Radiator knocking

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

I grew in an old home with hot water radiators, and sometimes there'd be loud annoying knocking. But we were always able to bleed out the air bubbles. After leaving home, I've lived in hot-air heated homes. Or with steam-radiators in college. Until now, where this old apartment building, with radiators I'll assume are hot water, has the loudest and most persistent knocking, and the landlord says basically "welp, it's an old building, nothing we can do". Is this normal for the area, and I should make sure to only live in differently heated places if it bothers me? Is there nothing they could do, or are they just too cheap to do it?

*googles* Apparently steam systems can knock, or "pound", too, due to water trapped in the system, lovely. I don't know which is more likely, given that at bad times I can feel the floor vibrate, and the floor up by one of the pipes seems damaged. (There's naked pipes running from floor to ceiling, so simply turning off the radiators doesn't help noise.)

Comments

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

That's not true. A well-designed steam system can have some of the radiators turned off.

In fact, a modern retrofit which I highly recommend is thermostatic radiator valves. They're those knobs on the radiator input pipe numbered 1 through 5, plus a snowflake setting. They automatically turn each individual radiator off when the room temperature rises above a certain level.

They're the best way to keep your house a comfortable temperature, and save a whole lot of energy in the process. (No more opening the windows when it's 20 degrees outside because the heat is too hot!)