Why is my central heating system noisy?

Is your central heating system making odd noises? Making sure you have central heating and boiler cover in place before your system develops these problems is crucial so that you know you’ll be covered in the event of an emergency.

Here’s how to solve your noisy central heating problems:

Hissing due to boiler kettling

If your central heating system is making strange noises, it may be caused by boiler kettling. This, as you’d imagine by the name, sounds like a kettle boiling. This is often caused as a result of the build-up of limescale and hard water inside your boiler’s heat exchanger. When this build-up occurs, this affects the water’s ability to flow freely through the central heating system. As a result, any excess heat is converted into steam, resulting in the kettling sound.

Humming due to a high pump speed

High boiler pump speeds can cause humming sounds. You can manually turn the pump speed down to see if this fixes the noise, which is the most common solution. However, if reducing the pump speed impacts the level of heat emitting from your central heating system, then there could be a more serious problem.

Banging due to overheating pipes

A central heating system with banging pipes is usually caused by overheating. If you notice banging or thudding sounds coming from your central heating system’s pipes, look at your boiler’s thermostat. If you notice your boiler is operating at a temperature that is too high, allow your boiler to cool down by turning it off. Once your boiler has cooled down and you’ve turned it back on, continue to monitor its heat to ensure it doesn’t rise too high again.

Your boiler could be at risk of a potential breakdown if you continue to experience banging pipes as a result of overheating.