Are these TRVs any good?

[Mr Fizzion]

[Christian McArdle]

worth buying a brand name for.

Christian.

[Doctor Drivel]

[Jim Scott]

I cannot get that page to render correctly in either Ffox or IE

[Alex]

It uses an evil Java applet with a broken font...

alex

[Christian McArdle]

He meant

[r.p.mcmurphy]

no,ivehadseveralfail.buyabrandname.

steve

[woodglass]

I'd be cautious about buying any 'Reversible' TRV's from Screwfix. I bought 10 from them (they don't appear to sell the type I bought any more, & I can't remember the manufacturer) I ended up having to reverse more than half of them - what a pain in the a**e !!!.

CG...

[Andy Hall]

Pegler Terrier or Danfoss.

[Set Square]

Try

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup. I think you gets what you pay for. I've had Wicks and Homebase own brands fail after about 5 years, but the current Drayton ones have passed that deadline and still working fine.

[John Rumm]

That's because the plonker always posts the wrong url ;-)

works.

[O.B.]

My view too. You don't want the hassle of draining down the system again because cheapo TRV has failed. I've foundt he Pegler ones SF sell ( Item 23130) are good.

[Ben Willcox]

Hi Guys, interesting thread, I didn't know that there was such a variation in quality on TRVs and have always just used cheap 5 quid jobs. Just wondering what you all mean when you say they fail - I understood that they all have a limited lifespan something do to with the wax capsule or something, and therefore the heads will need to be replaced after a number of years. Is this what you're referring to? I don't get it as surely the heads just unscrew and can be replaced without draining down? Or do the valves fail too?

Cheers, Ben.

[Christian McArdle]

Both parts fail, although the head usually goes first. With a branded valve, you're more likely to find a compatible replacement head in 10 years time, than you are in 5 years time for some unbranded make.

Christian.

[Andy Hall]

Various failure mechanisms. Typical ones:

- valve body mechanism jams because of poor manufacturing tolerance coupled with crud in the system.

- seal on valve begins to leak

- wax capsule fails and the valve locks on, off or simply has no thermostatic action.

If you take a product like the Invensys TRV4, it has been available for at least 25 years and the capsules last a good 7-10 years at least. I have some that are 15 years old. You can buy the replacement heads and swap them out. often it's cheaper to buy the complete valve and not bother replacing the base.

On the cheap ones, failure usually means changing the whole valve, base and all because often they have a proprietary fitting.