Has anyone got a Hortstmann ditial room stat -
If so I'm interested in your experiences - quality, temperature accuracy etc as am considering purchasing one.
Thanks
I ordered two of these for a friend and ended up sending them both back faulty.
Paul
Got a centaur stat, but it was dead. Replacement worked fine for a year or so, now is dead too. The power track is all of 1mm wide and right under the batteries, so the first slightly leaky battery and its stuffed. And of course its mode of use is optimal for leaks. Since it was out of gtee, repairing that brought some life back but it still wouldnt behave usefully.
A great idea in principle, but the units are such crap in practice theyre not worth messing with. They just deplete your pocket and put your CH out of action.
NT
I'd say you were *very* unlucky. Hortsmann have a good reputation.
1) Do not buy _this_ unit (s/fix # 17585) - you have been warned. No holiday mode. AAA batts last only about 12 months. Hard to program. The only one I bought I had to take out. 2) I have purchased and fitted something like 50 Horstmann Centaurstat 7 (Screwfix #12157) programmable thermostats over the last five years - not one has failed. I have one in my own home, and in all the rental flats I run. I have used them for space heating applications, combi boilers, and for each of the zones on an eight bed house. The batts last about 3 years+. About the only criticism is the size of the unit.
I fitted a sunvic programmable thermostat a couple of years ago, i've had no problems and it has some usefull features like preheating and comfort/economy modes, the switching tolerance can also be preset between 1,1.5 or 2 degrees
That's pound shop batteries for you ;) Were they the extra cheep 12 for £1 zinc carbon ones? ;)))
In what way? Some epoxy would protect the PCB and hold a repair wire in place.
Was thinking of trying one, IME the dial ones with an accelerator resistor can switch off too late when the weather is mild and too early when when cold.
I'd recommend the OP checks their existing thermostat with a digital thermometer next to it to see whether it's any good or not.
cheers, Pete.
no. Batteries are prone to leakage regardless of make.
These units run the batteries at very low load for long times, and stay working until the battery is very low. Perfect recipe for leakages.
I suppose it would, it would also make repairs next to impossible though. A copper area on the PCB would have been a tiny bit cheaper to make than a thin track, and much more reliable, but no, they pay to build in enough vulnerability to ensure it wont last. But evidently this wasnt the only problem with this one, as after repair it wont behave sensibly.
Yes, the prog stats have a few advantages, but only if they work long term. But they dont, it seems bimetal stats work out cheaper after all.
Turning your boiler temp setting down should combat the above problem, and improve efficiency.
Its the same game with boilers. You can keep your old one thats been going decades, or get a new supereffiicient one thats dead after 5 years. The old one works out cheaper and more reliable.
NT
Fair enough, though I've never had alkaline batteries leak, and lithium ones aren't tooo pricy if bought from the right place.
I use a bimetal stat wired into an extension lead for a fan heater. With a digital thermometer next to it I've noticed it needs to be at say 19C when the weather is mild and 24C when the weather is freezing, to maintain a temp of around 17C or so on the thermometer.
Simplicity doesn't guarantee reliability, a look at old BL cars like the Marina will tell you that. I reckon it's the culture of some companies to make products that are only *just* good enough, (or not even that!). They're the ones that can't cope with a step change in complexity or technology.
cheers, Pete.
I fitted on in my daughter's house about 3 years ago and it is fine. Oddly it 'failed' on when the first battery died so we had a hot house for a day until she mentioned it. In my house I have this one:
John
Sorry - meant to reference this:
John
I bought a plug in bimetal stat once, something like 6C hysteresis, no use for anything.
yes, obviously
Its ever the way nowadays. For example, if you want a decent mouse, get an old serial one from the 3.1 days, and use an adaptor on the plug. PS2 corded mice are so lousy that no-one wants to use them anymore: its not the ball thats the problem, just the junk quality.
NT
They last about 2-3 years. Good quality batteries shouldn't leak in that time.
I find the prog stat gives *much* more accurate control of temperature in the room where it's situated - in my case the sitting room. The old bi-metal one had too much hysteresis.
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote
Interesting. I have a bi-metal one, but with a heating resistor. It's the original from when the house was built in the early 80s. I find that it controls the temp to within +/- 0.2 degree C. It used to be crap, but then I discovered that it had been wired incorrectly so the heating resistor was inoperative.
Steve S
There are 3 ways to wire them: with hysteresis compensation, with no compensation, or you can wire them so the compensation resistor actually doubles the mechanical hysteresis.
Mine has about 2C bimetal hysteresis, with the resistor compensating around 1.5C. This gives it about the same accuracy as the centaur stat. But if it were wired the worst possible way, it would have 3.5C hysteresis. I bet there must be some miswired like this about.
NT
This is the problem with them. When you replace the batteries you also lose the settings. A "boost" switch would be nice too. Otherwise, I have two of them and they've both been fine.
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