CLUNK in ductwork
 

Greetings,

Little brick bungalow in the midwest US, built in 1954, poured-concrete
foundation. Standard forced-air HVAC, galvanized duct-work.

New Heil furnace/AC in 03-2010. For years, in the winter, t-stat will
call for heat, and about 20 seconds after the blower kicks in, I hear
a CLUNK from the area of the kitchen vent, kinda like someone smacked the
duct with a board.

Back in the '80's I cut a hole in the duct, added a vent for a basement
bedroom near the kitchen duct. Doubt that is connected. Can hardly hear the
CLUNK in the basement.

I'm guessing the ductwork for the kitchen vent is somehow stressed-out,
pops as it warms up. It is inside a partition wall between the kit.
and a bedroom. Old-style plaster on steel lath.

What commonly makes galvanized ductwork over-stressed? How can one
unstress it?


Thx,
P

"Law Without Equity Is No Law At All. It Is A Form Of Jungle Rule."

CLUNK in ductwork
 

On Dec 11, 5:04*am, Puddin' Man wrote:
Greetings,

Little brick bungalow in the midwest US, built in 1954, poured-concrete
foundation. Standard forced-air HVAC, galvanized duct-work.

New Heil furnace/AC in 03-2010. For years, in the winter, t-stat will
call for heat, and about 20 seconds after the blower kicks in, I hear
a CLUNK from the area of the kitchen vent, kinda like someone smacked the
duct with a board.

Back in the '80's I cut a hole in the duct, added a vent for a basement
bedroom near the kitchen duct. Doubt that is connected. Can hardly hear the
CLUNK in the basement.

I'm guessing the ductwork for the kitchen vent is somehow stressed-out,
pops as it warms up.

Yup. Might need to make some room for the expansion. Could be messy.

CLUNK in ductwork
 

On 12/11/2010 3:59 PM, tommycottreau wrote:
On Dec 11, 5:04 am, Puddin' wrote:
Greetings,

Little brick bungalow in the midwest US, built in 1954, poured-concrete
foundation. Standard forced-air HVAC, galvanized duct-work.

New Heil furnace/AC in 03-2010. For years, in the winter, t-stat will
call for heat, and about 20 seconds after the blower kicks in, I hear
a CLUNK from the area of the kitchen vent, kinda like someone smacked the
duct with a board.

Back in the '80's I cut a hole in the duct, added a vent for a basement
bedroom near the kitchen duct. Doubt that is connected. Can hardly hear the
CLUNK in the basement.

I'm guessing the ductwork for the kitchen vent is somehow stressed-out,
pops as it warms up.

Yup. Might need to make some room for the expansion. Could be messy.

More likely that duct run got slightly twisted or racked at some point.
If sound predates new furnace, does it predate the work you did? One of
the joints slipped just a hair, probably not even enough to leak, but
enough to make noise as the panels expand and contract. I'd try
physically wiggling the parts of the duct you can see, or maybe
temporarily brace the duct with a stick, to see if anything changes. Fix
could be as trivial as adding some strapping or a few screws, but if it
is truly buried in wall, you may be SOL on a cheap fix.

Some of the ducts in this place thump at times, but it doesn't bother
me. Tells me the beast is alive. (The trusses over the addition tell me
when the sun is going down.)

--
aem sends...

CLUNK in ductwork
 

On Sat, 11 Dec 2010 16:47:23 -0500, aemeijers wrote:

More likely that duct run got slightly twisted or racked at some point.
If sound predates new furnace, does it predate the work you did?

What I did was 20+ years ago. New furnace was 3-4 years ago.

Theres a fair amount of extraneous noise here. Maybe it just
didn't bother me before.

One of
the joints slipped just a hair, probably not even enough to leak, but
enough to make noise as the panels expand and contract. I'd try
physically wiggling the parts of the duct you can see,

I went down, held a hand on the duct while the furnace cycled.
Didn't do anything. Outside the wall the duct feels rock solid.
Slightly mysterious.

or maybe
temporarily brace the duct with a stick, to see if anything changes. Fix
could be as trivial as adding some strapping or a few screws, but if it
is truly buried in wall, you may be SOL on a cheap fix.

Some of the ducts in this place thump at times, but it doesn't bother
me. Tells me the beast is alive. (The trusses over the addition tell me
when the sun is going down.)

Its the same here. But if you had my CLUNK, it'd speak to you, say
"Somethings Wrong!".

I'm still investigating.

Thanks,
P

"Law Without Equity Is No Law At All. It Is A Form Of Jungle Rule."

CLUNK in ductwork
 

I chased this. The CLUNK was actually in the bedroom vent. When I
removed the register, it went away for a while. It's come back
but it's so infrequent it's a PITA to trace (twice a week
or thereabouts).

Thanks to aemeijers for advice. It's probably in the wall:
I'll find it someday.

P

On Sat, 11 Dec 2010 02:04:20 -0600, Puddin' Man wrote:

Greetings,

Little brick bungalow in the midwest US, built in 1954, poured-concrete
foundation. Standard forced-air HVAC, galvanized duct-work.

New Heil furnace/AC in 03-2010. For years, in the winter, t-stat will
call for heat, and about 20 seconds after the blower kicks in, I hear
a CLUNK from the area of the kitchen vent, kinda like someone smacked the
duct with a board.

Back in the '80's I cut a hole in the duct, added a vent for a basement
bedroom near the kitchen duct. Doubt that is connected. Can hardly hear the
CLUNK in the basement.

I'm guessing the ductwork for the kitchen vent is somehow stressed-out,
pops as it warms up. It is inside a partition wall between the kit.
and a bedroom. Old-style plaster on steel lath.

What commonly makes galvanized ductwork over-stressed? How can one
unstress it?


Thx,
P

"Law Without Equity Is No Law At All. It Is A Form Of Jungle Rule."

"Law Without Equity Is No Law At All. It Is A Form Of Jungle Rule."