motorised valve

[poshman]

hi helpers, my honeywell motorised 3 port valve is playing up

the little lever on the side doesnt move when changing from hot water to heating

the boiler fires up and heats the water ok but when i change to heating it doesnt come on !

the strange thing is that it is never used as i heat the water up with emersion heater so i cant see that it needs replacing because of wear and tear !

when i take the valve off i can manually push lever down and it slowly moves back to the auto position and its got power it it because i got a bl**dy shock !

hope to sort it out before winter sets in thanks in advance PM

 

[jackthom]

When the heating comes on the lever itself doesn't actually move but if the actuator has worked it should become easy to push the lever across and it won't immediately spring back.

With all power off is it possible to push the lever over manually or has it seized?

 

[poshman]

hi J, when off, the lever can be push near the bottom a little and when let go the brass bit with spring keeps moving a little then stops but it dont activate the heating

 

[jackthom]

The check I mentioned was really for when the actuator was still attached to the valve but I think you've already separated the two units.

If so try turning the spindle of the valve itself (which should be fairly easy by hand) to check the valve hasn't seized.

 

[poshman]

hi again yeh my last post was with the actuator on anyway ive taken it off again and the little spindle does not even turn 1/4 turn ? should it go round more freely than that ? ive also given the body a tap

ive put it on again turned the hot water on it fires ok and the brass bit with spring moves but when i put heating on.. nothing cheers PM

 

[jackthom]

The spindle sounds OK, they don't turn very far.

When you say nothing happens with heating only, can you check that with the hot water off and heating on the valve has motored across making the lever easy to move.

If the valve is moving then the electrical signals to it are probably OK and the problem is likely to be the microswitch in the valve actuator. If this isn't switching, the boiler and pump won't run.

Do you have a multimeter ?

 

[poshman]

the lever is loose slides up and down it only moves when i put the hot water on ie it stays in the same postion when i put heating on

looks like a new un then ? cheers PM

ps havent got a multimeter and wouldnt now how to use one !

 

[jackthom]

Yep there's a pretty good chance a new actuator will fix things. Not 100% guaranteed though.

 

[poshman]

hi again ive got the pump/ heating going by putting an elec screwdriver next to the terminals souldered side where 5 wires go in! ? when i take screwdriver away it goes off so there cant be much wrong with it now ? all i have to do is stick a bit of silver paper there ( only joking )

thanks for your help so far i havent tampered with the wires before so you think its something simple now

 

[MANDATE]

You got the shock because you had not turned off the power. You may have turned the HW and CH to off, but it still leaves the valves 'grey' wire live.
When you change the 'head' do make sure the power is off and to be safe remove the fuse

 

[MANDATE]

Do not poke screwdriver among the terminals.
What you have done is bridged power from either the white wire or maybe the grey wire across to the orange wire which will light the boiler, your'e lucky because you could easily have caused a short circuit and blown fuse

 

[poshman]

yeh think safety ! yes the mcb did trip .. so to get the pump/heating to work would it be dangerous to join the 2 wires orange and grey in that little terminal ? as i said i bridged those with a screwdriver and it worked albeit tripped out once !

if not is the little termial not repairable or will i need to shell out for a new actuator thanks PM

 

[jackthom]

If you do that the boiler will continue to fire even when the room thermostat tells it to stop.

a new actuator is really the only sensible fix for this although I see they aren't cheap.

Edit: I meant to mention earlier that heating your water with an immersion heater will generally be more expensive than using the gas boiler, unless you have some sort of off-peak electricity tarif.

 

[poshman]

thanks all, yeh they are not cheap, I use emersion just to give the boiler a rest during summer/spring months

maybe will invest in a combi next year

 

[poshman]

I may have wasted £70 I put on a new actuator with no success although the rads did start to get warm and boiler was on but not for long ! so still the same problem.....

the boiler kicks in with the hot water on but when i put CH on, boiler remains silent and ditto pump any help please PM