Banging/Clanking Noises in high rise steam system

ericwald87 · April 11

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 · April 11

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 · April 11

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

ericwald87 · April 11

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

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

EBEBRATT-Ed · April 11

You need a NYC steam expert. That is a big building. I am sure @Mad Dog_2 or @JohnNY could get you started in the right direction.

That will only happen if Building Management takes things seriously. Unfortunately Building management only sees one thing and that one thing is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

ericwald87 · April 11

Building management is trying to help but they don’t know how to fix it. Any experts want to help?

JohnNY · April 11

@Mad Dog_2 or I could help you. We’re steam specialists. Hiring either of us would mean committing to a paid on-site consultation and receiving a written report following our thorough review and calculations. Either way, you’d be in good hands. Thanks and good luck.

ericwald87 · April 11

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1894192#Comment_1894192

I greatly appreciate that but I already did that and the recommendation was to drop the psi to 1.9 and that’s it. Didn’t seem to work.

JohnNY · April 11

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1894193#Comment_1894193

You called someone else. That clearly wasn’t the right guy.

Steamhead · April 12

@ericwald87 , @JohnNY and @Mad Dog_2 are two of the best. You can't go wrong with either of them.

mattmia2 · April 12

also @EzzyT and @clammy but the problem is likely not in your apartment, just the symptom. bad traps elsewhere, sagging in piping, incorrect piping, boiler water quality issues are some of the most common ones.

MaxMercy · April 15

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1894238#Comment_1894238

Question from someone who has never even seen a steam system - is there a limit to how much angle to horizontal pipes are allowed? In other words, can more angle be designed in as a buffer for settling of buildings? In my mind I imagine iron fittings with subtle angles that would allow more drop for horizontal runs to mitigate sags. I realize very long runs will necessarily have shallow angles but maybe adding Ys to the verticals can help.

If this question is just stupid then just blast me! 😆

ethicalpaul · April 15

No, there's no limit. But the greater the angle, the sooner you will run out of vertical dimension of course.

So as they are moving horizontally across some distance in the floor joist bays, they had to keep it "reasonable" or else they couldn't get where they were going

(risers are after all pointing straight up and work quite well)

Banging/Clanking Noises in high rise steam system

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