Burnham K2 boiler is very noisy

Dmitry

Hello friendly people here,
Last Friday I got my Burnham K2 boiler installed. It should be very similar to Burnham Alpine. It is really noisy and vibrates quite sensibly. By "noisy" I mean, that it produces m-m-m sound, similar to what big transformers do. At night I can clearly hear it, and feel small vibration at any room of my house. Very frustrating. I'm not familiar with modern boilers, but my old 30-year old dinosaur was completely quite. Yes, new condensing boilers have flume gas fans, but still unacceptable.

My installer basically waived his hands. US Boiler company, however, wants to schedule an appointment to check. However, before they come, I'd appreciate if you could give me a sense of how quiet it *should* be.

Thanks,

nicholas bonham-carter

It's good to see a company interested in solving problems such as this. Now if only their Megasteam team would show the same interest in listening to their customers.................!
One step to take might be to isolate the component which is responsible for the hum.
Candidates include the onboard circulating pump, combustion fan, and the burning itself.
If it is the pump, then maybe the piping could be less ridgidly mounted.
If the blower is the culprit, then maybe there is a harmonic "organ pipe" phenomenon going on.--NBC

Dmitry

Thanks. But really, if a condensing boiler operates properly, should it be completely quiet? Would you describe it's operation like whisper?
I have 3 pumps (Taco and 2 Grundfoses) - they indeed whisper. No vibration either.

FranklinD

My experience with our newer boiler is that I can hear the circulator run when it winds up on high speed (it's a bumblebee) but I have to be in the room right above the boiler...I think it hits a certain frequency and the radiator in that room 'sings', but only a little.

The exhaust fan for the flue makes a little vibration. I narrowed it down to the fact that the flue and air intake both travel through an old basement window that was removed and covered with plywood inside and out, with Roxul and the proper adapters for the flue pipe to go through.

That plywood, at the top, is screwed to the rim joist directly above, to which the floor joists are attached. As such, ANY vibration at all transfers straight from the flue pipe, to the plywood, to the rim and floor joists. My wife can't feel/hear it, but I can...not a big bother as that room isn't used for much, but it's on my 'to-do' list for next spring.

kcopp

How is it mounted?

Dmitry

My boiler is wall mounted. Definitely it's not kind of small flue pipe vibration which could be mitigated by Roxul. My contractor was on the field today to fix another issues. He says that it's flue fan, which is noisy. However he also claim that "all condensing boilers are very noisy, because of the flue fan existence". That's why I want to know the truth.

SWEI

Some mod/cons are very quiet. Not all.

rohan

I have a similar problem after completing my K2 WTC 180K BTU unit. The "attenuator" is supposed to go in the CPVC exhaust appx. 9" above the flue adapter on top of the unit. Problem is I didn't use CPVC. I used PolyVent pipe and no where in the manual does is account for installation of the flue attenuator with two of the three noted flue materials (CPVC only). I also can't get the boiler to lock on high/low fire for combustion analysis.

Zman

Usually noises like that go away after proper tune with combustion analysis. Sometimes the issue can be harmonics related to location of gas regulator. Get you combustion issue figured out first.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@Dimitry

I don't know about the Burnham's but most mod cons you can't even tell if there running.

Did the installer do a combustion test? Did he leave the results? The MMM noise you here sounds like a combustion problem to me

TonyPipes

Dmitry said:

Hello friendly people here, Last Friday I got my Burnham K2 boiler installed. It should be very similar to Burnham Alpine. It is really noisy and vibrates quite sensibly. By "noisy" I mean, that it produces m-m-m sound, similar to what big transformers do. At night I can clearly hear it, and feel small vibration at any room of my house. Very frustrating. I'm not familiar with modern boilers, but my old 30-year old dinosaur was completely quite. Yes, new condensing boilers have flume gas fans, but still unacceptable. My installer basically waived his hands. US Boiler company, however, wants to schedule an appointment to check. However, before they come, I'd appreciate if you could give me a sense of how quiet it *should* be. Thanks,

Fixing that noise could be as simple as separating the unit from the wall with a rubber barrier to absorb the vibration. If it's not mounted perfect and the combustion is off. The fan will definitely hum. But separating it from the wall with rubber will definitely fix the issue of hearing it through the house. It could also have air in the system, I've seen high efficiency equipment make crazy noises when it was air bound, when it's on the verge of locking out on high temp it will make all sorts of crazy noises.