# my gas heater sounds like a bomb



## ruby (Oct 3, 2005)

whenever the thermostat tells my gas boiler to light up, it sounds like a bomb exploded and the floor rattles.  I've had two different handy men look at it and couldn't seem to figure what was wrong with it.  one reduced the gas to it and the other guy put a coupler of some kind, but it still happens, and the longer it has been off, the bigger the boom when it comes on, it's scaring the heck out of me, but the local gas company can't come look at if for another six weeks or so and I really can't afford a licensed heater guy at the moment.  any advice?


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## rabadger (Nov 13, 2005)

Shut the boiler down. Get rid of the handy man thing.  Call a qualified tech that knows how to set gas pressure and fix the delay in ignition before you get a bang that is to big. 

Explosion - Uncontrolled rapid expansion of gasses.  You can have little bangs or big bangs.  It's up to you.


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## Total Home Care (Mar 27, 2006)

ITS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU LISTEN TO rabadger .......


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## inspectorD (Mar 27, 2006)

You need to call the gas co. as RA BADGER said. ASAP and explain the BOOM thing you talked about!!That or the fire department will pick up the peices.

This is really to serious to be taken lightly.


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## oldslowchevy (Mar 27, 2006)

please for the love of god or atlease the love of your home that the advice that has been giving to you gas is just one of those things that gives very little warning.i would also sujest the you go starat out and get aleast 1 of those C.O. detecters be cace your life is at risk wwith problem!!!


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## maverick (Mar 28, 2006)

I used to have a outside package unit that did that. Package unit meaning the furnance and a/c unit were in one package and were outside. When it would light it would go boom! then sound like a jet engine running. The cause was the heat exchanges were rusted out and the whole unit needed to be replaced.  Was that big of a deal to me since it was all outside the house.

But in your case!  Yes shut it down and call a pro heat and air company to fix it.


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## Ducttapeman (Apr 4, 2006)

i was in a rental at one time.
Moved in during the summer, then fall came, and BOOM!!!!
Same as you describe, but with a natural gas forced air furnace.
Flames were shooting out of the front of the unit and caused me great concern.
Turns out there were three baffles in the combustion chamber mounted off the main gas line, that the gas was pushed out of into the chamber.
They were mounted perpindicular to the front of the furnace.
There was a pilot light on this model, and it was positioned in front, directly over the middle baffle.
When/if the unit functioned perfectly, the gas coming out of the center baffle would ignite immediately and spread to the other two baffles on either side of it.
It was not functioning perfectly to say the least.
After viewing the explosion process, we noticed that the flame did not start at the front of the center baffle closest to the pilot, but above it from the gas emitted from the other two baffles.
basically it would enter the chamber, swirl around a bit, filling it, until it hit the pilot light, then BOOM!!!!!!
Took the baffles out and some previous renter had plugged the middle baffle orifice with a small wad of paper, preventing any gas from entering the baffle.
No idea why.
After clearing the blockage, it worked fine.


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## Aceinstaller (Apr 16, 2006)

hope you kept his security deposit.......


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