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OMG... Same problem with a new gas furnace at a mobil home park. After installing a new Furnace and Roof Jack, the customer called the veery next day with a noise complaint. I arrived to find no noise. The next day... Same thing. This went on for a week. Finally I asked the homeowner to write down what time every morning the noise happened and for how long. A week later I reviewed the log book with the home owner and found that the sound happened about the same time every morning for about 15 minutes. funny thing was that the time changed about a minute or two later each morning.

Remembering my Earth Science Class from High School, I thought about what might change a minute or two from one day top the next. "Sun Rise"

I asked the homeowner: the next time you heat the noise, Go outside and look at the new vent on the roof. Sure enough..... WOODPECKER....
I told the customer that I usually charge $125.00 extra for a clock thermostat, but he can have that new alarm clock for free.

So todays job was removal of a old lowboy furnace. I free up the ductwork, kick out the 4 bricks, and furnace doesn't fall to the ground. Check ductwork, all free, hmm didn't check under the furnace..... Put my left hand on the furnace to see what's under it, and the furnace moves. It moves very, very well, it turns easily. I found 6 golf balls under the furnace keeping it from falling to the ground.
I have never thought about using golf balls, habit for many, many years was black pipe. Hmm not anymore, I'm going to be keeping golf balls in my truck from now on . I couldn't believe how easily it rolls you can spin it, turn it, push it, so easily it was actually fun
The home owner threw the golf balls in my bag, says looks like you will need them before me>>
Thought I'd share a tip to those who may or may not have tried it before.
FORE!
D

I have seen so many times that a discussion to resolve a problem is hijacked by persons that like a particular answer that reminds them of another story that is completely off topic. Perhaps this is a good forum to tell those stories but it may be a disservice to the original poster who's problem gets buried in all that good fun.

Maybe we can refer those stories to this discussion to let the OP get back to problem solving.

Here is an example:

Your have a real issue that may be unique to your installation. This reminds me of a story about a BlueRay oil fired furnace. This was a failed experiment where the BlueRay Systems Inc developed a oil burner that burned with a blue flame. It was more efficient than the conventional yellow flame we all know and understand. There were thousands of units sold over the few years they were popular. The maintenance was difficult and if not completed properly the furnace or boiler would soot up rather quickly.

On one of the successful systems the furnace was installed in a basement directly under the living room where the homeowner had a rocking chair that was her normal sitting position for the majority of her time in the home. When ever the burner operated the chair would vibrate with much annoyance to the home owner. No adjustment would resolve the issue. When the factory technical people arrived at the job, it was determined that if the chair was moved to the left or to the right by just 24" the vibration was not detectable. As this was the least costly way to resolve the problem, the factory requested that the chair just be moved.

The customer was old and set in her ways and did not want to move the chair. So after months of consternation and negotiation, the furnace was replaced with a different furnace of the same specification and model number. The problem was resolved. The factory engineer report concluded the a harmonic vibration inside the equipment was in perfect tune with the structural members of the home directly above the furnace and directly below the rocking chair. The rocking chair acted as an amplifier of the vibration. The replacement furnace flame/heat exchanger combination did not have an identical frequency and therefore the vibration was not detectable.

I also experienced something called Tank Hum in a fuel tank connected by a copper tube to a Sundstrand model J pump. The customer complained about the noise after I completed the annual maintenance. It may have has a small wafer called an anti-hum device that fell out of the pump while i was cleaning the pump strainer. The fuel tank acted as an amplifier for the vibration frequency of the 1725 RPM gear set in the fuel pump. I was told by the service manager to take a piece of copper and coil it around a coffee can to create a loop and install that loop at the tank valve with the other end connected to the fuel line to the burner I just removed from the tank valve. ...HUM was gone!

To your point, you have a harmonic hum that is being amplified by something. It could just be that adding a vibration damper somewhere, or a loop of pipe, or bending a fitting, or loosening a screw, or moving a support hanger will interrupt the unusual harmonic vibration that is being amplified to your particular home. I don't think the equipment is at fault... I just think your home is just really tuned in to that heater!

Edit.
Try adding a u shaped trap the the piping near the suspect mixing valve, or try a different pump. Process of elimination. one thing at a time

Another poster added:

As I recall after a couple of years they came out with a 'Conversion Kit" to change the original Carlin burner back to "yellow flame"

Most of the complaints were of smell and you would find the burner carboned up.

If you were one of the lucky ones you could have the burner cleaned twice a year and it would run OK. They had draft issues.

When the company owner sold the business in the mid 80s my last job for him was to install a new Weil McLain boiler in his house. Since I was starting my own business at the time he had given me a "deal" on a truck and some tools. The pay back was he would buy the new boiler and I had to install it for free.

Unfortunately for me I not only had to remove the blue ray boiler and install the Weil but I had to remove the old original boiler which "his boys from the Hartford office" left their because they couldn't figure out how to remove it when they installed the blue ray. I took it apart and slid the sections through the cellar window.

There was only cellar access through his front door, across white carpeting to the door to the cellar which had a turn in the stairs. We covered the carpeting with tarps and plywood. 3 guys 1 long day and never went back.

A job I would like to forget



Then @Daveinscranton added this really great story
@Daveinscranton Member Posts: 108
2:13PM
My great great grandfather grew up starving in the times of Charles Dickens. Ran a push cart as a child with his father dealing junk off the push cart for a drunkard. They bought the business. He eventually became a “metal broker”. Near as I can tell, that meant salvage yard operator. Became quite wealthy. Spent it on alcohol, fast horses, and many marriages. The rest he wasted.

He bid a job salvaging a big boiler from a factory. Got the bid. Everyone thought that he would lose his shirt on the deal. Dynamite had become available a few months prior to the job. At 6 am on a Sunday morning he blew the wall off the factory. Uneventfully. By 8 am the boiler had been cut loose and was being dragged out by a team of horses. By 9 am the bricklayers were bricking up a new wall. By noon, the boiler had been dragged down the street, and sold to its new owner, who was tickled pink.

I suspect that he was quite good at writing contracts. I also suspect that things could have gone terribly wrong. They didn’t.

The above is clearly off topic. I apologize. Ed’s story, which I found fascinating, reminded me of some family history, long ago and far away.

best wishes
ayetchvacker
mattmia2
EdTheHeaterMan