Banging/Clanking Noises in high rise steam system

ericwald87

I live on the 43rd floor of a high rise apartment building in NYC. The building has a steam boiler and in my apartment I have a two pipe fan coil system and a PTAC. There is a riser in between the two bedrooms. For many months we have been hearing loud banging or clanking noises for about 10 seconds at a time, sometimes as often as hourly when at night. We no longer use the actual heating system and the noise still occurs. During this period the building has changed the coils, steam traps, and other parts in hopes of fixing it but nothing works. Most recently they dropped the pressure on the boiler from 3.3 psi to 1.9 psi but it doesn’t seem to have helped. Their next idea is to replace the expansion joint because my floor has them and other units up and down in the line don’t complain about this issue. I’m skeptical that is the fix but we’ll see.

Can anybody please help us figure out how to get rid of these noises? We cannot sleep at night and we have a baby that also wakes up from the noise constantly.

Thank you!!

EdTheHeaterMan

The Empire State Building operates on less that 1.5 PSI steam pressure. Perhaps they did not go low enough?

Sounds like the building management needs to talk to a steam expert. NYC has a few of them. Often the answer cost more than management wants to believe they need to pay to solve the problem. The other guy says he can fix if for less and they get the job and get paid. But the problem isn't solved.

You need someone that knows what they are doing and can guarantee the fix. Good luck finding that guy.

Mad Dog_2

Have you addressed this fully with the Super and Bldg Management? Mad Dog

ericwald87

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1894180#Comment_1894180

yes, described a few of their attempts to fix above in my post