Terrible Steam Radiator Clanging

Sleepless_in_New_York

First of all, let me say that I know absolutely nothing about heating systems, let alone old, steam radiators.  I've never lived anywhere without central heat, but now that I've moved to an apartment in New York where landlords are forced to heat apartments to set temperatures, I'm stuck with a radiator.  I didn't really think much of this, however, until the heat came on for the first time this weekend.  Not only is my apartment uncontrollably hot, but the radiator and a heating pipe running from the floor to the cieling in the other room are making the most insanely loud, clanging noises.  For ten minutes of every hour or so when the heat comes on, it sounds as if someone is standing in my room with a hammer just beating it against the radiator and the metal heating pipe.  I literally haven't slept in days.  At first, I thought my landlord was doing construction on the outside of the building, it's that loud!  I called him to tell him what was happening, and he flippantly responded that he knew about this and that "the water must be getting stuck around the 2nd floor."  I live on the 3rd floor of a 4 story building.  He doesn't seem to bothered by this, but I also don't want to pay someone to come out who won't be able to access the entire system since they'd only have permission to do work in my apartment.  Can anyone tell me what is causing this, if there is anything I can do to fix it, or what I should be asking my landlord to do?  He said he had ordered something that would fix it, but he didn't say what and he promptly hung up on me before I could ask for more details.  Any help would be very appreciated - I just want to get some sleep.



By the way - should I be afraid that this is a sign of pressure building up and that the pipe running through my apartment might explode?

BobC

Water hammer

That racket is probably water hammer. It occurs when steam runs into a pool of water and collapses. read through the articles on this page -



http://www.heatinghelp.com/article-categories/16/Steam



The steam system operates around 2 PSI, and NY has very strict rules about safeties on boilers so you are not in any danger. The over heating could be controlled with a thermostatic control valve that goes onto the radiator to controll the steam in that room. Is yours single or two pipe steam?



Bob

jpf321

1-pipe or 2?

firstly, there is nothing that you can do to fix this in your apartment .. so don't even bother calling someone.

secondly, depending on the size of your building, to properly fix it at the source (boiler room/returns) could run into thousands of dollars



it is possible that it could be fixed by adjusting the pitch (angle which they lean) of some of the radiators in the building and this would cost close to nothing.



one question that I have .. can you see the piping on the radiator? does it have a pipe on each end going into the floor or only a pipe at 1 end? send us a picture of the rad and it's piping if you are confused .. heck send us a picture anyway.



what you are hearing is as BobC mentioned .. water hammer .. this is caused from a variety of problems that allow steam and water to meet. you are hearing the effect of that meeting .. there is absolutely no danger to you, but i have a feeling that your landlord may have it coming to him. there is also unfortunately, no landlord requirement to provide quiet pipes, unless you can somehow argue that it is a "noise complaint" caused by an outside source .. there are NYC rules about noise during certain hours and a 311 rep would be HAPPY to take a "noise complaint", whether you will see any action, is questionable, but your efforts may set a NYC precedent within the landlord/renter community if you feel like fighting hard enough.



i'm in Queens, not sure where you are .. I have access to resources in the NYC area to completely fix your building, but the landlord has to be onboard, it's as simple as that. if you have heat (not too hot, not too cold) but loud pipes, consider yourself at least halfway lucky .. many people are just trying to acheive comfortable heat without having to open the windows.



it's a shame that buildings in NYC and everywhere are in the state they are now in .. but they are .. and unfortunately, people lack the knowledge (first) and the money (second) to fix the problems properly and with certainty.