Preventing radiator valves from getting stuck
Comments
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Clearly some people think this already is a feature which it clearly isnt.
Give us the choice to enable the feature. a quick open close once a month wont bother anyone, that is a silly excuse.
For the danish market where the water in some areas has a very high chalk content it would be a marketable feature.
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Please add this as an opt-in feature, thanks!1
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We miss this feature. Please add it ASAP!1
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That would be a nice feature.1
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yes add this please to avoid blocking during hot season1
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Please @Jurian read also the italian section of this community.
In Italy ALL centralized system for blocks of flats need to set open the valve on summer, for the anti-calcification program that our centralized boiler start on summer!
It's the most voted feature for italian community https://tado.vanillacommunities.com/it/discussion/749/modalita-estate-per-le-teste-termostatche and please everyone go to vote it.
@Jurian without this feature ALL the people in italy that live in blocks of flats need to remove your tado system during summer.. it's ridiculous.
Thanks
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This was the answer I got for how to open all valves without starting the boiler.
"During the boiler maintenance, the best move is to set all rooms to OFF in the app, so they don't start the boiler, then simply remove the Smart Radiator Thermostats from their mounting brackets, like when changing the batteries."
How can I vote for a button in the app to do this without removing all my smart radiator thermostats?
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I approve 100% this request.
Being able to force open the valve should have been a basic feature in the first place.
Both suggested solutions sucks:
- Set the valves to independant and boost: in the summer it can be >25c where i live thus the valves will close...
- Unmount the trv from the radiator: seriously bro!?2 -
Hello!
Dear Tado, why have there been no answers to these summer programs for years? Don’t they feel this is important despite the myriad requests?
Regards
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Hello!
Dear Tado, why have there been no answers to these summer programs for years? Don’t they feel this is important despite the myriad requests?
Regards
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This really doesn’t seem like an overcomplicated thing to implement. It can be done manually by making the trvs independent so they don’t call for heat and then opening them, so I don’t see why it couldn’t be automated.2
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This should be included for sure! Even cheap Computherm system can do this (and they do it). Like turning the pump on for 1 minute each day or week once. Here the valve should be added as well.1
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Hi,
Every autumn when I turn my radiator thermostats back on after summer, the pin in the radiator valve is stuck (since it hasn't been "exercised" for several months). Searching around the Internet, I know that this is a very common problem among other house owners.
I know of at least one vendor of smart radiators, Danfoss, who prevents this from happening with a feature called "valve exercise". What their thermostats do is "exercise" the radiator valves once a week, moving the pin back and forth once or twice, to prevent the pin from staying in the same position for months and months and getting stuck.
You can check out the product page of e.g. Danfoss Eco here, who has valve exercise: https://installer.danfoss.com/products/radiator-thermostats-and-valves/radiator-thermostats/danfoss-eco/
What I would love to be able to do, as a user of tado smart radiator thermostats, is the following:
- Select whether or not I want to enable valve exercising (the feature probably needs an in-app explanation for less tech savvy users) for one or several of my thermostats, and
- If I choose to enable it, also select a schedule (both frequency and at what time, preferrably with a recommendation (e.g. once every week))
Thank you for an otherwise great product!
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Please see following link
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I completely agree with all of the above, this should be an easy one to fix. I just upvoted this suggestion, after having first submitted a feature request of my own. Surprised this ticket has been open for 2+ years, since competitors (e.g. Danfoss) have already had this feature for far longer than that.
I propose you start with a simple, minimal implementation of this, one that simply allows users to switch the feature on or off, which you then expand upon and make more granular (with the ability to change frequency, scheduling, etc.).
Thank you!
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Noted - thanks! I've now upvoted and added a comment to that ticket. I gotta say I'm genuinely surprised it hasn't already been implemented, given the amount of push for it in the community.
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My suggestion and a response to the official post from June 2021 is:
Make this feature optional, so users would have to turn the option on.
- In this instance no more wondering why the motor moved in the middle of summer.
- If a time of the day is a problem, make the option customized. Just did a small test how fast (on a similar device) it takes to run a valve test - 10 seconds.
- What to do in a low battery situation? - add a proper notification system to the app.
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How to properly implement this in an intuitive way without confusing users isn't a hard nut to crack even for a moderately functioning product team, honestly. They could just put it under "advanced features", turn it off by default, and the problem would be pretty much solved.
Offering customers the "solution" to demount the entire radiator thermostat and manually exercise the pin is just ridiculous - that's one of the very reasons I bought a smart thermostat in the first place. In retrospect I guess I should have checked the features list prior to purchase the thermostats, but hey - I took for granted this was included.
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Please, add this as an opt-in setting1
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Hi all,
Sorry to bring this up again, after all this time.
It seems I have the same problem of you, having 2 radiator valves with the black pin stuck inside; I've tried to move it a little, even pull it out, but didn't work.
Did anybody figure out how to solve this?
At this point I don't think Tado will implement this feature any time soon.
Thanks in advance!0 -
Hi VF93,
This Youtube video demonstrates it; while the audio is in Swedish, the video itself is hopefully sufficient to help you out:
I've successfully followed these steps myself. Additionally, I wipe the pin off (after I've exercised it) with cotton pads to make it run more smoothly, and also add a small, small drop of neutral oil (something like sewing machine oil) on the pin. However, note that I still have to exercise the valves once a year when winter approaches.
Best of luck to you - we'll have to help each other out, as Tado decided not to!
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My two cents on Tado's feedback:
- "It seems that the calcification problem is more theoretical than a real problem."
- In other words, Tado fails to recognize the problem, essentially invalidating our opinion. Cheers, Tado.
- Our Smart Radiator Thermostats are not fully silent, this means that if we move the motor, people will notice and would start wondering why the motor moved in the middle of summer. This means you would have to exclude this from being done in the middle of the night. But even during the day this could disturb people who are on shifts.
- Make it an opt-in feature then, and let people set the frequency or define a schedule themselves. (now that was a tough nut to crack)
- Some heating systems provide hot water all year round, and the only thing stopping a radiator from heating up is that the radiator valve is closed (district heating, or multi-family homes that are common in Germany). By opening the valve and closing it again shortly after, the radiator would heat up. Not ideal when outside temperatures are above 20 degrees.
- Do you really think exercising the pin once a week, which takes approx. 10-20 seconds for the thermostat, will cause the radiator to heat up even noticeably? Wow.
- What to do in a low battery situation? (Can't risk the valve remaining open because the battery ran low)
- if battery.percent >20%: exercise valve; else: do not exercise valve; (another really tough nut to crack)
I'm genuinely surprised by the complete lack of creativity and initiative that the Tado team is showing - all I'm hearing is excuses.
By the way folks, there are other thermostats out there that have this feature, such as Danfoss.
2 - "It seems that the calcification problem is more theoretical than a real problem."
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In fairness, I think the Tado team on here are largely deployed to explain why Tado can’t or won’t do something that involves a significant software update. I’ve said it before but it would make sense for Tado to have a power user app that contained all these features, and a basic app for people who just want as simple control over their system as possible.1
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Body is 18 characters too short0 -
summer mode is essential. How come so long no updates? It is very easy, cmon!
Domenico from Italy0 -
Having both valves of a radiator open isn't any particular advantage in Summer for bleeding purposes. In fact, it could be helpful if air just bubbled-up to a particular radiator as that one could be bled easier on its own.
You only require one radiator vale on a radiator top be open in order to bleed or fill it but you require two to be open for pumped water to flow through it from flow to return.
What might be useful is a once per month cycle in summer to motor SRV's fully each way once. If the SRV's did this once per month then it would be unlikely they would seize.
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Had i know beforehand how Todo ignores their users I would have stuck with Danfoss.
But since i didn't here's what i do every april.
I program Smart Schedule to OFF for every day, and then set sunday from 0345 to 0400 to max.
Sadly you cannot do less than 15 mins in Smart Schedule, but it works. The valves never gets stuck any more.
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You got it!
I don't want to remove the smart head from radiator every year! It's stupid and insane. it should be a standard feature to set the valve to "old" values 1 (fully closed),2,3,4,5(fully opened). I don't think it's a big issue in terms of software development. I will be happy to pay this service if needed.
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This is essential functionality. To keep TRVs fully open during summer I had to remove TADO actuators from mounting brackets on all radiators. A bit crazy..... Summer mode would be better.
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