Clicking/tapping noise from radiators - please please help!

[Jackie0402]

I have read all the related topics on this site so far but none seem to match my problem. There are no banging, screaming, whooshing or dripping noises.

4 months ago we moved into this "renovated" house. The Biasi combi system is nearly 2 years old but was fitted quite badly - not flushed properly and the refill loop left on. A couple of weeks after moving in the hot water stopped completely. The heating was fine except for the smallest rad in the bathroom (cold except for right at the bottom). At great expense (!) I got the boiler serviced and to the relief of all I could wash properly again Alas this tale does not have a happy ending A few days later 2 of the rads started making clicking/tapping noises every time the heating came on until it switched off. So I bled both of them and the 1 in the bathroom (which has since been trouble free, hurray!). Sadly this made no difference to the clicking. As 1 of them is in my bedroom I'm being woken up very early every day .

Please, please could someone help me get a good night's sleep again. Thanks!

 

[croydoncorgi]

I wouldn't categorise leaving the filling lop in place as evidence of 'bad fitting'...
However, ticking and clicking from rads might be. It COULD be expansion noise from the pipes, and nothing to do with the boiler.
Is it continuous, all the time heating is on? just as it heats up / cools down?
If the latter, fixing it may be tricky - it's very likely due to pipes moving as they go through / across joists, etc, under floors.

 

[Jackie0402]

Hi, thank you for getting back to me!

Apparently leaving the filling loop attached meant that water (and impurities - I'm in London!) was seeping into the system. The pressure was always up to 3.5+ and the overflow dripped constantly. All of which combined to kill my hot water! The rads were all wonderfully silent yet hot for the entire time this was going on!!

The two rads click/tick/tap from the moment the heating is switched on until it's switched off (either by timer or manually). Turning the temperature down to zero on the individual rad (with those little white knobs, I've not got thermostat ones) will stop the noise but defeats the object! The noise is coming directly from the rads themselves, not the walls, floors, etc if that makes any difference, and all the others are behaving themselves.

Thanks again

 

[oilman]

It's the thermostatic radiator valves that are making the noise, I suspect. They may be in the wrong way round, or have not been set correctly. What make are they? What type?

 

[Jackie0402]

They're not thermostats, just those little white knobs. I've got them at both ends of every rad. They've all got "Stella" on them, plus and minus signs with an arrow between, and what could be a picture of a person pouring water like an Aquarius symbol, if that makes sense!

Many thanks for getting back to me!

 

[zagi0]

im with croydoncorgi on this one expasion when the pipes heat up cheapest advise is buy some ear plugs or start lifting floor boards

 

[oilman]

Are the lockshield valves adjusted correctly?

 

[Jackie0402]

What would suddenly cause the pipes to expand to the point where they get noisy while the heating is on ? They were silent before. Does this mean its only a matter of time before all my radiators start making the same noises ? Can I prevent this?

I guess I may have to resort to earplugs (I've got noisy neighbours too!) except that I need to be able to hear my alarm/kid/fire alarm...

Hi Oilman, what are lockshield valves and how should they be adjusted?

Many thanks

 

[oilman]

Search the forum for lockshield valve and balancing radiators, alternatively search the web.

 

[croydoncorgi]

I interpreted 'left on' to mean 'attached' - which is common enough. I guess you meant 'switched on' - which is unlikely to be anything to do with the installer (much more likely previous tenant / owner) and VERY likely to have damage the boiler and possibly the rest of the system. Left at high pressure (3.5 Bar - ouch!) the boiler pressure relief valve is now probably leaking permanently until it is reseated / replaced and the constant flow of new water through the system may have filled up pipework with limescale and rust - all depends how long the loop was running. There should be a valve on the filling loop specifically to prevent backflow from heating into the mains water. If that's missing, it needs immediate fixing.
Before you waste time trying to adjust something that's in fact broken, do the following:

- bleed air out of the rad that's cold at the top. When water starts to come out of the air vent check what colour it is. Clear - maybe OK, black / dark coloured - potential problem, brown coloured - immediate problem caused by open filing loop.

- repressurise system TO PRESSURE OF 1 Bar ONLY using filling loop. Does pressure stay up over several hours? Is there a drip from the overflow?

On the evidence, if this problem suddenly happened it's quite unlikely that adjusting rad valves will fix it.