TRV Lifespan

Steve Ebels_3

Of the hundreds that we have installed over the last 10 years on jobs I can recall exactly one (1) that failed about a year and a half after installation. One other one that was DOA and that's it. All of the ones we have in service are Oventrop and installed on hot water systems. Steam may be a different story but I doubt they will be a major replacement item for you.

Carl_21

TRV Life span

I am on the building committee of a large co-op in Chicago. We have a well maintained, 2-pipe steam heating system. Part of our maintenance regimen is replacing all of the traps on every radiator on each riser every 6 years. (We have 6 down-feed risers and we stagger them, replacing all the traps on all of the radiators on one of the risers each summer.)

Over the last five years, we have installed TRVs on almost all of the radiators in our residences (about 1,000). This has significantly improved our system's efficiency and living comfort.

Now that some years have passed, we are wondering how often we should replace these. I understand that they last much much longer than traps. Nevertheless, to the extent that we need to eventually replace them, we can easily add this task to the trap replacement schedule. Comments?

Derheatmeister

30 to40 years no problem

In Germany i used to work on these kind of systems and it was not very uncommon to find that some TRV's(Oventrop and Danfoss) were 30 to 40 years old and still working well.

ttekushan_3

operators vs valves.

The valves should outlast the thermostatic operators. I'm doing a job on a two pipe steam heating system where Danfoss remote operator TRVs were installed somewhere around 35 years ago. Half the operators have failed and a few of the valves leak. I have no idea how long ago the failed units have been bad, but at least we know that the other half are good. No maintenance is apparent, meaning they are all likely the same age.

-Terry

Carl_21

Thanks for the input

From your comments I will make the following recommendation to the building:

1. Check for leaks in TRVs at time of trap replacement and replace as needed.

2. Replace TRVs every 4th or 5th maintenance cycle (24 or 30 years) depending upon frequency of leaks/failures in a tier. E.g., if 20% or more of TRV's have already been replaced on a tier, then replace the rest on the next cycle.

ttekushan_3

Commendations.

First, your plan sounds good to me.

I like the way you are planning and performing maintenance. Maintaining the efficiency of a heating system saves so much in the long run. Its difficult to put a number on it, but deferred maintenance is unimaginably more costly. Deferred maintenance assumes there is no tomorrow. Considering the long history of fully executed tomorrows we and our ancestors have witnessed, I'm thinking proactive maintenance wins hands down!

-Terry