Very Noisy Heating Pipes

[Dawn2006]

Please could somebody help me. Without sounding OTT I am at my wits end with my heating pipes. The problems began when I had a new boiler installed in March this year. The make of the boiler is a valliant and the thermostat is an Eco-Tech, (which comes off the wall and can be controlled anywhere in the house).

When the heating comes on the pipes make a really loud tapping noise, (that at first I thought was dripping but after checking it is deffinately not) and it is that loud that it actually wakes you up in the morning.

I have tried:-

1. Renewing the pipes upstairs to 15mm from 10mm, (not personally).
2. Making sure the pipes are tied down correctly
3. Making sure the pipes are not tied down too tight.
4. Having the system drained and filled back up again.
5. Making sure there is no air in the radiator

but nothing has worked!

Things are made worse because of the thermosat as it comes on before the time that you actaully want it to so that it can get the house to the temperature that you want. (I.e if you programme it to come on at 7.00a.m. it will start to kick in at 6.00a.m. to get the house to the temperature which you have set). This then means that the tapping starts an hour before you are due to get up and wakes you up.

Please please please can anybody off er me any advice? No wanting to sound like a pathetic women I'm afraid I am on this occasion and really need help before winter kicks in.

I am now thinking of moving the radiator in my bedroom off the exterior wall as I thought this would be making the pipes even colder and therefore more noisier when the heating comes on and buying some tape that I have seen in B&Q that you wrap around the pipe - has anybody tried this.

Thank you very very much for reading this. Any help will be very much appreciated.

Dawn - Manchester

 

[philgee]

Can you identify whereabouts the noise is coming from?
Have you had any TRVs fitted to any other radiators? We bought a new house about 8 years ago, and when we first turned on the heating, we had a noise like a 2 stroke moped coming from the lounge rad - the TRV had the flow in the wrong direction. Simple fix - drain the system and turn the TRV round the other way. The TRVs in the house where we live now can be fitted in either direction, so this wouldn't be a problem here.
Other possible cause I can think of is pipes banging/rattling against one another. I had a problem years ago with knocking pipes. Ended up taking up floor boards and packing pieces of insulating foam between the pipes where they went through the joists.
Hope this helps!

 

[ChrisR]

It's usually pipes clamped to wooden floorboards and joists, intentionally or otherwise. They all should have felt or similar wrapped round them.

 

[Dawn2006]

Thanks very much for your help. I will try doing both suggestions this week and will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again,

Dawn

 

[DoItProud]

It could be that your new boiler is heating the water up more than your old one. Or more likely it is heating up the water faster. This is heating up the pipes and they are expanding more/faster than before. when a pipe has a bit of wood or plastic pressing against it there is a frictional force between the two. As the pipe expands the positive force of the expansion overcomes the frictional force and the pipe pings or ticks into a new position, the force of the expansion is then lower than the force of the expansion which continues to increase until it exceeds the frictional force again. You would hear something like tick tick tickticktick tick tick.. tick.. tick... and felt pads are the way to go if you can find where the pipe is contacting. good luck!

Alternatively, you could try turning the boiler down a bit, but if you have a two circuit system, where the water heated by your boiler heats the water in your cylinder you should ensure the thermostat on the cylinder is not set higher than the temperature of the water coming from the boiler or it will run continuously when the hot water program is on.

 

[Dawn2006]

Thanks very much Doitproud. That sounds like what it could be to me.

I know this is a daft question but............should I just wrap the felt around the pipe where I think the noises are coming from, (as it is usually in the same places) or should I wrap felt around the whole thing??

(P.S Have got quite good at ripping the floor boards up every time so thats something.....!)

 

[Dawn2006]

Wrapping socks around the pipes under where the joists are has worked!!!

No more tapping noises!!!!!

Yippeeeeeeeee.

Thank you for your help.

 

[philgee]

Bit of an extreme way to warm them, but hey, winter's on it's way!