banging pipes

RickE

We have an old steam heat system that was heated by an oil burner. Occasionally when the water level was off we would have banging pipes. This summer we converted to gas heat. Most of the piping and the radiators remain the same. Now whenever the system comes on we get loud banging. We have had the installer back twice, but nothing seems to change. Why do we have the banging now when we didn't before and how can we get rid of it???

BobC

Probably water hammer

Your new boiler is probably producing more steam a lot faster than the old boiler did. That is probably exacerbating whatever problems you had before. Read through this link and see if anything seems familiar.



http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/132791/Whats-with-the-water-in-the-bottom-of-my-radiator-Yet-Another-Clanging-Hammering-Scenario



Can you tell what pipe or radiator seems to be the worst? All the piping should be slightly sloped so the condensing steam can find it's way back to the boiler.When exactly does the noise start? Just as the pipes start to heat up or after it's been hot for a while. Is the water in the sight glass bouncing up and down a lot?



What is the boiler pressure running at? It should be below 2 PSI. Take some pics of the boiler and the near boiler piping above and behind it so we can see if the install was done correctly. You can attch those pictures to your reply.



Bob

jpf321

not enough info which is clear .. please send pics

what do you mean when you say "the water level was off" .. i'm not understanding..

what do you mean when you say "converted to gas" .. did you simply change the burner and keep the old boiler? did you install a new boiler?

what do you mean when you say "most of the piping" are you implying that you now have new near-boiler piping but all the other piping was left seemingly intact?



what was the Normal Water Level (measured from the floor) of the old(?) boiler? what is the Normal Water Line now? do you have any "return" pipes joined ABOVE the waterline now?



when I installed my new boiler, i had to drop down a joined return otherwise it would have been above waterline .. and this would have been a problem. look around the pipes at the FAR end of your overhead mains .. see if you have 2 pipes horizontally connected but dropping down into a water return and ABOVE the waterline .. for that matter, perhaps your entire "what used to be wet" return is now dry.



as was stated earlier today, usually the symptoms fo a steam issue are not in the same room as the problem.