Furnace Fan Whines

[MickinMD]

For some reason, my bathtub amplifies the higher pitches of the forced-air, never-needs-oil, furnace fan in the basement and it often sounds like it's whining. Then I'd open the door to the basement and hear no whine.

The last few days, I can hear more of a whine from the tub and a hint of a whine when I open the basement door.  My guess is the while has been there for a couple years and the bathtub was correctly amplifying it all along.

Since it's been going on that long, if it gets no worse, I'm going to wait for warmer weather in April or May to have it checked out by the very good ma-pa electrical company that installed it for half the price of Sears, Home Depot, etc.  Otherwise, it will cost me an extra $150 or so to have it checked out and nothing done if something eventually needs to be done.

As a precaution, I've already checked with my neighbor to make sure it's ok to sleep on the couch if I wake up freezing one night!

[Rattlecan]

I notice a whine when the filter needs changing. Have you checked that?

[12string]

I prefer something from the Bordeux region while sitting by the fire.  I'm not sure what to suggest for watching a furnace.  That's just weird.

[Longjohn]

You should have bought a male furnace, they are much less likely to whine.

[jsharr]

24 minutes ago, 12string said:

I prefer something from the Bordeux region while sitting by the fire.  I'm not sure what to suggest for watching a furnace.  That's just weird.

How about a nice Pinot Noir

[Wilbur]

Give the furnace name and make it a forum member!   

[MickinMD]

6 hours ago, Rattlecan said:

I notice a whine when the filter needs changing. Have you checked that?

No I haven't - thanks! I'll do so tomorrow

It's an usual size filter, something like 20" x 25", and I bought a box of 25 from a supplier a few years ago so I have a lot left.

[MickinMD]

5 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Give the furnace name and make it a forum member!   

It's a York 85% efficiency, 75,000 BTU furnace and is about 12 years old.  I guess I'd call it "Yorkie" but I haven't talked to it yet.

Supposedly, in my area, upgrading from 85% to 95% efficiency would save me about $100 per year, about a 3% annual return on the investment.  So I hope this one lasts a while longer since the extra CO2 footprint is minimal and I know all the things to check if it stops: bird in the fume exhaust cage fan, 5 amp fuse blown: uses the same low profile mini blade fuse my Honda Fit does, etc.  I also have it set up so I could, in about 10 minutes, run it off of my generator if the power went out.  Ever since we lost power for 3 days from a hurricane several years, I've gotten a 1200W generator that will allow me intermittent use of some things, continuous use of others, and burns only 1 gallon of gas every 4-6 hours.

[donkpow]

This sounds something like sympathetic vibration, resonance, etc. The combustion air fans of the high efficiency furnaces are real screamers.