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Noisy furnace (with recording of noise)

6K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Jeffrey 
#1 ·
Hi! I'm trying to identify the cause of a very loud and annoying noise my apartment furnace has been making all winter. AFAIK, the furnace actually *works* fine, but the noise is so loud that it wakes me up multiple times throughout the night.

I recorded the noise with my camera and uploaded it to Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIwszc_2YYY

The vent in the video is in my bedroom. The furnace is directly on the other side of that wall. I've tried listening in the actual furnace closet while the noise was occurring, but I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from at all. (For what it's worth, the noise sounds the same in the closet, just a bit less echo-y.) Also note that the noise is *loud*. It can be heard anywhere in the apartment and frequently wakes me up at night (and I'm not a soft sleeper).

The noise isn't constant and I haven't found any pattern to when it occurs (it's not just when the furnace turns on/off etc). It generally happens in 'groupings', where there will be a 1/2 second of noise every 5-15 seconds or so, for about a minute. These groupings happen about once or twice an hour on average (but like I said, there's no pattern to it). Less frequently it's a prolonged noise, lasting ~6 seconds (like the first noise in my video).

Some other interesting info:
- The noise occurs whether or not the furnace fan is on.
- The noise can be also *sometimes* be heard out of other vents in the apartment. Also sometimes the noise *only* occurs in the other vents, and doesn't come from the bedroom one.

I've been searching online for other people with similar issues, and right now I'm leaning towards thinking that a fan is 'loose' and occasionally hitting the sides of its mounting. This is only a guess though...

I can't actually repair this myself since I'm in an apartment, but I need to know what to tell the maintenance people the problem is. They've been to my apartment 3 times already, but the noise hasn't occurred while they were there, so they couldn't/wouldn't fix anything. Hopefully with this video evidence and your knowledgeable help, they'll fix the problem and I can get some solid sleep!

Thank you for your help!
-Jeff
 
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