honeywell zone valves

[southerly1]

Hello I have checked for items on this forum for problems with honeywell valves but didnt find any that related to a problem I have.
I am not a plumber I am a control systems qualified technician.
The problem I have is both with honeywell whos support is very poor. In not returning phone calls and what I think is the poor design of their zone valves.
Now they are a very cheap motorised valve but they should still work!
The basic problem with them seems to be that to open the valve it has to be energised, simples as the meercat says. I have had 3 of them burn out due I would suspect to being continually on for say 5 hours at a time. ( the motor is energised continually even though not turning whilst the valve is valve is called to open).
In order to (help) with this problem I used a change over micro switch on the end of the valve travel to switch a diode into the circuit, so that at the end of travel the motor supply is switched through the diode to reduce the power by half to the motor. By some strange trick of feat that motor did last twice as long as the first 2. It still burnt out eventually however.
Honeywell completely deny that this is happening with their valves I dont believe them. I also know that ASCO do make a valve that is sequential with a signal but they are expensive and are on /off very fast opening which is not as good for the system as the gradual opening of the honeywell. I was wondering if anyone else has had burn out problems with this honeywell, or that I am doing something stupid like by fitting a diode reducing the frequency of the applied voltage thereby reducing the Xl and actually increasing the power to the motor. Or am I talking rubbish as theres nothing wrong with the things.

 

[southerly1]

well the last guy doesnt like them at all. I contacted Honeywell, and guess what and I quote"we have never had any trouble with motors burning out". Yes thats what they said!
People can bury their heads in the sand and say what wonderful clothes the king has on and kid themselves forever.
best of luck to them. I am a qualified process control systems technician, two full techs, and i say the design is not good, and I am not changing my mind, like the man said before so what if the valve is stuck the motor runs anyway( the valve is or rather was not stuck). and there are far better engineering solutions, ( that would raise the price by about £5 ) The truth is that Honeywell will not do anything about them until fools stop buying them. And that is the end of chat.
best regards

 

[kimbo]

As I said before on page 2 this appears to be what you are after.
Motorised valves for domestic central heating system – Sunvic Controls

 

[southerly1]

Yes Kimbo you are correct the sunvic looks like a much better valve, next year when the honeywell has burnt out again ( although now there is not a honeywell motor in it its a "generic" motor) honeywell are far too expensive. I will replace it with the type you recommend.
Now isnt that what forums are for! To further the art, and get things working better. My #1 son is on a plumbers course now and i have spoken to him that its well worth fitting additional valves to help maintain the system and a low point catchpot and drain.
He is of the opinion that he is going to put it all in cheap and then charge for repair, I just hope he sees sense before he completes the course.
Just one final point about Honeywells policy, For domestic installations It must be very price driven and plumbers get massive discounts on retail, so theres not a lot of money in it for honeywell. For example they make loads of different microswitches all of different qualities from the one on the door of your washing machine to the one on the door of the space shuttle, they all look the same, but are vastly different.
i will buy a sunvic one they have been making controls for ages if i remember correctly sunvic made the original simmerstats for electric cookers.

 

[stevetheplumber]

i was told all the synchron motors are made in one factory in canada
never had a problem with honeywell valves good reliable kit

 

[southerly1]

I would suspect that they are made in china now not that that makes any difference. I have worked a lt with synchron motors usually the only fault that occurs is after a long time all the teeth get bent, I have even worked with switchable pole ones.
Now as stated before I am not a plumber, I am an instrument technician working with gas to 15000 psig down to gas at a vacuum. I also work with industrial control systems including honeywell TDC. I am going to change the honeywell one for the type as suggested.
I started the link to try and get the valve to work with some reliability.
I will still play with it as I feel that if I run it to the stop then disconnect the ac voltage and switch in a low dc voltage to lock the rotor enough to stay where it is until the rotor is released then the valve could spring return to its shut position. Some of the comments I have found and others have as well a bit silly.Others have been more than helpful. I have also seen a bank of 10 of them all working away with only a few failures over about 10 years, perhaps I have been unlucky, as I usually buy the generic motors, rather than the expensive genuine ones, they both fail at the same rate. When i contacted Honeywell I maybe wrong but my impression was that the chap was more of a sales type of person rather than a technical one.
I really think this thread is closed now, as for honeywell, I will go elsewhere come to think of it I have had three programmers as well, lcd readouts that you cannot read and relays sticking. Just as well the old potterton keeps working ok and the grundfoss pump has never missed a beat. thats it the fin