Heating system is so bloody loud - I’m at my wits end!

[ChocolateBiscuit2]

I’m hoping someone has some advice, we have a fairly old heating system - one with a water tank in the airing cupboard, it used to have a cold water tank in the loft but this was capped off (?) recently.

The whole system is crap anyway, we run out of hot water after one shower, radiators don’t get hot enough in two rooms - air is constantly trapped in the system causing loud bangs etc. We have to bleed all radiators every month. We’ve spent hundreds on various pumps being fixed, system cleans or whatever they are called etc. and it sorts itself out for a few months before the next winter when it creates some new issue. Last winter we spent about £1K on various fixes as the heating totally stopped working and I was about to bring a newborn home. I’m about ready to set fire to it and it’s crappy microbore pipes 😂.

Anyway it’s always been quite loud-ish when the heating is on, but the last year or so it’s ridiculous, there’s a constant low rumbling which sounds as though there’s a car idling on the driveway. It’s driving me absolutely insane. I’m wondering if anyone has experienced this before, and knows how to stop it?

also please someone tell me a combi boiler would be absolutely fine for a house with 2 bathrooms 🤞🏻🤞🏻

the only way to stop is to replace at this point op

has it had a recent service?

OP you started a thread about your worry about radiation fro m your WIFI router!!!!

Agree it needs replacing, I’m just worried we’ll spend money replacing it all and still have the noise 😂

Yes it was serviced about 6 months ago which it had yet another issue ☹️

Its bizarre because every gas man/plumber who looks at it says what a good brand the boiler/water tank is and they wouldn’t change it until it’s not able to be repaired, they wouldn’t get a combi instead etc. but surely this level of breakdown and cost of fixing it is ridiculous!

they wouldn’t get a combi? how odd.

is this multiple engineers that have said this to you?

and of course you wouldn’t get the noise if you replaced. I never hear my heating system!

Sorry, you’ve lost me! I’ve not started a thread on that - unless I’ve really lost the plot. Is this a joke that’s gone over my head?! 😂

Get a combi!
I have a gas combi boiler that runs 10 radiators over three floors, and has capacity for more. I have an electric shower which is more efficient than running it off the boiler. Some bits of the heating system is coming up to 40 years old and still ok. There is the odd knock as it heats up and I have to bleed the radiators occasionally, maybe once a year. I do have the boiler serviced every year.
The boiler unit has a fan that does sometimes rattle but a swift thump on the side sorts it out.

what you’ve described sounds a thoroughly unpleasant way to live in your home

What?!

wrong thread!!

I know! I feel like banging my head against the wall. A few have said they wouldn’t recommend a combi in a house with more than one bathroom, which makes me anxious to change to one in case it’s not powerful enough.

oh hopefully we wouldn’t get any noise too 🤞🏻 that’s reassuring to know, thank you

I have a combi that heats 4 bedrooms and 3 reception rooms fine and runs two bathrooms.

It's absolutely fine. I'd definitely go for it.

...to add, I only have one bathroom, the kitchen and a utility room that have hot water taps. I am sure there are boilers that will suit your needs.

@DappledThings thats good to know, thank you. Any experience with a combi with microbore pipes?

that was the reason we were told two rooms don’t heat up properly, worried changing to a whole new system could make it even worse

yes, combi boilers are very efficient and absolutely fine for two bathrooms. You will never run out of hot water with a combi boiler. And no need for an electric shower - gas is much cheaper than electricity.

Sorry, I don't know. I've never heard of them.

We had similar, likewise small gauge pipework, but upstairs we also had those old fashioned 70s radiators where both pipes (in and out) were at the same end through the single hole in the radiator. We changed our boiler, had the system "power-flushed", installed a magnet thingie, but the system still made a racket and constantly needed bleeding.

What finally solved it for us was replacing the one ended radiators. It's a pain because the floor boards have to come up to lay one pipe per radiator across to the other end of the new radiator, but it's been a miracle cure. The entire system is virtually silent now, just a kind of "hum". We barely need to bleed anymore either - usually just the one which is the first of the upstairs ones closest to the boiler feed, and that only needs bleeding maybe once a year.

We have a combi with micropore pipes and no problems at all.

You really need to find a better engineer OP

@spearthatbroc i agree! I seem to attract several bad ones 😂

@user1497207191 ah brilliant, thank you for this!!

We had similar issues develop in our heating system, which is a similar set up to yours by the sound of it. It's problem was sludge in the pipes that were under the concrete floor downstairs. Being the lowest point, any muck and debris made it's way there and began causing restricted flow, pump failures, odd noise, cold rads in some areas.... This probably isn't what you want to hear, but we had to have all the ground floor piping replaced to fix our ongoing problems. Has been very good since. I think, from memory, we spent about £4k on that work. But I did do some of the prep myself, and that was probably getting of for 15 years ago.

@DRS1970 thank you - it’s good to know all different ideas of what it could be.

I’ve been wondering anyway at what point do you know you need to replace all pipes rather than just the boiler.

Luckily most of our downstairs is suspended floor so would be slightly easier. How did you find out that was the problem? What tests did they do to find it? Just so I know what to ask for if it gets to that point!

For us the decision came after it was power flushing didn't resolve the worst of the bulk of the problems. To have done nothing would have meant another pump in a couple of months, and another condensing coil in the boiler blocked - which is very expensive to replace. GL

What do the gas men / plumbers want you to replace your boiler with ?

I had a combi boiler put in years ago to a 4/5 bedroom house, semi detached so outside walls on 3 sides of house, 3 reception rooms, 1 kitchen, 1 bathroom, 1 en-suite, 1 cloakroom, very large hall, landing - all had a radiator or indeed 2 in the biggest rooms.

Often there was 1 adult, 4/5/6 teenage girls and a child. We never ran out of hot water.

It depends on the details of your system.

Combi boilers are better in you have limited simultaneous hot water demand. So think never wanting two showers at once, not turning on the sink to fill with hot water at the same time as showering. As a result they work better in smaller houses.

If you have an unvented cylinder (as you may have if you have microbore pipe as that indicates a modern system) then they are pretty much looked on as the gold standard in hot water supply, so few heating engineers would recommend replacing them in houses with high hot water demand (2 bathrooms), especially if you have a good quality installation.

Basically you have to rely on the opinions of professional heating engineers that have looked at the entire system. Not a few randoms on the internet who have never looked at your system in its entirity or have expert knowledge.

That said, the problems you report do sound strange and I would hope any capable engineer could get to the bottom of them fairly quickly, but without probably getting extensive details and seeing the system it is hard for people to do remotely.

For example if your system was an upgrade from a vented cylinder to an unvented one that could explain it. The extra pressure of the hot water could be causing issues with the distribution pipework. Another possibility is that someone ran the system for a long time without inhibitor in the CH loop and the system is clogged up with all sorts of nasty stuff, leading to airlocks, pump failures and flow jamming. But I suspect the only way you will get to the bottom of it is to get a capable heating engineer in to look at the system and figure out what the problems are.