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2oldman's avatar
2oldman
Explorer II
Jan 13, 2014

LOUD water heaters

At 4:30am I was awake.. don't know why. As I was trying to doze off, I heard a loud thumping noise, like someone beating the ground with a hammer. After about 8 thumps I heard a loud WHOOSHH! ..that unmistakeable roar of a gas water heater.

I couldn't believe how I could be hearing that, because nobody was camped near me. The roar kept up for at least 30 minutes, so I finally got annoyed enough to go outside and see where it was coming from. Across the dirt road, about 150' from me, was a large MH and a 5th wheel. I still couldn't tell exactly which rig it was, but it was one of those. I went back to bed, and I think that heater ran for another 20 minutes. He must have a very large HW tank or a very inefficient burner.

8am. I'm outside getting water, and I see the MH owner working under the hood of his car. The heater was on.. and loud. I caught his attention and said "Oh.. that's what I heard at 4am.." He said "What?". I said "your water heater.. can't you hear that?" He said " Oh.. yeah." End of conversation.

That thing was as loud as an idling Honda generator, which there are strict rules for running. I was entertaining the idea of asking the office to add Gas Water Heaters to that list -especially ones that loud. If someone NEEDS hot water that's one thing, but we're all retired here and there's no reason for it. If I were parked next to that I would have definitely been awakened, and very angry. I don't know how anyone in the MH could sleep through that.

I've probably made another enemy. Good thing I'm leaving here today.

26 Replies

  • wa8yxm wrote:
    the THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, you heard, those are explosions caused by the improper mix being harder to ignight..
    That's what I thought.. my WH takes only one bang! to come on.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    Try again, Park router hickupped.

    The problem is the air/fuel ratio is off (Air dampers mal-adjusted) This has several effects, For one it's costing him more to operate it due to the cooler flame burning more propane. Second it's making more noise. but the good news is the problem may be self correcting.

    you see the THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, you heard, those are explosions caused by the improper mix being harder to ignight.. And if they get bad enough, THey WILL fix the problem... Kind of messy though.
  • I learned many years ago not to have my water heater turned on during the night. My ex MIL told me it woke her up and that was all I needed to know. and since then I have kept it off during the night, Heck, even I sleep better now.
  • Should be easy to tell which rig had the maladjusted water heater.....just look for the dark streaks up side of rig from the soot.


    Now I know who was making all that noise this AM
    Kept hearing a couple of guys yelling back and forth about a water heater.
    Man they were LOUD. Which they would have just walked over to each other and had a conversation instead of yelling back & forth