Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Noisy radiators

12 replies

sleepcrisis · 28/10/2013 08:06

Hi, wonder if anyone can help.

We have just set our heating to come on T 5 am. Cue DS waking for the day at 5 am. This morning DH lay by his cot for an hour trying to get him back to sleep and he says the rad in there is really loud. We're gutting and replays teeing in there next month so wonder if it is worth getting a new rad?

Or is there something we can do to the existing one? It's a stAndard aluminium panel. We just had new steel column rads downstairs and whole system was checked and bled so I think the problem is in the radiator itself? Or is it the pipes, in which case nothing we can do? It's just very clicky verging on banging, near constantly.

Thanks in advance

OP posts:
sleepcrisis · 28/10/2013 08:07

Eek typos! That shld say re plastering!

OP posts:
MrsBennetsEldest · 28/10/2013 08:09

Sounds like the radiator needs bleeding. You need a radiator key to release the air in it.
Piglet will be along to explain better than I.

sleepcrisis · 28/10/2013 08:15

Hmm, like I said the whole system was checked and all rads bled just last week. We'll try again though, everything worth a try!

OP posts:
Clargo55 · 28/10/2013 09:34

It could be the pipes rubbing on something when they heat up. Our kitchen pipes do this as they expand and rub on the joists. Not a problem but can be annoying.
Or I would second the bleeding that radiator. Really easy to do, you can pick up a radiator key in any DIY store.
You just turn the key to let the air out and turn it back off when a bit of water comes out.

Pinkje · 28/10/2013 12:45

I'm being nosy but why so early with the heating?

Clargo55 · 28/10/2013 12:49

I have had mine on for months. If we do not we get really bad damp. After spending 10k plus on other things its the only one that works.

Pinkje · 28/10/2013 12:50

Oh, I meant early in the morning (not time of year: have also had the heating on since beginning of September, it only comes on 30 minutes before we get up though).

sleepcrisis · 28/10/2013 13:13

Well, the timing is for several reasons. One, when DS was a baby he used to wake early because of the cold and I'm forever trying to enhance sleep potential (he's a sleep nightmare). Secondly, we used to find that if it came on at 6 the noise would be more likely to wake him because he'd be in a lighter sleep. Obviously making no difference this year. Thirdly, it's a cold old house and I find that time of the morning freezing. I'm pregnant and get up for a wee around then. If I'm too cold I can't get back to sleep.

Anyhow, In the interests of more sleep all round I have just changed the timer to come on at 645 tommorrow. I'll wear extra layers and put a vest on DS!

OP posts:
PigletJohn · 28/10/2013 13:53

if it is a clicking or ticking noise it will be expansion of the pipes or radiators as they heat up, rubbing against whatever they contact. This noise will only occur while heating up or cooling down.

Nudge the radiator from side to side while it is clicking and see if the noise stops for a few seconds.

Steel radiators are now always delivered with U-shaped plastic inserts to go between their support strips and the wall brackets, which slide silently. Some ignorant or lazy plumbers do not know what they're for, or don't bother fitting them.

You say you have aluminium radiators, which from memory will expand more. I would hope they also have some kind of silencing inserts. If you ask the manufacturers they will say. To fit inserts the radiator has to come off the wall which is somewhat tiresome but, for a single radiator, can be done without draining the whole system. You would need a plumber. It is not gas work so doesn't need a boiler engineer.

If it is the pipes expanding under the floor, they usually tick faster but only for 15 seconds or so. being small they heat up fast. That would mean taking up the floorboards and shaving away the joists where they rub, or packing in felt to slide on.

If the pipes are in a concrete floor and have not been sleeved, it will be much more difficult.

Another possibility, if you have TRVs, is that they have been fitted the wrong way round, and are chattering against their spring. This only happens when the room is up to temperature and the valve is starting to automatically close. You can detect that because if you turn the valve slightly up, or slightly down, the noise will stop until the room reaches the temperature of the new setting. Modern TRVs are often bidirectional so can easily be fixed.

sleepcrisis · 28/10/2013 21:07

Thanks so much piglet John. I'm pretty convinced its the rad not the pipes as it goes on for about 20mins while heating up and again while cooling down. This particular one is really loud, the others in the house are ok. I'll call our plumber and ask him about inserts. The rad is really old, probably 15-20 years if that's possible? I know nothing else in that room has been touched in as many years at least. So maybe it never came with these silencing inserts... Our new column rads downstairs are totally silent.

Thanks again for all the advice

OP posts:
mlone · 23/01/2020 18:18

I have two Carisa Motion Aluminium radiators, beautiful to look at but irritate with the expansion/contraction noise while heating up/cooling down. It is the radiators and not the piping. Just wondering if all aluminium radiators suffer from this and if not, why these and what might be the solution!?

PigletJohn · 23/01/2020 19:16

@mlone

see post Mon 28-Oct-13 13:53:57

New posts on this thread. Refresh page