HR92s unscrewing

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  • paulockenden
    Automated Home Legend
    • Apr 2015
    • 1719

    HR92s unscrewing

    Has anyone else found their HR92s unscrewing themselves slightly?

    It's happened to me perhaps 4 or 5 times now. I find an HR92 which is unscrewed by about 1/4 turn. This is with Valencia valves.
  • dty
    Automated Home Ninja
    • Aug 2016
    • 489

    #2
    That presumably means the whole screw on adaptor bit (the black disc) AND the head itself are turning? You'd surely notice the head moving?

    Comment

    • paulockenden
      Automated Home Legend
      • Apr 2015
      • 1719

      #3
      Yes, the whole thing.

      Comment

      • DBMandrake
        Automated Home Legend
        • Sep 2014
        • 2361

        #4
        Originally posted by paulockenden View Post
        Yes, the whole thing.
        I've seen mine unscrew several times too - when they've been knocked by people or children who don't admit to it.

        If you just screw the threaded adaptor onto the valve by hand finger tight and then fit the HR92 on top it doesn't take much of a sideways knock with the screen brace fitted to unscrew the adaptor, as it isn't screwed onto the valve tight enough. In an extreme case the motor torque might cause it to come loose as well. I think I've seen this but only once.

        When I fit the threaded adaptor I screw it up finger tight, sit the HR92 on it, turn the body of the HR92 like a knob to nip up the threaded adaptor a bit tighter (but being careful not to overdo it, as it wouldn't be too hard to split the adaptor) and then lift the HR92 off again and re-orient it in the desired direction before latching it.

        Relying on just screwing the adaptor on finger tight turning the adaptor directly doesn't seem to be quite tight enough from what I've observed, and needs a bit of extra tightening by using the extra leverage of the HR92 body.

        Try giving yours a gentle clockwise twist via the HR92 body and see if they turn easily - I bet some do, so give them a nip up and then re-orient the HR92.
        Last edited by DBMandrake; 22 May 2017, 12:51 PM.

        Comment

        • dty
          Automated Home Ninja
          • Aug 2016
          • 489

          #5
          I've had Valencias exclusively for about 3 months and I've not noticed any issues. My installer did do them up very tight!

          Comment

          • G4RHL
            Automated Home Legend
            • Jan 2015
            • 1580

            #6
            On two of my radiators I had to use the adaptor (Danfoss valve). Unscrewing on one is reasonably regular. Sometimes the HR92 pops off

            Comment

            • G4RHL
              Automated Home Legend
              • Jan 2015
              • 1580

              #7
              Further to my earlier post, it would help if in some way the HR92 knew it had come off the radiator valve and sent a message to the panel to show a fault. Yesterday it came off again and was lying on the floor but no fault recorded.

              Comment

              • DBMandrake
                Automated Home Legend
                • Sep 2014
                • 2361

                #8
                Originally posted by G4RHL View Post
                Further to my earlier post, it would help if in some way the HR92 knew it had come off the radiator valve and sent a message to the panel to show a fault. Yesterday it came off again and was lying on the floor but no fault recorded.
                Does the HR92 pop off the adaptor, or is it the adaptor coming off the valve ? If the latter I don't see how it could detect this, other than noticing that the pin seems unusually easy to drive down! (but that would be a heuristic...)

                Only if the latch is open / not locked is the HR92 aware that it is not fitted correctly. If I remember right it normally sends a "special" heat demand figure (higher than the normal 0-200 range) when the latch is open so in theory this could be detected by the controller.

                Comment

                • G4RHL
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Jan 2015
                  • 1580

                  #9
                  The HR92 (the whole thing including the bit that screws on to the adaptor) comes off the adaptor even thought tightly screwed on. If we can fly to the moon then I guess it is within the wit of man to design the HR92 to send a message back when it knows there is something wrong - i.e. there is no pin resistance.

                  I am reasonably certain why it happens, and always on the same radiator (I have two out of 13 that have needed adaptors) is the pin in the valve itself is probably sticking. I have manually pushed the pin in and out to ensure it is free. I have not tried a drop of oil on it in case that is the wrong thing to do. The valve is 20 years old. I have 13 Honeywell replacement valves ready to replace all! But am lazy and have intended to do it as and when the boiler is replaced. Also 20 years old. My heating service man continually says "It works, wait until it doesn't. There are three expensive/potentially hard to get parts in it that could fail and the failure of any one is the trigger for a new boiler"!!

                  Comment

                  • HenGus
                    Automated Home Legend
                    • May 2014
                    • 1001

                    #10
                    Originally posted by paulockenden View Post
                    Has anyone else found their HR92s unscrewing themselves slightly?

                    It's happened to me perhaps 4 or 5 times now. I find an HR92 which is unscrewed by about 1/4 turn. This is with Valencia valves.
                    I got a battery change notification last night and I found that the adapter on a new Valencia body was very loose. The HR92 head wasn't off centre, and I recall double-checking all the adapters for tightness after the installer had left.

                    Comment

                    • DBMandrake
                      Automated Home Legend
                      • Sep 2014
                      • 2361

                      #11
                      Originally posted by HenGus View Post
                      I got a battery change notification last night and I found that the adapter on a new Valencia body was very loose. The HR92 head wasn't off centre, and I recall double-checking all the adapters for tightness after the installer had left.
                      Jumped a thread due to being over tightened perhaps ?

                      Comment

                      • Ian_W
                        Automated Home Jr Member
                        • Dec 2017
                        • 13

                        #12
                        If I read the earlier replies correctly, it sounds like "best practice" is to screw the HR92 adapters fully onto Valencia valve bodies - is that so? I ask because when I did that, it felt as though the adapter was still seeing some force from the valve pin even when the black wheel was unscrewed to the end stop. I took that to mean that the valve might not be fully open, so unscrewed the adapters a bit to compensate. I believe they are all closing properly, but in the absence of any instructions from Honeywell it all felt a bit hit and miss, and there's not a lot of thread to play with in the first place. Sounds like I should go back and tighten them all up a bit, so thanks for the advice.

                        Comment

                        • DBMandrake
                          Automated Home Legend
                          • Sep 2014
                          • 2361

                          #13
                          The standard adaptor should always be fully screwed on otherwise it will come loose and things won't work properly. If you can't fully screw it on without it pushing the pin down when the black wheel is anti-clockwise then it is not properly compatible with the valve body. Remember to always turn the black wheel fully anti-clockwise before screwing the adaptor onto the valve body. Maybe you forgot to do this ?

                          It's hard to judge how tight to screw it down if you just screw the adaptor on by hand. The approach I take is to first turn the black wheel fully anti-clockwise, then screw the white adaptor body on by hand but only until it starts to tighten a bit, then drop the HR92 down onto it and then turn the HR92 body about another 30 degrees until it feels "snug", then reposition the HR92 in the correct orientation.

                          Comment

                          • Ian_W
                            Automated Home Jr Member
                            • Dec 2017
                            • 13

                            #14
                            The valve bodies are all Honeywell Valencia VTL-200 so I assume there should not be any concern about incompatibility with the standard HR92 adapter. With the adapters in the position I have them at the moment, as I turn the black wheel almost fully anti-clockwise there's a point at which it noticeably "frees up". I had assumed that was the point at which it just lost contact with the valve pin, and therefore that's when the valve was fully open; all the adapters are set so that this occurs just before the black wheel reaches the (fully unscrewed) end-stop. From memory this is at least half a turn (of the adapter) away from finger tight. I haven't seen any problems - HR92s falling off, etc. - with this approach, and the valves do seem to close fully, but it did seem a bit too ad hoc to be quite right. Based on what you suggested I will try screwing the adapters in fully and check that the radiators are still heating properly.

                            Comment

                            • rotor
                              Automated Home Guru
                              • Aug 2015
                              • 124

                              #15
                              You can finger tighten the little black circle that surrounds the pin on the Valencia. This will lower the pin (you are effectively reducing how far it opens / sticks up). I've done this on mine so that all the HR92 collars screw on completely without any resistance from the pin. I hope that makes sense.

                              Comment

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