fan motor and its out of warranty - $1500 to replace the blower motor/fan. A complete new unit is another $2K so he may go that direction.

I need to be in the furnace repair business. I can buy both fans, all the component parts and install it for less than 600 clams and all it takes is some time, a few wrenches and a screwdriver. It ain't rocket science.

 

[5030]

Our Plus 90 condensing furnace is only for backup. I heat with shelled corn and wood pellets. While propane is cheaper right now, I still prefer the heat and ambiance of an a fire that you can see. besides, I like to toast my feet in front of the fire.

 

[Sigarms]

ECM motor repair kits are cheap. ecm motor repair kit - Google Search now, if it needs new bearings, that can be done at a motor repair shop cheaply too!..

Problem solved!

 

[Jstpssng]

Our Plus 90 condensing furnace is only for backup. I heat with shelled corn and wood pellets. While propane is cheaper right now, I still prefer the heat and ambiance of an a fire that you can see. besides, I like to toast my feet in front of the fire.

I think that many if not most of us outside of the sun belt can identify with that. A good fire of any type is also more steady heat.

 

[Sigarms]

I need to be in the furnace repair business. I can buy both fans, all the component parts and install it for less than 600 clams and all it takes is some time, a few wrenches and a screwdriver. It ain't rocket science.

You should. Being you're in Michigan, to make a run of it you probably should know a thing or two about hydronics, perhaps oil along with maybe coal? Let's not forget about mini splits. Then get a van, make sure you have insurance, most likely need at least 5k-10K in decent tools, have the proper licences, and just wait for that phone to ring because you can offer everything at the lowest price and everyone knows it.

I'm sorry, I understand that people think that HVAC is where the money is at because of pricing, but the reality is if you understand your overhead and what it actually costs to run a business, added the fact that you're the one driving to the customer instead of the customer coming to you, people that know their chit that want to stay in business for the long haul are not the cheapest price in town.

THEN you get the interesting customers who wonder why you charge $80-$100 for a service call to diagnois the issue because you're the expert :laughing:

You can always get a weekend warrior that works full time and does it on the side, but when you need something done, see how reliable he is getting out to your place. Roll of the dice at best.

I get it. Everyone here can do everything themselves. That's great. The reality is those that can do it all themselves are in the minority, not the majority.

By the way, there is no way in hades you can buy a Payne variable speed constant fan blower motor (under warranty) along with a combustion fan motor (generally sold with the complete housing assembley) for less than $600 alone (less the labor). With that blower motor, you also better have the wiring schematic.

You might go cheaper going aftermarket parts if you could find something that would work, but with 3 years left on the factory warranty, if those aftermarket parts failed within that time, you as the contractor are eating it.

 

[kenmac]

I need to be in the furnace repair business. I can buy both fans, all the component parts and install it for less than 600 clams and all it takes is some time, a few wrenches and a screwdriver. It ain't rocket science.

How you gonna make a living installing these items for cost ? Mileage, tools, insurance, license, bond, etc,.
Then, most will warranty the part /labor for one year.

How do you stay in business ?

Asking for a friend

 

[5030]

I think that many if not most of us outside of the sun belt can identify with that. A good fire of any type is also more steady heat.

My good friend over in Stockton Springs (west of Bah Harbor a tad), has been cutting and splitting wood all summer for this winter. I think he has about 6 cords stacked in his basement already.

Gets pretty blustery up your way. Gets blustery down this way too.

Wood pellets are a bit less down here than up your way and we have shelled corn too. You don't. What I'd like to have is a stoker stove but rice coal is hard to come by here.

I'm not overly fond of condensing furnaces in general because of their complexity and high repair costs, especially if you cannot do the repairs yourself, but I will say they are efficient when it comes to fuel usage and out here there is no NG, only propane.

 

[5030]

How you gonna make a living installing these items for cost ? Mileage, tools, insurance, license, bond, etc,.
Then, most will warranty the part /labor for one year.

How do you stay in business ?

Asking for a friend

I'm not but that won't stop me from doing my repairs. Other than the brain box, most of it is R&R. Last year my distribution blower took a dump, mid winter. A new one from Grainger was 400 bucks and the OEM one was 600. Turned out to be the start capacitor for 10 bucks. When I took it out I went through it and greased all the bearings and blew out all the accumulated junk in the motor (yes, even with a furnace filter, some junk still gets by). Of course I wasn't cold. The parlor stove upstairs kept everything toasty.

One of the big ticket items on any condensing furnace is the combustion air (inducer) blower. When it goes, expect to lay out some serious jack but like all furnace parts, not hard to replace yourself. Mine is getting a little noisy, should start thinking about buying one for eventual replacement.