Loud Lennox Pulse - need info

kpcarlson

I have been reading the Wall for several years now but this is my first post. The neighbor lady behind us has a Lennox Pulse hot air furnace. The sound it broadcasts into our yard is a LOUD, low pitched pulse which permeates everything including throughout our house. It does not matter if we have the tv/radio on I can always tell the instant that thing starts up. I have talked to her about it (that's when I found out it was a Pulse) and have also determined that the sound is coming from the intake pipe. It bounces off a concrete wall and towards us. We are often woke in the middle of the night by this thing. Besides that the sound is extremely annoying, you just can't escape it. She called the local heating guys and they told her there's nothing that can be done - it's a Lennox Pulse. I think they just don't want to deal with it. Anyhow, I've done some reading up on this contraption and now know some of the history: cracked heat exchangers, CO poisonings, recalls, etc. I also understand there are some specific periodic maintenance actions that need to be done to the Pulse every four or five years. The lady tells me she's been at that house since 1995. I don't think her Pulse has ever received any of the required servicing in that time. Things I've noticed about it besides being very loud are that it "misses" while it's running. Also have noticed what I think are long cycle times, I have timed it running over 40 minutes at times and we have reasonably mild weather here. I don't know if there is anything that can help stop the very annoying, disturbing noise this thing makes, but once again nobody around here wants to touch the thing. She says I can try to block the sound somehow, so I plan on building a concrete block wall around the intake pipe - giving plenty of clearance of course - just something to reflect that noise somewhere else. I will also suggest she get a CO detector or two. My question for any Pulse experts out there is how bad is it to let the periodic maintenance slide on this unit? I'm about to go over to start on the concrete sound wall so maybe I can have some interesting info about the Pulse to give her. I can always hope it breaks down completely some day. Thanks for any information and advice. Kurt Carlson in Astoria, Oregon.