noisy radiator in dormitory

[muffinman]

Hi there,

I'm a graduate student living in a school dormitory in Boston. The building I'm in is around 30 years old. The central heating system was recently turned on for the winter and a pipe behind a wall in my room has been making an incredibly irritating clicking noise ever since. The sound is irregular and intermittent.

The pipe looks like it sends hot water through the radiator that runs along the ground in my room. It can be accessed via a small hatch in my wall, as shown in the first picture below. The white casing on the ground in the back of the picture encloses the radiator. The radiator runs through my room and into my neighbors' rooms.

The second picture below shows a picture of the pipe behind the hatch, to which there seems to be attached two relief valves. Could these be used to bleed the radiator?

I'd greatly appreciate any ideas on getting rid of this noise. The maintenance staff in my building doesn't know what to do about it.

Thank you,
Pete

[paul52446m]

noisy radiator in dormitory

Hi there,

I'm a graduate student living in a school dormitory in Boston. The building I'm in is around 30 years old. The central heating system was recently turned on for the winter and a pipe behind a wall in my room has been making an incredibly irritating clicking noise ever since. The sound is irregular and intermittent.

The pipe looks like it sends hot water through the radiator that runs along the ground in my room. It can be accessed via a small hatch in my wall, as shown in the first picture below. The white casing on the ground in the back of the picture encloses the radiator. The radiator runs through my room and into my neighbors' rooms.

The second picture below shows a picture of the pipe behind the hatch, to which there seems to be attached two relief valves. Could these be used to bleed the radiator?

I'd greatly appreciate any ideas on getting rid of this noise. The maintenance staff in my building doesn't know what to do about it.

Thank you,
Pete

Those are bleeder valves. The are colored coded , one to forward bleed with pump on, the other to back bleed when pump is off. You really should ask maintenance to bleed them. Later Paul

[muffinman]

Thanks so much for the reply Paul. I'm surprised maintenance didn't know that. Judging by the picture, do you think I could do the bleeding myself? Would I need any special tools? And would it be safe?

Thank you,
Pete

[HayZee518]

there is a tag on a chain attached to one valve. and judging from what I see you have steam not hot water.

[muffinman]

The tag on the chain has instructions for installing a Venturi, along with "capacity curves" on the back that show GPM plotted against head loss. Is this related at all to the valves?

[paul52446m]

noisy radiator in dormitory

Hi there,

I'm a graduate student living in a school dormitory in Boston. The building I'm in is around 30 years old. The central heating system was recently turned on for the winter and a pipe behind a wall in my room has been making an incredibly irritating clicking noise ever since. The sound is irregular and intermittent.

The pipe looks like it sends hot water through the radiator that runs along the ground in my room. It can be accessed via a small hatch in my wall, as shown in the first picture below. The white casing on the ground in the back of the picture encloses the radiator. The radiator runs through my room and into my neighbors' rooms.

The second picture below shows a picture of the pipe behind the hatch, to which there seems to be attached two relief valves. Could these be used to bleed the radiator?

I'd greatly appreciate any ideas on getting rid of this noise. The maintenance staff in my building doesn't know what to do about it.

Thank you,
Pete

If there was air it should end up in the radiator and there should be a air bleeder there in the radiator. If the sound is coming from the pipe at times,
that could be the pipe creeping when it expanses. Sounds like the small valves by what you say might be for adding fluids. I would not mess with the valves. You can check the radiator for bleeders. Paul

[Stayouttadabunker]

It is very dangerous to mess around with scalding, hot steam in pipes.
On top of that pipe is a leaking valve as well.
Look at all the green color coming out of it.

You are in a school dormitory, I'm surprised that there isn't
a lock on that hatch.
You should not be in there at all.

Tell the school to call in a licensed HVAC technician to take care of it
as you are severely breaking liability laws.

[muffinman]

Thank you everyone for the responses. If the problem is indeed due to expansion and contraction in the pipe, would thermal and/or sound insulation help?

I'm going to stay away from doing any fixing myself, but it'd be great if I could bring some concrete suggestions to the maintenance staff.

Pete

[paul52446m]

» noisy radiator in dormitory

Thank you everyone for the responses. If the problem is indeed due to expansion and contraction in the pipe, would thermal and/or sound insulation help?

I'm going to stay away from doing any fixing myself, but it'd be great if I could bring some concrete suggestions to the maintenance staff.

Pete

The sound will come through the pipe, hard to stop. Try getting in-touch with
the management and see what that say. Paul

[Stayouttadabunker]

If the sound is coming from the pipes behind the hatch, then ask the maintenance if they could install some sound barrier insulation on the hatch door to help quiet things down.
If they won't, then kindly suggest to the school that you would a different, more quieter room to study in.
If your grades suffer, write a note to the professor your excuse is because you have the noisiest room on campus and are having a hard time getting sleep due to the inadequacies of the dormitory heating system and it's maintenance staff.
I guarantee you it will be copied and posted in the faculty break room.