A Knipex 986202 Plastic needlenose is a great tool for a lot of reasons. I used to see situations like that that a stamped grille with 1/2" spacing would fix it instead of the 1/3" spacing too. Of course a bigger grille altogether would be way too expensive.. A little flat black paint on the sheet rock or metal behind the grille when you could do without the blower for a couple hours makes the space look a little better. Thanks for all of the great videos. It was great that you got the customer happy without having to make another trip.
Just had a call back on an Install I did a cpl months ago with customer complaining of a humming noise. Traced the noise to a return vent in the bedroom and remembered this video. The trick worked beautifully. Thanks for saving me a cpl hours of figuring out what to do. Love your videos!
Sub standard return system. That’s the first thing contractors scrimp on. This is the exact reason I got out of new construction. Cant do a quality system anymore. I’m constantly being asked why is your bid so much higher than the other guy. “Well sir there is a return in every bedroom, office, hallway, living room, family room. Not just two large returns, one up and one down in the ceiling and calling it good.” Today it’s slam bam thank you ma’am. In my own home; a little 1200cfm system, I installed 9 individual returns. Hence no air noise from the return grills. Plus on the supply side, I refuse to use the cheap stamp face registers.
Ted, if you didn’t get around to the plastic pliers by now you might as well just wrap a little tape around the ones you have now and call it a wrap. Pardon the pun.
What you can do is buy a cheap open face battery clock and tape a whistle on one of the hands and lay it flat in the duct work. That one is for April first.
andrew ackroyd I was curious if it would be better or worse with the less restrictive filter. You would think it would be worse with more airflow but that isn’t always the case. It’s kind of like a tire out of balance, sometimes it vibrates at 55 but if you kick it up to 70 it will often smooth out. Doesn’t mean the tires not about to come apart because if better at higher speed.
I’ve come across this once after a new system install, the new furnace had more airflow ( proper airflow) causing this issue. I did the same thing you did and solved the problem.
The Filtrete "purple devil" filters. They are the worst. and you are exactly right on that first furnace. Lennox had some issues on that model of furnace with a metal plate, that had notches in it, that the heat exchanger chambers set in on the bottom for support. When the blower comes on and moves are across the heat exchanger it causes it to rattle inside of those slots. 👍
I had heard before that HVAC guys don't care for the allergen filters, however, I did see a demonstration that indicated the 1500 filters are actually less restrictive than the 1200s due to the increased surface area and pleats, assuming the owner changes them regularly. I would like to see you do a video on filters, giving your take on the different types.
Just developed this issue all of a sudden on the return vent in our master bedroom. I assumed the blower motor need lube, but can feel the vibration on the wall and the fins. Opened them a bit & it helped, but I am.more curious as to why this woukd happen all of a sudden? I haven't done any work on the house or hvac, keep tye filter clean & even replaced it today wity tye same brand I've used for years. Would be curious to hear some thoughts.
Excellent fix, I wrapped masking tape on my pliers.bent the fins when the heather is running. It's amazing, like tuning a car. Thank you for your video, we get quit heat especially at night, also it is a simple fix.
the noise would be from the grill not being properly sized. A properly sized grill should have a noise coefficient of less than 20 which would be super quiet.
My home has insulated vinyl windows and is a brick home made in 1970. I have a 4 ton trane with a gas pack. Will I save money if I change it out for a heat pump. gas is not cheap in Georgia. I have to pay 36.00 a month even if I do not use any gas at all.
Had the same issue on a commercial install using a single deflection grille. Changed out to an eggcrate. Problem solved. Thxs for the vids. Keep'm coming.
I’m surprised one of the Louvers didn’t break on the cheap Chinese grill. Wait until they put three or four coats of Latex paint, over the dust on the grill, and you have no airflow. No Service Disconnects at the Furnaces, a serious Code violation!
I didn't see any disconnect for the furnace?? No switch or plug ... must not be much electrical inspection in that neck of the woods... I'd venture to guess that the installer knew he had to have a bushing when that romex went through the wall of the furnace and he didn't have one so he had a couple of pieces of flex. As far as bx cable versus flex conduit I have a few horror stories about flex - we had some blower motors that were 480 volt - the systems were decades old - our 480 volt distribution system had an alarm when we got a phase to ground - the system is called a high resistance ground fault alarm. A ground fault would only generate a max of 5 amps to ground. They use these in plants where they dont want to unravel a process just because there is a ground fault someplace - so we had ways to find the ground fault and have an orderly repair instead of a giant flash and an emergency shutdown of whatever process we were working on. We kept getting an ground fault alarm at random times but could never find the fault. Finally the fault stayed in long enough for us to find it ... to our surprise the fault was inside some flex that hooked a blower moter. What had happened is that through the years the ribs on the inside of the steel flex had rubbed the insulation off the 480 volt feed to the blower moter. Since our alarm system would limit the ground fault to 5 amps the fault would not blow a hole in the flex like a solid ground system would.. it cost the oil company lots of money for callouts and labor to find that short in the flex...
In California, you cannot run Romex inside of flex conduit. Some masking tape on the jaws of needle nose, or smooth surface jaw needle nose can avoid chance of scratching the grid. I have been making a suggested tool list for Mr. Cook as I watch these videos. Not in any order: flare nut wrenches, headlamp, GoPro with hardhat mount, smooth jaw needle nose, so far. I know he likes to go light, but for a professional technician like him to use adjustable wrench on a brass flare nut of a pilot tube is unacceptable. Not only a wrong tool, but used too loose and backwards. Not in this video though.
it;s round inside, the squared outside helps keep it rigid and from collapsing so easily if **BENT at sharper angles ;) I'm no engineer, but no dummy either :) I clearly have old man stiff hands trying to type lol
See this all the time its avoidable if the installer looks at the the manufacturer specs before grill selection CFM and FPM these specs are published for a reason
State Code in Tennessee Is an On/Off Switch Within 5' Of Furnace. Greenfield Is The Correct Name For The Metal Flex Jacket ! Sound Seems To Be Heat Exchanger Supports On Top Of Unit.
Those filtrete filters, solve 30 calls a winter over them, Customer says “house won’t go above 67” I ask, them to check if filter says filtrete, yup it does, ok, take filter out, power off furnace, call you in an hour, call back, house,is up to 72f, I’ve scene in on VS motors as well, York high limit is 145f
Since the HVAC installers went the cheap route with the filter up in the attic, this customer might benefit with moving the filters down to those returns by removing the existing stamped metal one and installing a correct sized single return that hold the filters. Also, those stamped steel registers cause air restriction, which is why the noise. Better off using those slightly more expensive rolled metal registers, they do not cause restrictions of air thus no noise either while th eair flow is greatly improved. Is there some reason why any HVAC today would choose to place the filter in the attic? That tract of homes has some expensive Lennox equipment yet the installers sure do crap work, based on the ducting and electrical. Where are the building inspectors when you rely on them !
BX vs Greenfield .... BX used the outer sleeve as the ground ( seriously stupid idea). Greenfield is BX and is just a newer and up to today’s code version that doesn’t use the outer metallic sheathing as a ground.
Electrical code states wires must be protected from damage since the wire are hanging they are there to protect. The electrician got lazy and dint junction box at the other side which is protected by the studs
I had a 50 to 60 Hz rumble that for several years I thought was a duct fan going bad. One day trying to track it down I removed the cover for a return duct to see if I could locate the duct fan. But the noise instantly stopped. I determined the whole long return duct was resonating like a flute. So I bent the tines of the grill just like he just did. It worked.
im suprised that the filters are up in the attic open like that I would at least attempt to put it in a trash bag. I guess it dosent get dusty where you are but out here dust storms would blow through the attic gable
I call it simply what it is: resonance. The air going over the vents hits their resonance frequency and causes the sound. So the trick is basically to just do anything to change the resonance frequency of the material, which can include bending it as you did. I'm not an HVAC guy, but I've encountered it from airflow in computer cases and it can be highly annoying. I've done everything from tape index cards to the inside of panels to adding felt tape in order to change the frequency; it all works, just so long as you identify the proper place to make the change.
My furnace makes a lot more noise and causes a door right next to it to vibrate. This happened after the fan that draws air down to the burners was replaced.
I had the same problem. I'd remove the grill and the rattle noise went away. I reinstalled but left the mount screws not as tight which cured the rattle. I''ll adjust the fins also if it happens again.
I work in an office/factory that has big return grates assembled out of pieces. The louvers are separate insertions into the main frame. Buzzes like a beehive. 'I have no idea how that thing got dented up, boss....'
The good ol needle nose trick, I’ve been doing that for many years. Usually I’ll suggest to change those cheap stamp steel grills to nice bar type which allow way more air flow.
I had the same problem and did the same thing but the real problem was there wasn’t enough return air but the customer didn’t want to pay to put more returns in but it did fix the problem 👍🏻
I had the same issue in my house when I changed out the 50 yr old return grills. There’s one in each room I just opened them up a bit ( I used a screwdriver between the fins and has been good for the last 15 years
Condensation drips from the vent pipe caused by improper venting no one ever checks the venting which is the number one issue with furnace. That draft inducer will fail prematurely and the heat exchanger why do a service call and not address all the issues just saying. Sale lost and customer not explained the issue that is right in your face. Please check venting 80 and 90 furnaces
Is anyone in our trade worried about the Coronavirus and if there's anything that we can do to protect ourselves dealing with several homeowner's daily ?
No, probably would have made it worse. Less restrictions means more air flow, which means more whistling effect and most likely louder with higher pitch. Thats why it was humming at the grill, b/c the grill was restricting the airflow
