hot water system whining noise

[jimbox]

This morning we were awoken at 5:10 by the hot water system making a whining noise. (Well to be precise I was awoken by my wife whining about the heating system making a whining noise!)

We have a wall-boiler and the hot water system is an indirect one.

At this point only the hot water system was running, not the heating, and had been on about 20 minutes. I was unable to tell if the noise was coming from the boiler, or something in the loft (the pump and mid-position actuator are in the loft). When I opened the window next to the boiler it didn't sound any louder, so I don't think the noise was coming from the flue.

I turned off the hot water and the noise stopped, when I turned it on again the noise started again pretty much straight away, though initially the noise was intermittent. However, when I put the heating on there was no noise, so I tried it with the heating and hot water on together and again no noise... well at least not until the wife woke me up again at about 6:30 complaining about it, though this time it was not as loud.

Any suggestions appreciated (for fixing the hot water system... not the wife!)

 

[kevplumb]

We have a wall-boiler

very helpfull

 

[Nige F]

Pump.....water level in feed tank..

 

[jimbox]

We have a wall-boiler

very helpfull

fair point! I was rushing to type it all in before I went to work sorry... it's a fan-assisted balanced flue boiler.

 

[jimbox]

ok well I fired up the hot water system again and the noise started again after about 15 minutes. I have been up in the loft and the noise does not appear to be coming from anything up there (the pump, actuator, air vents). The feed tank is full as is the expansion tank (no water running into the expansion tank).

The noise appears to be coming from the boiler, or the pipes leading out of it -- kinda hard to pin-point since the pipes are carrying the noise somewhat.

The noise starts and stops at times but this does not seem to be related to when the boiler fires.

I turned down the boiler temperature a bit this morning, but that doesn't seem to have made any difference.

 

[jimbox]

I turned on the heating again and almost immediately the pitch of the whine increased, then faded out after about 5 seconds.

 

[jimbox]

any help on this would be appreciated! it would be nice to get some sleep tonight!!

 

[gasmarkone]

Hi jim, we're all dying to know if your boiler has a name. You see is it copper or cast iron or stainless steel or aluminium heat exchanger? Is it new, or primary school age, or a teenager [won't be as old as me!]. I reckon it might be some 'debris' [cr*p to be technical] in the boiler. Boiler noise is difficult from here, some noise is to be expected from old boilers. Lots of reasons, you might have to contribute to paying someones mortgage to find out!

Mark

Milk, no sugar ta.

 

[mmalone]

sounds like a bottle of descaler may be required !!

 

[jimbox]

halstead best 50, which I believe has a cast iron HE. No idea of age.

everytime the landlord sends his "men" round to do something with the system (recently it was banging loudly and the rads wern't getting warm) there is a little pile of rust on the floor underneath it, and as far as I know last time they drained the system they didn't put any inhibitor in it.

I guess I will have to call the landlord, just wanted to see if it was something simple I could fix.

 

[Agile]

Now after all this we know what the boiler is and that there is a Landlord who is responsible for all the repairs!

Make sure he employs a CORGI engineer who has a CORGI photocard to show you.

Tony

 

[Nige F]

You`ve heard of CORGI...............now meet LASSIE..........Landlords Assist Scheme by Slightly Informed Engineers.......we`re stupid enought to give free advice to Landlords who should PAY FOR IT As 1st founding member I table motion that we should ask the question of all posters........landlord or genuine DIY`er

 

[Agile]

No, the question is Tenant or Owner.

An Owner can either be an occupier or landlord.

Tony