Hi John,
Sorry it has taken time to come back to you today, i'm managing a long term health condition/disability, that affects me greatly earlier in the day.
I've tried to put as much information here as possible to give you where I am at, if you lived nearby, I am West London, I'd gladly pay you to come and diagnose what is wrong with my heating.
I really appreciate you taking time to help me, if you feel at anytime I need to call someone in, please let me know, just it is a jungle out there and it is near impossible to find a decent engineer who is interested in working on these types of issues.
Getting back to answering your questions:
I've just had the TRV bodies replaced, the steel rads have Honeywell Valencia TRVs VHL120 15mm:
https://heatingcontrols.honeywellhome.com/Documents/All/pdf/Valencia Installation Guide.pdf
- I bought these replacement TRV bodies as they have balancing inserts to allow manual balancing, but after talking to Honeywell, I abandend using them and have set the inserts to 14, which is fully open and switched to using the lockshields to control flow...
The towel rails have:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Realm-Corner-TRV-Chrome-Thermostatic/dp/B00HCL4FYW
The steel rads pipework is 10mm Microbore into a 10mm - 15mm angle, into the 15mm TRV valve.
The towel rails have 15mm copper pipework.
I note at around 50cm from boiler 22mm copper pipe is connected with right angle pushfit into 22mm plastic pipe.
All TRVs are bi directional and mainly on the flow pipe.
The lockshields are bidirectional.
The Two way valves are the correct way around.
The pump is the correct way around.
On the flow from the boiler is a Air Seporator.
On the Return to the boiler is a Adey Magnaclean Professional 2.
It is a unvented CH system with system pressure set to 1.6bar
I has one AAV and one manual air vent, in the cupboard with expansion tanks, cylinder, two way valves, pump.
Automatic Bypass Valve
---------------------------
The story here is that I switched the ABV to a manual gate valve after Grundfos support told me that I couldn't use their 'Go Balance' balancing software and the Auto Adapt pump control with an ABV...
- I had a big agument with their head of support over this...
Anyway, after unsuccessfully using their balancing software and unsuccessfully manually balancing, I put the ABV back and have it in series with a gate valve after it...
- There is actually some literature out there from Grundfos to do this if a ABV is required with the Alpha pumps...
Anyway, going back to your question about ABV...
I can't tell what it is set to as the numbering has rubbed off, it appears to be around 0.1 - 0.2 at a guess, however, I haven't heard it open once and I've played around with it up and down the complete length of the ABV range...
- I'm not sure if I need to replace the ABV if it is not working... However, the boiler isn't complaining, even when I ensure it is completely closed by closing the Gate Valve.
History
---------
Just a bit of background for you...
If you look at my posted over the last 3-4 months, you will see I have had no end of problems and components failing on the CH, all have which have led me to this point.
I have had the expansion tank fail.
Pressure Guage fail.
I had the Automatic Air Vent fail twice.
I've had trapped air and noise that I only succeeded in getting rid of once I put an air seporator in.
I've had the pump replaced.
I've had the pump connectors leak.
I've played with the system pressure.
I've had black water in the radiators, I have flushed all rads with a hose to get rid of it.
I've run Adey cleaner through the system for 3 weeks and again for another week.
I added the Magnaclean Pro 2.
I also installed the TADO Smart TRVs and Thermostat.
As you see I've done a ton of stuff and still have issues.
I'm only an ametuer DIY guy with a background in software engineering.
Sorry it has taken time to come back to you today, i'm managing a long term health condition/disability, that affects me greatly earlier in the day.
I've tried to put as much information here as possible to give you where I am at, if you lived nearby, I am West London, I'd gladly pay you to come and diagnose what is wrong with my heating.
I really appreciate you taking time to help me, if you feel at anytime I need to call someone in, please let me know, just it is a jungle out there and it is near impossible to find a decent engineer who is interested in working on these types of issues.
Getting back to answering your questions:
I've just had the TRV bodies replaced, the steel rads have Honeywell Valencia TRVs VHL120 15mm:
https://heatingcontrols.honeywellhome.com/Documents/All/pdf/Valencia Installation Guide.pdf
- I bought these replacement TRV bodies as they have balancing inserts to allow manual balancing, but after talking to Honeywell, I abandend using them and have set the inserts to 14, which is fully open and switched to using the lockshields to control flow...
The towel rails have:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Realm-Corner-TRV-Chrome-Thermostatic/dp/B00HCL4FYW
The steel rads pipework is 10mm Microbore into a 10mm - 15mm angle, into the 15mm TRV valve.
The towel rails have 15mm copper pipework.
I note at around 50cm from boiler 22mm copper pipe is connected with right angle pushfit into 22mm plastic pipe.
All TRVs are bi directional and mainly on the flow pipe.
The lockshields are bidirectional.
The Two way valves are the correct way around.
The pump is the correct way around.
On the flow from the boiler is a Air Seporator.
On the Return to the boiler is a Adey Magnaclean Professional 2.
It is a unvented CH system with system pressure set to 1.6bar
I has one AAV and one manual air vent, in the cupboard with expansion tanks, cylinder, two way valves, pump.
Automatic Bypass Valve
---------------------------
The story here is that I switched the ABV to a manual gate valve after Grundfos support told me that I couldn't use their 'Go Balance' balancing software and the Auto Adapt pump control with an ABV...
- I had a big agument with their head of support over this...
Anyway, after unsuccessfully using their balancing software and unsuccessfully manually balancing, I put the ABV back and have it in series with a gate valve after it...
- There is actually some literature out there from Grundfos to do this if a ABV is required with the Alpha pumps...
Anyway, going back to your question about ABV...
I can't tell what it is set to as the numbering has rubbed off, it appears to be around 0.1 - 0.2 at a guess, however, I haven't heard it open once and I've played around with it up and down the complete length of the ABV range...
- I'm not sure if I need to replace the ABV if it is not working... However, the boiler isn't complaining, even when I ensure it is completely closed by closing the Gate Valve.
History
---------
Just a bit of background for you...
If you look at my posted over the last 3-4 months, you will see I have had no end of problems and components failing on the CH, all have which have led me to this point.
I have had the expansion tank fail.
Pressure Guage fail.
I had the Automatic Air Vent fail twice.
I've had trapped air and noise that I only succeeded in getting rid of once I put an air seporator in.
I've had the pump replaced.
I've had the pump connectors leak.
I've played with the system pressure.
I've had black water in the radiators, I have flushed all rads with a hose to get rid of it.
I've run Adey cleaner through the system for 3 weeks and again for another week.
I added the Magnaclean Pro 2.
I also installed the TADO Smart TRVs and Thermostat.
As you see I've done a ton of stuff and still have issues.
I'm only an ametuer DIY guy with a background in software engineering.