Smartfit motorised valves - normal range of motion

Hi everyone - thanks for letting me use your forum.

I wondered if anyone had experience of smartfit motorised valves. I have two - one for HW and one CH - on my gas central heating system just past the pump.

When called at the controller (Honeywell room stat) the HW one moves fully to vent. When I turn the HW off, the lever moves back the whole way to the fill.
The CH motorised valve lever will only move halfway through the vent side and halfway back again, never reaching the extremes of the HW lever.

I even tried swapping them and swapping the cables from them to the base unit but whichever actuator sits on the CH 3-port, it exhibits a limited range of movement. I am able to manually move the lever to the extremes but I wondered if there may be a stuck 3 port.

Would the installer (unable to contact - system is 7 years old) have calibrated the CH 3 port to behave this way for some reason?

What's the problem that led you to start examining the behaviour of your motorised valves?

(BTW, I reckon you have two two-ports valves, rather one three-port valve).

Softus - as you can see the original post is a tad old and thanks to the guys on this site I have got to the bottom of the problem with my heating. It was a faulty pump gate valve, which I have replaced after draining the system. Now the rads are piping hot even with the room/stat set to 23oC and the boiler temp set halfway - is this normal though?

I think the rads may be getting too hot (I know, I know... some people are never satisfied ). I do want heating but I want it in safety and I'm sure you'd agree with me there Softus. Last night I woke to a hig pitched scream/whistle when the heating came on. I had to turn it off. I suspect I have not set the valves on either side to the correct flow.

Could you tell me just how much these should be opened for water entering and exiting the pump please?

mariaduffy said:

Softus - as you can see the original post is a tad old

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It was six days ago, so I really don't agree with you.

Now the rads are piping hot even with the room/stat set to 23oC and the boiler temp set halfway - is this normal though?

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Well, midway on the boiler 'stat might mean 70°C, which would feel pretty hot to the hand, and setting the room 'stat on 23°C could keep the heating on quite a lot at this time of the year, so your situation doesn't seem abnormal.

I think the rads may be getting too hot (I know, I know... some people are never satisfied ). I do want heating but I want it in safety

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Are you saying that the hot radiators are hazardous in some way?

Last night I woke to a hig pitched scream/whistle when the heating came on. I had to turn it off. I suspect I have not set the valves on either side to the correct flow.

Could you tell me just how much these should be opened for water entering and exiting the pump please?

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The pump gate valves should be fully opened and left that way.

Six days is a lo-o-o-ong time at -1 oC

Thanks for the advice Softus. I think I was worried about the noise level more than the heat of the rads when I said I want heating in safety. I didn't know that the boiler mid-way could be as high as 70 oC, what would MAX be then for a Glow Worm Micron 50 FF?

Is there some kind of priority then between room stat and boiler? If the boiler temp was set to say 25 oC, is that then the MAX it will boil to? What would happen if I then set the room stat to 30 oC?

mariaduffy said:

I didn't know that the boiler mid-way could be as high as 70 oC, what would MAX be then for a Glow Worm Micron 50 FF?

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About 82°C, if everything is calibrated and working correctly.

Is there some kind of priority then between room stat and boiler?

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I genuinely have not one clue what this question means. Please could you rephrase it for my tiny brain to understand?

If the boiler temp was set to say 25 oC, is that then the MAX it will boil to?

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In theory, yes, but you can't set the control to such a low value.

What would happen if I then set the room stat to 30 oC?

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In theory, i.e. within the context of your theoretical question, the radiators' surfaces could never exceed 25°C, so the air temperature could never exceed 25°C, so the set temperature would never be satisfied.

thanks

mariaduffy said:

Softus said:

mariaduffy said:

Is there some kind of priority then between room stat and boiler?

Click to expand...

I genuinely have not one clue what this question means. Please could you rephrase it for my tiny brain to understand?

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thanks

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Ah, OK. I get it now.