What to Do When Furnace Is Making Clicking Noise?
Your furnace giving up in the middle of winter can be a significant hassle, and it sounding like a time bomb is more than a suitable metaphor. With hindrances and malfunction in your furnace, you can expect erratic "explosions" in your utility and energy bills. Something seemingly trivial as a clicking noise coming from your furnace, may be detrimental. Call an HVAC technician to look into your furnace immediately. Please get to the root of the problem before it worsens.
What Causes Clicking Noises?
Your furnace making a few noises is excusable. If you have an old-fashioned coal or gas furnace, you can expect sounds of blistering that are mistakable for clicking. Vibrations and burning can result in minor, hardly audible dins. However, you should investigate a loud or lingering sound. If the clicking noise is chronic and disruptive, there are plenty of possible underlying causes. Ask yourself these questions before we jump to conclusions based solely on that annoying clicking noise.
Are You Getting Enough from your Heating System?
Cross-check your thermostat with your home's ambient temperature. Does it check out? Or are you distracted by all the repeated clicking to notice the rest of your furnace performance? Does the temperature written on your thermostat match your indoor environment? If the temperature set on your thermostat is different than the room temperature, there's a misalignment somewhere in your furnace.
Are There Any Strange Odors?
It may be harder to notice any strange odors while you have been inside for a long period. The surrounding aroma may have already desensitized you to the odor. Try stepping out and wait at least ten minutes before walking back indoors. If you pick up on a certain smell, there may be clogs, obstructions, corrosion, or contamination in your furnace. While a slight burning smell after ignition is acceptable, foul odors accompanied by an obnoxious noise are not.
Are You Keeping Up with Routine Maintenance?
If you hear clicking, it might be due to a poorly maintained furnace. A furnace clicks for various reasons. A clicking furnace indicates the need for maintenance service, whether due to particle buildup settling on your burners and other inner workings or worn motor bearings. If you have missed a few of your yearly routine inspections and tune-ups, your furnace's ignition system may already be clicking for one! It's best to listen to your furnace when clicking for help. You will be glad you did. A clicking noise is only the beginning. It isn't an S.O.S. yet, but the clicking noise can quickly snowball into worse problems.
- Gas Valve: Issues with your gas valves may produce a clicking sound. The furnace clicking may indicate problems with the power supply linked to your gas valve. An automated system relying on specific voltage distribution may need to conduct more electricity to facilitate the gas valve properly. An uncontrollable gas valve may botch the rest of your ignition system, storing high volumes of gas. If your gas valve fails to secure the supply line from inducing resources into your burners without your pilot light burning leads to a surplus of unburned gas. All that gas has to go somewhere. The next thing you know, your home doesn't only have insufficient heating but is now a dangerous environment thanks to a gas leak.
- Flame Sensor: Thankfully, there are fail-safes for all furnaces. If your furnace's spark igniter doesn't trigger the pilot light, an automatic override should shut down your furnace's resource chambers, including intake and gas pipes. You have the furnace flame sensor or thermocouple to thank for that comprehensive security measure. However, a lack of tune-ups and cleaning may disrupt transmission vessels in your furnace and result in a faulty flame sensor. Your flame sensor may shut down the rest of your furnace with your spark igniter still trying to light an ignitor flame or other components on your burner assembly. Thankfully, if you have a gas furnace with a hot surface ignitor, it shuts down along with the rest of your burners. However, if you have a spark igniter, it can protest against the flame sensor. That clicking sound is your spark igniter, not heeding the commands of your flame sensor and still trying to kick-start the ignition system. Your pilot light and the rest of the furnace ignition system won't ignite without a corresponding fuel supply. It's like trying to light a Zippo without sufficient butane in the tank.
- Blower Motor: Your flame sensor isn't alone in its protective plight. Your inducer motor also has its own safety protocols. While it cannot control the gas valve, as transmissions from the flame sensor near your pilot light can, the blower motor can withhold air distribution. The motor can effectively withhold resources just as much as the gas valve can. There's no way a pilot light will ignite with motors shutting down the inducer fan, suffocating the flame, and trapping gas flow. The clicking sound may come from either your igniter still trying to start up ignition or loose parts in your burners and blowers.
- Fan Blades: If there is a broken fan blade, your furnace will be unable to pull air into the furnace or push air and gas flow out of the flue pipe. A draft inducer fan can cause a furnace clicking sound when it isn't powered by motors and encounters slight air exchange. If it is loose enough, it is more prone to being pushed by stagnant air and dirt particles trapped within the blower wheel. That furnace click caused by the minimal rotation of the fan may echo around chambers and air ducts. However, loose fan blades hitting against the duct seam may produce screeching, like metal scratching against metal. Ensure you remedy the clicking sound before it turns into worse blusters.
- Motor Bearings: Motor bearings typically keep the sound of vibrations to a minimum. If you don't smell any strange odors and your heating checks out, your furnace clicking might be due to worn motor bearings. Vibrating motors, furnace clicking, fan blowing, and fire burning make operational dins. If you can hear them while they seemingly function smoothly, blame your worn-out bearings. Worn-out bearings won't be able to contain clangors, and you will hear the smallest dins your furnace operations make. It's a common wear and tears all furnaces go through over time. A routine tune-up and replacement should do the trick if you can no longer bear the noise.
Hearing Any Unusual Sounds from the Furnace?
As you have read, there is a myriad of underlying possibilities just waiting to be exposed. Your furnaces will help expose various issues through distinguishable noises. If your furnace starts clicking, there may be minor issues you can resolve right away. However, you should call a reliable HVAC technician before it turns into a buzzing, rattling, whistling, screeching, popping, or banging noise .
The Most Common Reasons Behind Strange Noises
You probably guessed it. Strange noises come from faulty or dirty components and could easily be avoided by cleaning your furnace quarterly or yearly. You don't have to clean air filters every few months, but going a whole year without expert inspection is a recipe for disaster. An HVAC professional should access the internal components of your furnace at least once a year to ensure its stability and efficiency. Neglecting to do so can result in more than just obnoxious rackets.
Preventive Furnace Maintenance, Tune-Up, & Repairs
Are you tired of your furnace sounding like a ticking time bomb? Well, it might not be right now. However, anything wrong with your furnace left untreated for too long may result in total system failure...and baby, it's cold outside. It's best to make sure you have an abundance of heat indoors. Otherwise, you might get heat from the rest of the family for not taking better care of your furnace system.
HVAC Professional Services You Can Trust in Sandy, Utah
Remember, your furnace may not have been used since last winter, resulting in various pollutants lingering in your burner, blower, or motor. If you want toasty heat this winter, hire a professional furnace tune-up service as early as autumn. Luckily, reliable furnace repair, maintenance, and tune-ups are accessible in Utah!
One Stop Heating & Air Conditioning
You don't have to figure it out yourself. Only try and repair things you are familiar with on your furnace, or you may end up causing more damage. Leave your worries to our team of Utah's top-rated HVAC technicians . Please don't hesitate to call us for any furnace repair you need, even during the holidays! Our experts are at your beck and call! Call our hotline now for emergency heating repair!
