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Plumbing

Noise in heating pipes and pipes to water tank

Anonymous user 28/02/2024 - 3.17 PM

Hello, I have moved to a new property with an unfamiliar heating system. I have a gas boiler for the heating and to heat a water cylinder in the loft. When the boiler starts of finishes for either heat the water tank or to provide heating, there is a banging noise in the pipes and sometimes in the radiators themselves. All radiators, upstairs and downstairs are uniformly hot and the water is also heated properly and the radiators (old cast iron with new-ish valves to regulate amount of heat from 0 to 5) do not seem to have any system to bleed air out of them. The noise lasts a while and then disappears until the boiler comes off. I have read other posts around but not sure if this fits completely (something wrong with the ball valve and/or the radiator valves perhaps?). Any suggestions of what the problem could be? Is there anything I could do before contacting a qualified gas safe plumber? Cheers

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1 Answer

Combigas

Rating: 5 out of 5
Bradford
As an heating engineer, these problems raise themselves from time to time. I read in the post that you recently moved into the house, and now find these problems. I would have thought that the last owner of the property would have had the same problem. But it is no surprise they didn't mention it. I wonder why? I usually conduct surveys on boilers and heating systems for prospective purchasers. This gives an independent view of the age and condition of the boiler, radiators and installation. Yes it is like buying a car, it is advisable before buying to get a survey or report on the cars condition and road worthy basics before spending your hard earned cash on the lemon. Yes there is an expense, but here's the rub. My clients usually get quite an hefty lump of money off the purchase price prior to purchase with the reports findings. Well worth the expense. But this is not helping your position now. My advice is do not try to remedy the fault yourself as without experience these types of faults are seldom just a one hit fix. It may require several actions. Example a full system flush. The radiators may require replacing. It may be that originally the system was piped up wrong, and has always had this fault. These open vented systems if not correctly installed can constantly draw air into the system via the open vent in the loft space. This usually results in some of the symptoms you have reported. One of the symptoms is the constant replacement of panel radiators as they all end up with pin-holes in from rusting from the inside. A big clue is that you said you had cast iron radiators fitted in the property. These due to their wall thickness don't rust through so quickly. Good idea that man. My advice is get an heating engineer in to fully assess the various problems. It will not be cheap but a lesson learned. Kind regards Combigas.
Answered28 November 2015
1