My house has hot water baseboard heat. It has finned copper pipes behind sheetmetal enclosures, not the cast iron type. The expanding pipes always made some noise but lately its ridiculous. Last night when the circulator pump came on, it sounded like the Titanic breaking in two. Seems the expanding metal is in contact with parts of the wall or sheet metal. I thought of suspending the pipes with tie wraps or something to keep it from touching. Any ideas?

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

Essentially the aluminum-finned copper pipe baseboard is,I believe hung on an extension of the sheet metal housing.There is a front panel that removes by lifting and pulling forward. Take it off and look for the hangars and shoot some 3-1 oil or graphited lube around them,these things settle after a number of years. Also,before you replace the front cover put some lube onto it's attaching points,expansion and contraction can wear things down over the years to the point where they will do this.

Oh..on WD-40,the stuff dries out too fast,the heavier the oil,or grease,the better.

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I'll give it a try, thanks.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

I've got the same type system. One thing you might want to check is the water level in the system itself. The auto-fill pump on mine went south a couple of years ago, it's supposed to keep the water level at the preset level. All I've been doing is checking the gauge on the furnace once or twice a week and if the water level has dropped I just manually open the faucet until it's full.

If the level drops below whatever the preset level is and you start getting air pockets, you'll hear that banging. That's how I realized the auto-fill was shot.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

I had lots of noise, particularly when the circulating pump shut down (enough heat), but also on start-up. When we opened the system to replace the zone valves (thinking they were slamming shut) we found that the guahe and automatic water level device and pressure reducer were all corroded and frozen in place. Running with very low water lever was the cause of my noise int he same hot water base board system as yours.

The house before my current one had hot water baseboard heat......I really miss that type of heat. Much better than forced air.

Quieting Noisy Baseboard Heaters



The homeowners' baseboard heating system made clicking and creaking noises whenever the heating system came on. Richard explained that the copper pipes inside the baseboard expand as the temperature increases; the noises that the homeowners heard were the result of friction between the expanding pipes and the support brackets.

Richard and the homeowner adjusted the plastic sliders under the baseboard fins and inserted bushings along the return pipe.

Where to Find It
Richard explained to the homeowner that the bushings he used to release the friction between the return pipe and the metal carriers can be made from foam pipe insulation, strips of lead, or even cardboard. Most plumbing supply companies also carry plastic clips and spacers specifically designed to support copper pipes.

In some circumstances, this approach may not completely eliminate the noises. In these situations, it may be necessary to lower the operating temperature of the boiler to minimize the expansion and contraction of the copper pipes.


http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tvprograms/asktoh/showresources/episode/0,16663,516206-602244,00.html
and scroll all the way down.

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1985 300D Turbo
"Evolution is God's way of giving upgrades" Francis Collins

This system has something called a fill-trol and a purger-trol. They magically maintain pressure and remove trapped air. Any air in the system makes a huge racket, as I found out when they had to drain the system to add a new zone.

Pieces of pipe insulation in the baseboards sounds like a good idea also.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

One of my pads has the same thing...water hammer or pressure differential harmonics I don't subscribe to.

Although I'm cheap and used lubriplate a friend wrapped strips or roofing rubber around the copper where it sits upon the brackets,making certain the pipe and elements had not "settled"so as to have them touch the holes in the wall or floor.

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