Houses often make unusual sounds—water pipes gurgle, refrigerators hum, and your staircase may make the occasional creak. In some cases, however, your house may be trying to tell you something with that rattle or thumping noise. To help you identify potential problems and when to call for an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) technician, we’ve compiled a list of four common household noises that warrant a professional’s attention.
1. Noisy Furnace
You can expect that your furnace will make a variety of unusual sounds on occasion. However, if these sounds are persistent, it may be time to have a qualified technician look at it. The earlier you attend to this unusual sound, the better your chances of avoiding complicated or expensive repairs later. Bi-annual furnace inspections are a great way to ensure that your furnace is working at optimum efficiency. They are also the easiest way to prevent some of these sounds from occurring in the first place.
If you haven’t used your furnace in a while, make sure your heat exchanger doesn’t have any cracks in it. The heat exchanger is the part of your furnace that is tasked with keeping your breathing air and the combustion process separate. Knowing this, a cracked heat exchanger could lead to a dangerous carbon monoxide leak.
Further to this, a damaged or loose blower belt causes squealing sounds. To prevent squealing sounds from a broken blower belt, schedule regular service checks. If you have been encountering strange furnace noises, it may be time to contact an HVAC professional like Hagerstown Heating & Cooling.
2. Humming Appliances
If your dishwasher regularly sputters, this could be a sign that something is stuck in its blades. What’s more, a buzzing sound from your refrigerator may mean that the compressor (the part of the fridge that pumps the refrigerant throughout the system) is failing and needs to be replaced. A humming or squealing noise from your washer/dryer could mean that there’s a foreign object stuck in its blower wheel.
The reasons to choose magnetic lashes are endless—they’re better for your lash line, painless to apply (when compared to traditional falsies), and reusable and cost-effective. However, once you begin taking your makeup off, be careful with how you dispose of these lash extensions to avoid having them get stuck in the washer and consequently damaging your washing machine.
Some of these sounds are difficult to diagnose without expert attention, so consider calling an HVAC technician as soon as you hear anything unusual.
3. Squeaking Air Conditioner
In warmer weather, most homeowners with a central air conditioning system tend to experience loud banging sounds coming from their AC. These sounds are often caused when the air filter is clogged with dust and dirt. In some cases, this air filter will also make a high-pitched hissing noise because of this clogging.
Air conditioners also tend to vibrate a lot. This vibration may end up loosening some of your AC’s constituent parts, producing banging sounds over time. To avoid all this, make sure your AC unit is regularly serviced by a qualified technician.
4. Rattling Windows
A rattling window could mean a sash or sash lock needs to be replaced. According to Reader’s Digest, that rattling sound indicates that a foreign object could be pressing against something else on your window that lacks enough cushioning; after a while the wear could get worse and crack the window.
In older windows, this whistling noise could mean that the window glaze (the sticky strips that hold the window glass in position) may need to be re-sealed. What’s more, if your windows aren’t properly sealed, you could be spending a ton of cash on the cost of your HVAC system.
