I have a dumb-ish Uponor UFH system that I would like to make smarter. One option is to replace the whole ‘Smatrix base’ controller with an ‘Smatrix Base PULSE’ controller and keep the same Uponor manifold actuators & thermostats. (err @ Uponor design team - did you even learn what the word ‘upgradeable means’?) Fairly easy, costs £426 - but I see the Uponor Smatrix Pulse iPhone app has exactly 1 review.
Or I can replace with some Heatmiser Neo thermostats, actuators & controller. The Heatmiser Neo app has 7.8K reviews. Cost will be £740 but a little more risky re compatibility with the Uponor manifold.
So, here’s the question:
Can I simply replace the Uponor 1090264 M28x1.5mm thread actuators with the Heatmiser TA230 M30x1.5mm thread actuators? I’m guessing I can source a mechanical adapter, but will the plunger depths etc match? More generally can you swap manifold actuators due to some unknown but agreed mechanical standard or do you need to be more careful. As far as I can see, the rest of the swap should be fairly straightforward.
OK for anyone else looking at the ‘can I swap UFH controllers question’:
After a bit more research, I’ve found - the answer is ‘not easily’ / ‘not without a lot of thought’. Mechanically - each actuator has a manifold thread pitch (generally 28x1.5mm or 30x1.5mm), and expects a particular geometry of valve pin height and stroke. So, you’re going to be safest using actuators which actually match the manifold. That said, there’s apparently some Salus ‘auto-balancing’ actuators which claim to adapt themselves to the manifold in question. And if you look at forum discussion, that’s sort-of-true in some circumstances. Maybe, maybe not, for Heatmiser controllers.
Presumably there’s some electrical compatibility also in terms of current draw, on-time etc.
So, I think, before ordering the whole system, I’m going to order a Heatmaster controller, one thermostat and one each of the manifold-matching Uponor 230V and Salus 230V actuators and see which, if any, works, in terms of opening and closing a valve fully.
Considering your heating efficiency, dump those actuators or at least change them to dumb normally open types.
Reason being you are likely throttling your boiler which is bad for efficiency and lifetime.
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Errr, I don’t quite get your thrust here. Doesn’t ‘dumping all the actuators’ imply that you’ll have all the building at the same temperature all the time as it’ll presumably only have one thermostat schedule and control loop?
We want the bedrooms to be colder at night, the bathroom floor to be warm at shower time and bedtime etc i.e. ‘smart’. Also, as it happens we have a German electrically heated Sadia Heatrae ‘flow boiler’ running the UFH and I can’t imagine any efficiency / throttling effects.
I figured that the best interface to work with was the electrical one to the actuators rather than the mechanical one between the actuators and the manifold.
So, I now have Heatmiser thermostats & controller (allowing app control) running new 230V Uponor actuators on the old Uponor manifold. That works fine. The old Uponor thermostats / controller / actuators have been sold on eBay.
Arguably Uponor is the company with the more professional chops as it makes grown-up systems for offices etc. The old Uponor thermostats used a RS485 wire-protocol. But Uponor seems to be a bit lame on the residential side and have not allowed for easy upgrade paths - seeming to prefer a slash-and-burn product road map. The new Heatmiser ones use a dumb combination of simple wired-switch control of the controller and RF mesh control of the thermostat programming. (Yeah they can be totally wireless thermostats if you don’t mind changing batteries.)
