Vibrating motor sound

[Cary]

Hello,

We could use some advice or help with an unknown annoying noise that has been happening in our home for several months. Our house is two stories and is 32 years old.

The on-going issue is a vibrating motor sound coming from the wall in the main bathroom. The vibrating motor sound happens randomly, but often. The duration of the sound varies, but never lasts more than two or three minutes. It is sometimes much shorter. When it stops it sounds as if a valve is closing three times. We have had the plumber out and he replaced the water pressure regulator, but it didn’t fix the problem. We also had our attic fan checked to see if that was the issue, but our air conditioning people said that it was working fine. Needless to say, it is very frustrating, and we would like to find out what it is so we can have it fixed.

I have a recording of the sound if that helps

Cary

 

[Jeff Handy]

Maybe a motorized damper on something?

Like a fresh air intake?

Or a condensate pump for a/c or water heater that you forgot you had?
Maybe up in the attic?

Could be a radon exhaust fan in the attic, that pulls air from under the basement or slab, and out a roof vent, with a failing motor.

Motion operated bath exhaust fan?

Or a master exhaust that vents several bathrooms, with ducts leading to a plenum with a motor in the attic.

And attic fans or powered roof vents can have bad bearings that only make noise off and on.
Or a failing capacitor that makes the motor struggle when it first tries to get going, til finally it reaches full rpm.

 

[geochurchi]

Post the recording so we can here what it sounds like.
Geo