I have one of the small square ones from Screwfix fitted at my daughter's
house.

Had a anguished call to say that the heating was stuck on and had reached 28
degrees.

Fiddled around and eventually swopped the batteries. It now works.

Was it due to the fiddling with all the settings - or do the contacts 'fail'
in the closed position if the batteries weaken?


--


Regards

John




---
All of my outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.522 / Virus Database: 320 - Release Date: 29/09/2003

John wrote:
I have one of the small square ones from Screwfix fitted at my
daughter's house.

Had a anguished call to say that the heating was stuck on and had
reached 28 degrees.

Fiddled around and eventually swopped the batteries. It now works.

Was it due to the fiddling with all the settings - or do the contacts
'fail' in the closed position if the batteries weaken?

Thats not normal behaviour for the types I've seen.
Its usually low batteries = no heating.
Surely the opposite would not be good idea?

In article , John
john.plant90@NO-SPAMntlworldDOTcom.? writes
I have one of the small square ones from Screwfix fitted at my daughter's
house.

Had a anguished call to say that the heating was stuck on and had reached 28
degrees.

Fiddled around and eventually swopped the batteries. It now works.

Was it due to the fiddling with all the settings - or do the contacts 'fail'
in the closed position if the batteries weaken?
The relays in these are latching (magnetically assisted I think) and so if
the batt fails when on demand then it won't have the oooomph to reset the
relay.

The Horstmann looks like a pattern match for a Tower one I have as a
temp solution and I don't hold that one in high regard.
--
fred

The Horstmann looks like a pattern match for a Tower one I have as a
temp solution and I don't hold that one in high regard.

Yeah. I bought one of those, but never fitted it in the end. It sticks out
of the wall too much, looks a bit cheap and I couldn't work out how to
manual override the thing. (I'd lost the instructions).

Christian.

"BillR" wrote in message ...
John wrote:
I have one of the small square ones from Screwfix fitted at my
daughter's house.

Had a anguished call to say that the heating was stuck on and had
reached 28 degrees.

Fiddled around and eventually swopped the batteries. It now works.

Was it due to the fiddling with all the settings - or do the contacts
'fail' in the closed position if the batteries weaken?

Thats not normal behaviour for the types I've seen.
Its usually low batteries = no heating.
Surely the opposite would not be good idea?

I've got one of these and it does fail in the "demand" mode. I'm
going to fix my old regular thermostat in line with it at a slightly
higher temp just in case.

In article , Christian
McArdle writes
The Horstmann looks like a pattern match for a Tower one I have as a
temp solution and I don't hold that one in high regard.

Yeah. I bought one of those, but never fitted it in the end. It sticks out
of the wall too much, looks a bit cheap and I couldn't work out how to
manual override the thing. (I'd lost the instructions).

If you're still interested, you override by pressing one of the arrow keys
until the displayed demand temp blinks once, then use arrow keys to set
desired override temp. Resets on next program step - easy huh ;-)

Btw, thanks for the Sunvic recommendation, could be a suitable stop gap
for me.
--
fred

In article ,
John john.plant90@NO-SPAMntlworldDOTcom wrote:
Was it due to the fiddling with all the settings - or do the contacts
'fail' in the closed position if the batteries weaken?

They don't have a conventional relay but some form of 'motorized' switch -
this is needed to save battery consumption. Hence the loud - and annoying
- noise when it operates rather than the relaxing click of a relay. So I'd
guess it might fail in either mode when the batteries die.

--
*I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize *

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

"fred" wrote in message ...
In article , Christian
McArdle writes
The Horstmann looks like a pattern match for a Tower one I have as a
temp solution and I don't hold that one in high regard.

Yeah. I bought one of those, but never fitted it in the end. It sticks
out
of the wall too much, looks a bit cheap and I couldn't work out how to
manual override the thing. (I'd lost the instructions).

If you're still interested, you override by pressing one of the arrow keys
until the displayed demand temp blinks once, then use arrow keys to set
desired override temp. Resets on next program step - easy huh ;-)

Incidentally anyone tried the Danfoss one that Screwfix do (or any other one
of reasonable price)? The Horstmann doesn't lets you set 4 time bands per
day for weekdays but not for weekend days, and it's a bit fiddly to
temporarily override (which SWMBO particularly complains about).

--
John Stumbles
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
-+
There's nowt as queer as folk. Especially other folk.

John Stumbles wrote:

"fred" wrote in message ...
In article , Christian
McArdle writes
The Horstmann looks like a pattern match for a Tower one I have as a
temp solution and I don't hold that one in high regard.

Yeah. I bought one of those, but never fitted it in the end. It sticks
out
of the wall too much, looks a bit cheap and I couldn't work out how to
manual override the thing. (I'd lost the instructions).

If you're still interested, you override by pressing one of the arrow keys
until the displayed demand temp blinks once, then use arrow keys to set
desired override temp. Resets on next program step - easy huh ;-)

Incidentally anyone tried the Danfoss one that Screwfix do (or any other one
of reasonable price)? The Horstmann doesn't lets you set 4 time bands per
day for weekdays but not for weekend days, and it's a bit fiddly to
temporarily override (which SWMBO particularly complains about).


At the risk of sounding like you know who (and whatever he's just been
reading about...)

I still recommend the Centaur Stat 7 - less than 30 quid.
4 temperatures per day.
2 sorts of day assignable to any days of the week.
Easy + - buttons to override.
Lock button for going away for w/e hols etc.
Much easier to program than any other I have tried with similar
features.

Screwfix part 12517 (iIRC).

Even these controls are too complex for about half the customers.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html

In article , Ed Sirett
writes
John Stumbles wrote:

"fred" wrote in message ...
In article , Christian
McArdle writes
The Horstmann looks like a pattern match for a Tower one I have as a
temp solution and I don't hold that one in high regard.

Yeah. I bought one of those, but never fitted it in the end. It sticks
out
of the wall too much, looks a bit cheap and I couldn't work out how to
manual override the thing. (I'd lost the instructions).

If you're still interested, you override by pressing one of the arrow keys
until the displayed demand temp blinks once, then use arrow keys to set
desired override temp. Resets on next program step - easy huh ;-)

Incidentally anyone tried the Danfoss one that Screwfix do (or any other one
of reasonable price)? The Horstmann doesn't lets you set 4 time bands per
day for weekdays but not for weekend days, and it's a bit fiddly to
temporarily override (which SWMBO particularly complains about).


At the risk of sounding like you know who (and whatever he's just been
reading about...)

I still recommend the Centaur Stat 7 - less than 30 quid.
4 temperatures per day.
2 sorts of day assignable to any days of the week.
Easy + - buttons to override.
Lock button for going away for w/e hols etc.
Much easier to program than any other I have tried with similar
features.

Screwfix part 12517 (iIRC).

Even these controls are too complex for about half the customers.

Sounds good, but it's huuuuuuuuuuuuuge. It's 12157 btw.
--
fred