Violent & Loud Vibrations Coming From Heater

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Q

quikcolin

0
Jun 30, 2018
17
Canada
Hi Everyone,

I have a new Hayward 250,000 BTU pool heater heating out small 12 x 24 inground pool.

Our heater is installed inside our pool house. When the installer connected the gas line he didn't have the duct work available to exhaust the heater out of the shed. However, he told me as long as I kept the pool house doors open, I could run the heater no problem. We did just that and the heater ran perfectly.

A few weeks later he arrived with the stainless steel duct work to run the exhaust outside our shed. He did this out the backside of the shed, rather than the ceiling (which I thought was odd, as I've never seen that before?). From the moment he installed the duct work, the heater makes borderline violent vibrations and noise. It almost sounds like a knocking/harley division motorcycle noise. It will do it on and off (5 mins of the vibrations and 2 mins of normal operation noise)... when I crank up our VS pump, the knocking, vibrations, etc. get even worse.

He came back to try and figure it out, without any luck. No he's MIA and I'm stuck trying to figure out what's happening?

It does it from low RPM to Max RPM on our Hayward VS Pump. Warm pool water and cold... doesn't matter. The only common theme is that it all started the day he installed the exhaust duct work venting.

Any ideas what's going on? Here is a photo of the exhaust venting he installed. Ignore the mess, it's been used as a storage shed during our backyard Renos.

IMG_6967.jpg
 
You should keep the heater off until you can get someone out to check everything.

If you can't get the original installer, maybe file a warranty claim with Hayward and they will assign someone to check it out.

Were there any error codes or lights?
 
Colin,

Just a guess, but I would assume that the piece of sheet metal that was installed at the top, where the pipe goes out, is the problem.

I suspect that it is just amplifying any slight vibration in the heater. Kind of acting like a drum.

As a test, I would disconnect the sheet metal and see what happens to the sound..

Assuming the problem goes away, I would make sure the exhaust pipe is isolated from the sheet metal..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
It might be a sooted heat exchanger or a blockage in the venting. It might be a flow problem causing the water in the exchanger to boil.

It's definitely a serious problem. The heater should never have been fired in an enclosed room without proper venting.

I think that you really need someone to check everything to see what's wrong.
 
I think that you really need someone to check everything to see what's wrong.
Click to expand...

Someone other than the original installer, if you ask me. My gut says he's done you a favor by going MIA. As James pointed out, he should have never put the thing online without the vent, let alone advised you to use it that way.
 
Colin,

The problem with troubleshooting over the internet is that what you write can be interpreted very differently by different people. In my mind the sounds were coming from the exhaust stack..

If the sound is coming from the heater itself, then I agree with James, that the problem needs to be troubleshoot by a pool heater professional.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Jimrahbe said:
Colin,

Just a guess, but I would assume that the piece of sheet metal that was installed at the top, where the pipe goes out, is the problem.

I suspect that it is just amplifying any slight vibration in the heater. Kind of acting like a drum.

As a test, I would disconnect the sheet metal and see what happens to the sound..

Assuming the problem goes away, I would make sure the exhaust pipe is isolated from the sheet metal..

Thanks,

Jim R.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the replies. I'm pretty sure the issue isn't with the sheet metal. I thought the same thing initially. But that venting duct isn't touching it. Saying that I think it would be best to call in a professional to diagnose the issue. I hope this issue isn't a serious one. I will keep the group posted as to what the issue turned out to be. I'm heating the pool as we speak for the last swim of the year (tomorrow). It's 65 now, hoping to get it to 85 for our final family swim.

Thanks again everyone, fingers crossed!!
 
If you have reason to believe that the heater isn't installed correctly, you should leave it off until it can be checked.

When it runs, are you getting a strong exhaust flow out of the vent?
 
Were any permits pulled? Big time code violation having the heater blocking access to breaker panel.
Install instructions for heater should have diagrams of legal venting options.
Gas pipe penetration of wall should be sleeved, if that flex is even legal to penetrate a wall at all.
 
I thought that flex looked suspicious. How about the exposed Romex? Is that OK in a shed? Or is that never OK? Or is it just OK after a certain amount of feet from the ground? Something like that?

Lucy, ju got sum esplainin' to do!

Good news is, most if not all of that is relatively easy to fix.
 

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How hot is the water coming from the return at the pool Ideally it should only be a couple degrees warmer. This may be a flow issue and the ability for the water to pull enough heat out of the unit. By adding the chimney, the amount of heat inside the unit may have increased if the chimney draft in not good enough.

Dan
 
With either a forced air OR an atmospheric vented heater:

You (would) still need a way for fresh air to enter the room . Are there any screen covered openings in the rooms' walls (I'm assuming you are now closing the doors)? I don't work on many Hayward products, so i cant tell from the picture exactly which type this is. It would appear to be a forced air type, however the venting size is a bit large for that.

With a forced air (fan) type vent system:

It should have somewhere for the condensate to go. Typically it would be a tee with a small hose coming from it. The long vertical run out of this heater would allow any condensate to migrate back into the heater, not good as condensate is very acidic. This heater could have some sort of drainage system, and have a small hose running from the heater. If you have that, the picture does not show it. What kind of a termination cap did he use? Termination caps are heater type specific. If you have an atmospheric cap on a forced air heater, the cap will not allow enough exhaust to pass through it, and cause the heater to begin overheating ALTHOUGH, the heater should be shutting itself down eventually due to over temp. You had not mentioned that this is happening. The 5 min of knocking or banging operation followed by the 2 min of normal operation could be the heater shutting down and the fan continuing to run, leading you to believe the heater is still firing when it is actually cooling down, then restarting only to follow the "over heating" cycle again Can you post a picture of the outside where the venting comes through the wall?

With an atmospheric type heater vent system:

You MUST have a draft hood installed, AND the venting MUST go through the ceiling. The heater in the picture does not have either of these requirements for atmospheric venting. That, along with possibly no make up air (the screened holes in the walls) would keep the heater from venting properly (and now is overheating).

Before you had the heater vented, keeping the doors opened satisfied the air requirements for both heater types.
 
Sucking up what looks to be the cement dust that the room is covered in can't be helpful either...

Dog pile on quikcolin!! ;)
 
Ok so, IF the heater has the incorrect termination cap,

and/or

IF there isn't enough make up/combustion air (holes in walls),

and/or

IF the heater is indeed cycling, It is probably due to not enough air.

Not enough air to the heater means not enough flow of air through the heater.
Not enough flow through the heater means not enough heat is being drawn away from the heater.
Which means the heater begins to gain more and more heat, at which point, one of the heaters temperature sensitive switches opens and shuts the heater down. Which will then allow the heater to cool, and reset the switch(s), once again giving the heater a "call for heat".

And it starts all over again...
 
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