Sunflower heater making strange noise

[Farley]

Started up the sunflower saturday and it lit fine, but about 5-10 seconds after it lit it starts making a loud ringing sound kind of like a bearing going out on a wheel, sounds like a vibration or ringing. What I did was put it halfway on it's lowest setting, this way it didnt make the sound and kept messing with it. Took about a half hour and finally I could run it full bore with no noise. I did just get a new 5 lb tank, had it purged before filled. I couldnt figure out what was making the noise though. Any ideas?

[Jeremy airjer W]

The father in laws made that noise for years until it warmed up.

[Farley]

Never figured out what it was?

[BIG DS]

Mr. Heater sunflower heaters have done that for years. They'll do it until they warm up and then quit. Have no idea why, but they do. New or old it doesn't matter.

[Down2Earth]

Plugging the holes on the neck with your fingers for a second or 2 works for me to stop the noise.

[Surface Tension]

Its a like a trumpet. To make a sound you have to have everything right. Disrupt the air flow for a quick couple of seconds and it'll stop. Just watch out because the sunflower will flame up when you choke the air mixture.

[chris63]

Sounds like the start of a band concert to me!c63

[berfish]

My Mr. Heater cooker does it really bad. I was on Mille Lacs last saturday all day and it was brutal. Once it warmed up it still was going strong. I tried pluging the holes on the side of the supply tube, tried shaking it, threw ice at it. The only thing that worked was to put a piece of electrical tape over a small portion of the supply tube holes. This seems to disrupt the air flow enough to stop the ringing. It kinda reminds me of the blowing over the top of a beer bottle.

[jigeye]

Mine has done this for years too. My fix is to run it on high right after you light it for a little while until the noise goes away than you can turn it down to low and it's good for the day.

[Farley]

Thanks for the help. It is almost brand new, only used it twice, once last year and once this year. it didnt do it last year when I had it hooked up to a 20# tank. The Sunflower I had before this one never did it. Guess I'll just bring earplugs.

[slipperybob]

something to do with air flow and temperature

I think something like a tea kettle...

[Farley]

I emailed Mr. Heater about it, this is the reply I got:

THE NOISE YOU HEARD IS FROM THE SCREENS, THIS CAN HAPPEN AND SHOULD GO AWAY ONCE IT WARMS UP, NOTHING REALLY CANT BE DONE. IF THE NOISE GETS WORSE OR DOESN'T GO AWAY YOU CAN REPLACE THE SCREENS.

Jeff Mossbruger

Enerco/ Mr.Heater

Engineering Technician