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How to stop loud clicking (popping?) sound in 2 second flr radiators, source is in the radiators.
I have a 100 year old house with steam heat. Single pipe to each radiator. The problem is that on the second flr, two of the radiators have loud clicks! as the radiators heat up. Maybe once every ten seconds. The source of the clicks is definitely inside the radiators, my ear was right next to them. It is not a vent based phenomena as I can remove the (new) vents and the clicks keep happening. The valves are fully open. There are no water leaks under the radiator. The radiator is pitched correctly down towards the pipe. The feet of the radiator can slide on the floor should there be slight expansion. Any ideas? Maybe I need to tighten the tension rods on the radiator? I very much hesitate to do that. thanks...
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Cut pieces of the plastic milk jug and put them under the foot of the rads.
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England.
Hoffman Equipped System (all original except boiler), Weil-Mclain 580, 2.75 gph Carlin, Vapourstat 0.5 -- 6.0 ounces per square inch
Overly fast ones may cause them to heat up so quickly as to make this noise.
Try slower vents just as an experiment.—NBC
It’s possible for aggressive radiator vents to allow steam in so fast as to close the vent before all the air has been pushed out.
If you had a radiator full of steam at the top, and the lower half full of air, that temperature imbalance could cause uneven and noisy expansion. If you don’t hear the clicking during cooling down, it’s because the temperature change is so gradual.—NBC
If I take a radiator apart, or in your situation the radiator is already assembled, I use a couple of nice big pipe clamps, top and bottom, to finish pulling the radiator together when it is cooled. You can really reef up on those puppies. Then I make sure the tension rod threads are clean -- the nuts spin easily by hand on and off. Then, with the radiator cold, I install the nuts hand tight (well, finger tight) and then take them up about a quarter turn to half a turn with a wrench. That's it.
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England.
Hoffman Equipped System (all original except boiler), Weil-Mclain 580, 2.75 gph Carlin, Vapourstat 0.5 -- 6.0 ounces per square inch
@davevarga Can you post a youtube video of the problem? That would make it much easier.