Squealing steam heat

mchema

Toward the end of my heat cycle  I have this lovely Squealing noise screaming out of every rad in my house. The rads downstairs are worse than upstairs but regardless I wake up in the night to the annoying squeal!  It goes on for about 5 minutes.The pressure is at 1 psi. The squealing started when it got colder and the heat cycled longer to get the house up to temperature.



 In better news I'm having a steam specialist coming out to look at a few issues with our system and get things balance out next week. But is there anything else I can look at in the mean to that might quiet things so I can sleep through the night or should I just wait and have a few more nights of noisy rads.... 

gerry gill

toward the end of the cycle, or

AT the end of the cycle when the burner shuts down? as the steam collapses with the burner shut down, a vacuum forms which must be broken..if the only way to break the vacuum is with radiator vents they may whistle..main vents help with this..you may need to stand next to the boiler to determine if the squeal is after the fire shuts off..

jpf321

mine too

I've been meaning to address thisby working on rad pitch (or so I think) .. mine whistle is AT END after fire is down .. my pressure is never more than 6oz .. i have new main vents Gorton #2's .. i'll have to see if they squeal or suck .. it's not every rad but it is the ones where I know I have a pitch problem .. and by pitch I mean angle of sitting not musical pitch of the vents squealing.

mchema

HAHA

Well Gerry funny thing... You are the one coming to my home... and it's more like the last 15 min  of the cycle it's just really loud  the last 5 min.... I'm up listening to it know at 5:30am... not by choice... ugh... 



And no the burner is on... when all this hissing, squealing, spitting noise is going on... Once the systems tuns off all is quiet. Then about 30 seconds later there is a slight hisss that comes out which I'm assuming is the vacuum..

gerry gill

that sounds like bad vents.

you should hear air escaping as the system fills with steam..not loud, but if you listen hard for it you will hear it..then as the steam gets to the vent and it gets hot it should close off some times with a slight click..then all should be quiet..then you may hear the air vent open to break the vacuum once the steam collapses..if the air vent is heated (touch it) and its making sputtering,squealing, hissing, spitting etc noises, then that vent is usually bad..i say ususally because strange and bad things happpen when pipes are pitched wrong, are installed undersized etc..but assuming the pipes are okay, that would be bad vents..Loose or leaky valve packing nuts, and unions can give you those sounds too..that would apply to one pipe or two pipe steam.

mchema

I give up...

we will see what the verdict is come Tuesday... I have no clue... Maybe when we get all those main vents on life will change...