No, not the horror movie … the noise.

Saturday morning we woke up to a very loud howling sound … we thought it might be a snow blower, but it kept going for quite a while.

I went down stairs to see if it was something in the house … as it appeared to be coming from the duct work. In the basement, I still heard it … but it was noticeably quieter. I turned off the furnace and the sound went away.

I thought it might be the blower … which obviously would not be a good thing. As a precaution, I ran a trickle of hot water out of every faucet in the house. We have a space heater in the family room, so I’m hoping Riley would stay there in case the furnace failed entirely.

I started researching furnace repair firms … and asked Ginny to find out if anyone at her church could recommend someone.

The odd thing about it was that the noise wasn’t constant … it would start & stop, sometimes when the fan was going it wouldn’t start at all. Other times it would be always there.

This morning the noise started early … and I went downstairs to see if I could narrow the location down a bit … when I noticed that it seemed to be coming from the humidifier.

I turned the humidifier off and the noise stopped. When I turned the humidifier back on, the noise came back.

Ok, we can live with a bit dryer air for a little while. So the urgency to get it repaired is no longer there. But obviously it’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

A bit more research in the morning found that the humidifier (Honeywell April Aire) only had a one year warranty. So getting it fixed for free is obviously out. I’m pretty sure the company that installed it is no longer in business.

Hmmm … since the furnace is already modified to hold the humidifier, I wonder if I could install a new one my self?

As it happens, I did replace the plastic tube that fed the water to the top of the filter pad earlier in the year. I wonder if that tube is clogged? I couldn’t find an exact match for the tube at the hardware store, so I got a clear plastic tube that was a close match. It seems to be feeding water to the pad.

Update 5pm — I checked the water tube and it seemed to be ok … but I moved it around a bit and turned the humidifier back on. No noise. Here’s hoping.

Update 2/5 — Well, the noise from humidifier hasn’t gone away. If I turn the humidifier off for a while, then back on, it works without making noise for a bit. But the noise comes back eventually. Sometimes it’s quiet for a few days. Sometimes it’s only quiet for a few minutes. I emailed an HVAC guy to give an estimate on replacing the valve. Initially he was suggesting replacing it the whole humidifier, but when I told him it was only 6 years old, he agreed that it was worth repairing. It’s going to cost about $125. I just need to get it scheduled.
[tags]furnace, noise, humidifier, heating[/tags]