Munchkin is Growling

tim smith

One, the fan wheel may be dismantling itself, fairly common with that age of unit. Also, if you have not fully cleaned the unit, you are in desperate need by now. These units seriously need annual cleaning. Pull face plate and burner off, brush out and flush out heat x, trap etc. Cleaned all grounding surfaces, flame rods and electrodes. This really helps with nuisance problems. But very likely you will need new fan. Tim

Justin Gavin_5

Fan on my munchkin is making an odd noise

Heh Guys,

I installed a Munchkin in my house and had some hickups since installation but I thought I had everything figured out. It is a few years old (got it off of a commercial job) and seems to operate very well. The only problem is I get that howling sound when she was running lean so adjusted the CO to the max and it subsided, until recently when the temp dropped below 0 to about -11 today. So every once in awhile she has been howling but not consistant. I think I have a solution for that but what else is wierd is that the fan motor seems to be chattering. It sounds like a bearing is going or something. Kinda like a cricket on overdrive. I have never heard this on a Munchkin before and I have installed many but haven't had to service too many (Knock on wood) and its usually for a electrode or pressure switch.

Whats really strange is that I didn't hear that noise until this morning when it got really cold.

Has anyone else ever dealt or heard of anything like this. Almost like the Combustion air was so cold it froze something up??? I don't know. And it gets louder as the boiler steps up so I know its something with the fan.

Any suggestions on either of the two issues I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

Oh Yeah GO PACKERS!!

Justin Gavin_5

Fan replace

What do yo mean the fan dismantling. Is that something I should have to replace every 3 years or was it a problem they had a and have fixed with a better replacement fan?

Joe_120

Just a guess

....but my munchkin was doing this at the beginning of the heating season. Turns out my outside Vision1 sensing unit was bad. I disconnected it from the system, and the system started behaving normally. Reconnect it and it went back to its old ways
HTP sent me a new thermistor, I installed it, and no more noise......
In my laymans view, from the sound of the thing, it was throttled up way to far and was injecting more natural gas than the thing needed or else the fan wasn't ramping up to inject enough air for proper ignition. Just my speculating!

Al Corelli_2

New Fan?

The new fans have metal impellers.

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J.C.A._3

Justin,

They HAVE upgraded the fan to a metal unit.(Vs. the original plastic one)

Beware when ordering...all you'll get is the fan and motor. It takes some time to do the job, but on the one I've done, it sounds a whole lot better.

Ive learned that the easiest way to access the fire box is to disconnect the gas line at the feed, and remove all the wiring(molex)plugs etc. Then remove the face nuts and slide the whole burner out as a unit.It takes some wiggling, but is a whole lot easier than any other method I tried when I started servicing them. As stated...it is important to do. Good luck. Chris

mb_2

l.p.g.?

Are you running on lp? Could be the gas supply. When really cold out the regulator can freeze up. Have also gotten sound from a gas flex before. Check incoming gas pressure?

Justin Gavin_5

No natural gas

It is running on natural gas. I only have noise issues on a cold start and when the temp drops to 5 degrees or less and even then it is sporadic.

Thanks for the input.