Actuator issue? Drayton ZA5

Hi,

So for the past week we've been hearing this loud constant clicking/motor-like noise throughout the house, and I've managed to track down the cause of said noise. It's a white box inside one of our un-used storage cupboards that says it's a Drayton Zone Valve ZA5 Actuator.

The device itself means nothing to me, although I can sort-of suspect what it's for.

We have two of these, side by side, one for the upstairs and one for the down, I assume.
There are three pipes coming from the two boxes that go through the floor beneath them. The boiler is in the room below these.

I've noticed that one of the ZA5 actuators is red-hot to the touch, and it's shaking slightly, as though a motor inside is running very clunky.
The other actuator is freezing cold. All three pipes coming from the actuators are also cold.

One actuator is set to A, and the other is set between A and B (this is probably due to a technician coming out last year to look at our inoperable downstairs thermostat, he said it's cheaper to re-direct the upstairs thermostat to control the entire house, rather than us buying a new thermostat for the downstairs, he did do something inside this cupboard where the actuators are).

The one between A and B is the hot one. We have not used our central heating since 2019 as the house is naturally very insulated, being a new-build. The radiators are always off, but of course our hot water is switched on.

Both actuators have a black push-down lever on top of them. The cold actuator has the lever sticking up, and the hot actuator is pushed down. I'm unsure if this should be pushed down, as we did store a suitcase in this cupboard for a while, this could have pushed down the black lever.

My reason for writing this thread is, should the actuator on the right (the one that's very hot to touch) be this hot, when our heating isn't ever in use? Should it be making such a loud noise as though a motor is constantly running inside it?

As a temporary measure I've had to stick a sound-proof foam pad to the cupboard door and keep it shut, this way we'll get some sleep tonight.

If you require any further information please do ask, any help is appreciated. I'm unsure if we maybe need a new actuator, maybe the motor inside is dodgy? Maybe it should always be hot and something is just loose inside?

Googling this issue didn't help, but this forum seems a very helpful place!

Below is an image of the actuators we have.

 

Get a new power head and regin 5 way connector.

Disconnect power. Cut black cable to power head. Strip cable and fit regin connector to supply lead and shortened lead of new power head. Install it and check for correct operation. If not, unplug regin block and carry out further control checks... Namely roomstat and programmer.

You can do the above without getting a new power head but chances are it's goosed and one delivery is better than two... You'll need one eventually, either way.

 

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