Whine from the blower cage.


  #1  
Old 11-30-17, 01:36 AM
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Whine from the blower cage.

Hello all, I'm back after replacing a blower motor, cap, and blower wheel (all brand new) on an 23 year old Carrier furnace. I however reused the old belly band. All the specs from the new stuff matched with the old.

Before reinstalling the cage in the furnace, I powered up the motor using a slow speed setting (orange wire-next speed faster than the slowest). There is an annoying whine that can be heard. However, this whine is almost non-evident when set at the highest speed. Please watch this video:


With the cage installed back in the furnace, I turned on the heater. The same whine can be heard in all the registers. Please help me find the source of the problem. I'm thinking new belly band grommets may help suppress this sound? Thanks.
 
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Old 11-30-17, 05:04 AM
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It's hard to tell from the audio but is metal rubbing? Maybe the squirrel cage or shaft is touching the housing somewhere.
 
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Old 11-30-17, 10:24 AM
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That sure sounds like a bad motor bearing.
Did that motor appear brand new when you got it ?
 
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Old 11-30-17, 12:33 PM
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It looks to me as though the blower wheel is not centered and you may be rubbing slightly on the inside housing.

This is just a thought from what I saw on the video about 14 seconds in. If you pause it you will see the difference in spacing between the 2 sides.

If that cage isn't perfectly balanced you may be getting a little wobbling probably noticing more on lower speeds. There are usually weights on the cage to balance it but I would just try to center it better to see if that quiets it.

Hope this helps a little.
 
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Old 11-30-17, 07:56 PM
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Thank you all for your input. The motor looked brand new when I got it free from scratches and no evidence that it was previously installed on another unit.

I purchased a new blower wheel because the pulsating whine that you heard in the video was also present with the old blower wheel installed. The new wheel was also perfectly centered on the shaft so there is no rubbing against the housing. What's interesting is that both the new and old blower wheels have a slight warpage that I observed when I slowly freewheeled them on the shaft, but I assume the balance weights were there to correct this.

The whine sounds more like a humming noise coming from the motor which gets louder at slower speeds and the pulsating sound effect seems due to the warped wheels. Is it normal for a blower motor to hum at slower speeds? Should I exchange the motor?
 
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Old 12-01-17, 02:00 PM
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It is not normal for those motors to hum. Did you try running the motor without the blower wheel outside of the housing.

If you still get the noise you might want get another motor.
 
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Old 12-01-17, 04:31 PM
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I listened again..... still sounds like a motor bearing. I'd try to get it exchanged.
 
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Old 12-02-17, 02:19 AM
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Unfortunately I'm outside the 30 day return window (Amazon.com policy) on this FASCO motor (darn!). I just ordered another one, but this time it's a Century motor from the Home Depot. Returns would be 100 times easier if needed (lesson learned). Will let you guys know in 2 weeks how things went. Thanks.
 
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Old 12-02-17, 10:42 AM
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It does sound like the motor.
I would remove the motor from the blower wheel to allow me to listen to the motor by itself.
 
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Old 12-02-17, 11:22 AM
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Contact the amazon seller I have had good luck with returns lately. If you have a problem leave a 1 star review and tell what is wrong. I did this when a product was put on food page and when it came in it was a doll. No returns on food but seller actually called me and asked why the bad review. Gave me a full refund when found there error.
 
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Old 12-02-17, 11:56 AM
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The return policy may be 30 days for a return but there should be a longer time period for the warranty against a defective product.
 
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Old 12-03-17, 12:05 PM
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I too am so curious how the motor sounds sans blower wheel but my elderly parents can't have any downtime so the blower motor will remain in the furnace until the new one from Home Depot arrives. I will be making a new video later on comparing both motors.

The Amazon seller is "Amazon LLC." I will definitely contact them for a refund once I get the new motor installed. -Thanks for your concern.
 
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Old 12-08-17, 12:46 AM
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Good news fellas! I found the main culprit to that annoying blower cage whine:

Defective belly band bracket grommets resulting in poor vibration / sound dampening.

Instead of purchasing a new bracket, I modified the old one by adding additional insulation from left over automotive heater hose.

Please watch my video: https://youtu.be/lS7hbs25PlE

In addition, a new Century blower motor was also installed which performs a little more quietly than the previous Fasco motor. In fact, the newer motor had a "healthier," more stable humming sound, unlike Fasco which had a random wah-wah-wah-wah whine. For this reason, and possibly bad bearings as some of you suggested, I will be returning the Fasco motor back to Amazon LLC for a full refund (wish me luck).

Please if you guys have anymore suggestions or comments, I'm all ears.
 
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Old 12-08-17, 12:38 PM
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M,
Glad you solved the problem.

Love the video.

Any more problems, don't hesitate to come back just so I can watch the video you make.

Merry Christmas,
 
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Old 12-08-17, 05:48 PM
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What !! No cheese with that whine. Good job.
 
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Old 12-09-17, 10:36 AM
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Moike, Nice job tracking down that noise. What software did you use to make that video? Is it hard to learn?
 
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Old 12-10-17, 10:16 AM
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Thanks. If you have a PC that came with Windows Vista or higher, you may already have a free video editor called "Windows Movie Maker" or "Windows Live Movie Maker" (Unfortunately, its been discontinued as of 2017). The program is very user friendly and you can probably figure out how to use it without reading a manual.
 
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Old 12-11-17, 02:04 PM
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I have win 10, and don't see that software.

I have an older win XP, and did see it on that PC. But, that pc may be to slow to handle video editing. Don't know, maybe I'll try. Or see if I can install it, or something else on the win 10 pc.

Thanks
matt
 
 

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