If your home is equipped with a baseboard heating system, you may notice a little pinging and clanking when you first fire up the system come Fall.

And while a little noise if fine, excessive, continuous noises aren’t. Here are the most common baseboard heater noises and how you can quiet them down.

Knocking

As hot water enters heating pipes, the pipes expand and can rub against the floor, creating a knocking noise. You can help muffle the sound by placing wax paper or insulators between the pipes and flooring.

Pinging

Baseboard heaters have a series of metal fins that expand as they heat cool air. When the fins are bent, crushed, or otherwise rubbing against each other, they make a pinging noise. To remedy this, remove the cover from your heater and carefully straighten out the fins. You also can slide small pieces of wax paper between the fins where they touch the baseboard.

Banging

If you notice a banging sound, it’s probably coming from the boiler. There is a zone valve that closes when the circulator is running. This causes pressure to bounce against the air in the system, forcing the zone valve to open slightly, thus creating a banging sound. Check the pressure gauge on your boiler to see if it’s where it should be: between 12 and 20 PSI.

Hammering

A loud hammering sound probably indicates the water inside the boiler is too hot. Check the temperature gauge – if you notice it’s above 20 degrees Fahrenheit, shut off the boiler and contact a licensed heating technician immediately.

Throughout the area, PC Plumbing, Heating, AC & Remodeling is the company you can count on for all your indoor comfort needs. We are boiler and steam heating specialists with a world of experience in forced air heating, too. Contact us today for any service or repair need you might have.