Plumbers - unreliable motorised valve

[Guineafowl]

My mate’s house has a woodchip heating system with drying floor. This valve opens the pipe to the heat exchanger when either the dryer motor is switched on, or the frost stat calls for warm water.

This is the third time it’s stopped working (failed to open), each time being replaced with the exact same brand.

Can anyone recommend a direct swap with a decent brand of valve? It’s £250 a pop for these, and they’re only lasting a year or so.

 

[hotponyshoes]

I can't recommend one as I've replaced my domestic one twice and both replacements failed pretty quickly.

However, on the 3rd failure I didn't have a replacement so I manually moved it around and it was working again by the time I climbed out of the loft. That's "fixed" it twice now so I'm thinking the previous failures may actually have just been crud building up in the wet side....

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I have similar issues...on mine the moving parts are brass and these tend to wear out very quickly. I tend to buy spare ones in the summer months...I figured out that various models are sold (with/without micro switches etc) but the bits that wear out are common so I can switch things around.

Might be a similar issue?...on mine the motor cogs wear out...the motors can be bought separately and replaced....might be similar issue is you pull a broken one apart and take a look?

 

[Guineafowl]

^ seems a bit defensive. I wasn’t blaming the plumber, but asking for advice from plumbers on here.

I can take the motorised part off, give it a tap, and it sometimes works again. It has to be automatic, as it’s part of the frost protection. I repaired one of them by swapping out a microswitch inside, and that lasted a year, same as the others.

Just looking for a different brand of the same thing, but not sure how to match specs of these things.

 

[carbon]

I’m not a plumber, but does it need to be a ball valve? I’ve had a honeywell 2 port valve in my heating for possibly 20 years without our a failure until this year when the motor failed. The motor is still available as a spare part so I didn’t need to drain the system to replace the motor. They are available in 22mm and 28mm

 

[Guineafowl]

It’s a big heating system. Pipe under control is about 75mm, and the motorised valve clips on top.

 

[brightspark]

thats a big un. the cheapo honeywell only go to 28mm at under 50 quid

 

[dobbslc]

Looks like it's 50mm 2" in size going by the part number.
I've had a quick search and found this for a lot less money, I don't know if it's an better or not.

Solenoid Valve AC220V DN50 2" Inch 2-Way 3-Wire Brass Electric Motorized Ball Valve Electric Magnetic Valve

Solenoid Valve AC220V DN50 2" Inch 2-Way 3-Wire Brass Electric Motorized Ball Valve Electric Magnetic Valve

gbr.grandado.com

Is the water clean / filtered? Is there there a miss alignment of two pipes putting strain on the valve body?

 

[Guineafowl]

Ignore him, he has a habbit of not answering the question

I’ve had worse! Perhaps I haven’t given enough detail:

Pic to follow of the setup, but thanks for suggestions so far. Valve operates as follows -

Normally off.
When dryer motor switched on (big 11kW job), motor opens valve, and at fully open closes a switch to energise heat exchanger pump.
When frost stat activates, motor opens valve and switches pump as above.

Fault is, motor head doesn’t move, even when removed from valve. If I give it a sharp tap, it sometimes starts working.

The actual water valve is fine. Last time, the fault was poor contact/sticky microswitch.

 

[mike os]

Sounds like you need a better actuator … I’d be looking for a commercial/industrial valve . Will probably end up on flanges but that just makes it easier to service/replace