Buzzing circulator on my boiler system
Hi,
Anyone ever have a buzzing circulator on their boiler system?
My boiler is a gas-fired hydronic system in my house (baseboard heat). Installed Dec 09, been working fine and still does. However the circulator (a Taco Model 007-F5) has recently started buzzing when in operation and the buzz travels thru the copper pipes to the baseboard radiators waking the family up at night.
The buzzing is constant and the volume increases and decreases periodically.The radiators are hot, so water is being circulated. Other than this annoyance everthing works fine (Pressure is within range when cold and hot. The techs are scheduled to replace the circulator but he also said it could be air trapped in the pipes causing the buzzing noise. The buzzing is right at/in the circulator.
The system has an air scoop so wouldn’t that get rid of any air? I asked him this and he said that that was true but they sometimes don’t get rid of all the air.
Any thoughts? Thanks all.
Replies
I have a Weil Mclain boiler that had a circulator pump fail after only a few years. I am pretty sure it was a Taco pump, and I recally the guy at the supply house told me to replace it with a Grundfos pump. He seemed to believe that premature failures in Taco pumps were common. I don't know if that is true, but the replacement pump has run 3-4 times longer than the Taco pump did. I seem to recall that the symptom of failure of the Taco pump was noise. I don't recall if it stopped turning.
Regarding noise in general, I have heard every conceivable type of sound in the pipes come and go over time. I do not know what an air scoop is, but I do have a small device on the expansion tank that can be bled off periodically. That device seems hesitant to re-seat, so I have not used it latately.
The general topic of controlling the quality of the circulating water is something that I have gotten curious about lately. That would include the control of gases and chemicals in the water. I have heard that every time you charge the system, there is oxigen in the water that will be released as a gas during use for a while.
Lately, my water softener has gotten less effective, and periodic recharging of the hydronic system has used harder water than usual. Now I have calcium in the boiler that causes that common popping and clunking sound during firing. That can eventually lead to hot spots, which can lead to heat exchanger failure. Weil Mclain told me I have to do an acid wash of the boiler. It sounds like quite a project. Being that there is only 5-10 gallons of water in the whole system, it would seem like a good idea to control the quality of that water so it yields the longest boiler life possible.
One of the most curious sounds I have heard occured often, but only during the first few months of use. That was a very delicate, almost musical tinkling sound running back and forth through the pipes. It kind of reminded me of a mouse running down a tiny xylophone that was thirty feet long.