Ask Lemmy

Talk to the building owner.

If you get this wrong you'll likely cause havoc across the whole building.

The heating system is common to the whole building, and I cant turn off hot water.

How do i open this shit

Here's the cool part: you fucking don't.

It's not your building, heating system, or property, so you don't fucking open/break it. You open it and you're likely to be dealing with an uncontrollable amount of rather hot water, and a very angry landlord/neighbors.

Call your landlord (AND DOCUMENT IT) and complain until they fix it or tell you to fuck off. Don't do their maintenance for them unless you're willing to pay for any repair costs when they have to undo and fix properly.

How do i open this shit

Don't

collapsed inline media

Talk to your GF about mutual respect in your relationship.
Or botch the heating, then give her an afternoon to clean up the water damage.

You need the radiator key to bleed the air out of the system. Since you said this is common throughout the building I recommend you don’t touch this at all and let the building owner handle the issue.

Call the owner to fix it. If it causes water damage, you'll be on the hook for that because you fucked with radiator.

Also what's with the "gave me one afternoon" bit? No one can "give you" time. Do you "give" her afternoons to do a chore? How would that go for you? That sounds like a mother telling a 5 year old they better clean their room "this afternoon or else no dessert"

Of you don't know how or what bleeding a radiator is, talk to your building maintenance person.

You don't want to get scalded or flood the room with hot water.

I have no idea why everyone here is saying to not do jack shit. Like, is the us system so different than what im used to?

Here is an information dump of what i know, and what my experiences is from 9 years of being the handyman in an elderly home. And yes, i called in experts enough times on heating issues. I know my ( local ) shit.

Would you describe the sound like a knocking, rumbling sound? If so, turn it all off, check the pressure of the heater and get a plumber. Youre pushing steam or nothing through the system and the piping doesnt like it. Scary sound if its bad tbh. Also a serious issue you need a plumber for, as the heater or preassure tank is likely fucked.

Would you describe the sound like blub blub, airbubbles popping or a waterfall? If so, there is air in the closed loop of the radiators. It happens, and its recommended to check all radiators once a year when it gets colder. Nothing bad about it, easy to fix/remedy.
You can also validate this by turning on the heating system and noticing, on top of the sound, that only part of the radiator heats up.
This is usually a problem with the highest radiator of your system, or the farthest radiator of your loop.
If it happens more than once a year -> you might have a leak somewhere ,if water pressure remains the same, get a plumber to check on the system or radiator system.

The later can easily be remedied. Go to the radiator that makes sound and try and find the following :

collapsed inline media

It is an release valve intended to let air in, or out, of the system. It is on the top side of the radiator, on the opposite side of the knob. Turn on the heating system, wait a bit for it to heat up. Then use the special key, or screw driver to very very slowly turn it open. You will hear air escape at one point, or drips of water coming out of the small hole you see in the picture. If you can no longer hear air escape, or a steady small stream of water comes out, all air is released and you can close it again.

Get a girlfriend who doesn’t impose arbitrary limitations on the work you do.

This comment section really shows how important it is to specify your location when asking for advice.

Airing out radiators is like the simplest task one can do where I'm from. One flat heat screwdriver and a rag for the dripping, and you're done faster than you can even call a landlord or repair firm. No crazy steam contraptions.

So you're either calling for an expensive and time wasting repair unnecessarily or catching a faceful of scalding steam, if you take advice from the wrong part of the world...

My dude, if you open that you're going to get blasted with steam. Call the guy who owns the building and tell him the problem sounds expensive.

ITT: People telling OP to break up with her because we are absolutely certain that she is crazy and only gave him one afternoon to fix this, and there is no way she could have been losing sleep for days or weeks while asking him to do something about it, like hold the landlord accountable.

How do I open this shit?

You call an expert/building maintenance and don't fuck with it yourself.

What if you don't do it in one afternoon? What happens then? She dumping you or what?

Break up with her

Are you insane? Unless you're looking for serious injury you leave it the fuck alone

Thank God you asked us first, or you might end up looking like you opened the Ark of the Covenant.

Hound the landlord; this is a habitability issue and interferes with the quiet enjoyment of your residence.. A lawyer would love to help convince anyone who gives you shit about fixing it.

find the radiator that's at the highest point/farthest from the boiler, get a container, open the valve you have pictured there and close it when there doesn't seem to be any more air coming out. use the container to catch any water. make sure to refill the water heater for your heating system, they recycle the water, so the input valves are normally shut.

edit, just saw that you have a shared system, so ignore that last bit. but when in doubt, call the building super.

also, the fact that your GF gave you "one afternoon" to fix it, it kinda sounds like a toxic personality trait. if there's anything else worrisome about her behavior, she might benefit from therapy. Having been in a relationship with someone with the dark triad, it was shit, and i kinda wish i would have been able to get her the help she needed.

Don't touch dude. Radiator are not simple to work on. Call a professional or put yourself out thousands by breaking it

She means for you to tackle the issue, not necessarily fix it yourself.

Get the owner to fix it, call a janitor or plumber, or anyone who knows how to fix it.

Do you live in the top or first floor? Just wondering if you're about to flood your bedroom with the smelly and rusty radiator water of just one floor or the entire building.

Don't touch it. Bleeding radiators is a job for the maintenance, not you.

-Plumber

It’s possible that noise and popping you hear is the steam in the radiator flashing back and forth from steam to condensation. It means the condensate isn’t draining properly. This is not a problem you can fix yourself. You need to tell the building manager, who needs to hire a pipefitter. If you try to do this yourself, there is a high likelihood that you will damage something beyond your ability to repair, and you could very well seriously burn yourself while you’re at it.

Get a different girlfriend

The radiator makes unbearable noises throu out the night, which drives her insane.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B008MVYL7C

Works wonders in letting me sleep like a baby through my wife’s chainsaw-like snoring. Just make sure they’re inserted firmly enough and not sticking too far out or in.

You’re welcome.

My GF gave me one afternoon

Peace to your ashes.

Best bet short term is to rig something that dulls the noise. A few insulated panels would do, so long as the heat isn’t too intense, but will have the unfortunate effect of reducing the heat to your residence, so you’ll need to augment that somehow. If there’s air in the line, then it’s probably not working to its fullest potential anyway.

Long term, I agree with everyone else. Have the super hire a professional. This is not one you want to DIY, especially while it’s operational. I’ve done carpentry, wiring and plumbing. I’d never touch steam, doubly so while it’s running.

Get a hold of the janitor. As simple as it might seem, this is not something you want to do yourself in a multistory building.

You'll need to have access to the boiler room and the topmost radiator. There's probably a good reason why you don't.

If you open that screw, you'll only let more air into the system and potentially get a lot of smelly water on your floor.

Why one day? Are you filming a reality TV show where you need artificial time pressure to make it seem entertaining?

Man, people really do like nonchalantly taking themselves out of the existential equation huh?

Spotify - Brown Noise 12 hours. Blast that nice and loud. Get a fan. Call the super.

I'd start with earplugs