Plumber in Downs Barn
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A heating system tells you what is wrong with it long before it stops working. It just does it through sound, and most people learn to ignore the sound rather than read it.
Here is how to read it, which will either save you a callout or make the one you book considerably shorter.
Based in Two Mile Ash, around fifteen minutes away. Gas Safe registered, registration number 981362.
- Gas Safe registered 981362
- Around fifteen minutes from Two Mile Ash
- Send a recording of the noise if you can
- Booked work Monday to Saturday, 8am to 8pm
Last updated
What each noise means
- A rumbling or boiling sound from the boiler. Known as kettling. Scale has built up on the heat exchanger and water is boiling locally against it rather than flowing past. Directly connected to how hard the water is here, and worse on systems that get topped up regularly, because every top-up introduces fresh hard water. Not an emergency, and not something to leave indefinitely either.
- Banging or knocking in the pipes when the heating starts or stops. Usually pipes expanding against joists or clips as they heat, then contracting as they cool. Annoying rather than dangerous, and often fixable by freeing the pipe where it is gripped.
- A single loud bang when a tap or an appliance shuts off. That is water hammer, a pressure shock travelling back down the pipe when a fast-closing valve slams shut. Washing machines and dishwashers are the usual culprits. Worth dealing with, because repeated shocks stress joints over years.
- Gurgling in radiators. Air in the system. Bleed them. If the same radiator needs bleeding repeatedly, air is getting in from somewhere and that is the actual problem.
- A hum or whine that rises and falls with the heating. The circulating pump. Either bearings on the way out, or the pump running at a speed setting that does not suit the system.
- Trickling or running water when nothing is on. Worth taking seriously. Either a leak, or a toilet cistern passing water silently, or a heating system losing pressure. Run the meter test to find out which.
- Ticking or creaking from radiators as they warm. Normal expansion. Ignore it.
What to do with that
Match the sound, then look at our central heating repairs page for the fuller version, or send us a description. A recording on your phone is genuinely useful and we would rather have one than a guess.
Kettling and water hammer are the ones not to live with
Kettling, because it means scale is building where you cannot see it. Water hammer, because it is slowly stressing every joint in the run.
The housing in Downs Barn
1970s, in the north of the city. Third generation boilers, decades of magnetite in systems that have frequently never been cleaned, and small bore pipework in places, which is one of the reasons noise carries the way it does in these houses.
Gravity hot water is common in the original arrangement, and converting to an unvented cylinder is usually the biggest improvement available where it is still in place.
Hard water
Same Anglian Water supply as the rest of Milton Keynes, around 300 mg/l of calcium carbonate against a UK average of 207. It is the direct cause of kettling, which is why that particular noise is more common here than in most of the country. See our hard water guide.
Getting to Downs Barn
Around fifteen minutes from Two Mile Ash. Fine for booked work and out of hours.
Frequently asked questions
My boiler rumbles like a kettle. Is that dangerous?
Not immediately, and not something to leave. It is scale on the heat exchanger, and it will get worse rather than better.
My pipes bang when the heating comes on.
Usually pipes expanding against a joist or a clip. Irritating rather than dangerous, and often fixable by freeing the pipe at the point it is gripped.
There is a loud bang when the washing machine stops filling.
Water hammer. Worth dealing with, because the repeated shock stresses joints over time.
A radiator gurgles constantly.
Air. Bleed it. If it keeps coming back, air is getting in somewhere and that is the real problem.
Do you cover Neath Hill and Pennyland?
Yes, along with Conniburrow, Great Linford, Bolbeck Park and Giffard Park.
What we do in Downs Barn
Where we cover in Downs Barn
- Downs Barn
- Neath Hill
- Conniburrow
- Pennyland
- Great Linford
- Bolbeck Park
- Giffard Park
Get in touch
Call 07514 312117 or send a WhatsApp, and a recording of the noise if you can. Gas Safe registered 981362, CIPHE member, fully insured.