Got myself in an anxious state about radiators!

[AlltheJays23]

Am I being completely unreasonable and dramatic. My heating and boiler has been off for a good four or five hours now. The radiator in my bedroom is making a right racket! Its crackling and creaking. Almost sounds like running water but coming from inside the wall or the radiator but I think it's from the radiator. I've looked but can't see anything. Just the sound. I have OCD and I am melting down in case it's about to explode or there's a gas leak or my house is about to fall down. Jesus Christ. I'm about to get my child and go and leave this house. I am well and truly freaked out. Please someone help. I know this sounds silly and I'm a grown ass women but my brain clearly ain't right.

Oh for goodness sakes. People are entitled to an opinion. Stop being so dramatic , OP

It's good that you're getting help for your intrusive thoughts. My daughter has pure O and it's very debilitating. Sertraline can help

Ring a plumber at 8 and get them over to bleed your radiators

There is no gas in your walls

OP I have ocd and so does my daughter - I get you are over thinking things. Please ignore this poster as they don’t understand.
what you seem to be worried about is a gas leak. I thought you might find it helpful to know that gas does not go to the radiators - it just goes to the boiler itself. The boiler heats up the water and it’s the water which goes to the radiators. So no need to be worried about radiators leaking gas.
there are some ocd Facebook pages you might find it helpful to join these and ask questions as no one feels judged as you have to have ocd or have a family member with ocd to join.

Are you sure its the radiators? I've had this with the cold water system we had to run the taps to fix it

Considering your daughter has pure O I am shocked how unnecessarily kind you have been to the OP. There was no need for your comment accusing the op of being dramatic - you were basically telling the op off for writing something from the heart. The op is entitled to an opinion as much as other posters are.
The first thing that crossed my mind was - wow how do you treat your daughter with ocd. I suspect you have a sharp tongue with her too.

@IamfeelingSad thank you so much

Op, I would get your boiler serviced and when the plumber is there mention the radiators. Do you get your boiler serviced regularly?

You are very welcome 🙏

Op I can completely relate to your anxiety here. But that doesn't mean there's actually anything bad going to happen!

Try bleeding the radiators. I did this recently as one of mine was half hot half cold and I was sure it would build up with pressure and explode scalding water out every where ( I get very dramatic). Once they were bled they have been working fine.

I would get a service on the boiler and you could talk to them about the radiators then.
Will give you peace of mind.

Ring a plumber at 8 and get them over to bleed your radiators

You really don't need a plumber to bleed radiators! It's very basic DIY. For most modern radiators all you need is a flat head screwdriver. Even if you do need a radiator key, they're only a couple of pounds on Amazon or any hardware shop.

My radiators make all sorts of cracking, creaking noises and I also have the water rushing noises even with the heating off. Bleeding the radiators is definitely the first thing you need to try and it is easy to do yourself if you have a radiator key.

All rads need bleeding at least once during the heating season to keep them efficient, I always do ours at the start & all is ok for the complete season. If rads are half hot, half cold, that’s because they are full of air, they will always be cold in the top half, so when you start to bleed you will feel the hot water immediately start rising until a little tiny drop comes out the bleed hole Job done

I suffer with ocd and anxiety(i dont mean nervousness...its anxiety about what ifs). When stressed over worked tired i am like this..what ifs. Ive done what youve done..heard the trickling ,dripping etc. i was worried, i checked pipes, radiators. There wont be a gas leak...have u checked radiators for pin hole leak?. If not that its definitely air in system, so radiator key...or silt in the system... No danger to you OP.

OP ignore mean comments. Please continue to post and ask anything you want to ask.
I can’t comment much on radiators issues apart that I also think it’s about bleeding. If it’s an old house it contributes too.
I once thought that someone in the house so much noise our boiler produced. I came back from a walk with DD and switched on the heating. There was cracking everywhere suddenly but I didn’t connect it with the heating. I thought someone was upstairs so put my coat back on, Dd was still in a pram so easy to get her out and we run to a neighbour. I asked them to look after DD while I went back to check. It was actually the fist time she had a conversation with me as we just moved. She said straight away it was heating but I was quite inexperienced in all these (and a bit of postpartum anxiety as well ) Now I’m laughing about it but back then I was really scared.

Gas supply does not lead to your radiators, they are filled with water. So even if you had a gas leak, this would not result in any noise inside radiators. I am pretty sure the noise is not as bad as your OCD makes it out to be. While I appreciate some people encouraging you to continue mulling over the issue on here, I am sure you know that giving in to your OCD has the exact opposite effect to what you want.

Goodness leave the poor woman alone you have no idea what she is hearing. You are assuming because she has OCD she has made the sounds worse - shame on you. OCD gives your compulsive thoughts and actions it doesn't affect your hearing. She was basically concerned about gas pipes to radiators and has now been assured its just water pipes to radiators not gas - the fact she has mentioned her OCD seems to have been a signal to others to give her OCD advice which she was not asking for. No wonder people don't tell other people in real life they have OCD - it seems to be an open invitation to be critical of them.

Take no notice of the mean people. You can't help what you get anxious about! I've had very random anxieties about my house too.

My radiators often make odd noises, one in the bedroom I have to have over 3 or off or it makes a huge racket. Been like it for years and hasn't exploded yet! There's no gas in the radiators or pipes, just the hot water that's pumped around. Bleeding is worth a try, it's really easy if you google a YouTube video. Alternatively have you tried turning your heating off and in again? It's amazing what that randomly resolves 😂.

If it wasn't doing it before your boiler was serviced today and the above doesn't resolve it maybe ring the engineer and ask him about it

@IamfeelingSad @BettyBakesCakes thank you for your kind words xx

Probably expansion and contraction as it cools down. Only water and possibly air is within the system and it won't circulate while boiler is off.

I had my boiler serviced a month ago and no issue. My landlord is sending the plumber hopefully tomorrow to fix under my sink as it's leaking so I will ask while he is here to bleed the rads. Thank you to everyone who was so kind and gave me some reassuring advice. I know it's a nightmare when you've got someone like me constantly posting about my irrational worries. I will try to tone it down. Thank you everyone

OP you get to post whatever you want on mumsnet within the guidelines - if people do not want to read or respond to your posts that is their decision - but you should not feel like you need to tone anything down for anyone as they can just scroll past if they want to. People use mumsnet because it helps them - if its helping you than that's great. You do not need to apologise for feeling anxious and seeking support because that is exactly what most people do on mumsnet.