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Hi.
We’ve had rather a lot of noise issues with our radiators since we had a new boiler installed. Our radiators other than 2 more recent ones are all over 30 years old.
When the boiler got installed in the middle of 2020, after the first few days, we had several loud airlocks each day. Probably up to 10 times in total until we got the plumbers round to sort it out. I can’t remember exactly what they did, but the air locks stopped occurring then. But what then was the case was that whenever the heating was on, the main radiator that must remain on all the time seemed to have a sound similar to a cold tap permanently running. That sound was amplified to the room above, unless the TRV on this radiator was either on 5 or totally off.
We got the plumbers back, and they then drained the system (not a blast out though) and added some Fernox F1 Protector.
This seemed to remove the issue I described with the sound like a tap was running, but introduced a whole load more.
The system clicks and bangs occur very regularly when the heating is on. It however is much more noticeable in my bedroom, but the noise is very similar in many other places in the house. It is not coming from the radiators, but they are what makes it more audible as upstairs all the pipes are under the floorboards. The F1 Protector I’m guessing caused some sort of chemical reaction. Every single day, loads of air / gas was generated and the radiators could be bled very frequently with more build up of whatever this was. The water was also very dark grey and smelt strong. We kept dealing with this throughout the winter ourselves and although the noise remained, the issue with the gas does seem to have gone now, probably because the radiators hadn’t been used this last summer.
Now, the clicking decreases when the heating is off at the boiler, but it still clicks or bangs randomly usually at least once an hour through the night. Sometimes it can be incredibly loud.
From what I’ve read, this now could be many things:
Boiler kettling – It seemed that F1 protector it supposed to help with this, but it seemed putting that in caused trapped air and other nasty reactions.
Expanding / shrinking pipes – This sounds like it could indeed be the case. As I can lift and move my radiator slightly and feel it rubbing in the hole in the floorboards, and I can almost create the identical sounds myself by doing this. However, the radiators and pipes have not changed since our boiler got replaced, so as that is the case, I can’t understand why this should be related. Our heating with our old boiler just bade a very quiet and consistent tinkling while on, and no noise when off.
Dirty pipes – While we had the F1 protector put in supposedly to clean the system, given the reaction it caused, it probably has made it worse. We don’t have air / gas in the system now and the water seems clean, but I obviously can’t tell what the pipes are like. I don’t believe it is related to the radiators now, as I can turn them off at both the TRV and other valve and the noise still occurs from the pipes.
As it is a new boiler with very old pipes and radiators, it is hard to know if a full system flush will solve this issue. I know that these radiators and pipes can be quiet, and nothing physically should have changed about them. Just likely to be something in them.
This clicking / banging has been irritating me so much that I’ve done rather a lot of recordings of it. So I can explain what it is better.
This first link below is actually from last year. This was during the day when I was at my desk. The microphone easily picks up me pressing a few buttons on my keyboard, but then it just sounds like a hard metal object hits the radiator hard. The radiator is nowhere close to my microphone, which just shows how loud it can be. This is a good example of what can occur in the night.
This next clip is close up to the pipe when there was an obvious reaction of some sort. You can hear what sound like fragments rolling around in the pipes, spitting, gurgling and then this clicking and banging begins. The gurgling has long since stopped, but the banging and clicking remains.
Number 6 was only from a few days ago when the boiler was on, but my radiator off. I’ve edited the recording and joined many of the sounds closer together. They sound similar, but can vary a lot regarding how far apart they are.
This is an awful lot of information, but I’m really stuck with what this is most likely to be, and what sort of people would know most about it and be able to sort it.
Many thanks.
We’ve had rather a lot of noise issues with our radiators since we had a new boiler installed. Our radiators other than 2 more recent ones are all over 30 years old.
When the boiler got installed in the middle of 2020, after the first few days, we had several loud airlocks each day. Probably up to 10 times in total until we got the plumbers round to sort it out. I can’t remember exactly what they did, but the air locks stopped occurring then. But what then was the case was that whenever the heating was on, the main radiator that must remain on all the time seemed to have a sound similar to a cold tap permanently running. That sound was amplified to the room above, unless the TRV on this radiator was either on 5 or totally off.
We got the plumbers back, and they then drained the system (not a blast out though) and added some Fernox F1 Protector.
This seemed to remove the issue I described with the sound like a tap was running, but introduced a whole load more.
The system clicks and bangs occur very regularly when the heating is on. It however is much more noticeable in my bedroom, but the noise is very similar in many other places in the house. It is not coming from the radiators, but they are what makes it more audible as upstairs all the pipes are under the floorboards. The F1 Protector I’m guessing caused some sort of chemical reaction. Every single day, loads of air / gas was generated and the radiators could be bled very frequently with more build up of whatever this was. The water was also very dark grey and smelt strong. We kept dealing with this throughout the winter ourselves and although the noise remained, the issue with the gas does seem to have gone now, probably because the radiators hadn’t been used this last summer.
Now, the clicking decreases when the heating is off at the boiler, but it still clicks or bangs randomly usually at least once an hour through the night. Sometimes it can be incredibly loud.
From what I’ve read, this now could be many things:
Boiler kettling – It seemed that F1 protector it supposed to help with this, but it seemed putting that in caused trapped air and other nasty reactions.
Expanding / shrinking pipes – This sounds like it could indeed be the case. As I can lift and move my radiator slightly and feel it rubbing in the hole in the floorboards, and I can almost create the identical sounds myself by doing this. However, the radiators and pipes have not changed since our boiler got replaced, so as that is the case, I can’t understand why this should be related. Our heating with our old boiler just bade a very quiet and consistent tinkling while on, and no noise when off.
Dirty pipes – While we had the F1 protector put in supposedly to clean the system, given the reaction it caused, it probably has made it worse. We don’t have air / gas in the system now and the water seems clean, but I obviously can’t tell what the pipes are like. I don’t believe it is related to the radiators now, as I can turn them off at both the TRV and other valve and the noise still occurs from the pipes.
As it is a new boiler with very old pipes and radiators, it is hard to know if a full system flush will solve this issue. I know that these radiators and pipes can be quiet, and nothing physically should have changed about them. Just likely to be something in them.
This clicking / banging has been irritating me so much that I’ve done rather a lot of recordings of it. So I can explain what it is better.
This first link below is actually from last year. This was during the day when I was at my desk. The microphone easily picks up me pressing a few buttons on my keyboard, but then it just sounds like a hard metal object hits the radiator hard. The radiator is nowhere close to my microphone, which just shows how loud it can be. This is a good example of what can occur in the night.
This next clip is close up to the pipe when there was an obvious reaction of some sort. You can hear what sound like fragments rolling around in the pipes, spitting, gurgling and then this clicking and banging begins. The gurgling has long since stopped, but the banging and clicking remains.
Number 6 was only from a few days ago when the boiler was on, but my radiator off. I’ve edited the recording and joined many of the sounds closer together. They sound similar, but can vary a lot regarding how far apart they are.
This is an awful lot of information, but I’m really stuck with what this is most likely to be, and what sort of people would know most about it and be able to sort it.
Many thanks.
