For the love of God make the rattling stop

[Mina131]

OK, I know there have been countless questions on the subject to rattling radiators and I doubt my radiators are any special but I cannot get the rattling to stop. Strangely enough it's so much worse when the heating is off (although that could just be because it's quiet) but not too bad when it's on. I have bled the radiators but no hissing sound. I have checked the pressure and when the heating is on it's fine (although 0 when it's off). Please help me, will you love you forever (oh until I actually get some sleep).

 

[gas4you]

Pressure should be just above 1 Bar when heating off and rads cold, around 2 Bar when rads hot.

Re-pressurise the system and hopefully you should find the noise stops

 

[Mina131]

Thanks so much for the reply, really appreciate it. Annoyingly though the pressure keep dropping to 0 when not in use. So am guessing am going to have to call someone in!

 

[gas4you]

Sounds like you have a leak on the system somewhere.

Any sign of water damage anywhere?

 

[swidders]

Where in manchester?

 

[Mina131]

I've checked the radiators and can't see or feel a leak. Had a look at the pipes near the boiler and nothing there too. (Although it was 3.30am and I was dismantling a cupboard....don't ask). Kind of sounds similar to someone else's problem who saw a leak coming from the safety valve (which I assume is the thing you turn to put more water in the system and if so I can't see anything). But apart from the rattling I don't have any other problems, in that I still get heat. What do you think?

 

[swidders]

I've checked the radiators and can't see or feel a leak. Had a look at the pipes near the boiler and nothing there too. (Although it was 3.30am and I was dismantling a cupboard....don't ask). Kind of sounds similar to someone else's problem who saw a leak coming from the safety valve (which I assume is the thing you turn to put more water in the system and if so I can't see anything). But apart from the rattling I don't have any other problems, in that I still get heat. What do you think?

Safety valve leads to a pipe that sticks out of the wall (acts as an overflow) -you're describing the filling loop

Leak may well be under the floor downstairs since not visible elsewhere. Ratttling most likely due to lack of water in system.

 

[Mina131]

Thanks so much. I will have a look this weekend. Isn't it strange, though, that the pressure is normal when the heating is on but drops to 0 when off? Or is that quite a standard problem? Kind of seems weird to me.

 

[regsmyth]

Well, when the heating is on, the pressure will rise, because the water is hot. When the heating goes off, and the water cools, the pressure drops.
As G4U says, normal (cold) pressure should be about 1, when the water gets hot, you'll notice the pressure goes up to about 2.
So as he says, you probably need to add water to the system to build up the pressure. Best to do it when the heating is off.
After doing this you might also notice that the pressure drops a bit when the heating comes on - because the valves open, and the pressure in the boiler gets lessened when it mixes with all the other (unpressurised) water.
Either way, it sounds like it needs topping up.

 

[Mina131]

Thanks very much although I think I didn't make the point very well!! (I was highly unclear!!) Sorry, what I meant was if I don't use the filling loop (thanks Swidders for clarifiying that!), then the heating is fine when on and within the appropriate pressure bars. However when off and I fill it to so the bar hits 1 bar after a while it drops and eventually to zero. So what I meant was it seems kind of odd to me that it moves when off but is fine when on. (Did that make any sense!!! I'm hopeless at this!)

 

[tj351011]

your best option for solving this problem is to call a heating engineer who will find the fault, repair the fault, and charge you a reasonable fee for his services and expertise and best of all you get a good nights sleep