Evohome is Noisy - please help me

[Sentry1]

Hi Everyone

I am really happy and really disappointed in equal measure with Honeywell Evohome. A few weeks ago I installed 10 x HR92 units throughout the house. Two of the radiator valves required adapters and all went fine.

I decided not to use hot water control - I don't really see the benefit for our family for this.

In terms of an Evohome review, I would state that this system is a revelation. We have a four storey house and the fine grained control in each room is wonderful. We have had much fun tweaking the settings to get this just right for each room. However the Evohome TRVs are incredibly noisy. This is really significant and pretty much means evohome is useless for us. I have two small children and they were a big reason for the investment - when necessary I wanted to keep their rooms warm at night without heating the whole house. However the noise from the HR92s wake them up on every adjustment. At some point I will post a link to a video to demonstrate how loud the Evohome TRVs actually are. There is seemingly nothing I can do - I have used a really thick silicone grease on the cogs, I have made sure each one is firmly screwed down, I have tried using the "optimise" mode, I have disassembled one of the units to see if I could replace the motor - nothing stops the whine that comes from the units.

Honeywell provided this response to me when I asked what could be done:

"The product was designed with noise reduction in mind and does compare favourably with both older designs and competitive products.
The force required to close some radiator valve is really quite high. The head needs a lot of torque to operate them, this need a high gear ratio to generate the force and puts a considerable strain on the gearbox, this is what generates the noise.
To minimise the operational noise the system was designed to only fully open or close the valve at the start and end of a heat demand at other times it minimised the adjustment to single steps and its operation is very quiet.

You can make some compromises to the operation:

The system will normally optimise the heating start so the room is warm when you wake, obviously this will mean opening while you are asleep. If optimisation is switched off it will operate like an old heating system and only open once you are already awake.
A second option would be to remove the head from a noise sensitive room but leave the rest of the house zoned.
Finally for silent operation the zone could be modified to use an electrically operated MT8 head. This is thermally operated and completely silent but would need a BDR91 relay and Room sensor T87RF. The BDR91 should be installed outside the sleeping area as the relay will click as it operates and if the owner is very sensitive to noise this will be heard."

I simply do not believe that they invested that much in to the User Experience and ignored the noise issue. I do not believe their comment "designed with noise reduction in mind".

They mention gearing - if they seriously wanted to fix this issue they would use a far more favourable gearing ratio. This would mean it would take longer to open and close the valves but that wouldn't matter at all and the stress on the motor and the gearbox would be far less. Even if it took 1 minute to open or close the valves, this would have no major bearing on the performance of the system.

Come on Honeywell - if you want Evohome to be a serious contender then you have to address this issue.

My final plea (before I have to return this whole system) - has anyone solved this problem? Does anyone have any other suggestions as to how to silence the noise from the HR92? Any ideas would be gratefully received.

Cheers
Sentry1

[DBMandrake]

I think you're expecting a bit much to "silence" the noise...there is a motor in there after all.

In my experience most of the noise comes from the gears not the motor, and is highly dependant on how much force the pin requires to close - if you have valves that are quite stiff and hard to press down the pin the HR92's gearbox will be noisy, after all they are only standard straight cut nylon gears, which are not known for being quiet. If the valve is a bit more free moving they do run a lot quieter.

It's also been my experience that the level of noise varies quite a lot from one HR92 to another, presumably due to manufacturing tolerances in the gears. Out of the 6 HR92's I have no two sound alike and two of them I would consider "noisy" and the other four are considerably quieter. Ironically the bedroom HR92 I can't hear operating at all when in bed, with the hiss of water flowing through the radiator at night on a partially opened valve being noisier than the turning of the HR92 gearbox.

So far neither me, my spouse or 7 month old baby has woken in the night due to any noise from the HR92 - which is set at 16 degrees through the night and is scheduled to go up to 18 degrees soon before waking time. So noise in the bedroom from the HR92 is definitely not an issue in our house.

So I would suggest putting your HR92's side by side and testing each one on the same radiator to see how noisy they are and find the quietest ones for the bedrooms. Other than that I can't see much else you can do, other than enclose the HR92 and use a remote temperature sensor like a DTS92. (I use a DTS92 in the bedroom for other reasons anyway)

The only one I find a bit noisy in actual use in our house is the one in the hallway which is probably due to the empty, hard reflective surfaces in the room and it does tend to be heard quite loudly when operating. So if the bedrooms are un-carpeted or bare I could see them being a bit noisier than in a room that is carpeted and has plenty of soft materials around the room causing sound deadening.

The rest of them around the house I would call audible but certainly not annoying or obtrusive. And generally only audible when they are doing a "full sweep" from fully closed to open or vica versa. Once they are regulating the temperature they tend to only make small brief movements that aren't noticed unless you're listening out for it.

[paulockenden]

Evohome TRVs are really quiet compared to the competition!

I find I get far more noise from my boiler and pump (and water whooshing round the pipes) than I do from the HR92s.

But like all annoying noises, once you start to notice them they can really drive you mad!

[Sentry1]

Hi @BDMandrake and @paulockenden

I really appreciate your responses. And yes, my request to "silence the noise" is a tad strong. I suppose this simply reflects my desperation in getting this situation fixed.

Tonight I'll do as you say and see how much the noise varies from HR92 to HR92. I'll be sad for Honeywell if this is the case - surely variation within manufacturing can't have that much of an impact. Perhaps there are different versions out there. As far as I can remember there's a sticker or something similar under the LCD which denotes the version. Would you be happy to let me know if your quiet ones happen to share a model number which is different from the others? Or perhaps someone from Honeywell could confirm or deny this?

I don't use the optimise feature for obvious reasons but I would if the noise could be significantly reduced.

Perhaps some clever plumber out there has some inside knowledge of valve bodies which have nice, easy to move pins which could reduce the noise?

You mention that there are other noisier auto-TRVs out there. I'm sure that's the case but it would appear that at least one of these can be silenced using grease - see these before and after videos:

Before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnpI65v82xY

After :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=belBztlPtj4

This could be the answer for me, although I'd be loathed to move away from Honeywell User Experience.

Anyone else got any thoughts on reducing the noise from Evohome TRVs?

Cheers,
Sentry1

[paulockenden]

I wonder whether the radiator itself also makes a difference. And the pipe. Perhaps, while one is being noisy, you should try holding the pipe firmly (don't burn yourself) or the same with the radiator. Maybe one of them is resonating and so making the sound worse.

One question - do you get the same amount of noise when opening and closing? If not, it would suggest that the HR92 might be struggling to push the pin down, and so perhaps you need to upgrade the TRV bodies in the rooms most affected.

But if the up and down noise is the same then obviously it isn't worth doing that.

[Sentry1]

Hi Paul - I was just thinking that very same thing. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure that the noise is the same for both.

And I presume you mean "upgrade the valve bodies"....?

[paulockenden]

And I presume you mean "upgrade the valve bodies"....?

Kind of. A TRV is a body and a head. The HR92 replaces your existing TRV head, but the body is still there.

The V in TRV stands for valve.

P.

[G4RHL]

I don't find them noisy. Unobtrusive is in my case a more appropriate word. What are noisy, unless they have done something about them, are LightwaveRF 's unit. A dreadful noise. Mine went back and I went for Evohome. No regrets. It just of course may be your valves as mentioned by others and HR92 having more work to do. On two of my radiators I have had to use the adaptor and on one now the HR92 occasionally fires off. I suspect the valve is getting old and sticking causing more effort from the HR92 although it has not become noisier. I have replacement valves for all my radiators and just waiting for one original to fail and then I'll replace the lot. I am not sure there can be a silent unit as there is work to do but the noise is barely noticeable.

[Mavis]

I agree with DBMandrake - each HR92 is different. I also don't hear the one in the bedroom at all but the one in the hall (just outside the bedroom) is relatively loud. Saying that, if I am awake it is loud but it doesn't wake me up and I am a light sleeper.

[top brake]

What make valves do you have? I find that the HR92 are noiser if you have adapters.