Air Conditioner Return Vent Whistling

Why low airflow causes whistling.

Air conditioner return vent whistling.

Change your air filter. Troubleshooting tips for a whistling air conditioner. The easiest step to take is to replace your current air filter. As a result your system s blower is essentially starved for air usually as a result of some type of blockage.

This blockage produces higher pressure and air velocity inside of the vent which in turn produces a whistling sound. You have two kinds of vents in your home. Too many closed doors. Increasing the size or quantity of the vents is an option but again not an easy one.

You ll have to turn up the volume. The air conditioner roars to life. If you have one of the return air grilles pictured below in your ceiling or wall listen up. Air filters pick up unwanted contaminants in your home s air but when they are dirty they restrict the airflow process.

You re worried that you might not hear the doorbell if it rings. Another sign of poor ductwork and a culprit of noise coming from your air return vents is unlined return ducts. The fins are angled to hide those ugly filters we put there to keep our coil and air clean. This reduced but did not eliminate the noise which gets louder if the.

It will increase the air flow in those rooms and should reduce the pressure enough in the problem room to stop the whistling. If so you could be experiencing low return flow which means that your return air vent is not getting enough air. An a c blower pulling in air from. Blocked return vent the return vent may be blocked due to dust or other debris.

But first let s look at how low airflow causes your air conditioning system to produce that whistling sound. Do yourself a favor go out to a big box store and get a. Finally one solution that i used in a similar situation remove the vent completely in other rooms. Or your phone if it vibrates on the counter.

The downside to the bend in the grille is a reduction in airflow and sometimes a nasty whistle. The installer was notified and his employees attempted to correct the problem by installing an additional smaller return duct in my office which is located near the larger return. We ll go over these problems in more detail and discuss what you can do to fix them. Everything was fine until the air conditioner came on.

Check the filter and change it if it looks like the one on the right in this picture. And while you d like to concentrate on your book you can t. Dirty air filter a dirty filter acts like a barrier to return air forcing the blower to work harder and longer to circulate air say hello to a larger electric bill. Now you can barely hear your music.