noise form small red tank in hotpress

munman

When i have the heating on which is alot in recent times , there seems to be a crackling and annoying noise coming from the small red tank in my hotpress. This red tank is located to the left of the main copper water cylinder in my hotpress. The small red tank is connected to the main tank . There is only 1 cu pipe going to the top of the small red tank. Also,below the small red tank is a white box about 3inch by 3inch with MYSON POWER EXTRA wrote on it . The noise is hard to describe , kind of like a car ignition turning and also the noise is intermittent . please note that the heat in house is working fine . Its just the noise is a pain and quite loud . Having the heat timed to come on at night (which was a must for the last 3 weeks) sometimes woke my 2 year old daughter,Her room is close to the hotpress . Its prob something simple but me not being a plumber , i don,t want to cause any damage. i tried also to upload a pic. but it failed because of the 2mb limit on jpeg`s .

items

Small red tank is your expansion vessel, sealed heating systems have expansion vessel fitted to take up expansion as heating water gets hotter. Vessel might need replacing. Inside vessel is a rubber diaphragm which separates air or gas (top of vessel) from heating water under diaphragm, if diaphragm is ruptured, water is making its way into the air / gas space in vessel which means vessel can no longer operate (take up expansion). The noise could be water passing through diaphragm.

One quick way to tell is loosen off expansion vessel support (if possible) if vessel feels heavy (full of water) then vessel needs replacing.

White box is a motorized valve used for heating control or heating zone control, valve on / off control is by either room stat, cylinder stat or simple heating (rads) on / off switch.

If vessel is connected to cylinder (pressurized hot water cylinder) then it definitely requires replacing. Red vessels are for heating, blue or white vessels are used for plumbing.

munman

thanks very much for info do you know where and how much one of these will cost and procedure for replacing one. should it be done by a qualified plumber ?

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Qualified plumber with registered business is always best for works carried out in house, for safety and insurance reasons you'll be covered under plumbers insurance.

Replacing vessel is a straight forward job, slight drain of system, undoing of one nut then a straight swap. Provided their is no other noticeable problems replacing vessel wont cost the earth, I would be surprised if it cost much over 100 euro, might be a good opportunity to have a boiler service and have vessel replaced as part of service (if vessel is ruptured). Very cold last few weeks, boilers have been working harder than ever before, if you can afford service best have one done might even have vessel fitted for free, just cost of vessel on top of boiler service bill.

If your tight on money this month, vessel will have a data sticker on it, sticker lists out how many ltrs of heating system it works off so just call into any plumbing suppliers with info from vessel data sticker, depending on house could be a 8, 10 or 12 ltr vessel.

Prenderb

I've always had that noise from those valves in the hot press. Well, I say always, I frequently hear it when the heating is on. I always assumed it was just the noise of the motor or servo opening or closing the thermostatic valve. It does make a noise similar to the one you describe of a car starting, maybe a little higher frequency/pitch, but that's close enough. I'm not worried about ours....should I be?

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Motorized valves make a small sound when power goes on / off, valves are spring loaded and closure is controlled by cogs / gears, they all tend to make a sound, but the sound never raises much concern, I've never heard of them being annoying, most times sound of valve cant even be heard, only for a few seconds if so.

If Motorized head is not fitted correctly, screws missing etc then valve may not operate correctly, valve may not be fully open when heating is on, ball inside valve is causing a restriction, water trying to circulate past a restricted valve may give of a sound for duration heating is on but its again never much of a concern, this might be the case with your motorized valve, valve gives makes a sound.