EvoHome Issues?

For the last few weeks our EvoHome has been playing up.

System calling for heat, boiler on, everything looking correct yet no heat. This can last an 1hr or so.

Using the main controller it might be frozen out. Taking it off the basis makes no difference, but then it appears to almost do a reset and reconnect to the valves.

I notice EvoHome have been doing their own maintenance of late too, and even the phone app has logged me out a few times.

Are other people experiencing problems?

No, none what so ever. Only minor issue I’ve had is a few weeks ago it appeared on the app to lose contact with the furthest away trv controller for a bit and I thought trv battery needs replacing but next time I looked it was back to normal. I think it did log me out of the app once last week, but it does that occasionally.

In case you don’t know, long press settings on controller will get you into config settings where you could do a comms check etc (no idea of it’ll actually help you)

Tbh I would imagine if the room temps are showing on your app and controller then it will be communicating with your trvs. System summery in config menu is quite useful to see what should be happening at your rads. So 100% is fully open I guess or 6 on a trad trv, 15% will be equiv to 1 on a trad trv. I’m no expert.

Oh and automatedhome.co.uk/heating control is the Evohome forum where you should be able to get it resolved. Quite a few experts who seem to know their stuff and Honeywell evohome staffers offering access to software beta testing etc etc

Thanks BA was wondering which is the best forum.

I’ve rung Evohome and the start of my problems coincided with a firmware update.

They are looking in to it remotely

If you have Christmas or tree lights on try switching them off. Evohome controller – relay communication is unhelpfully basic with no acknowledgements, so if a signal to turn on or off the relay isn’t received, the controller doesn’t know.

It’s also very vulnerable to interference (especially if the relays are near copper pipes), which coincidentally is often generated by cheap and nasty switching power supplies in LED lights.

Edit:–

When you say “boiler on” do you mean your physical boiler is actually firing but no heat from the radiators? If that’s the case check the pump is running.

Edit:–

When you say “boiler on” do you mean your physical boiler is actually firing but no heat from the radiators? If that’s the case check the pump is running.

Green ‘on’ light illuminated, but no noise

Is your open rad getting hot, when the controller is demanding heat, boiler is on but no evohome rads getting hot??

FunkyDunc

So during the bits where the the boiler should be heating it fires up? is that where the green light is or on your evohome controller or the evohome relay box by the boiler?

At the boiler can you feel/hear the pump doing it’s thing?

If you take one of the evohome TRV off a radiator when heat is being called for and the boiler is running does the rad get hot?

Do you have any zone valves?

Sorry just re-read the original post and reworded some bits..

I’m assuming you have a S-plan or a Y-plan system with motorised valves.

If you take the lever on the central heating valve and manually turn it on, your boiler should fire and the pump should run regardless of the central heating setting.

If this doesn’t happen you have a fault in the valve head (either the dinky synchronous motor or the microswitch).

So during the bits where the the boiler should be heating it fires up? is that where the green light is or on your evohome controller or the evohome relay box by the boiler?

The radiators will be cold, green light on the boiler (but no noise), green light on the relay box (which is situated upstairs where the hot water tank is)

At the boiler can you feel/hear the pump doing it’s thing?

No

If you take one of the evohome TRV off a radiator when heat is being called for and the boiler is running does the rad get hot?

what do you mean by take off? Remove the TRV so the valve fully opens? Thats a good idea I will give that a try next time it happens.

Do you have any zone valves?

No

If you take the lever on the central heating valve and manually turn it on, your boiler should fire and the pump should run regardless of the central heating setting.

I ‘think’its a Y system.

This morning – rooms all warm as expected apart from lounge. Rads cold although being asked to provide heat. Took evohome controller off base unit, increased rad temp in lounge,replaced and it started heating.

Tonight – all rads in house go cold. Green light on boiler (no noise etc) & relay light on. Took evohome controller off base unit, controller goes off and comes back on again searching for all rooms. 5 minutes later rads working…..

Will try taking TRV off next time it happens, and then trying to manually move the motorised valve.

Christmas lights have been very close to the evohome controller so they have now been switched off.

The only other thing is that we had a new oil tank installed 3-4 weeks ago. Previously the tank was situated approx 3ft higher than the boiler so gravity would easily feed it. It is now at the same level and the oil has to travel along a 5m ish pipe. If this was the issue though it wouldnt explain heating working in all rooms but the lounge

It’s done it this morning, all the smart thermostats are 100% open, green light on relay box at boiler, boiler says no demand. It’s worked faultlessly for 4 years this is the first time anything like this has happened.

Really basic, I know – but do the valves in question say they’re connected? Sounds like they’re losing the connection, and restarting the controller is forcing a re-discovery.

So it sounds like a fault between the boiler and evohome boiler relay?

If the boiler relay led says it’s activated and the boiler is not firing then a suspect relay, cable or duff boiler??

From what you say today, it sounds like the evohome kit is all operating as it should, apart from the possibility of a duff boiler relay.

My money is still on a dodgy valve. If the microswitch doesn’t close properly you won’t get power to the pump or a demand signal to the boiler, but the hot water side will work normally.

You can test it by hitting the button on the evohome relay, it’ll force it on. You should hear the valve move and then the pump and boiler start.

My boiler is working fine (Ideal Vogue C32 combi, totally from scratch new central heating system installed 4 years ago), had a shower this morning and water demand fired up immediately. took batteries out of the controller and boiler fired up. not reporting any faults on boiler fault menu. also did a controller RF comms test on the relay box and the signal strength came back excellent. So everything is as it should be, it just didn’t switch the boiler on this morning despite the relay box light being green (the boiler was saying there was no demand).

I’m on 02.00.19.33

Really basic, I know – but do the valves in question say they’re connected?

depends what valves you are referring to. If you mean the smart thermostats HR92 attached to the rads trvs then it’s nowt to do with them, they’re working as they should. In my book it appears to be the comms between the controller and the boiler, does anyone know if the relay box is just a switch or is the controller actually speaking to the boiler via the relay box with some sort of code.

Look, if the green relay light is on then the problem is not with your Evohome system, it’s with the motorised valves or their microswitches.

so I don’t understand why when you disconnect the controller (take the batteries out) the boiler fires up straightaway?. all these valves and microswitches suddenly become fine again.

That sounds like a coincidence.

The way I think it works is that it sends a schedule through at given intervals, and the relays/TRVs store them (that’s why it can take a few minutes between setting a temperature manually and the system reacting). Disconnecting the controller should not have immediate effect on anything.

does anyone know if the relay box is just a switch or is the controller actually speaking to the boiler via the relay box with some sort of code

The relay is just an on/off switch as far as the boiler is concerned. Unless it’s an Opentherm Bridge.

Flaperon prior to taking out the batteries, no matter what I did on the controller or app I couldn’t get it to fire the boiler and the green light was going off and on (heating off / on, upping the temps, etc). After removing and replacing the evohome controller batteries I’ve got full control of the boiler again doing the same (heating off /on, altering temps etc).

The relay is just an on/off switch.

I’m completely baffled then why taking the controller batteries out would make a difference either to what flaperon is saying or to a simple on/off electrical signal.

Disconnecting the controller should not have immediate effect on anything.

It may have been 5 mins or so after taking the batteries out, but yes when I went upstairs the boiler had fired up after I’d taken the batteries out and before I’d replaced them. Put the batteries in and it now seems back to normal with full control.

In the installer menu, what do you see for heating demand? If you have a combi boiler the BDR91 should be paired as a “boiler relay”, but if S plan or Y plan there should be nothing there. If you have this wrong it can lead to some interesting and unpredictable behaviour.

You haven’t said whether manually operating the valve triggers the boiler to fire (I don’t mean a radiator valve, I mean the one that goes “whhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-CLUNK” when it turns off.

It may have been 5 mins or so after taking the batteries out, but yes when I went upstairs the boiler had fired up after I’d taken the batteries out and before I’d replaced them. Put the batteries in and it now seems back to normal with full control.

Edit: I’ve just re-read this. I think you or the installer has managed to accidentally pair one or more radiator valves to the BDR91, instead of the evohome controller. You could try factory resetting the BDR91 and re-pairing it with the controller.

Ultimately though if the boiler doesn’t start when you push the button on the BDR91 or open the valve manually, you need to fix that fundamental problem before messing around with the Evohome system.

In the heating demand function everything was 100% demand. I don’t know where the manual valve is on my boiler (is that what you’re saying could have stuck?). Mine is a 4yo combi system, the Honeywell system has worked without fault for 4 years, It’s useful to know that I should be able to fire the boiler by the button on the BDR91, I did wonder.

OK, being a combi it won’t have a zone valve, just the BDR91 wired into the boiler (assuming you didn’t spec the Opentherm bridge when it was fitted).

The boiler should always run (the circulating pump at least) when the green light on the BDR91 is on, regardless of heating demand. It should be paired as a “boiler relay” in the installer settings.

I suspect though that as I said, you might have a valve double-paired to the BDR91 instead of the evohome controller. It’s actually quite a weird design and probably worth considering the radiator valve as two separate components (sensor and actuator), each with their own associated radio.

In some respects it’s incredibly flexible – basically all the Honeywell shit will talk to and work with other components in weird and wonderful ways, but equally it’s possible to totally balls up the pairing by doing something in slightly the wrong order.

This is compounded by fairly vulnerable, one-way radio links with no acknowledgments from the receiver. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, say, a plug socket with an RF remote is capable of interfering with the signals.

You won’t break anything if you factory reset the whole lot and start from scratch as you have, by the sounds of it, a very simple system.

Hmm 4:30am heating blasting out in one room (apparently manual override)

Also comms lost in 2 rooms

I’ve cancelled the manual override but relay light still on, heating blasting out yet all trv’s off!

Edit: just turned off at relay box and it’s come straight back on showing the 1 manual override room calling for heat again on manual override 😡

Ah then just gone to utility and it’s like a sauna yet the app and controller are saying it’s switched off, but the TRV itself is saying 25 deg

Any update @FunkyDunc?

Anyone having app trouble today? Last night it said closed for maintenance, this morning I can’t get logged in.