Banging pipes

Joe Provost

Can someone please tell me why my steam pipes are banging very loud. It is so loud that they wake us up in the middle of the night and my 11 month old daughter keeps getting freaked out..... What is it and how can I stop this from happening????

Jim Franklin_2

This is probably water hammer. Did anything change in the system recently (like removing pipe insulation, changing or removing vents)? Do you know if it's the pipes or the radiators? At what point in the heating cycle does this happen (i.e. when the boiler first starts, while the radiators are heating, or after the boiler shuts off)? One pipe steam or two?

A few basic things you can look at tonight if no one else gets to this- Make sure all the radiator valves (where the steam pipe connects to the radiator) are fully open. Make sure the radiators are pitched towards the valve so condensate can drain out. Look for a broken pipe support in the basement that has allowed a pipe to sag and condensate to pool there.

jim

Rodney Summers

Plenty of reasons

There are a variety of reasons which cause water hammer in steam systems. Check the prior reply; you can also check on the Steam Problems section of the website where it talks about water hammer.

If you can't find it or the problem is something you can't fix yourself, call a pro. The link on this website has some pretty good ones.

-Michael