Noisy radiators and pipes

Hi all,

Hoping for some help as this is driving us bananas!

My wife and I moved into a new home 6 months ago, and this is our first home with gas central heating. We have a Worcester combi boiler, three radiators downstairs (including the one with no temperature valve), 3 upstairs and one heated towel rail. Boiler and radiators installed in 2018.

When the system is turned on, we get thumping noises from the radiators upstairs and from the pipes that can be heard downstairs. It happens almost immediately when we use the thermostat to switch it on. We've had British Gas out to look at it this week and he recharged the pressure vessel, did all the health checks etc. The problem was gone while he was here but as soon as he left, it kicked off again, so they're coming back this week, but I want to ask for advice/wisdom.

I can't get a video of the noise from downstairs, but I've attached a video of the noise from the radiators. This noise started after my wife bled a radiator, if that makes any difference.

This could just be normal (intolerable tbh) noise but if that is the case can we do anything about it?

Thank you in advance!

Does it stop when you turn the rad off just that one ?

ShaunCorbs said:

Does it stop when you turn the rad off just that one ?

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The three radiators upstairs all do it. That's just the one video I could get at the right file size for the post, sorry for the confusion!

We've just tried turning that one off and it's still making the noise we can hear downstairs. One radiator is ticking a bit but the other two are quiet. It seems like they get up to temp and shut up?

Edit: my wife tells me that the main bedroom radiator is on 2 on the temp valve and is cool, not hot, but it was noisy when first switching on the heating

Trying opening the trv fully eg 5

ShaunCorbs said:

Trying opening the trv fully eg 5

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They banged 2/3 times very loud and then pinging or dripping in the radiator and you can hear it downstairs too. Worse when the radiators are up high.

Try opening the other valve 1/8 of a turn

ShaunCorbs said:

Try opening the other valve 1/8 of a turn

Click to expand...

Please forgive me, I'm really keen to not make mistakes and ruin something - which other valve? The one on the other side of the radiators?

Yes the lockshield one

ShaunCorbs said:

Yes the lockshield one

Click to expand...

Great, I'll have a go at that. On all of the noisy ones? Or just one? Sorry, I know these constant questions must be annoying.

Try one and see how it goes

Okay so I'm back. With a bit of a saga.

British Gas came out to see what was going on. Their engineer fiddled with the upstairs lockshields, opening one completely and two partially. This has fixed the pinging in two radiators upstairs for the most part, but the one that is open fully is still noisy, and as of right now we've had the heating on for nearly 2 hours and we're still hearing the noise that the British Gas engineer said was just the pipes warming up and expanding. We're probably going to try closing the lockshield in the one noisy radiator a bit so the pressure isn't rushing to the one open valve?

The noise we can hear downstairs is in the ceiling, and sometimes sounds like banging, sometimes like tapping and it's driving us insane. My wife thinks there might be a powerflush needed(?) but we're going to try adjusting the lockshield on the upstairs one that's noisy and see what happens.

British Gas man also suggested that we look at the downstairs lockshields as they may be pushing pressure up if they're too closed?