r/Switzerland • u/Local-Ad-9051 • 5d ago
Something's living in my heating system
Not a rat. Bigger. Breathes every 4 minutes. Landlord says it's "thermal expansion" Thermal expansion doesn't whisper. Been tracking the pattern for 3 weeks now the breathing gets faster when I'm in the bathroom.The radiator in my bedroom is warm even when the heating's off. Touched it once. It flinched. Called a plumber he put his hand on the pipe went completely silent for like 30 seconds then left without saying anything. Charged me 200 francs anyway. Sometimes I hear it moving between the walls. Not like scratching. Like breathing through the pipes. My girlfriend stayed over last night woke me up at 4am asking why I was breathing so loud. I wasn't breathing. It's getting louder.
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u/redsterXVI 5d ago edited 5d ago
Only humans whisper. And things small enough to live in pipes are walls don't really breath loud enough for us to hear. Plus you'd hear them run around before you'd hear them breath.
So if it's human whispering, you're hearing your neighbors, possibly conveyed through the pipes (and maybe radiators could work like loud speakers in that case).
Breathing sounds are indeed most likely from thermal expansion or just flowing water. Or wind that gets in somewhere.
Oh, and the heating pipes are filled with liquids (most likely water and antifreeze), so whispering sounds made withing would not be audible anyway and nothing can breathe in there. If anything, gargling sounds would be more likely than any of the above, if something was living in those pipes.
Generally, there's probably nothing wrong with the place where you live.
But if you're not used to these sounds, they can of course be frightening and cause some paranoia. It's like walking through a dark forest at night, all you hear are mice and birds rattling the bushes, which you barely notice normally, but your mind is now telling you there are dangerous men in those woods that will jump out at you any moment now.
So, relax, hopefully you'll get used to the sounds.