By now, you’ve already been using your furnace on a regular basis for weeks. As we progress into wintertime, now is just about the worse time to have your heater develop problems. It’s also the time of year when heating problems are most likely to occur, thanks to the added stress they’re put under. If you can detect issues with your furnace early enough though, you can call for professional furnace repair in Puyallup, WA before it’s too late.
Of course, this requires you to be especially vigilant in order to catch these problems early on. One of the first signs most homeowners notice that something is amiss with their furnace is the presence of strange and/or unfamiliar noises while the system is running. If you have in fact noticed this, then your first priority in this New Year should be to get to the bottom of it by calling in a professional for inspection and potential repairs. In the meantime, keep reading to learn what the causes of these noises may be.
Grinding
Inside your furnace is a component called the air handler. This is what actually blows air throughout your vents and your home while the system is operating. The air handler motor contains bearings that help reduce friction on the component while it’s running.
These bearings can last quite a while, but they do wear out over time. And as they do, the friction on the air handler motor increases until it starts emitting a grinding sound. If you hear this noise, it’s a good idea to call for repairs as soon as possible. If the bearings aren’t replaced in time, the motor can burn out entirely. It’s a lot more expensive to replace the air handler motor than to replace the bearings in that motor.
Booming
If your furnace system is making a loud booming sound every time it starts up, you likely have a problem with delayed ignition. As the burner assembly in a gas furnace combusts fuel, carbon particles build up on the jets. This is generally harmless, at first. But over time the buildup will become severe enough that it will cause some of the jets to fire later than they should.
When the jets do finally ignite, they burn through an excess of gas all at once. This is what causes that booming sound you hear. Professional cleaning should clear out the burner assembly, and therefore resolve this particular issue. You’ll want to have it done ASAP, though, since the burner assembly could eventually become so clogged that it stops igniting at all.
Short-Cycling
If your furnace is turning itself on and off rapidly—in other words, it doesn’t seem to be completing a full heating cycle—then you should call in a pro ASAP. This behavior is called short-cycling, and it is not something you want to continue for any length of time. Short cycling accelerates the rate at which the various parts of your furnace wear down, making breakdowns more likely to occur. If the problem continues on long enough, it can shorten the lifespan of the furnace by years. Make sure you call for repairs as soon as you notice your system doing this.
Contact Sunset Air today for your heating needs.
