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Ok it's not a panic despite the cold weather. I've two wood burners keeping the house toastie, and I've got hot water via the boiler. What I don't have is any c/h. I just turned the room stat up to bring it on and test it as it's not been used in over a year but..no. thermostat, a British gas (rebadged Drayton) RC plus seems to work fine and calls for heat, or at least I get the flame symbol. The receiver, a wr1, at the boiler doesn't seem to get the call. I've tried re pairing by turning the spur for the receiver off, and popping out the thermostats batteries, then spur on, put into learn mode by pressing both buttons (it correctly does the flashing red then off, then both green and red led on), fresh batteries in the stat, make it stop calling for heat then start again.... It doesn't seem to fix the problem.
Google suggests the wr1 has failed, a common issue. Ok replacing that is within me, I just need to know do I need a particular wireless receiver? Looks like wr1s are no longer made (boiler etc must be about 12 now) so which do I need? Or do I need a new receiver AND thermostat/wireless control.
I thought a replacement would be about £20 until I did a quick search.... Prices have gone up since I last had to buy a thermostat!
Looking on Screwfix this looks identical to my room stat and my wireless receiver
https://www.screwfix.com/p/drayton-digistat-3rf-1-channel-wireless-room-thermostat/76816
Unfortunately for me it looks like it's only sold as a pair, in Screwfix at least.
I had a problem where the wireless stat was calling for heat but the boiler wasn't turning on. For my system the steps should be stat calls for heat, receiver picks up signal, motorised valve opens and boiler turns on. Turns out there's a microswitch in the motorised valve which talks to the boiler and that had failed - new motorised valve headbfrom screwfix sorted it, and replacing the failed microswitch in the old one will give me a spare.
TLDR - if you've got a motorised valve that moves when the stat demands heat then the problem might be in there rather than the wireless receiver
Thanks, pretty sure it's the receiver at fault, the red led should flash to indicate it's received a signal, it doesn't. So it's either the receiver or it's the room stat. The stat does indicate it's calling though and the plumbing forums threads I've found seem to say wr1 failure pretty common, often the first place to start. I'm mainly just a bit peeved it looks like I need the stat and receiver pair at £120 ish... If it were the stat that has failed they can be bought in their own at half the cost.
Oh well.
The pics on the Screwfix page show an override button on the receiver. Does pushing that give you heat regardless of what the remote programmer is asking for?
Ours failed yesterday, my plumber told me to try re-pairing the unit, this didn't work. He then said that if I turned the power off and I could join two of the wires at the back of the sender unit to get the boiler working till I could fit a new unit. In my case it was the black and grey wires but I've no idea if yours is the same.
Yes I could override by joining the wires. It's not an issue though so long as I'm in, I can continue to feed copious amounts of oak into the stoves. It's for when I'm away for a few days over Christmas that I'll want to set the stat low but know it'll turn the c/h on and prevent a frozen pipe. Hopefully I can get the new parts in the morning
You could just fit a cheap wired stat where the receiver is as an interim solution.
I had a receiver fail years ago.... Managed to fix it by soldering something new on!!
It's just a wireless switch so you can certainly connect the wires to override it.
Dayton wireless recivers are prone to breaking the internal relays. I’ve changed loads over the years,and it is always the reciever that has failed.
I’ve had no problems with the budget wireless stat from Plumb Center.
Programmable here:
Programmable stat.
Or just a remote stat here:
Wireless stat
An easy , quick fix would be to put a light switch across the 2 control cables in the wireless receiver. There will be LN and E, and probably 2 other cables for the boiler control. Just put them on a switch and you can manually control your heating for a few days.
Cheers, as said, no panic due to the wood burners. I use those full time anyway and have only used the c/h for about a week over the last 2.5 winters and not at all this or last. I just want to turn it on with the stat set low when I'm away for a few days.
Right, I realised the unit I linked, although it looked physically identical to the current unit, it didn't seem to be a programmable timer and thermostat, just the simple stat. So I've ordered this one
https://www.toolstation.com/drayton-digistat-programmable-room-thermostat/p81123?store=LH&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dm&pcrid=&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=CjwKCAiAy_CcBhBeEiwAcoMRHA_82jxpkhmr2YZNKjOGx0azaKpOjwaKvibQRNqlyezr-17K5bgFcBoCqAEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds#full-desc
Although annoyingly I forgot to check tool station and ordered it for click and collect from Screwfix where it cost a fiver more, typical. Still £15 cheaper than the first one I was going to get and if it arrives tomorrow great... If it doesn't I try tool station.