When you hear alarming sounds coming from your furnace, it should be a red flag that something is wrong with your furnace. In fact, anytime you hear any unusual sounds you should give our team a call to schedule service.
There’s a good chance that something is going wrong inside your furnace when you hear anything out of the ordinary. You can give our team a call to schedule furnace service in Chestermere, AB and stay ahead of potential problems. Keep reading to learn about some of the furnace sounds that mean your furnace needs attention and understand what could be going wrong inside the system.
Banging or Booming
These sounds are always concerning, but even more so if you have a gas furnace. Your furnace has a variety of safety mechanisms in place to make sure that operation happens exactly as it should. But sometimes these mechanisms do fail. If your igniter is not lighting quickly enough, too much gas may be building up in the chamber. When ignition finally does happen, the excess gas in the chamber creates a small explosion.
The resulting sound is a loud banging or booming sound as additional pressure is being put on the system. Over time, these explosions put strain on the system to the point that the heat exchanger can develop cracks. Heat exchanger cracks allow carbon monoxide gas to leak into your home. If your heat exchanger cracks, the entire furnace usually has to be replaced as the damage is irreversible.
Rattling
If you somehow miss the banging and booming that happens from mini explosions, you may hear a rattling sound as a result of a cracked heat exchanger. The damage from a cracked heat exchanger can lead to a rattling sound from the loose metal.
It’s also possible that other components are loose inside of the system and moving around causing a rattling sound. No matter when or how you hear rattling, it’s an indication that something is broken or loose inside your furnace. It’s a problem worth getting checked out so that we can fix whatever component is broken or remove the displaced object before it has a chance to cause more damage.
Squealing or Screeching
These sounds can be caused by a couple of different things. It is common for fan belts to loosen up and lead to a squealing or screeching sound before they snap off completely. Hearing a squealing or screeching sound coming from your furnace is a sign that it is time to schedule service. If a belt snaps off completely, it could do more damage to your heating system.
A lack of lubrication in your furnace is another reason that you might hear screeching or squealing. Many components inside of your furnace have to be well lubricated to work together. As this lubrication dries up, the metal-on-metal scraping can sound a lot like screeching or squealing. It’s very easy to re-lubricate these parts. However, if they go too long without lubrication, the parts can wear down significantly because of the grinding and need to be replaced.
Contact Ace Plumbing and Heating today to schedule an appointment for your plumbing and HVAC needs. Happy Today or You Don’t Pay!