Evohome wifi - BDR91 Failsafe - Pulling out hair with frustation!

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  • jonn
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Apr 2011
    • 16

    Evohome wifi - BDR91 Failsafe - Pulling out hair with frustation!

    Hi All,

    I've just moved house, and used it as an excuse to upgrade our old B&W evotouch to the latest wifi version, along with 8 new HR92 valves (purchased from the evohome shop). 4 HR80s are carried over from the previous installation.

    The problem I'm having is that the boiler cycles every 10 mins, whether there is heat demand or not. It appears to be the failsafe kicking in, however failsafe is disabled in the evohome head unit.

    I've tried to be methodical with trying to figure out what's going on:

    I've tried multiple factory resets + batteries out of the controller.
    Reset all of the HR units. When active the HR units respond to changes of temp from the controller the HR92s report overrides back to the controller.
    Reset the BDR91 multiple times.
    Changed the BDR placement - moved the controller to be 3m line of sight from the BDR, moved the BDR91 so it's sat in 50cm of free air dangling by the cable, even tried the old BDR91.
    Wondering if it was a rogue HR unit, I have pulled the batteries out of each one by one to see if one of them is triggering it, but even with all of the HR's with no batteries it still triggers once every 10 minutes.
    If I unplug / take the batteries out of the controller (so there are no active evohome devices at all bar the BDR) it will still trigger once every 10 minutes.
    Signal strength between the controller in it's normal location is reported as excellent, 5 flashes on the BDR.
    No comms failure logs are created.
    We are in a rural location so I don't think that neighbours etc could be interfering with comms.

    If I do a full reset and set up a single zone (default of the living room) with a single HR92, it *seems* to behave itself. If I add more zones that's when the boiler cycling seems to start. I've gone though both the guided setup and manually adding zones and end up with the same result both times - boiler failsafe.

    I've got it all unplugged with the batteries out for yet *another* full reset, but does anyone have any suggestions?
  • DBMandrake
    Automated Home Legend
    • Sep 2014
    • 2361

    #2
    How long does it come on for in each 10 minute period, and is it always the same ? Is it 2 minutes per 10 minutes by any chance ?

    Does it happen when all zones are set to 5 degrees ? And you have confirmed the zones are set to 5 degrees by checking the set points on the individual HR92's and not just taking the controllers word for it ?

    Comment

    • jonn
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Apr 2011
      • 16

      #3
      I've not timed how long it comes on for, but 2 mins would be about right - it's not for very long (much less than a 'real' heat demand would stay on for), but it's exactly every 10 mins (when I was testing earlier I checked).

      I've checked that the zones are all set to 5 degrees on the HR92s, yep - all of them respond to the updates from the controller within a few minutes as expected. I've not got the HR80s bound and they are all powered down so it can't be one of them.

      It's been sat with the batteries out all day, so I will re-plug in the BDR, reset and then rebind it to the controller with a single zone and see if it plays up, then wait 10 mins, add a zone, see if it triggers etc and try and figure out what's causing it!!!

      Comment

      • jonn
        Automated Home Jr Member
        • Apr 2011
        • 16

        #4
        Leaving it 15 mins between adding zones, so far I'm up to 5 and no failsafe triggers so far...

        Comment

        • jonn
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Apr 2011
          • 16

          #5
          It all worked fine up until the 9th zone - the first with an HR80 instead of an HR92.

          When the HR80 is bound, the boiler cycles every 10 mins. Delete the zone, and it stops cycling. Re-add the zone, rebind the HR80 and it cycles again every 10 mins. Deleted the zone again and it's still cycling, so it looks like I'm going to have to do a full reset and go through the whole shebang yet again...

          Any ideas why the HR80 breaks the system? Following the standard binding process as per the book (although the book doesn't mention anything about waiting) - press the bind button when requested, wait for it to stop saying SYNC on the display, then next on the controller to bind the actuator half and press bind on the HR80 again, wait for it to stop saying SYNC and press the green tick on the controller. The HR80 updates the display when the zone temperature is updated, and the actuator runs as you would expect when the change in temp would make the valve operate.
          Last edited by jonn; 19 September 2016, 12:29 PM.

          Comment

          • jonn
            Automated Home Jr Member
            • Apr 2011
            • 16

            #6
            I deleted the HR80 zone, did a full reset on the BDR (hold button until it flashes red quickly), then deleted it from the controller and rebound it. Now the boiler no longer goes into failsafe.

            Created a new zone, added an HR80 (pressed bind button when putting batteries in to clear previous menu. Pressed bind again when requested by the controller. Waited until it stopped saying 'SYNC'. Pressed next on controller, pressed bind again, waited until it stopped saying sync then the green tick on the controller). Display of HR80 shows the desired set temp (5C as the system is 'off'). Controller shows room temp from HR80. Wait 10 minutes and the boiler kicks into failsafe again.

            I've removed the zone, reset the HR80, taken the batteries out and reset the BDR again, and am waiting to see if it fires up in failsafe mode or not...

            It seems that I am the only person having problems with HR80's on the new wifi controller - am I doing something wrong during the binding process?

            Comment

            • DBMandrake
              Automated Home Legend
              • Sep 2014
              • 2361

              #7
              Bit of a strange one. It sounds like you've checked and re-checked everything pretty thoroughly, next step is probably to contact Honeywell support directly ?

              Comment

              • jonn
                Automated Home Jr Member
                • Apr 2011
                • 16

                #8
                I've sent a mail to the evohome shop, if I don't get anything back I'll call them in a bit...

                If I have to get some more HR92s it's not the end of the world, as the idea was that the old B&W evotouch and the HR80s would be put in the granny annexe when it's refurbed - this will just bring it forwards a bit!

                I'd like to know why the HR80s trigger the failsafe though, as nobody else seems to have had this problem and there are quite a few people using a mix of old and new valves...

                Comment

                • DBMandrake
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Sep 2014
                  • 2361

                  #9
                  I mean try contacting Honeywell support directly.

                  One other thought - what version firmware do your HR80's have ? Earlier versions of the firmware are apparently not supported by Evohome:

                  Last edited by DBMandrake; 19 September 2016, 08:12 PM.

                  Comment

                  • Pete2
                    Automated Home Lurker
                    • Feb 2017
                    • 5

                    #10
                    Jonn, Did you solve this?
                    I think I have a similar issue. I have two controllers - I had an old B&W and a new colour one. In February I upgraded the B&W to a colour one. Now that heat demand is low I also have noticed that my boiler is randomly turning on (it may be every 10 mins - not measured it as I've only just read this trying to find out what's going on). Today I set both controllers to heating off and the one radiator that is not controlled is hot! I too have a mix of HR92 and HR80 TRVs.

                    Comment

                    • Pete2
                      Automated Home Lurker
                      • Feb 2017
                      • 5

                      #11
                      Oooh - I think I might have solved mine - I found one of the HR80 TRVs had the icon flashing to say that it was not fitted properly to the valve. I haven't heard the boiler fire up and the one radiator with no TRV is cooling down. Despite the central controller knowing the room temperature (which was significantly higher than the set temperature) it looks like it might have entered failsafe mode. It's a shame faults like that aren't reported on the central controller which is where I would normally look.

                      Comment

                      • DBMandrake
                        Automated Home Legend
                        • Sep 2014
                        • 2361

                        #12
                        Originally posted by Pete2 View Post
                        Oooh - I think I might have solved mine - I found one of the HR80 TRVs had the icon flashing to say that it was not fitted properly to the valve. I haven't heard the boiler fire up and the one radiator with no TRV is cooling down. Despite the central controller knowing the room temperature (which was significantly higher than the set temperature) it looks like it might have entered failsafe mode. It's a shame faults like that aren't reported on the central controller which is where I would normally look.
                        Interesting. When an HR92 is unlocked (and I guess an HR80 is the same) the heat demand sent sometimes freezes at the current value instead of reverting to zero. If that happened to be enough to trigger boiler demand then I can see what you describe happening.

                        The controller does not use the reported room temperature or set points to control boiler demand, they are for display purposes only. It is the HR92/HR80 that decides whether it needs to call for heat and sends a separate heat demand message to the controller (the value of which is NOT displayed on the controller screen in any way - an often asked for feature) which is then combined with other zones demands and forwarded to the BDR91. So the fact that the measured temperature on the controller was higher than the set point is irrelevant to this heat demand forwarding process.

                        Yes, it's unfortunate that unlocked radiator controllers don't cause an error in the fault logbook, and it's also unfortunate that an unlocked radiator controller can send a non zero heat demand. The first could be considered a lacking feature and the second a bug.

                        Comment

                        • G4RHL
                          Automated Home Legend
                          • Jan 2015
                          • 1580

                          #13
                          Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
                          Yes, it's unfortunate that unlocked radiator controllers don't cause an error in the fault logbook, and it's also unfortunate that an unlocked radiator controller can send a non zero heat demand. The first could be considered a lacking feature and the second a bug.
                          Agreed. I had one where I am sure the error was probably mine in that I had, unbeknown to myself, caught the HR92 whilst cleaning the en suite. My wife kept telling me the en suite was very warm. The app showed a silly temperature setting. If I had simply caught the dial and dialled up a higher temperature then it would revert to the set temperature at the time of the next set point but it didn't. Changes from the app had no effect. The HR92 was no longer properly seated on the valve. Now if the software in the panel knew a high temperature existed (it did show in the app so the panel knew) and knew it could not put it right at the next set point then perhaps a message of some sort is needed to say there is a fault. If we can get messages to say the batteries are going down then HR92 faults just as we experience from time to time should also be reportable.

                          Comment

                          • jonn
                            Automated Home Jr Member
                            • Apr 2011
                            • 16

                            #14
                            I didn't solve it - and I'm pretty sure the error wasn't the same as yours, as I reset the whole system, bound a single HR80 fitted to a rad and could immediately see the boiler going into failsafe. If you did the same test with an HR92 then it would be fine.

                            In the end I bit the bullet and upgraded all of the TRVs to HR92s and it seems to have been fine since..

                            Comment

                            • Pete2
                              Automated Home Lurker
                              • Feb 2017
                              • 5

                              #15
                              Thanks - mine has been fine since, so it was definitely the non-properly fitted TRV. I think I changed the batteries a few months ago so probably my fault and either didn't fit it properly or it was OK but only just and the contact moved at some point, such as when expands/contracts as it warms and cools. One to watch for anyone else finding this post. All the reported temperatures and settings were correct. Even the TRV temperature had changed when I turned the heating off. I think DBMandrake might be right and it was calling for a certain heat demand. While I thought it was in failsafe mode, I am not certain it was running at 10 minute intervals (I rarely saw the boiler on).

                              Comment

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