How to Quiet Noisy Baseboard Heat | Ask This Old House
Ask This Old House plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey helps a homeowner diagnose and solve a baseboard hot water system that makes noise.
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Richard found the origin of the noise coming from forced hot water return pipe. The original installer didn’t account for the expansion and contraction so when the heat turned on, the copper return line expanded into the drywall, causing a tapping noise.
For every 100 feet of copper pipe, the pipe can expand or contract between 1-2 inches.
Richard was able to quiet the noisy baseboard heating system by removing two inches of copper pipe from the return line, giving space for the pipe to expand and contract without rubbing or touching on the drywall.
Time: 1 hour
Cost: $75
Skill Level: Moderate
Tools List for Silencing Noisy Baseboard Heating:
Small pipe cutter
Plumber’s sandpaper
Torch
Shopping List:
Copper coupling
Flux
Solder
Steps:
1. Remove the baseboard covers to see how the piping is run. Copper pipe will expand when heated, so look for places where the pipe is too close to walls or corners to allow for proper expansion.
2. Before modifying any piping, close the valves for the zone that needs repair.
3. Drain down enough water to ensure the work area will be dry.
4. Clean the pipe before cutting it using plumber’s sandpaper.
5. Use a small tubing cutter to cut the existing pipe.
6. Determine how much pipe needs to be removed to allow expansion room and cut that using the tubing cutter.
7. Add flux to the cut pipe and a cleaned copper coupling.
8. Apply heat with a torch and when the flux bubbles, touch the solder to the joint to make a watertight connection.
Resources:
The copper fittings, solder, and torch used to fix the noisy baseboard heating system can be found at a home center.
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How to Quiet Noisy Baseboard Heat | Ask This Old House
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You should forget about it and tell your the kid it's just the Nightmare Monsters!
Why do they have so many receptacles on that back wall
some people are so bitchy a few ticking sounds is enough to go make you spend $ to fix?? apparently they never heard of a air heater
I’m tellin ya this guy is a warlock
My heater is so loud I don’t even know how I get to sleep after
It’s a shame that I have to watch the latest episodes of Ask This Old House on YouTube instead of on my local PBS station!
How big is that house to need 4 zones?
them jordans though…
What's the efficiency of that type of system? Looks like something that needs an update, not a repair.
0:35 IT CAN, But it depends on the equipment you have installed.
2:20 missing alot of fins there
Amateur institution, expert repair.
YOU DA MAN
Thank you for the info. That really helps me out my house.
ok guys, you've made three videos like this now and they ALL include return pipes that are pressed against a wall… MY system is a continuous loop so I have ZERO return pipe issues and yet, I still have a TON OF NOISE! I've addressed all the standard troubleshooting issues and yet it's still a symphony of noise every night. What's the deal!?
Half right. What you should have done is inserted an expansion coupling instead of the straight coupling. We normally fit them in each change of direction and they have a bracket that you fix to the wall and the elbow allows the pipe to expand/contract within the fitting. And start using a pipe slice instead of these mini cutters, haven’t used one of these for years.
Its these simple tips and know how is why I love this show.
Badass
nice work and thank you very much for this information .
Science we so often forget. Coefficients of expansion. Great video
Great job Richard well diagnosed
it's all about troubleshooting.
It really requires lots of knowledge
He said he’s a pipe whisperer…
No need to replace that corroded 90 while you're at it. I'm sure it'll be fine.
is it just me or would it have been smart to install a small U of pipe to allow expansion and contraction and break up the long runs? I seem to remember that is how you normally do long runs of piping, but it may be overkill here
GEOTHERMAL!
You can't stop the metal from expanding and making noise
WHOOOOOO PATRIOTS!!! LFG!!!!
180 degree water isn't superheated water. It's heated water…
su·per·heat
/ˌso͞opərˈhēt/
PHYSICS
verb1.heat (a liquid) under pressure above its boiling point without vaporization.
noun1.the excess of temperature of a vapor above its temperature of saturation.
Richard is a genius
Same thing happens with the copper soil stack in my house. Have a hot shower it creaks and bangs, as it cools off or if you flush the throne or run cold water you can hear the pipe backing off whatever it is pushing on.
Those retros 4s 1:20
i'm curious why this system doesn't just have an expansion loop built in somewhere to avoid the expansion along the corners to begin with.
Richard and Tommy are the best. I love both of them.
Those tinny little clicks would not keep mr up at night. You can barely hear it
When the heat comes on in our house, there's a noise like a machine gun that reverberates through the whole house. I found a spot where the main heating trunk line goes through a hole in a steel I-beam, but has deflected and is resting and rubbing on the beam. That beam crosses through the entire house.
Why did he not use a shark bite would that have been fast and safer then sweating the pipe
Now, he just has to call in Tom Silva to fix the cracks in the walls that were caused by the pipe.
Mets, Red Sox, Giants, Patriots???? This is a family torn apart
If it no longer makes noise, how do you know it's really on?
Genius
He sure is smart!
Anyone else get an ad of this old house while watching a this old house video
"Richard: The Pipe Whisperer" I see a new segment there….
At this heating system( I have that myself) wherever the copper pipe hits or moves on some kind of holder/bracket specificially if it hits any metal,it should be covert with FELT,so the pipe can easily glide back and fort without making noise. I had to do this in my house after I bought it because the noise was driving me crazy.
Evil questions about ontario
THe seam in the carpet is horrendous!!
Just get a new house! These are very old!!!
Why didn't you reamed the pipe? Also, all the books I have read say that you should heat the pipe first and then the fitting so that you do not burn the flux out.
It would have been more interesting if the noise were evil sounding whispers from another dimension and cutting the pipe like he did fixed it.
Red Sox, Mets, Giants, Patriots wtf is going on, pick a baseball and nfl team
Thats some very efficient and cheap service! Im dying with the noise in my apartment meanwhile I am afraid to call the plumber as they charged 200euro last time for changing a radiator head….
How can I fix one of these that doesn't heat up?
Wish life was that easy
I have hydronic heating in a 150-year-old farmhouse; it is mostly baseboard, but there are 6 exposed cast-iron radiators included in the loops. To mitigate the burn risk on the radiators, I run the water at 165. It's still uncomfortably hot to the touch when it is going full-bore, but not instant-burn hot. Domestic hot water comes from an indirect hot water tank, which is connected to a special connector on the control board such that when the tank calls for heat (as opposed to a zone thermostat), the boiler runs at the full 180 degrees for faster recovery.
Ahh, the sounds that terrified me as a kid
I have been watching This Old House for 40 years, and would be the last to question Richard's knowledge, but he is incorrect in his description of how this baseboard system works. The circulating pump does not push the hot water but, rather, it pulls it back to the boiler. You can prove this by feeling the pipe close to the pump moments after the thermostat calls for heat. it will be cool because the cool water in the pipe is being pulled b back to the boiler. In a minute or so the pipe will get hot as the hot water has made it back to this point. If the pump was pushing the out into the system, the pipe would turn hot immediately.
I have pretty much the same boiler pipes but I hear only at times a banging noise when the upper zone shuts off. I was hoping your video mentioned banging noises.
My hot water baseboard expansion probably keeps the neighbors awake at night. Wonder if the rhythmic BANGING was the genesis of heavy metal rock music?
How about the gurgling of air in the line? Got a fix for that? Thanks
Rich is lookin trim n fit! Keep on Mr. Rich luv watchin you
That's the SMALLEST BOILER ON EARTH
0:35 Not if you have a modulating boiler.
That’s the cleanest heater in the world
3:21 With exception of water; It expands at lower temperatures
Just imagine Johnny Homeowner trying to solder that pipe up against the wall. Now you need a new wall….
super heated water is over 212 degrees not 185.
What if you hear water running through the pipes?
I have this issue in my place most the day it’s silent dont hear it but other times it’s like a rattling sound and can get annoying
Question
Can I have two zones and one thermostat??
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Sam
I remember when oil was $4 a gallon. This is the sound of music.
Very nice!
this is fraud
Wow, rest in peace if your subwoofer volume is turned up at 1:30!
Great video, thanks!
This seems like a really obscure and uncommon cause for this very common problem.
Do you bleed air after you cut the pipe and re-soldered the pipe? Thanks
Best plumber right there
I was curious as to why Richard did not mention "bleeding " the system for air as well. When our technician services our system each year an starts it up for the season, he bleeds the system of any air.
Where I live opioid addicts have broken in and stolen all of the copper pipes. And greedy developers and landlords don’t care if you complain about the loud banging and shaking under the floor of your overpriced luxury downtown apartment. All the better if you move out and they can get market rate for the next tenant. What can you do about that, THIS OLD HOUSE)!!!
Absolutely brilliant!
It is such a pleasure to see someone who actually thinks!
Thank you!
This guy put insolation over his radiators? Not a smart fix.
But it seems unsafe to have hot pipes pressed against the wall. I guess 180 isn’t going to start fires but aren’t you putting heat into the wall rather than the room?
Wow that’s incredible and fascinating to learn copper pipes expand with heat! I had no idea and to learn it’s a simple fix is great to know. Thanks ‘this old house’!