DoctorHawaii
New Member
Hey there. Just had a new BradWhite propane water heater installed in the same spot (basement) as the 20-yr old one. Since day 1, whenever the burner kicks on there's a surprisingly annoying ticking sound inside the water heater. I can pinpoint that it comes from the unit itself, since I can hear and feel it through the wall of the tank. I assume it's thermal expansion of something in the tank... It's a direct vent, and the problem is that the noise gets magnified by the flue pipe that goes up and through the wall of our main bedroom--it's like 3 or 4 times louder there than standing beside the tank. (It's like a Dr. Seuss horn.) It's so loud it wakes us up at night every few hours when the burner kicks on and it's driving me nuts. The flue pipe/stack is the original, and never made a peep before this. It's not the pipes, since it happens when no water is flowing, and the vent is nicely secured so I'm pretty sure it's not from any movement against any construction members. Any ideas? It's going to be a long winter if I can't figure this out! Long and short: should the new unit make this noise normally? Thanks a bunch.