Reduce Boiler Vibration?

[panthro]

I have a new boiler in my loft. It's attached to the outside wall of the house. You can hear vibrations when it is on from 2 floors down in the living room.

Is it possible to add dampners to the back of the boiler to reduce vibration down the side of the house? Are there other solutions?

 

[Brambles]

Not an uncommon problem with boilers in lofts, hearing noise in the rooms below - two floors down seems a bit extreme. Did your installer not raise this ?

An often missed point - get your installer to make sure that the external casing is fully, properly and tightly fixed to the boiler. Vokera Vision boilers are notorious for having flimsy cases that vibrate, sometimes even when fully screwed into position.

Assuming that the boiler is fixed to a solid wall and not a partition, the issue is probably more that the ceiling plaster board is acting as a sound board ( a bit like the inside of a guitar). Also in a loft, the boiler is not surrounded with other items - walls, cupboards, partitions, doors et al to deaden sound waves - so any sound carries across the full length of the loft.

Have you raised the problem with your installer?

I doubt that rubber mountings between the wall and the boiler would make much if any difference. They certainly don’t work on heat pumps where I have tried them many years ago.

Obviously any such work (remounting) on your boiler would need to be undertaken by your installer in accordance with the boiler manufacturers instructions.

 

[rpm]

Have you spoken to the installer, what did they say, was old boiler in same place?

 

[gmartine]

My boiler casing used to annoyingly vibrate at a certain fan speed, tried most things but resolved in the end with a largish magnet attached to the casing through some trial and error to change the natural frequency of the boiler case.

 

[snowhead]

Is it mounted to a brick or block wall in the loft or is it timber framed?

Is it definitley the boiler and not pipework vibrating?

Is the pump in the boiler or elsewhere?

 

[townfanjon]

As above ^^^ but it may be some bad pipework etc etc

 

[panthro]

Have you spoken to the installer, what did they say, was old boiler in same place?

Installer can't see it as an issue. Boiler used to be in kitchen. Boiler was intended to stay in kitchen. New kitchen put in, asked plumber to confirm position was ok, which he did. On day of install was unable to install as he forgot to allow for space around boiler. So he screwed up the new kitchen design.

He suggested putting it in loft above master bedroom. I raised concerns of possible noise. He said it would be fine. It wasn't.

Cost went from £1500ish to around £4-5k as we had to get loft boarded / lightning.

Pretty unhappy with the plumber as with this, he also failed to install a sink properly and caused a leak over new kitchen and floor. I just wanted to pay the plumbers bills and get rid of him. he isn't taking the problem seriously. I know in the grand scheme of things its not such a huge huge issue but after spending £35K on a house renovation and getting everything right, it is tarred by this nuisance noise.

Plumber suggested contacting Worchester, who I have and are coming to take a look, but thought I would ask your advice too.

It's mounted on a breezeblock wall, and it seems pretty tightly mounted. I don't think it's the pipework as this runs through the loft near other rooms and doesnt really cause an issue. The pump is in the boiler.

I'm going to get it boxed in but as the noise can be heard 2 floors down, I suspect the vibration is more the issue. So after Googiling I found anti vibration mounts. Any other advice is very much appreciated.

 

[Brambles]

Panthro,

A noisy boiler in the loft immediately above a main bedroom is going to be a difficult issue to solve. Sorry.

Optimising the control system to produce stored hot water in the evening and not first thing in the morning, delay start up for heat in the morning is probably the only cost effective way forward.

Sadly if it is a Combi that is much harder, unless you train the family not to use hot water in the early hours!

 

[panthro]

Panthro,

A noisy boiler in the loft immediately above a main bedroom is going to be a difficult issue to solve. Sorry.

Optimising the control system to produce stored hot water in the evening and not first thing in the morning, delay start up for heat in the morning is probably the only cost effective way forward.

Sadly if it is a Combi that is much harder, unless you train the family not to use hot water in the early hours!

So what can I do about it? The plumber assured us that noise would not be an issue.

 

[Brambles]

Surely, if your plumber assured you that noise / vibration would not be a problem you need to get him / her to resolve the issue for you. They certainly do not appear to have sold you one of the quietest boilers currently on the market.

Worcester Bosch are not particularly quiet boilers. A Vaillant Evotec is rated at 49db and a Worcester Greenstar 53db - noise measurement may well be an exact science, but It is our perception that matters. For some people a difference of 3bd is a sound that is twice as loud.

My advice would be to try and put it out of your mind and switch off to the noise - once your mind starts to search for noise it can become a never ending frustration.

 

[panthro]

Surely, if your plumber assured you that noise / vibration would not be a problem you need to get him / her to resolve the issue for you. They certainly do not appear to have sold you one of the quietest boilers currently on the market.

Worcester Bosch are not particularly quiet boilers. A Vaillant Evotec is rated at 49db and a Worcester Greenstar 53db - noise measurement may well be an exact science, but It is our perception that matters. For some people a difference of 3bd is a sound that is twice as loud.

My advice would be to try and put it out of your mind and switch off to the noise - once your mind starts to search for noise it can become a never ending frustration.

We are not searching for the noise, it's waking us up at night when the boiler clicks on to heat the house. Leaving the heating off at night is not an option either as we have very small children.
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Surely, if your plumber assured you that noise / vibration would not be a problem you need to get him / her to resolve the issue for you. They certainly do not appear to have sold you one of the quietest boilers currently on the market.

Sorry, missed this bit of your reply. How can we get him to resolve it, we had no proof of him saying there would not be a noise issue as it was a verbal conversation. He is not interested in spending anymore time on it, he thinks it is not an issue.

 

[Brambles]

Panthro,

My apologies, I don’t have a quick or cheap solution for you. Your’s is an increasingly common problem as the trend to move boilers and UV cylinders et al into lofts increases.

In reality, if the boiler is regularly going to be used during the night and you have no recourse with the installer, you possibly need to bite the bullet and have it relocated.

 

[king of pipes]

Get the damed thing out the loft is the answer it should never have gone in there in the first place, sorry to be blunt but I never ever fit a boiler in a loft the list of possible problems is endless , if the installer won't do it the employ someone else there's always a alternative you just need to think outside the box . Kop

 

[Scott_D]

Any pictures of the install?
Properly clipped pipes
Insulated pipes
Boiler mounted on timber and plasterboard
Flue clipped with rubber lined brackets
Could help reduce noise

 

[Chuck]

He is not interested in spending anymore time on it, he thinks it is not an issue.

A lot (possibly all, I've not checked recently) of WB boilers come with the default setting for their pump at maximum. A good installer will carefully balance the system and reduce the pump speed to the minimum that achieves statisfactory circulation, which is what the manfucturer's instructions say to do. This can make a big difference to the noise level of the system.

Balancing a system correctly takes a couple of hours so it's not unknown for installers to leave the pump on maximum, check that every radiator is getting hot and then make a dash for it...