Baseboard Heating Really Loud

Oliver_97

We recently moved into a new appartment, and the baseboard radiators have been making really loud noises, everything from slight ticking to loud knocking and popping, and even really loud shifts in the baseboard covers. I understand it’s probably something to do with expanding and contracting because it’s worse when the heat turns off but I’m not sure how to fix it.

The landlord hasn’t been very helpful, they just say it’s normal for it to make noise.

Intplm.

No. It is not "normal", the noises you are describing.
Does it sound like some one is shaking a piggy bank full of coins in the pipes?
Sounds like the system has air in it. The pictures show that you have hot water baseboard heat with zone valves at the fin tube elements.
A few more pictures. Of the boiler could help. My first thought from here is the system needs to be purged to get rid of the air.

JUGHNE

How hot does the pipe seem to get?
If you get near the boiler see what the pressure and temp gauge read, pictures would be good.
Do you have a thermostat in your apartment?
Are those wires connected to anything?

Oliver_97

It doesn’t really sounds like the pipes are full of coins, more a knocking/popping sound. It might be the metal fins clicking against the baseboard cover but the popping noises are likely air in the pipes.

Unfortunately I can’t see the boiler because it’s a large appartment building.

The pipe doesn’t seem to get too hot, I think I can put my hand on the fins when it’s on.

I only have one thermostat in the appartment.

And the wires came loose in that picture but when it’s working they are connected that that square thing which is the heater?

JUGHNE

That is a zone valve with the wires on it, typically your thermostat would open and close it as needed.
Turning the tstat up and down you might hear it operating.
Some are purposely designed to have a time delay, so wait possibly 2 minutes.

Oliver_97

Ok then yes that’s working fine, other than the wires being loose. They also rattle against something an make noise.

Keith M

When 100 feet of copper tube is heated 100F higher it grows in length just over 1 inch. It appears the brackets holding the element and cover do not have any provision for expansion/contraction. Contraction when it cools off.
It does not take much movement to make significant noise. This is why we use plastic cradles with our residential baseboard and Slide Cradle Hangers on commercial finned tube.
I suggest you get a creative contractor who can cut a couple of fins off to allow movement of the tube on the bracket and perhaps put a plastic slide between the bare tube and bracket to hold down the noise and prevent the bracket from wearing out the tube and causing a leak.
Just my 2 Cents.
Keith Muhlmeister
Slant/Fin Corporation

Intplm.

You can also try this just to get some idea of what's happening with the heat.

-Turn the thermostat all the way up.
-Allow the zone to come up to temp. Maybe give it about five min.
-Hold your hand on the bare pipe at the beginning of the heat loop but not on the fins.
-Then hold your hand on the bare pipe at the end of the heating loop.
If you can't hold your hand on the bare pipe at the end of the heating loop because it's getting to hot, you should have "heat".
This is just to get a feel for how things are working from the rooms you are in.

The rest might just be noise from poorly mounted radiators as mentioned above.

Jamie Hall

Try @Keith M 's ideas -- your description sounds more like expansion noises (and contraction noises!) than anything else. The plastic slides -- bits cur from a plastic milk (or water!) jug will work -- and may do the trick.

bink

I had what i call knocking in the pipes in one bedroom which was air in the system. I found that that loop was not using the air eliminator. Those noises will drive you crazy hope you can get this resolved. Could be expansion of the pipe hitting something when it expands.

Oliver_97

Is there a knob I should look for to try and release some air? Or would that be somewhere else in the building?

I was also wondering if it’s safe to just remove the baseboard radiator covers? We don’t really use that side of the room anyways.

nicholas bonham-carter

Taking off the covers (at least temporarily), would establish whether the fins are rubbing against the covers, or other support brackets.
It makes me wonder if in light of their tolerance of this problem, which some of your neighbors must also have; whether their maintenance of the rest of the system is lacking as well.
Is this rental a great deal?—NBC

DZoro

Yes there is a chance you may find vent tees at the end of some of the baseboards.
D

SuperTech

Thats really strange to see the zone valve right at the baseboard, I wonder if that is a contributing factor to the excessive noise, it's too bad we can't see the boiler.