Gary Bowling
gabo
I have a 16 year old water furnace Envision Vertical unit with ECM fan.
A few days ago I started hearing a bit of a noise coming from my unit when the thermostat goes off. On this unit, when it goes off, the fan runs slowly for a while. So investigating, it seems like when the motor is running slow there is a bit of a vibration, like it's a bit out of balance. I didn't hear it when it's running, but now when I'm next to it and it's running there is a very slight vibration.
It's not a bad vibration, just very slight and it wasn't there before.
If I turn the unit off and check the motor/fan, it all turns smoothly and I don't notice any play or slop in any of it. I've checked for something loose but find nothing there either.
The motor is a 14P516B01 which seems to be a GE Genteq ECM 2.3 1/2 HP Blower Motor 5SME39HL0252, which I can find a source for. The Blower is a 53P501B01 which I have not found yet.
Is there any way to tell if this is a motor issue or a blower issue? I would think the motors are more prone to failure than the blower, but I have no experience to back that up.
I live in a rural area in Northern MI, it's cold here and I can't do without heat for any appreciable amount of time. So I'm trying to understand if I should order something and either go ahead and replace it or have it on hand in case of an outage. My service company is a long way away and they always take days to show up and then would probably have to order parts. If it goes out, it would take them at least a week to get it running. So it's better if I can either do it or have the parts on hand. Thanks for any help.
UPDATE: It looks like the blower is just a fan on the end of the motor shaft. So there appears that the only way that could cause the issue is if it got something on it or damaged to cause it to be out of balance. Which is not really even possible as it's in my house in a safe space on the other side of the filter. Due to this, it looks like the most probably cause is the motor. I'll probably go ahead and order a motor to have it here in case it dies.
A few days ago I started hearing a bit of a noise coming from my unit when the thermostat goes off. On this unit, when it goes off, the fan runs slowly for a while. So investigating, it seems like when the motor is running slow there is a bit of a vibration, like it's a bit out of balance. I didn't hear it when it's running, but now when I'm next to it and it's running there is a very slight vibration.
It's not a bad vibration, just very slight and it wasn't there before.
If I turn the unit off and check the motor/fan, it all turns smoothly and I don't notice any play or slop in any of it. I've checked for something loose but find nothing there either.
The motor is a 14P516B01 which seems to be a GE Genteq ECM 2.3 1/2 HP Blower Motor 5SME39HL0252, which I can find a source for. The Blower is a 53P501B01 which I have not found yet.
Is there any way to tell if this is a motor issue or a blower issue? I would think the motors are more prone to failure than the blower, but I have no experience to back that up.
I live in a rural area in Northern MI, it's cold here and I can't do without heat for any appreciable amount of time. So I'm trying to understand if I should order something and either go ahead and replace it or have it on hand in case of an outage. My service company is a long way away and they always take days to show up and then would probably have to order parts. If it goes out, it would take them at least a week to get it running. So it's better if I can either do it or have the parts on hand. Thanks for any help.
UPDATE: It looks like the blower is just a fan on the end of the motor shaft. So there appears that the only way that could cause the issue is if it got something on it or damaged to cause it to be out of balance. Which is not really even possible as it's in my house in a safe space on the other side of the filter. Due to this, it looks like the most probably cause is the motor. I'll probably go ahead and order a motor to have it here in case it dies.
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