Thermostatic Radiator Valve Suggestions?

Steamhead (in transit)

and that the best places to use them are in rooms that the owners wish to keep cooler than the rest of the house. This might include bedrooms, guest rooms and the like. I wouldn't use them in bathrooms since lowering temperatures in these can result in condensation problems, and obviously not in the area where the thermostat is since the TRVs can limit the rads' heat output when the thermostat is still calling for heat.

I have four Honeywell-Braukmann TRVs in my bedrooms, and they work great. Macon and Danfoss also perform well. I generally match the TRV size to the pipe size, especially on converted gravity systems.

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Steven Gronski

What do you prefer?

I just got a boiler replacement job today, and the house is a 2 pipe hot water system feeding 18 cast iron hot water radiators. A few of the radiators are being supplied and returned with some 1" lines, but the majority are 3/4". The customer wants to be able to control the heat in each room, since the whole house (1st and 2nd floor)is just operating on one thermostat. What would be the best TRV's to use, and do I have to match the size of the valve to the supply on each radiator, or can I reduce? Thanks for your input.

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Brad White_172

Steve

I personally like the Macon valves offered and imported by Tunstall.

I find them smaller in body than others, including the heads. Honeywell-Braukmann for one I find to be rather large by comparison.

What I also like about the Macon valves is the spud. Instead of a normal two-pin spud, they use an Allen wrench (13 mm I believe) for the smaller sizes and they have a tool for the 1" and 1-1/4" sizes, also a hex pattern. Positive with no slip. Great when working in tight quarters.

I put in nine of them at my Susan's last year. Went very smoothly including sweeping up the dust bunnies.

Properly selected, all brands do about the same thing. These fit better. No need to choke them down in size as far as performance goes. We have a 1-1/4" valve on one radiator of a size (fit best without re-piping) and a 1/2" valve on another of similar size. Both hold well with no noise.

When replacing angle valves of a given size, the C-C dimensions matched even the 1922 original pattern. I think most do.