Best Of

On a final note, I will admit that I really like having that nice, WARM, radiator next to me in the morning, and not sure how I will feel about a much cooler one (even if it keeps the house at the desired temperature). :)

Then you'll probably be pretty unhappy with a heat pump.

I'm also thinking your expansion tank is too small. Those gravity systems have a LOT of water.

Well there's at least 7/16 closer you can get. I second what Jamie said just above about the possibly dropped pipe

@Tom_133 I hear! I feel your pain!

Try to have this next conversation in the kitchen

I tell the customer that the “new noise” was always there, but their old heater was so noisy, they didn’t hear it. Now that the new heater is much quieter, and much more efficient and going to cost them a lot less to run. They’re just gonna have to live with a little bit of noise that they always had that they just didn’t hear before because the old heater was too noisy

Then I say something like “did you just hear that“? When they say no, I just say “oh you must be used to it“. Of course they’re going to ask what it’s about. Then I reply “the compressor on your refrigerator just started.” Since I’m not used to your refrigerator, I can hear it. But since you’re used to it, you probably don’t even notice it. That’s the way the noise that you hear from the heater is going to be in about a month. won’t even notice them.

if you still hear them in a month, give me a call, and I will give you a price for tearing the floors up and placing isolators on all the pipes that goes through a joist, a rafter, a ceiling, or a floor. That can really get expensive, so see if you just get used to the noise after you get your next gas bill or oil bill for energy that you did not use

I close with “ did you hear that?” Your refrigerator compressor just stopped!

for the next few days, they will be able to hear their refrigerator compressor cycle on and off along with the pipe noise from the heater

EDIT: if using this story gets you paid on a problem customer job, you can send me 2% for a collection fee. Just PM me for my CashApp account number.

I see it exactly as the points above! The only caveat I will throw out there is that many (not all) of my customers are kinda pretentious, know it all jerks who feel plumbers are thieves and liars. For instance let's say you get a job to swap a boiler for someone. Within a few days, you typically get a call back that it makes a noise they aren't use to. So you go there and they tell you "my old, (terrible and dangerous) system never made noise" (it did, I heard it). Then you explain as nicely as you can "its pipe expansion where the copper goes through the floor and rubs on the wood". They dont care they just want you to fix it. Even after you explain its not from anything you did they still want it fixed. Sadly people lack many things today, patience, aptitude, and common sense to name a few. Believe me I fall into those categories a lot of times so not throwing stones in a glass house, but it is hard to fix something that may cause other issues, or in this case look something up for someone when you haven't been trained, or you dont care and there isn't much of a carrot for you.

Society needs a reboot. Sadly I think it's going to get worse before it gets any better.

But why would you want to?

I'm not inferring that anything you said isn't true. Two pipe systems require much smaller diameter piping, so if a two pipe system is converted to a one-pipe system, the piping will generally be too small, tremendously increasing steam velocity. The system wouldn't work properly. If this has been done, and pipe sizes are incorrect, you failing vents may be one symptom of the problems that modification caused.

And yes, if vents are mistreated, some can fail in hours while others hang on for months. There are many variables- with the vents and with different radiators and positions in the system.

You are speaking to many industry experts here who are selflessly trying to help you. They deserve your respect. Without some photos, it would be difficult to assess your current conditions. I do make my living designing this stuff.

Exactly what @long beach Ed said. I couldn't agree more. You most likely have condensate slamming the air vents because they can't get past the incoming steam that is being supplied now with the undersized supply feeds. I doubt that the manufacturers are sending out bad vents. It's more like your system is the problem.