Noisy ticking in flue pipe after installing new gas water heater

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DoctorHawaii

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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.
 

DoctorHawaii

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Haha...what I mean is the tinks and ticks and clinks and clicks get louder as they move up the vent pipe...the way trumpets and tubas and the three-noozled bloozer and the one-nozzled noozer get noisier and louder as the note travels through them. My flue duct could work in a Dr. Seuss book.
 

DoctorHawaii

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The flue passes ( round pipe) which there's 5 or 6 that run up through the tank have baffles in them. The noise is probably coming from their expansion. Talk with your supplier or call BW.
I don't know the anatomy of the flue, so that helps a lot--and seems like the right answer to where it's coming from. Of course...that also means I'm not likely to fix it! I've already got a call in to B W and I'll post what they have to say. Cheers and thanks.
 

Tuttles Revenge

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The flue passes ( round pipe) which there's 5 or 6 that run up through the tank have baffles in them. The noise is probably coming from their expansion. Talk with your supplier or call BW.
often get dislodged during shipping especially if transported horizontally.
 

Ganq

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I don't know the anatomy of the flue, so that helps a lot--and seems like the right answer to where it's coming from. Of course...that also means I'm not likely to fix it! I've already got a call in to B W and I'll post what they have to say. Cheers and thanks.
Hi @DoctorHawaii - Were you able to figure out/fix the issue?

I have the exact same problem. The flue pipe expands and contracts in the attic but also makes horribly loud knocking sounds. It’s loud enough to wake us up in the middle of the night.

Couple of Plumbers came and saw the issue live but haven’t been able to offer any reason or fix for the loud knocking sounds.
 

DoctorHawaii

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Sorry guys for leaving this thread hanging. Since it wasn't an emergency, it took a back seat to, well, emergencies elsewhere. So, in the end, it turns out the noise--which is still happening, btw--is coming from the DuraVent type B vent pipe in the walls. The water heater's in the basement and connects to oval DuraVent that's in the wall space. Looks like when it was originally installed, the vent pipe was secured by sheet metal screws through the firestop spacers and then through the vent metal, in order to support the weight at each level . DuraVent says that's the culprit since securing it--especially if the screws penetrate both layers of the vent--don't allow for adequate movement with thermal expansion, which causes the vent material itself to expand/contract unevenly at the fix points. So, the clinking noise. Also, since the inner liner is aluminum and the outer shell is galvanized, the two metals expand/contract at different rates and if a screw penetrates both layers the screw location will create noise when heated/cooled. They apparently recommend installing a section of adjustable oval vent below every fix point and leaving the bottom (female) end of each of those pieces unclamped so the section of vent below it can expand vertically without putting force on the fixed points of the vent--alleviating or lessening the noise. Unfortunately, I can't do that since the existing vent length that penetrates the wall plate terminates just above the water heater vent hood. Thanks for weighing in though!
 
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