Radiator making a dripping sound

[joelpeyton]

I have a radiator making a dripping sound in the morning ( not leaking)when the heating comes on, is this just the expansion in the radiator or something else?

And if so how could I stop it from doing it

 

[crockett]

Is it a dripping or ticking noise ? It could just be the rad heating up. Have you attempted to bleed the rad ? Could be noise travelling along the pipe from elsewhere too

 

[spraggo]

I have a radiator making a dripping sound in the morning ( not leaking)when the heating comes on, is this just the expansion in the radiator or something else?

And if so how could I stop it from doing it.

The dripping sound is cuased by the copper pipes expanding with heat due to the pipes rubbing on the joists under the floor boards, the notches cut in the joists to run the pipes have not been cut either wide anough or deep enough. This usually rectifies itself over time. To cure the problem emmediately would require lifting the floor boards and locating the notch or notches cuasing the problem.

 

[andrewpattersonuk]

I know this post is quite old but I'm going to dig it up anyway as it's the most recent I can find on this subject. I moved into a new house a couple of weeks back and yesterday morning noticed the heating system started making a dripping noise. At first I thought it was a single radiator, but I've worked out the whole system was making the noise, you can hear it at any radiator. I searched all over the internet yesterday for a solution, everyone seems to put it down to expansion, but this REALLY sounded like a dripping noise. No loss of pressure, no water damage, no sign it was a leak. My boiler is a ideal classic fanned flue gas boiler lxff & ff, all radiators have thermostatic valves on. It's quite a big town house and we are only really living on the first two floors at the moment until we get unpacked so I'd turned off quite a few of the thermostatic valves. Last night I tried opening up every thermostatic valve in the house and turning up the main thermostat for 10 mins to let the whole system get flowing - and the dripping noise stopped. I've since turned down the main thermostat and left the thermostatic valves fully open, no return of the noise at the moment. I'm probably going to mess around with closing off a number of the thermostatic valves and let the system heat up and see what happens.

Two reasons for posting this: 1) I wonder if anyone else who has this problem finds the same; 2) Can anyone explain why this could have (temporarily?) stopped the dripping noise?! I've sort of got a theory that it may be a dodgy thermostatic valve somewhere and it's not fully shutting off and there's a trickle of water getting through causing the noise?! I'm not really qualified to come up with such random theories! Note I've also tried bleeding all the radiators, something recommended in other posts. I did not find any air.

 

[spraggo]

The dripping will be heard when the system is heating up (expanding) or cooling (contracting). Therefore this will occur just after the heating has been switched on or off or when a TVR opens or close.

 

[huwy123]

Did you ever solve this problem Andrew?
I've got the same issue in identical circumstances (i.e. townhouse, ideal classic etc)