Loud ticking sounds in corner fin tube

Patchogue Phil_2

One of the bedrooms is a corner room.  Two outside walls both with fin tube (10' and 12') that connect at a 90* elbow inside the enclosures.  When the heat turns up,  that corner is very noisy with expansion ticking.  Sounds like someone is playing drums on the copper.  Wakes up everyone,  even in the next bedroom.



Perhaps the two runs are "fighting" each other during expansion?



Is there a better way to make the 90* turn?  Maybe with a loop-de-loop of PEX that can absorb the expansion w/o noise?

billtwocase

either

someone jammed things together and soldered when installed, or you are missing the plastic cover that sits on the bracket inside the baseboard. 

Ron Jr._3

Agree with Bill

What kind of baseboard ? Some have plastic brackets that sit directly on top of the steel cover supports . Some have plastic that run the full length of the elements . I'd look into expansion couplings though . Alot easier to pipe in baseboard than looping pex ( good idea BTW ) .

Patchogue Phil_2

Expansion couplings?

Hi Ron



Do you know any expansion coupling brand names that I could google?



The loop of pex might not be able to be tight enough w/o kinking and still fit within the fin tube covering.   However the corner cover piece might hide it better.



I'm pretty sure I have standard residential Slant Fin,  circa 1960/1970 era?  with wrap-around plastic strap insulators that sit on the bracket "shelf".

Ron Jr._3

Funny thing

I'm finding is it's a pretty scarce item online . Slant Fin shows what's called a " Hydro Tite " expansion fitting in their .pdf file for installing baseboard . But I can't find any data on it . In the past I've seen some that look like copper accordions . Maybe I'm using the wrong phrase in searching for it  .........  



Tell me if you have any luck . My sister has the same problem in her home .

Steve_210

supply

most local supply houses should stock expansion couplinks. siox chief mabey

Patchogue Phil_2

copper accordian

I have an extra one of those corrugated "accordian" copper tubes.  Used one to zigzag around an obstacle that would have been impossible to sweat fittings.  PEX wasn't invented yet back then.



Yep,  I am not finding those slantfin expansion couplings for sale online anywhere.  I'll have to go to blackman I guess .

billtwocase

those

are pretty rigid, and I don't think that will help, unless it's not a perfect 90 degree corner, and the current set-up is creating a pressure point against the covers, etc. I still say cushion it somehow. Pull the covers off, and see what's going on in there

Steamhead

Does your system

have outdoor reset? If not, you could be hitting that corner with very hot water all of a sudden, and that would aggravate the noise......

Patchogue Phil_2

You are

right.  The initial slug of hot water exasperates the problem.   But there were solutions for this before the invention of outdoor reset.

Steamhead

Yeah, but

reset is a proven fuel-saver too.

icesailor

Clicking:

When you take the covers off, you should be able to slide the element from left to right, easily. The hole that the risers should be large enough for expansion to come forth. On both ends. Do the covers easily click on? If not, the elements were improperly installed.

I make my riser holes a minimum of 1 3/8" in diameter so there is pleanty of room for expansion. Where I have run into problems like you describe is when after running through a sub floor, and leaving a spacer to keep the riser where I want it, some carpenter that can't measure properly, drills his hole in the flooring and when it doesn't fit, they make my pipe location, fit their hole. I have tools that I can use to enlarge the hole so the element is free to move around on the brackets. Also, if it is Slant-Fin, their bottom brackets plastic slides are available and should quiet things down.

ScottMP

clicking

1) The answer is fixing the baseboard, check the glides as others have mentioned.

2) Pex expands more than copper and would create more of a issue.

3) Reset with lower temperatures would quite it down but not eliminate it.

4) Expansion joints leak and corrogated flex connectors break over time from being worked back and forth,

Open the cover and turn up the heat ... you'll find out right away where it is and then correct it but either putting the element back where it belongs, putting back the plastic glides or create your own glides with rubber gasket material.