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Top 8 Inducer Motor Noise Problems on a Gas Furnace!
WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en
00:00:01.530 hey guys this is Craig new gotcha with 00:00:03.56000:00:03.570 AC silver second today we're going over 00:00:05.26900:00:05.279 are the top eight inducer motor noise 00:00:07.40000:00:07.410 problems that occur on a gas furnace 00:00:09.11000:00:09.120 problem number one is when you hear a 00:00:11.72000:00:11.730 water sloshing noise coming from the 00:00:14.74900:00:14.759 inducer motor housing so that could be 00:00:16.82000:00:16.830 one of two things either the furnace is 00:00:18.80000:00:18.810 not pitched right so for instance this 00:00:21.65000:00:21.660 is the inducer motor housing this 00:00:24.01900:00:24.029 happens to be a variable speed inducer 00:00:25.97000:00:25.980 motor but right down here you see that 00:00:28.37000:00:28.380 you have a drain port so water is 00:00:31.27900:00:31.289 created during the flame process it 00:00:33.08000:00:33.090 needs a drain out of 90% efficient 00:00:35.78000:00:35.790 furnaces or or higher efficiency 00:00:37.67000:00:37.680 furnaces than that so if the furnace is 00:00:40.94000:00:40.950 pitched slightly to the right here you 00:00:44.20900:00:44.219 see that the water would end up piling 00:00:45.61900:00:45.629 up over here to the right and the other 00:00:48.08000:00:48.090 thing is if the furnace was pitched 00:00:49.90000:00:49.910 backwards a little bit then you'd have a 00:00:52.61000:00:52.620 problem with water right here piling up 00:00:55.06900:00:55.079 so then the inducer wheel inside here 00:01:00.04900:01:00.059 what it's gonna do is it's going to be 00:01:01.09900:01:01.109 hitting the water and making that 00:01:03.88900:01:03.899 sloshing noise down here on the bottom 00:01:05.56000:01:05.570 so that can occur if the furnace is not 00:01:08.71900:01:08.729 pitched properly and it can also occur 00:01:10.67000:01:10.680 if your condensate drain is not pitched 00:01:13.85000:01:13.860 properly so downstream of this if it 00:01:16.42900:01:16.439 takes too much water weight in order to 00:01:18.41000:01:18.420 be able to drain wherever it's wherever 00:01:20.63000:01:20.640 it's going to and it's backing up and 00:01:23.09000:01:23.100 the water's rising in here then then 00:01:25.52000:01:25.530 that's gonna make the the noise problem 00:01:27.44000:01:27.450 as well so definitely make sure that 00:01:29.30000:01:29.310 this is pitched properly and is draining 00:01:32.14900:01:32.159 correctly so problem number two is an 00:01:34.73000:01:34.740 animal may have made a nest in the 00:01:36.59000:01:36.600 inducer motor and the offseason or may 00:01:38.74900:01:38.759 be wasps have got down in here and made 00:01:40.67000:01:40.680 a nest or maybe they just there's just 00:01:42.49900:01:42.509 bugs down in there or other roof debris 00:01:46.10000:01:46.110 has fallen down inside of here and what 00:01:48.44000:01:48.450 happens is maybe the inducer motor turns 00:01:50.60000:01:50.610 on and it makes noise for maybe 15-20 00:01:53.24000:01:53.250 seconds and then it doesn't make any 00:01:55.06900:01:55.079 noise anymore and then it shuts off and 00:01:57.05000:01:57.060 then the next time it turns on it makes 00:01:58.99900:01:59.009 noise again so maybe some of the debris 00:02:01.52000:02:01.530 that was in here has tried to make it up 00:02:03.41000:02:03.420 out of the tube and then it ended up 00:02:04.99900:02:05.009 falling back down in here when the 00:02:06.80000:02:06.810 furnace is off and that's what you hear 00:02:09.38000:02:09.390 maybe some some noise of the inducer 00:02:11.57000:02:11.580 motor wheel clanking around with some of 00:02:13.64000:02:13.650 those objects so 00:02:15.14000:02:15.150 that's a definitely a big big issue you 00:02:17.33000:02:17.340 want to deal with that and take the 00:02:18.53000:02:18.540 support in order to see make sure that 00:02:20.27000:02:20.280 you fish through your vent line and make 00:02:22.61000:02:22.620 sure that there's nothing there and if 00:02:25.03900:02:25.049 it is a bad problem you're not even 00:02:26.75000:02:26.760 going to have the inducer motor being 00:02:28.36900:02:28.379 able to turn so if you look in here 00:02:30.71000:02:30.720 there's actually bird feathers in here 00:02:33.74000:02:33.750 so you can see a bird tried to make a 00:02:37.06900:02:37.079 nest down in there so that could be an 00:02:40.42900:02:40.439 issue problem number three could be 00:02:42.31900:02:42.329 noisy bearings so you could have 00:02:44.41000:02:44.420 unsealed bearings or sealed bearings and 00:02:47.41000:02:47.420 this one has two unsealed bearings and 00:02:50.69000:02:50.700 this is an old inducer motor so that 00:02:52.75900:02:52.769 means that they have to be oiled so we 00:02:54.94900:02:54.959 take a zoom spoiler and we go ahead and 00:02:57.83000:02:57.840 put that down in there and we squeeze 00:02:59.47900:02:59.489 the bottle in order to put the wheel in 00:03:01.52000:03:01.530 there and then same thing here we 00:03:03.74000:03:03.750 squeeze the bottle until you have just a 00:03:05.50900:03:05.519 little bit of oil coming out of the top 00:03:07.22000:03:07.230 and that's it so we do that every six 00:03:09.80000:03:09.810 months as a preventative maintenance but 00:03:11.33000:03:11.340 if that wasn't done for a couple years 00:03:13.78000:03:13.790 those bearings are going to have 00:03:16.52000:03:16.530 suffered irreparable damage and even if 00:03:18.94900:03:18.959 you add oil at that point you know it's 00:03:21.55900:03:21.569 not going to be able to fix those 00:03:22.97000:03:22.980 bearings so if the if the wheel has been 00:03:26.40900:03:26.419 basically drawn into those bearings and 00:03:28.93900:03:28.949 it's been empty for any period of time 00:03:30.49000:03:30.500 those bearings are gonna be no good so 00:03:33.92000:03:33.930 you're gonna hear a loud just 00:03:36.61000:03:36.620 overwhelming loud noise coming from your 00:03:38.86900:03:38.879 bearings you could also have sealed 00:03:40.87900:03:40.889 bearings that have gone bad over time 00:03:42.80000:03:42.810 and it's just the the only way I can 00:03:46.25000:03:46.260 describe the noise coming from that is 00:03:48.14000:03:48.150 it's just a constant very very loud 00:03:51.28900:03:51.299 noise so it's much louder than it needs 00:03:53.53900:03:53.549 to be and you can put a stethoscope 00:03:54.83000:03:54.840 right on here in order to listen to make 00:03:57.40900:03:57.419 sure that the noise actually is the 00:03:59.21000:03:59.220 bearings right here and over here when 00:04:02.30000:04:02.310 motor bearings are going bad it can be 00:04:03.89000:04:03.900 that's a big deal because they could end 00:04:06.61900:04:06.629 up burning up so all that rub rubbing in 00:04:09.94900:04:09.959 here causes friction and it gets very 00:04:11.83900:04:11.849 very hot and then could potentially 00:04:14.30000:04:14.310 start a fire so anytime that we noticed 00:04:16.03900:04:16.049 that the bearings are going bad we go 00:04:18.02000:04:18.030 ahead and replace the inducer motor 00:04:19.30000:04:19.310 problem number four could be if the 00:04:21.62000:04:21.630 furnace makes noise just when the 00:04:23.48000:04:23.490 inducer motor turns on it could be that 00:04:26.57000:04:26.580 it's not the inducer motor itself but it 00:04:28.21900:04:28.229 could be the vibe 00:04:28.99000:04:29.000 patience from the inducer motor making 00:04:30.94000:04:30.950 something else that's metal-on-metal and 00:04:33.34000:04:33.350 the furnace vibrate and end up rubbing 00:04:35.89000:04:35.900 up against each other a good example is 00:04:38.14000:04:38.150 a furnace door another example is 00:04:40.50000:04:40.510 something like this right here 00:04:42.64000:04:42.650 where you have your your burner tube and 00:04:45.46000:04:45.470 your orifices right here where they meet 00:04:47.02000:04:47.030 it could be a removable metal pan on the 00:04:50.20000:04:50.210 bottom of the furnace 00:04:51.22000:04:51.230 sometimes the furnaces come shipped with 00:04:53.05000:04:53.060 a loose pan on the bottom and it could 00:04:56.08000:04:56.090 just be something along those lines so 00:04:58.24000:04:58.250 if you push on the furnace in different 00:05:00.67000:05:00.680 areas and just make sure that it's not 00:05:02.56000:05:02.570 those areas before the inducer motor 00:05:04.87000:05:04.880 ends up getting blamed issue number five 00:05:07.24000:05:07.250 could be that the inducer motor wheel 00:05:09.40000:05:09.410 inside is rubbing up against the housing 00:05:10.99000:05:11.000 now what you could do is you could add 00:05:13.87000:05:13.880 up add just a small little washer back 00:05:16.60000:05:16.610 behind here you want to leave the rubber 00:05:18.01000:05:18.020 boots in place and once you do if you do 00:05:20.95000:05:20.960 put a small washer back there you want 00:05:22.65900:05:22.669 to move the inducer motor around just to 00:05:24.76000:05:24.770 make sure that it's not rubbing up 00:05:26.47000:05:26.480 against the housing no matter where the 00:05:28.12000:05:28.130 inducer motor wants to go while it's 00:05:29.98000:05:29.990 running the other thing is the furnace 00:05:32.32000:05:32.330 itself I would start with the furnace 00:05:34.06000:05:34.070 itself if that's not pitch properly or 00:05:37.21000:05:37.220 it's or its kind of tweaked a little bit 00:05:39.52000:05:39.530 that could be another issue for the 00:05:42.67000:05:42.680 inducer motor and the housing depending 00:05:44.95000:05:44.960 on how that furnace is built and how the 00:05:47.40900:05:47.419 inducer motor is is hooked to that 00:05:49.75000:05:49.760 furnace so sometimes they they can sag 00:05:52.75000:05:52.760 over time the whole furnace can can 00:05:54.49000:05:54.500 somewhat sag over time just due to the 00:05:57.03000:05:57.040 expansion and contraction and not having 00:05:59.80000:05:59.810 the supports in the right area and that 00:06:01.84000:06:01.850 could be the issue problem number six is 00:06:04.15000:06:04.160 if the inducer motor wheel starts to 00:06:07.42000:06:07.430 come off completely or if some of the 00:06:09.61000:06:09.620 fins on here start to come off of the 00:06:11.40900:06:11.419 wheel that wind up causing a problem 00:06:14.14000:06:14.150 it'll make extra noise especially if 00:06:15.61000:06:15.620 it's just a couple fins and the furnace 00:06:17.62000:06:17.630 still works and the pressure switch 00:06:18.96900:06:18.979 still closes the electrical circuit and 00:06:21.73000:06:21.740 saying that everything is good but you 00:06:23.92000:06:23.930 just have a couple of these fins falling 00:06:25.63000:06:25.640 off and kind of rattling around in there 00:06:27.90900:06:27.919 that's no good so regardless of whether 00:06:30.10000:06:30.110 it's metal or it's plastic 00:06:32.38000:06:32.390 that's another issue that could happen 00:06:34.54000:06:34.550 and the only way to know that is 00:06:36.28000:06:36.290 actually taking the inducer motor off 00:06:37.77900:06:37.789 and inspecting the wheel sometimes the 00:06:41.35000:06:41.360 inducer motor wheel is not very easy 00:06:42.91000:06:42.920 see and you're not gonna be able to look 00:06:44.38000:06:44.390 at it from this angle you're gonna have 00:06:45.70000:06:45.710 to look at it from the opening over here 00:06:47.50000:06:47.510 looking inwards at the inducer motor 00:06:50.29000:06:50.300 wheel to see what the damage is so 00:06:52.81000:06:52.820 that's the only way in some cases 00:06:54.76000:06:54.770 especially when they're plastic to be 00:06:56.95000:06:56.960 able to visually inspect this wheel 00:06:58.51000:06:58.520 right here problem number seven could be 00:07:00.58000:07:00.590 if you have a variable speed inducer 00:07:02.32000:07:02.330 motor and you have a partial clog in the 00:07:04.57000:07:04.580 exhaust pipe the intake or the heat 00:07:07.60000:07:07.610 exchanger then what's gonna happen is 00:07:09.64000:07:09.650 the inducer motor is going to push 00:07:11.62000:07:11.630 against that even harder and draw more 00:07:13.66000:07:13.670 amperage in order to maintain its torque 00:07:16.66000:07:16.670 parameters in order to try to push that 00:07:19.33000:07:19.340 air out of the exhaust pipe 00:07:20.89000:07:20.900 now that's different from a PSC motor 00:07:22.63000:07:22.640 that's the one with the capacitor that's 00:07:25.33000:07:25.340 helping the the motor turn on and run a 00:07:28.17000:07:28.180 PSC motor what would happen is the 00:07:30.88000:07:30.890 actual air volume would slow down the 00:07:33.70000:07:33.710 motor would speed up but it's not 00:07:35.35000:07:35.360 because it it's pushing the air 00:07:37.87000:07:37.880 molecules basically it's unloaded at 00:07:39.88000:07:39.890 that point and it's drawing less 00:07:41.62000:07:41.630 amperage so basically a PSC motor would 00:07:44.89000:07:44.900 work less hardware as a ECM a variable 00:07:48.64000:07:48.650 speed inducer motor is gonna work even 00:07:50.47000:07:50.480 harder it's gonna almost sound like a 00:07:51.88000:07:51.890 jet airplane trying to pull the air out 00:07:55.54000:07:55.550 through the intake and the heat 00:07:58.42000:07:58.430 exchanger and push it out through the 00:07:59.77000:07:59.780 exhaust no if this is the case you 00:08:02.23000:08:02.240 really want to go ahead and check both 00:08:04.24000:08:04.250 the intake and the exhaust legs first 00:08:06.16000:08:06.170 as well as doing a combustion analysis 00:08:08.32000:08:08.330 on the furnace a clogged heat exchanger 00:08:11.26000:08:11.270 such as like one that's rusting shut 00:08:13.15000:08:13.160 that's a very dangerous situation so you 00:08:15.46000:08:15.470 definitely want to do that problem 00:08:17.59000:08:17.600 number eight could be that the inducer 00:08:18.88000:08:18.890 motor wheel is rusting and expanding and 00:08:21.76000:08:21.770 rubbing up against the metal right here 00:08:24.66000:08:24.670 another thing that could be is it if 00:08:27.22000:08:27.230 it's plastic it could be deformed 00:08:29.74000:08:29.750 depending on the way it's built and that 00:08:31.39000:08:31.400 could be rubbing up against the the 00:08:34.18000:08:34.190 sidewall as well in either one of those 00:08:36.19000:08:36.200 cases you can end up having to replace 00:08:38.02000:08:38.030 the inducer motor housing and do some 00:08:40.21000:08:40.220 motor wheel if you're looking for the 00:08:41.56000:08:41.570 tools I use out in the field I have them 00:08:43.06000:08:43.070 link down in the description section 00:08:44.26000:08:44.270 below if you want to help support this 00:08:45.94000:08:45.950 HVAC hour training channel click here if 00:08:47.92000:08:47.930 you want to subscribe click here if you 00:08:49.36000:08:49.370 want to see another HVAC hour training 00:08:50.83000:08:50.840 video click right here hope you enjoyed 00:08:52.72000:08:52.730 yourself and we'll see you next time 00:08:53.77000:08:53.780 easy service tech Channel
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