# Single, loud 'POP' - Trying to identify



## FrodoOne (Mar 4, 2016)

Why do you think that it was "electrical" and what were the weather conditions at the time?


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## KentStater (Jan 24, 2018)

FrodoOne said:


> Why do you think that it was "electrical" and what were the weather conditions at the time?


Weather: very light, lake-effect snow. No wind.

The reason I think electrical is that I can't figure any other logical thing that would make a loud, hollow sound. It really sounded a lot like when a light bulb burns out with gusto. I've run a bunch of possibilities through my head.

The area where it occurred is carpet and bed. All soft, quiet material, excluding a side table. Nothing fell off (to my knowledge) I tried to recreate the sound with the few things and couldn't get close.

Everyone is sure it occurred in the room (on a 2nd floor). I ran the possibility that something smacked into our siding outside. I can imagine throwing a rock off of our siding might mimic the sound, but a single rock-throw from a hooligan at 6:30 a.m., in the dark, in the cold and snow, in an isolated area, is highly unlikely. (and nothing was laying on our deck) And I know what our siding popping and shifting with the temperature sounds like and it's not that loud.

Believe me. I'm an overthinker so I've stared at the area and tried to think of what it could be. (maybe a tiny meteorite hit our siding...see. Overthinker.)


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## Guap0_ (Dec 2, 2017)

I'm with Frodo. It may not have been electrical. The only way that it might have been the laptop is if the laptop is set on a table cloth, or something else that would prevent it from breathing. The vent is on the bottom.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

It could have been the surge protector blowing off a surge.


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## KentStater (Jan 24, 2018)

joed said:


> It could have been the surge protector blowing off a surge.


Is that a thing? Aren't the surge protectors a 'one and done' kind of thing? I thought if something blew, it was toast. (or would trip/shut off, etc.) I never had to reset anything. My green light that says 'Protected' is still on. Maybe I'll read about my surge protector.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

I never said to reset it. It is true that many of them are one and done. But when they go, they can make a loud pop as the MOV blows.

If the green light is still on then I think it is good.


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## KentStater (Jan 24, 2018)

Guap0_ said:


> I'm with Frodo. It may not have been electrical. The only way that it might have been the laptop is if the laptop is set on a table cloth, or something else that would prevent it from breathing. The vent is on the bottom.


I'm pretty sure the fan in my old laptop is packed with lint and I need to take it apart and clean it out. It will get hot every now and then but I just fired it up and it was completely cool when this happened. The temp was the first thing I checked. I have a set-up where there's extra air circulation under our laptops. (the other laptop is brand new and has excessive ventilation because it was meant to be used as a gaming laptop so it doesn't even slightly warm up)


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## KentStater (Jan 24, 2018)

I appreciate the responses. It makes me feel a little better that I won't return to a house on fire.


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## CodeMatters (Aug 16, 2017)

KentStater said:


> Weather: very light, lake-effect snow. No wind.


Not a frost quake then? They're pretty startling.


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## FrodoOne (Mar 4, 2016)

KentStater said:


> Aren't the surge protectors a 'one and done' kind of thing? I thought if something blew, it was toast.


Not always.
A "surge protector" is usually a Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV) which reduces its resistance towards a short circuit when an "Over Voltage" occurs.

If the duration of the "Over Voltage" is brief, the energy dissipated in the MOV will not be enough to destroy it AND the circuit breaker in the Line will not operate.
If the MOV is destroyed, it may go short-circuit and the Circuit Breaker will operate disconnecting the equipment. 
If the MOV goes open-circuit you will have no protection for any subsequent "surge".


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## Clutchcargo (Mar 31, 2007)

How old is your house? Maybe a floor joist drying out and checking. Your weight on that particular spot might have been the final straw before it snapped.


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## NitrNate (May 27, 2010)

squirrels, it's always those dang squirrels. probably ate your floor joist. or maybe termites, or ants. or nothing.

my house makes some funky pops and squeaks every once in awhile due to temp. changes, wind, etc. could just be something shifting causing a pop.


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## KentStater (Jan 24, 2018)

Clutchcargo said:


> How old is your house? Maybe a floor joist drying out and checking. Your weight on that particular spot might have been the final straw before it snapped.


House was built in 1976. Nothing seemed to reverberate in the structure. It really seemed to be clean, crisp 'pop' within the actual room space.


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## KentStater (Jan 24, 2018)

NitroNate said:


> squirrels, it's always those dang squirrels. probably ate your floor joist. or maybe termites, or ants. or nothing.
> 
> my house makes some funky pops and squeaks every once in awhile due to temp. changes, wind, etc. could just be something shifting causing a pop.


We have zero mammal pests within a few acres of our house because we have three, what can only be described, as 'murder cats.' They each kill 3-6 things per day, all day every day, and those are only what we see. They are such predators that two of them catch full-sized rabbits, one tries to catch Canada geese and goes in water to catch things, once bringing home over a foot-long bass.

Maybe it's stink bugs. We've got plenty of those in the walls.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Highly possible you heard a bird either hitting your siding or a window. Have you checked the perimeter for anything unusual? Nevermind. I see where you have cats. Carcass wouldn't have lasted too long.


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## Guap0_ (Dec 2, 2017)

Chandler, not a bad guess at all. Birds fly into windows all the time.


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## ltsilverado (Sep 3, 2016)

I'm questioning the second floor and snow. Yesterday it snowed, then freezing rain then a rapid temperature drop. If conditions are right, the ice on the roof contracts and we get a pop, sometimes a boom depending on the amount of snow or ice up there. It doesn't rock the house or anything, but you will definitely hear it and unless you knew what it was, it's difficult to pinpoint the source.


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## mark_kershner (Mar 11, 2017)

A few years back my mystery pop turned out to be a broken window. I guess it can happen under the right weather conditions. Settling was not the cause. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## KentStater (Jan 24, 2018)

chandler48 said:


> Highly possible you heard a bird either hitting your siding or a window. Have you checked the perimeter for anything unusual? Nevermind. I see where you have cats. Carcass wouldn't have lasted too long.


As soon as I thought of the siding, I searched outside for any signs of something that had hit the house. I thought of a bird but it was still early for the birds to be up, but can't rule it out. (still dark out - they usually rise with the sun). Assuming a bird, as loud as it was, I'd think it would be stunned but the light snow coating on our deck (~1000 sq ft that spans the entire house) was still pristine and the cats were hunkered down in their houses when I fed them at 6:30.

When I mentioned the outdoor/house noise possibilities to my wife, she said "it definitely happened inside the room."


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## KentStater (Jan 24, 2018)

ltsilverado said:


> I'm questioning the second floor and snow. Yesterday it snowed, then freezing rain then a rapid temperature drop. If conditions are right, the ice on the roof contracts and we get a pop, sometimes a boom depending on the amount of snow or ice up there. It doesn't rock the house or anything, but you will definitely hear it and unless you knew what it was, it's difficult to pinpoint the source.


Our snow had melted off with the few days of warm weather before a line of thunderstorms came through bringing normal cold behind it. We didn't get any sort of ice coating and the snow was a tiny, fractional amount. Immeasurably small and very light. Not even covering the grass, so any sort of snow weight or ice coating was non-existent, at the time.

We did have a large temp change, going from mid-50's to mid-20's over a couple day span. I feel like we've heard the majority of house pops and shifts and this still seemed different.


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## KentStater (Jan 24, 2018)

mark_kershner said:


> A few years back my mystery pop turned out to be a broken window. I guess it can happen under the right weather conditions. Settling was not the cause.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I considered a window 'popping' into place. Sometimes they're not always closed completely and you'll randomly get a 'pop' when the latch suddenly clicks into place. That's always 'springy' sounding. This sound was still different than that.


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## Guap0_ (Dec 2, 2017)

Kent, I was also under the impression that birds wouldn't be flying during the night hours. Then one night around 1 AM, I was driving & a bird pooped on my windshield.


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## jreagan (Feb 20, 2015)

One of my co-workers heard a loud pop in his basement last month. After looking at all the equipment, he saw that his foundation had cracked. We think that is what caused the sound.


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## MTN REMODEL LLC (Sep 11, 2010)

mark_kershner said:


> A few years back my mystery pop turned out to be a broken window. I guess it can happen under the right weather conditions. Settling was not the cause.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk





jreagan said:


> One of my co-workers heard a loud pop in his basement last month. After looking at all the equipment, he saw that his foundation had cracked. We think that is what caused the sound.


Or a broken/cracked tile (maybe around the toilet) that you haven't noticed


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## CurlyToes (Oct 20, 2021)

@KentStater Did you ever find out what happened here? I just had the very same thing happen here at my home. It sounded like a light bulb popping in the bedroom, but very loud. We can't find anything that might have caused this.


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## afjes2015 (May 21, 2015)

Curley Toes - instead of asking on a thread that is over 3 years old it would be better that you call in a licensed electrician to investigate. Popping of electrical anything is not good. Even popping that will trip a breaker - the breaker is tripping because something is not right in the Land of OZ and the breaker is doing its job.

_Call an electrician_.


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## CurlyToes (Oct 20, 2021)

afjes2015 said:


> Curley Toes - instead of asking on a thread that is over 3 years old it would be better that you call in a licensed electrician to investigate. Popping of electrical anything is not good. Even popping that will trip a breaker - the breaker is tripping because something is not right in the Land of OZ and the breaker is doing its job.
> 
> _Call an electrician_.


Strange reply. Are replying to an old thread and calling an electrician mutually exclusive activities?


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

Guap0_ said:


> Chandler, not a bad guess at all. Birds fly into windows all the time.


I would describe that as more of a "thunk".

I have heard house framing "settling" sound like a fairly loud "crack". If nothing obvious is wrong electrically, my next suspicion would be a floor joist or ceiling framing making a small but sudden shift. Happens quite often.


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## jeffnc (Apr 1, 2011)

CurlyToes said:


> Strange reply. Are replying to an old thread and calling an electrician mutually exclusive activities?


I found it extremely odd as well. I don't mind replying to old threads because I think people still search on old threads. Which is not to say I didn't get fooled into thinking this was new


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## quatsch (Feb 4, 2021)

IMO it was the sound of a very thin wire strand short circuiting & being vaporized because 250A was passing thru it.

See "exploding wires".

It may come back with day/night temperature cycling because the gap left is very small.


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## CurlyToes (Oct 20, 2021)

jeffnc said:


> I found it extremely odd as well. I don't mind replying to old threads because I think people still search on old threads. Which is not to say I didn't get fooled into thinking this was new


Indeed. I've actually never been on this board before, but just came across this thread by Googling various phrases describing what happened. My wife and I were pretty freaked out last night because this was a LOUD sound (my wife's ears were ringing) with absolutely no physical evidence anywhere that anything happened.

Nervous for the potential for fire, especially with small kids in the house, my wife called the fire department, and they came out and scanned the house with their "heat sensing" device and found nothing.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

Do you have a sump pump? Some times if the check valve slams shut it can make a loud noise.


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## RAL238 (May 20, 2018)

CurlyToes said:


> Indeed. I've actually never been on this board before, but just came across this thread by Googling various phrases describing what happened. My wife and I were pretty freaked out last night because this was a LOUD sound (my wife's ears were ringing) with absolutely no physical evidence anywhere that anything happened.
> 
> Nervous for the potential for fire, especially with small kids in the house, my wife called the fire department, and they came out and scanned the house with their "heat sensing" device and found nothing.


As mentioned earlier, MOVs can explode with a bang. Tantalum capacitors, which are used in many electronic devices, can also explode like a firecracker. If they are in a tightly sealed case, like a USB charger or power brick, you may see little evidence, if any, of the smoke or flames.


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## afjes2015 (May 21, 2015)

Curley Toes - I think you received the wrong impression from my post.

Because of the type of problem this may be electrically and that it may be very important to have it resolved as soon as possible to prevent property damage or even personal injury I was just suggesting that you may want to start a new thread to grab member's attention of this issue you are having. The OP has not be on since Jan of 2018 and sometimes even myself I tend to ignore very old threads. I was just attempting to get you assistance as soon as possible.

Call an electrician was meant saying this type of issue may be in the need for immediate in person assistance from a licensed electrician..


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## manhands007 (13 d ago)

quatsch said:


> IMO it was the sound of a very thin wire strand short circuiting & being vaporized because 250A was passing thru it.
> 
> See "exploding wires".
> 
> It may come back with day/night temperature cycling because the gap left is very small.


I am very curious about this. Would the vaporized wire strand cause any insulation to melt, etc., or something else that I could see?

I just had a nearly identical experience to the OP this morning. Three of us heard it in the same room as where the pop occurred. Sounded like a light bulb or very loud balloon popping would sound from about 3 feet away, maybe 10x louder than a loud balloon. I took apart an outlet- no black marks, no exploded mice. Wire comes to the outlet inside metal conduit that is tight to the outlet box. No circuit breaker blew, no electrical smell, no flash, no smoke, no broken windows or bulbs or glass or anything. No broken foundation or plumbing. Sounded like it was out in the open air in the room with us and not muffled behind a wall or something. I am intrigued by the exploding wire strand theory. Would love to hear if anyone knows more, or if anything was resolved by the OP or another previous commenter that apparently had an identical experience.


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## skyking1 (26 d ago)

Our wierd pop was more of a snap in a quiet late night, watching movies. We looked all over, kinda freaked out. I spot a little red piece of plastic under the kitchen table. Mr. Coffee pot had condensed enough steam under the red lens that it shorted out and had a little steam explosion. No burnt smell to help out.


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