Electric Air Cleaner Clicking/Snapping

Brand new to this forum and being a homeowner so please bare with me. I have a Honeywell Electric Air Cleaner that is installed at the furnace/blower in a home system. It is making a constant clicking sound- at a rate of about 1-2 time a second and I can hear it on the first floor from the basement with the door closed. I noticed when we turned the furnace on a couple of weeks ago that it would do it off and on but now it does it constantly when the furnace is running. A friend said it may be that the door isn't in place and causing the vibration. I did everything I could do to adjust to door and it is still clicking. If I 'push' the door up and in, the clicking stops however the 'on' indicator light turns off. It does sound like it is still running though. If I remove the door or open it, the clicking noise stops. Any help on the next step is GREATLY appreciated!!

 

My parents have one at their house and we always assumed that was just the sound of it working - been doing it for 27 years that I'm aware of.

 

I know- That's what I was wondering too, however, it was not doing this a few weeks ago when it was running and has become excessively loud. When I took the cover off, there was a note at the bottom of the troubleshooting guide stating that when you hit the test button it will make that snapping noise but to be aware that this model is half as loud as other models. Almost telling me I should expect it to be even quieter.....
Also, when I do hit the red test buttone on the outside of the air cleaner, the clicking noise stops.

Hmmmm

 

tell you what..... electric air cleaners work off static electricity. each snapping noise is a piece of dust be snagged by the static electric field. The snapping noise may be prominent in rooms closer to the furnace because the noise will travel through the ducts to a certain extent. The noise is the same as if you were to rub your feet across the carpet and shock something metal!!! dont worry about it and clean it every month by turning et off and taking the metal filters off and running water over them

 

Lots of time to check a electric filter we just hit the cold air drop and see if we hear tha snap. When you dont hear it its time to take out the grids and wash them out. Thats why we take out a lot of the EAC units and put in a Airbear pleated filters.

 

Your grid needs a good cleaning.... if you get a piece of fuzz or lint stuck on the element it will do that continuously. Put it in the laundry tub and scrub a dub dub with some liquid detergent...some are even made to fit in the dishwasher! Be CAREFUL of the thin wires between the plates, they're not that brittle, but you can screw them up. It will need to drip dry for a couple of hours after cleaning, or dry for a while and put back in with the fan switch ON. DO NOT put it in and power it up and let it keep snapping or short out..you can tell if it is shorting if your pilot light is off when the switch is ON. Water will short out the element until it's dry. When you can leave the power switch ON and it is quiet and the pilot light is lit, you're done. Excessive snapping will emit OZone into your home and you may smell it. This should be done on a regular basis. I have a paper filter, the metal filter and the air cleaner on mine. I would advise wiping out the area with a damp cloth before reinstalling the grid, any crap will get on the grid, humidifiers tend to put some white flaky stuff into the duct that will cause this.

 

Hot Rod is correct, your element need a good cleaning.

Electronic air cleaners will remove the minutest particles, even cigarette smoke, and as a result they get dirty quite rapidly. Unlike a media filter the performance of an electronic filter decreases as it gets dirty.

Usually, monthly intervals are too long between cleaning, I recommend cleaning every two weeks.

 

I had the same problem. My electronic filter was running fine and then suddenly it started continiously snapping once a second. I wiped off all the electrode wires and noticed a thin milky residue that was not there before. Problem solved. I remembered that a couple of weeks ago I turned on my return air inline humidifier, which was the cause of the milky residue. I turned down the humidfier and will probably still have to clean the filter more frequently.