HR92 compatible traditional valve

[gtuser]

Hi,

We've just bought approx 20 cast iron radiators and I need to order some TRV's pretty quickly as the plumbers have now arrived and will want to start getting these ready soon.
My plan was to get the radiators in place with TRV's and then upgrade to Honeywell HR92 TRV's at a later stage.
As our pipe work is going to be copper and exposed and the rads are mainly a bronze colour we wanted to keep the TRV's in keeping with this. I've had a look at the Honeywell range but they don't seem to have anything suitable.

Can anyone recommend a traditional TRV available in a Brass/Antique Brass/Bronze finish that works with the HR92? I tried one in a shop (BiWorld Elegance) but the trv pin only seemed to move a fraction with the HR92, almost as if the pin on the TRV was too long.

Thanks in advance

Gavin

[DBMandrake]

No specific suggestions unfortunately except to emphasise that pin height and pin travel are fairly critical for compatibility with an HR92.

It might be worth getting hold of a single Honeywell Valencia valve body - which can be considered the "reference" valve that the HR92 is designed to work with, and then physically compare that side by side with any valves you are considering, carefully measuring both total pin travel when pushed down by hand and the height from the flat top of the 30mm threaded section to the tip of the pin when released. Both are critical to within about +/- 1mm for optimal compatibility.

There are many M30x1.5 valves which are "nominally" compatible with the HR92 but don't work ideally due to differences in pin length, pin travel, return spring strength, type of sealing o-ring used (some compress over a short pin travel, some over a longer pin travel, which can confuse the self calibration routine) and so on. I am in the middle of replacing my cheap Peggler Bulldog valve bodies with Honeywell Valencia's because they just don't work properly in stroke 0 mode due to differences in pin height, travel and return spring strength. (The return spring is considerably weaker than the Valencia it turns out, once I had some on hand to compare against)

As the valve bodies have aged (only over 3 years!) the pins have corroded internally adding drag, some o-rings have started to disintegrate causing little shards of rubber to get stuck in the valve seats etc... the end result is the valves have become "sticky" in operation and sometimes fail to close down properly due to the fouling of the valve seats resulting in unsatisfactory temperature regulation with significant overshoots and undershoots.

The moral of the story is don't buy too cheap when it comes to valve bodies, as you'll just end up having to replace them with better ones anyway!

[paulockenden]

Compared to the ugliness (Sorry Honeywell) of the HR92, I wonder whether you'd even notice that it was sat atop a Valencia rather than a more stylish valve?

[gtuser]

Compared to the ugliness (Sorry Honeywell) of the HR92, I wonder whether you'd even notice that it was sat atop a Valencia rather than a more stylish valve?

We're having nice exposed copper pipes and I think that it would be noticeable especially on the side with the lock shield. I agree that over time you won't notice it but seen as we're going with new cast iron rads and new exposed copper pipes.