The heat just came on last night for the first time in my new apartment (since I’ve been living here, anyway), and boy, is it LOUD! It’s an older, classic Chicago-style 12-flat with radiator heat, and I swear, last night it sounded like someone was performing construction tasks involving large, somewhat melodious hammers and random pianos dropping all over my apartment. I tried tweaking whatever valves I could find, but it didn’t seem to have any lasting effect.
Now I’ve lived and/or stayed in plenty of other places with radiator heat (my mom’s place, notably), but never, ever experienced radiators anywhere near this noisy. I’m going to have to have a chat with my landlord, but I’d like to have a clue first. Is this something that will just be for a night or two, until the system gets going? Is it something that will involve some minor adjustment? Or is this possibly the sort of problem that will involve a new boiler or something, meaning I potentially have another major landlord/tenant battle on my hands?
Those sounds are caused by thermal expansion. Once the entire radiator has settled down ato a stable running temeparture, it should run quietly. This time of year, however, it’s not very cold, and the heat will only come on long enough to bring the temperature up to where the thermostat is set, then it will cool down and start over again. Newer radiators are less massive and don’t thump and groan like those super-heavy cast iron jobs.
Anecdotally, Q.E.D. speaks true. I used to work in a building with old steam radiators. They kicked up a fuss when the weather was changeable, but only occasionally in the colder months.
Could have been just warming up but it may also be air in the system. Some systems have manual vent valves, some have automatic vents. Some have standpipes to collect the air. After operating a while, some of the air will be swept out of the system and it will probably quiet down.
My experience with steam radiators is that you’ll need to open the rad’s valve full open while the boiler is running and endure the noise. Once the boiler shuts off, the water that’s causing the banging in the rad will drain back down, and you should have reasonably quiet heat afterwards.
Some of the worst noise I ever experienced was when a room-mate decided they were warm enough and closed a radiator valve while the boiler was on. The steam had nowhere to go once it cooled off, so it condensed back into water. The next time the rad was turned on, we were treated to howls and banging that made it sound like the building was going to be torn apart as the water and steam attempted to move past each other.