The heater is less than 1 year old and just started making a whistling noise when heating. I did some research and thought it may be caused by a faulty unitherm govenor. I removed the unitherm govenor and the heater ran silently. I purchased and installed a new unitherm govenor and the whistling is back. Any ideas about what else may be causing the problem? Is it OK to run the heater without the unitherm govenor for short periods of time?
Raypack 206a heater (Rheem ) making whistling noise
- Thread starter echo
- Start date
I wouldn't run the heater without it. Do you have good water flow? Also, if it's under one year old, I would get a warranty company out to look at it and repair it. You don't want to void any warranty you have left on the unit.
I have good water flow going to the heater...The heater is heating the pool water just fine... its just that its making light whistling/groaning sound while heating. The heater was not whistling for the short time (1-1/2 hrs) I ran it without the unitherm gov. The unitherm gov does open when place in a pan of very warm water, however, when I put the unitherm gov back into the heater the whistling noise resumes. I did unscrew the inlet and outlet unions on the header and to a look at the bypass. From what I could see (tough angle to look at) it appears to be seated . Is the bypass adjustable or just the tension of the spring holds it closed?
No the bypass is not adjustable. The spring tension does it. I have seen some case where if the piping in and out are an immediate 90, then this happens. Where as if you have some straight pip before the 90's, it is less or non existent. Just something I have seen personally but never really confirmed with anyone at Raypak.
You could also try adding a bypass with the piping as sometimes too much water flow can cause this as well. In fact it would probably be a good idea to add a bypass in case you ever needed to do a stain treatment in the pool or something and need to prevent water from going thru the heater.
You could also try adding a bypass with the piping as sometimes too much water flow can cause this as well. In fact it would probably be a good idea to add a bypass in case you ever needed to do a stain treatment in the pool or something and need to prevent water from going thru the heater.
Actually, I have immeadiate 90's on both the in and out. I also have a ball valve on the gas pipe feeding the heater. I noticed that if I throttle this valve a little more than halfway closed the whining stops. This of course would reduce the heating capacity of the unit
I wouldn't mess with the gas as the valve inside is set to allow so much gas in. I've seen where the 90's right in and out of the unit can cause noise like you are hearing. If you don't have the room to add some straight pip between the unit and the 90's, add a bypass and try bypassing some of the water flow from the heater.
Last evening I spent some time with the pump and heater and noticed that if I switch discharge water from the heater from going back thru the pool returns and instead divert it to my deck jets which have narrow outlets ( compared to the eyeball returns) this creates a little back pressure on the return side, the whistling from the heater goes away. Once the pressure gauge on my cartridge filter reads 8psi or higher the whistling stops below 8psi it begins to whistle again.
As far as adding some straight pipe to the inlet& outlet side of the header .. as of now,I am tight for space. If I can find the pvc unions that screw onto the header I can temporarily try to plumb it with some straight section and if it works out.. Then I would be able to rotate the heater 90 deg and replumb it that way permanently. How much straight length into the heater do you think is necessary? Would 6-9 inches be enough? Thanks for your help so far.
Yes 6-9 inches would be good. See to me the low pressure is something to key in on. So when you clean your filter, how low is the pressure? This leads me to suspect water flow.
My pressure gauge on the filter chamber varies according to the speed the pump is running. I have a variable speed pump (hayward maxflo vs) I can set the pump speed anywhere from 600-3000 rpm in 20rpm increments. As long as I have the pump running 1960 rpm or higher the heater will fire. If my pump speed is lower than 1960 the heater cuts out. I normally run the pump at 2300-2400 rpm and the pressure gauge reads 3-4 psi if I run the pump full speed (3000rpm) I have maybe 6-7 psi (IIRC I will check this later today after work)
Now we have even more great info. The variable speed pump! You need to push more water thru that heater, water flow. It may be great to tun that pump on lower speed and you do have great water flow but it's not enough flow on low speeds for the heater. You really need to bump the speeds up when you want to fire that heater.
I thought the same thing at first... but even when i run the pump at full speed the heater still whistles. No whistling when unitherm gov removed ( dont want to run it that way) As I mentioned before .. when I create a little back pressure on the return side (after water exits the heater) the whistling goes away too. I am thinking of adding a two inch ball valve after the water exits the heater (close to the return manifold ) and use the valve to create just enough back pressure to stop the whistling. It may slight reduce pump efficiency a bit... but will only do it when heating