"Humming" stove?

[Chris J W]

Had my Morrso Squirrel going most of the day, not blazing but, for wont of a better phrase. "on tick over" with about 2 inch (if that) of fuel at any time with the top vent entirely shut and the bottom about 1/8th-1/4qr inch open . Got back in this evening after leaving it 'alone' for about three hours to find it nearly dead; so gave it a quick rake, another inch of "Stoveaxe" nuts and then opened the bottom door completely - emptied the ash-pan, replaced it, and left the bottom door open.

 

Now I've done this a few times and found that if I leave the bottom door open for about ten mins it's sufficent to get it 'alive' again and ready for a nice, slow, burn overnight.

 

Tonight, though, the whole lot started "humming"!

 

For a while I thought my water pump was going, but I had no taps going and no obvious leeks.

 

Blocking and un-blocking one ear confirmed the "hum" was coming from the stove ... but I couldn't work out why! It was only when I shut the bottom door to make room to put my hand down as I investigated that the "hum" stopped. A quick "open and close" test confirmed it was the bottom door being open that caused the "hum"

 

Obviously the heat of the fire had caused a coincidental, sympathetic, heat-induced, resonant vibration in the chimney ... so anyone else had this?

[Liam]

Yeah we've had that a fair few times in the past... after pretty much doing what you have done. I beleive the "hum" is the noise of the fire drawing air through fast which gets the coals glowing.

 

Edited to add: We have a squirrel too...

Edited October 11, 2007 by Liam

[Chris J W]

Yeah we've had that a fair few times in the past... after pretty much doing what you have done. I beleive the "hum" is the noise of the fire drawing air through fast which gets the coals glowing.

 

Edited to add: We have a squirrel too...

 

Phew! Thankfully I'm not going (barge-)nuts then!

 

Knowing it's a known phenomen, I'm almost tempted to learn how to re-produce it purely for entertainment-of-guests value ... but suspect it's probably one of those things that shouldn't really happen too often.

[carlt]

Dad, do you know the piano's on my foot?

[Chris J W]

Dad, do you know the piano's on my foot?

 

No, but you hum it and I'll jam along ...

 

someone had to say it, so it may as well be the OP ....

[carlt]

[Chris J W]

 

ARF!!!

 

We're both showing our age to remember that!

[chris w]

Obviously the heat of the fire had caused a coincidental, sympathetic, heat-induced, resonant vibration in the chimney ... so anyone else had this?

 

My wife makes a loud humming sound when she's on heat

Edited October 12, 2007 by chris w

[BlueStringPudding]

My wife makes a loud humming sound when she's on heat

 

She'll probably make a loud punching noise now.

[Chris-B]

My wife makes a loud humming sound when she's on heat

 

Far to much information thank you

[dor]

I seem to remember for somewhere about putting a candle inside a vertical glass tube. The air flow created would set up a similar effect to the stove humming, with the tube resonating at a given note and the candle flame also affected.

[Alistair]

Sounds like you're creating a new form of musical instrument - one with a really loooooow range.

[fuzzyduck]

when Supermalcs home brew stove gets going it does the same thing, except it sounds like the pulse jet in a V1 bomb. earie noise it is too.

[Denis R]

I beleive the "hum" is the noise of the fire drawing air through fast which gets the coals glowing

Steam engines do it a treat if you've got a 'hole' in the fire and the blower's on hard....

Over to you Dan....

[Sir Nibble]

So is it, or is it not better to teach it to sing?

[chris w]

Don't teach it to sing. Next it'll want to start smoking and who knows where that could lead - you could have a coke-head on your hands

 

Chris

[Chris J W]

Don't teach it to sing. Next it'll want to start smoking and who knows where that could lead - you could have a coke-head on your hands

 

Chris

 

If it gets a few supermodels on the boat ...

[DHutch]

Steam engines do it a treat if you've got a 'hole' in the fire and the blower's on hard....

Over to you Dan....

We we can get EA to hum on occation.

- Certainly its not too unusual quite number of odd noises out of her.

 

Unfornutaly i dont thing its all quite solid/firm enough to set up any really good notes like as you say, steam locos, can.

 

She also does a rythmic WOWwowWOWwowWOW noise sometimes with a brand new fire in the morning with some wood still in there, espcially with a little help from a squirt of dirty whitespirt. Which i have always put down to being a very slow version of the same thing that makes a pulse-jet engine work.

 

 

Daniel

[Keeping Up]

We had a hum this summer, that varied in pitch and loudness according to the engine revs but clearly wasn't anything to do with the engine.

 

It turned out to be caused by the rear deck-boards (it's a cruiser stern). They have a strip of draught-excluder stuck around the edges where they sit on the metal supports, to help keep the noise in and the rain out. They consist of an adhesive foam strip with a smooth tape on the top. At one place the tape had become detached from the foam and was vibrating like the reed of a musical instrument. The airflow was being provided by the suction from the engine air intake (there is a separate grill to allow air to enter for the engine, but it is a little smaller than it should be) so the musical note changed according to how much air the engine was using. Very musical but thoroughly distracting until I traced it.

 

Could the stove be doing something similar?