Furnace rattle

We are currently in the middle of a 2-week family vacation. Because we are having such cool weather here in Colorado, we have used the furnace every morning. The furnace goes on just fine, and produces adequate heat for our little trailer, but about 2 minutes into the cycle, something in the furnace itself starts to rattle. It's loud enough to wake the dead, or at least the late-sleepers in our family.

The first time we heard it, I quickly moved the thermostat down, but the rattle went away before the furnace went off. The rattle lasts only about a minute. I have not removed the panel to look at the furnace yet. I wanted to check here first, to see if anyone else had had this issue, and had figured it out. It sounds like something is just hitting the squirrel cage as it spins, but somehow it goes away, almost like heat expansion is enough to make it stop.

I have been seaching the forums for an hour and cannot find anything about this. Thank you for any suggestions.

Wondering if it's not a loose duct port cap. There are ports on the side of the furnace that can be used to connect heat runs to. When not used, there are metal caps in place. Once on this forum, I have read where someone had one loose. Not sure if they had any symptoms. I think they were just trying to seal things up tight when they found it loose.

That said, you, a dealer or a service center need to examine the furnace to see if you can see anything loose that may be rattling.

Consider calling your dealer today.

Jim

I don't have a rattle in my furnace but there is definitely a noise when it is first running. It's a vibration/buzzing/whatever sort of sound that gets fairly loud. It seems that after it's been on for a short while it goes away. Seeing your post here just reminds me that I need to remove the panel under the 3055 refrigerator and take a look the next time I turn it on.

Pete and Sharon - you describe exactly what we were hearing. We had a few other warranty issues, so we made an appointment with our local dealer. According to the work order, the dealer had to remove the furnace to fix it, but it does not state what they found or how they fixed it. I'm just glad that it works now!

Hi, All

I,m a new user to this site (my first log in) my family just bought a new 2011 28brs. we have not picked it up yet but that's not why I'm writing . We had a camper before this new one that the furnace rattle and before we got it fixed we went to walmart (on clearence) and bought two small space heaters and they work great we hardly ever use the furnace any more. Why burn propane when you aiready pay for the electricity?!

Hi RPJ,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to help if needed.

Enjoy the forum and your new toy.

Jim M

as jim mentioned

check for loose duct cap.
Mine was sloppy and vibrated a little.
a little screw into my duct held it in place tight. no more ratle. Even duct tape would work

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for the welcome! I've heard good things about this site. I do have a question. We are going to pick up our new camper (2011 28brs) today is there anything I/We could look for when We do the walk through? or odd questions We should ask? thank you for any info you could give us. We pick it up 4:00pm ct. today

Check out the PDI checklist on this site:

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/buenavistas/

I use an aluminum adhesive backed tape found in the heating depts. of home depot and close all unused openings in my furnace,there are many,which also closes the unused duct openings.you would not believe the noise reduction in air and mechanical rattling.