So, my radiator valves date from the early 70’s when my apartment was built. I want to replace the valves on 7 radiators with TRVs so that I can fit Tado units to them.

The quote to remove 7 old valves, fit new TRVs should be….

<< guess the quote that I got and win a prize*>>

* Note organiser of competition may not be able to afford a prize what with the quote and everything

£700

£976.73

Well, after spending the morning at Gisburn yesterday I came home, drained the central heating, replaced two trv’s, removed another rad and fitted a couple of isolated valves, walked the dog and had the heating refilled, bled and back on by early evening. Parts cost less that £30.

With that in mind you are going to tell use he quote was mind bending, aren’t you? Do it yourself. I’m average at diy but managed not to flood the house.

Hard to say without knowing what valves you want, how easy your system is to drain and refill. Will all the rads drain or are some fed on drops?

I imagine anyone producing a quote has thought of that and priced accordingly, probably for worst case scenario, no drain on the system, choked cold feed, rads fed on drops etc.

Construction industry is very busy at the moment (well it is down here) so time will be costly at the moment.

£450

As for chestrockwell above this job took me the best part of a day for seven radiators and the TRVs must have cost me about £100. Oh and a bit extra for fresh Fernox for the refill.

£7, a packet of wotsits and half a mars bar?

Mr Holi – when can you start ?

For starters, trv’s can be anything from about £6.99 each to about £60 each, what are they quoting you for?. I’d suggest not having the cheapest plumbers merchant none branded, get reasonable quality ones if I were you Drayton, Honeywell etc… Do they also install new lock shields

Anyway, I’m more interested in these Tado smart radiator thermostats. Do you know whether they are just a smart valve or do they also communicate with the boiler individually to demand heat?

if your rads also date from the 1970s – was he possibly quoting you for new rads as well 😉

I am not sure about the valves communicating with the boiler- the traditional Tado does that, I think the radiator valves are more for someone like me who has a shared boiler – they simply regulate the flow of hot water to the radiator.

The quote, which includes them cleaning up the threads on the radiator pipes before putting on the new valve and Heimeier valves that I can find online for €13.73 a piece, is a stunning…

€1261.

EDIT: @Trailrat – he most definitely wasn’t.

Will the TRVs save that for you while you live in the house?

Will members of your family be able to leave the TRVs set and trust them? Mrs Gti just goes round winding them open because she thinks that will warm the room up quicker when the CH comes on. So they were a waste of money and all I can do is sneakily close the lockshields over time until I reckon the rad is balanced. The room stat controls the CH at a much more moderate cost.

sounds unlikely

are more for someone like me who has a shared boiler – they simply regulate the flow of hot water to the radiator.

ah a shared system may complicate matters some what. can you drain down your system individually.

Buying Tado radiator valves was not so much about saving money, but about having the apartment warm when it needs to be and cool when it doesn’t. At the moment I pay €100 each month in advance for heating and generally get a rebate of €800-900 once a year – which I am happy with for a 120 sq. metre place.

As it is a shared system, this company maintains the entire system and I’ve been told I have to use them. They have a captive market.

Robbing ####s.

I think the radiator valves are more for someone like me who has a shared boiler – they simply regulate the flow of hot water to the radiator.

Ah yes, I guess those systems just need to control the valve. I’ve always wondered how they charge you for your use, is it a flow meter or something thru your apartment pipework?.

Each radiator has a little doohickey stuck on it that measures the time/degree to which the radiator is on. They are remotely interrogated once a year for billing.

Sounds a bit fancy.
Mine is communal heating, and communal hot water. Means I have 5 water meters… 2 cold water (up/downstairs), 2 hot water meters (also up/downstairs), and a meter for the radiators.
Just have normal TRVs fitted on all of them. Billing here also has an adjustment factor applied depending on how much external wall/roof there is, so I actually get a discount rate compared to next door and the office below.

1200 is a lot.

sounds to me like they simply dont want to do it .

why would they want to have a piecemeal system to be responsible for.

As they maintain the system which if you are right is 40years old they probably expect it to be a pig.

I didn’t get a chance to guess ! I didn’t know it was going to be in Euros, but my pricing was going to be:

7 valves @ £10 each = £700 [1]
1 Day labour = £300

Total = £1,000, or €1,152 according to Google right now. Pretty close.

[1] Plumbers seem to use a factor of ten when adding markup on parts.