Water Cylinder noise issue

Bendy_House

The whoppee cushion might necessitate a whole boiler-off-the-wall jobbie. I'm not sure.
If so, and if the EV is the problem, then a remote one could be fitted in that airing cupboard, just like the 'bubble' one, instead. An option.

malexicon

Yes, it's well hidden at the back of that boiler. I suppose that's what I am paying these guys for if it comes to it. We'll see if it's the problem. Meantime ahead of this afternoon's cylinder run I have popped a bowl outside around the pipes that are outside the house coming from the boiler to see if any water is being expelled. It's a rare nice day outside so any moisture is unlikely to have come from elsewhere. 

malexicon

Will update a bit more tomorrow after BG/Dyno come and discuss the odd flushing noise. This noise continues to appear at some point when the cylinder is heating but only once - I have not had any eureka moments about it other than it might be some air lingering somewhere in the tank causing it really. Boiler pressure is nice and steady - doesn't look like any large swings. Monitored to see if any water was being expelled outside as a result of the flushing noise but not a drop. Whether that's a good or a bad thing remains to be seen. I can't figure out where any water would be going if not outside or via tundish.

On the upside the cylinder is now getting up to temperature fairly effectively with the thermostat ticking it off again when its running its cycle. I did spot today that the flushing noise occured after the cylinder had switched itself off - again not sure what to make of this unless the water running around the cylinder isn't quite flowing as it should yet and when the pressure changes it finds its way out of the coil / return quickly and back into the wider system water? (apologies for the above as sounds like a load of gibberish)

Although the cylinder still makes a bit of noise the violent banging that occured when the flow was being stolen by the by-pass has not come back yet. What I am hearing now is more of an occasional  ticking / clicking noise, from time to time, both when the cylinder is heating, and today to some extent after the cylinder had switched itself off. Nice as it would be to have a totally silent water cylinder perhaps this isn't possible? - at the end of the day we still have hot water going around copper pipes so maybe some (fairly gentle) noise is to be expected as things heat up and cool down? 

Admittedly, most people don't spend their time listening to their water cylinder as much as I have over the last few months - if I can get this settled down enough I suppose I should shift the times it heats up to during the night (and I don't think it will need more that 45 mins to an hour a day as we are not high water users) and try and forget about it.

Thanks again for everyones comments, suggestions and interest...

Bendy_House

Ticks and suchlike are normal - usually just the sound of pipes expanding and moving against surfaces.

Good luck with tomorrow - as you say, it's what you pay them for  

Keep us posted.

laceythomson

~1 bar is idea for most circumstances. Does the needle flicker when there's a change in PSI / Temperature?

malexicon

We are around 1bar and will keep an eye on the gauge to see if it needs to be topped up.

We've had the engineer round. I was able to explain the issues we've been having and I was able to get across the problems to him well I think. A few things came up - firstly the bypass was now a bit too closed, that's been adjusted alongside the valve on the cylinder boiler return pipe He bled a couple of the radiators that I wasnt able to.

We still don't really know what the flushing noise was - I'll just have to continue listening out for it I guess. As for the rest of the noise and banging, again this remains to be seen. He suggested that I let the cylinder thermostat do its job for most of the day rather than switching on and off from Hive to heat up large volumes of water in the tank in one go - I know that there is debate about how long a tank should be on for but I'll give it a go.

Pretty nervous about it - its been a few months of trying to figure out whats going on. I'll post when I have evaluated some more.

malexicon

As mentioned above I have monitored for a few days now to see whats going on after BG attempted to rebalance the system.

I didn't lmuch ike the idea of the cylinder being on constant given the previous issue with noise so am back on a couple of 30 min cycles which is enough for us really. 

Things were pretty quiet the first couple of days (i ran it on constant most of the day) and also after switching back to the timer as noted above after the weekend - today though sadly a bit of noise as the cylinder worked its way back up to temperature after being run down a bit with showers. It still managed to get up to temp quickly enough and switched itself off in due course - the noise is pretty much as before - like a hybrid plastic / metallic sound in nature - its certainly not as loud as before, but its still there - I'm just along the hall from it, downstairs it will seem less noisy probably. Previously I had tried to see if there were more occurances when the water was having to heat more after showers ran down a bit more - though it did seem a possibility this was inconclusive on te whole.

The 'flushing noise' continues to occur - this seems to happen after the cylinder has switched off (usually by itself now), though not immediately after this - my only guess here is that as the system stops heating the water left in the coil or something is winding its way out and down or similar. It doesn't appear to be doing anything other than just making this noise though. Prior to this when the bypass was fully opened this noise did not occur - but then again, the cylinder coil was getting very little water at that time.

So I continue to be stumped on this. I got the impression that BG wouldn't be overly keen on replacing the cylinder for a 'bit of noise' (as they referred to it - though clearly there was an issue with how it was set up initally with the bypass being fully open, then subsequently closed too far according to BG). As it stands, the water heats up ok, getting the cylinder up to temperature fairly quickly once its been run down. There are no leaks, nor has the tundish seen any water being expelled through it which would suggest a bigger and more serious issue. 

So basically, I'm probably at the point where it would need to get worse again and then be able to demonstrate to BG. Maybe I just need to accept that this cylinder is noisy and makes some (at times what seems to me fairly loud) expansion / contraction noises when it is running. Not really the result I am after but given I don't have a clue and wouldn't even know if I changed the cylinder if it would make any difference there's not much else I can do now methinks unless things get significantly worse.

Thanks again everyone for your interest and help.

malexicon

Probably very little more from me on this for a while (maybe) - but was thinking back to old posts and was wondering again about the bubble expansion vessel attached to the cylinder. If this is what takes the expanding water as it heats up then if this was defective, but the pressure not too great to trip the PRV on the cylinder itself, might this mean that the expanding water is causing the noise insider the cylinder as it heats up? (if there is a link between the cylinder cooling down quite a bit and then heating up again after showers etc) - this may also make sense (or co-incidence?) that when the heating was on constant (and effectively just topping up as it went along) that all was super quiet as it was close to a straight out / straight back in job? On a related subject... if the expansion vessel takes the expanding water as it heats up - how does it get there and where does it go after it enters the expansion vessel? If cant go back into the cylinder surely? - or is it air that goes into the vessel? Sorry - more questions - but am curious, as if the noise keeps coming it might be something else for them to check. I'm not sure it particularly looked at last couple of visits to see what the problem was.