6 Sounds You Don’t Want To Hear From Your AC or Furnace

In the Spring, it’s surprising how quickly we adjust the thermostat; From giving us a little heat in the morning to take the chill out of the house, to switching on the air conditioning to combat the afternoon heat. Even if your furnace has been working well throughout the winter, if you start to hear one of these SIXsounds, you may have a problem and should contact your Handyside HVAC professionals before it turns into a large repair bill.

A loud scraping noise, a grating metal-on-metal sound, coming from inside your furnace could indicate a serious problem with the blower wheel. The wheel could either be coming apart from the shaft and scraping the casing or the motor could be causing the wheel to scrape the casing. Turn off the air conditioning and/or furnace immediately and call Handyside.

Do you remember the sound when you were a child and attached a playing card to the spokes of your bicycle wheel? If you hear that fast, thwapping sound from your furnace, something may be stuck on one of the blower wheel blades or on the housing around the wheel. While your air conditioning (or heat) may be working just fine, this stuck object is creating resistance and will cause excessive wear on the motor. You should get it cleaned up by a Handyside technician.

A squealing noise from the blower motor could be caused by the belt wearing out. Normally, this is not an expensive repair and is best taken care of before the belt stretches further or breaks.

A bearing problem in the blower motor will often make a dull, repetitive groan. Some blower motors have ports for adding lubricant, but some ports are sealed. Adding lubricant will often eliminate the groaning sound, however, you must use the correct oil, not WD-40. You can hire Handyside to do this type of lubrication on your furnace, as well as annual maintenance inspections.

If you hear a rattling sound from your central air conditioning unit outside of the house when you turn your A/C on, the hardware around the compressor could be loose and you should contact Handyside for a repair estimate.

If you turn on the furnace for heat and you hear popping sounds, or a distinct banging sound (like from a cap gun), the furnace probably has dirty burners that need to be cleaned. The gas is not being ignited. Instead, the gas is building up and then igniting in a mini explosion. You’ll want to get this serviced by a Handyside professional immediately.

When operating properly, your HVAC system should be quiet, but if you’re hearing one of these six sounds you really should contact Handyside to come in and repair the problem before it turns into an even bigger problem.