TRV and lockshield...without the TRV?

[BillyWillySilly]

I have a bunch of Hive TRVs and am going to buy a few column rads. While on lockdown it appears Screwfix are no longer throwing free TRV and lockshields at people so I need to buy them separately.

Quick question, as I have a funky TRV already, will a cheaper lockshield/TRV set from screwfix be just as good knowing I won't actually need the TRV portion? Or is there a difference between a vanilla trv/lockshield and Danfoss etc... Or can I buy the valves without the TRV portion?

 

[BillyWillySilly]

Oh and I've noticed that brand TRVs are really bloody expensive in Screwfix - is that normal?

 

[endecotp]

Or can I buy the valves without the TRV portion?

In my experience, you can in theory but they are always out of stock or more expensive than the variant with the TRV head.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Most likely your cheapest option will be the 'Trade' TRV/lockshield sets. Keep the thermostat bits somewhere safe- if you move house you can take the posh Wifi ones with you & stick the Trade thermostats back on the rads.

 

[ericmark]

Will you report how they work for you please? The spec seems really good, had I not already bought Energenie TRV heads I would have gone for Hive, however there have been reports of loss of wifi with hive heads and think the hub 360 was an attempt to get rid of the problems, however don't know if this is just in houses where some thing blocks wifi or a general complaint.

The Energenie I bought was claimed to work with Nest, and to some extent it does, but not really a success, they did link to Nest and if I alter the temperature of Nest in the Energenie app then the TRV heads follow as they should, but if I change temperature on the Nest dial or set a schedule on Nest the TRV ignores that, so have to be used stand alone.

So the whole idea of Hive TRV seems really good, where when they want heat they send a demand for heat to the wall thermostat so boiler runs for ½ hour, so without need for OpenTherm the boiler if kept running when required and only switches off when every TRV is satisfied, seems really cleaver way of controlling the heating, so please say if it actually does what is says on the tin?

With energenie I used the cheapest TRV base they seemed fine. But in this house only used the expensive energenie down stairs, up stairs and in kitchen used cheap eq-3 heads which since energenie failed to connect to Nest work just as well if not better.

So please do report how well they work please. If good then maybe I should upgrade to Hive from Nest.

 

[BillyWillySilly]

Thanks all.

@ericmark I think they work really well to be honest. I have invested in some serious Wifi - I have the Eero Pro mesh as a result of problems when we first moved in and have to agree if your wifi is not up to scratch then some will not pair or will lose connection. I live in a 1902 semi granite and brick house and some walls just kill wifi dead (like totally dead). While the receiver built into them is not the best, I've worked around the issue to make sure that I have boosted coverage for those dead spots. The whole Hive system was not working well when we moved in and I thought about getting the Hub 360. Amazon did some serious discounting of the Eero Pro and I thought sod it. Since then general Hive issues have ceased. I have never figured out how Hive piggy backs onto other devices / relays and I have a fair few connected bits in the house (Hue bulbs and assorted smart plugs

There's one TRV that loses connection regularly in the lounge but it is stuck right close to the wall and I need to do some plumbing / replace the rad anyway so I am not bothered. The other thing that I have noticed is that some rads keep setting themselves on to Protect which more or less switches them permanently to 7 degrees but I suspect this is to do with the flow rate running through them. There's a fair bit of sludge in my system and 10mm pipes everywhere - it needs some work doing to it generally.

Interaction with Alexa is pretty good. Only feature I think is redundant is on demand heating. It's pointless tbh as it would take too long to heat up rooms. If you lived in a modern house, well insulated and responsive heating system then maybe but for us rooms get cold and stay cold. The alternative I use is Actions to boost individual rooms for example when I am working from home.

 

[ericmark]

We have Nest Mini, they are like naughty 6 year old boys, can turn lights off in error, but ask it to turn them back on, and it claims it does not know how to do that yet.

I really love the eQ-3 thermostats, I have set the comfort and eco temperatures and twice a day they switch back to Eco if I forget, but walk into a room, press button on radiator and it goes to comfort, actually works better than the expensive ones.

 

[BillyWillySilly]

I toyed with Nest but in the end Amazon didbthier thing by virtually giving away echo devices and before I knew it I had half a dozen. I've got the ring alarm and a few cameras also. Integration is pretty good to be honest.

 

[OvertonPlumber]

Should avoid cheap trv bodies as they will be wax based rather than more expensive liquid.
For example a Drayton trv4 is liquid it will respond quite quickly to temperature changes. A much cheaper wax based trv body could take up to 50 minutes to respond to temperature change!!
Plus wax one stick after long periods of being turned off.

 

[BillyWillySilly]

Should avoid cheap trv bodies as they will be wax based rather than more expensive liquid.
For example a Drayton trv4 is liquid it will respond quite quickly to temperature changes. A much cheaper wax based trv body could take up to 50 minutes to respond to temperature change!!
Plus wax one stick after long periods of being turned off.

I won't need the TRV bodies themselves as I have the Hive ones. But thanks for the tip anyway.