Desperate for quiet heat!
I’ve just finished a gut reno of a 3 family, with all new everything, literally, including individual gas/hot water heat systems for each apartment. (Slant Fin baseboards, hot water return system). Since November, my plumber has been trying to figure out why the 3rd floor system won’t shut up! Whenever the heat is on, you…
I’ve just finished a gut reno of a 3 family, with all new everything, literally, including individual gas/hot water heat systems for each apartment. (Slant Fin baseboards, hot water return system).
Since November, my plumber has been trying to figure out why the 3rd floor system won’t shut up! Whenever the heat is on, you hear gurgling water and an incessant knocking that has repetitive patterns that travel across my bedroom ceiling (located in the rear parlor). There’s some knocking in the ceiling above the front room, but it’s mainly occurring above my bedroom.
The plumber has repeatedly bled the air from the system, and there has been air each time, so he put bleeder valves on, which didn’t do the trick. Friday, he replaced the expansion tank (I hope I got that right) and that seems to have eliminated the water gurgling.
But the knocking is still driving me nuts. It’s not (just) expansion, because it continues throughout the night.
Also, when I had the tenants program their thermostats and drop the heat overnight, it stopped, but it’s gotten colder and I can’t make them lower the heat at night if they don’t want to. (They pay for their own heat.)
Any clues, any help, anything… he’s scratching his head & I’m becoming delusional from disrupted sleep!
Thank you Brownstoners!
Your knocking problems are coming from pipes being in direct contact with floor joists, or wood studs. If during the installation your plumber did a “good” job tightening pipes to the building structural members with out insulating pipes from wood or your are guarateed to have this problem.
Thank you both!
The plumber swears the order of the installation is correct, but, I’m almost afraid to report, when I asked him about valves, he said there weren’t any. I will double-check that though, and look into the boiler water levels.
Thanks again!
We had (loud) knocking problems recently – turned out to be too much water in the boiler, way above the fill line such that steam bubbles and water were racing up and down the pipes (rather than just rising steam). draining it and refilling it to the proper level fixed it (at least for now), but we may need a new water level sensor to keep it at the right level.
Not to doubt you, but why can’t it be expansion? The pipes in a hot water system heat and cool constantly.
Check your boiler installation manual. See if the plumber installed the pump, air elimination devices and expansion tank in the proper order.
Also, make sure there are no zone valves or thermostatic radiator valves installed backwards against the direction of flow. Those will bang and chatter whenever the system runs.