Two Grades of Sound (Water Hammer + ?)

bob young

is there a deep set-back of degree temp. on thermostat setting ? if not could be trapped or sagging lines with trapped condensate. get out your torpedo level.

B_3

Help Please - The Gunnery

Hi all, My lady and I recently moved into a freshly renovated basement Brownstone apartment in the 718. The apartment has it's own closed loop hot-water heating system that works like a charm. The rest of the building, however, is a steam system that has recently, ahem, fired up. Having lived in many steam buildings over the years I am accustomed to some background rattling, mild water hammer, what have you. There is certainly some of that in this set up.

Of far greater concern, however, is the cacophonous shuddering noise that occurs when his system first fires up. It seems to last for 50-10 mins and taper down in severity. The noise can only be termed as violent, literally shaking our floor et-all with bursts of concussive sound that seem to emanate from the boiler area below more than the lines leading up and throughout the building. Needless to say the noise makes it next to impossible to do much more than wonder if there is something seriously wrong with the boiler/system that we are perched atop.

Does this sound like aggravated water hammer? I believe the boiler for that system is new and the copper in the basement at least looks to be as well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-birch

Weezbo

That particular concatenation of observations ...

leads to a discussion that starts logically with, just what more would it take to operate the find a pro button on this site ? *~/:)

Steamhead (in transit)

It shouldn't bang or shudder at all

since it does, it's telling you something is wrong. This could be any number of things- pipes off-pitch, boiler oversized, etc. I'm assuming you live in or near New York City ("brownstone", "the 718")- there are plenty of good steam men in that area. Try the Find a Professional page of this site to locate someone near you.

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