Creaking from Rinnai 1004f

[Perrycomo]

Getting a creaking sound from a Rinnai 1004F heater. Anyone have any idea what this could be?Rinnai creak

 

[GrumpyDad]

Sounds like a bearing. Had the same sound on my heat pump for a couple of years.

 

[Jackfre]

I introduced the Rinnai DV’s in New England as the factory rep in ‘91. It may be bearing noise as GD said, but have you ever cleaned the blower wheels on it? You have two blower wheels on a common shaft. They are curved blade fan and I suspect they are loaded up. Does it ever throw an error code. Don’t have the manuals at hand so cannot offer suggestion on which code. If the wheels are loaded up it can cause your problem. Remove the front panel. Two screws on the upper sides. CAreful as the front panel tips forward you have to disconnect the control wire. The front them lifts off. You can then inspect the fan blades. Now…years ago my sisters ‘04 was going off on limit so I got the ”no-heat” call. I tented the unit with sheets and blew it out with my air compressor and having removed the front cover I had a long brush to carefully clean the curved blades on the fans. I had two shop vacs running to catch the debris. I finished up, unwrapped the unit, fired it up and a cloud of dust went all over the place. It did solve the no heat, but it was a mess. This is best done outdoors or be a lot better about collection. Back in the early ‘00’s we figured that almost 4-5% of homes and apts in VT had a Rinnai DV. I trained a lot of techs over the years and you should not have difficulty finding a good tech. Clean the blades and report back.