Can zone valve motor "parts" be installed on a standard ball valve?

[rwh442]

I have a standard 3/4" ball valve in my DHW sidearm HX loop that I would love to just install a zone valve motor over top of instead of taking apart all the piping and soldering in a zone valve. I would probably end up cutting and soldering quite a bit to accomplish that task. Does anybody have any experience with this - would it work? The ball vavle moves fairly easily. I do not know how much "torque" a zone valve motor has. What brands/models might work best if at all?

 

[Tarmsolo60]

won't work

 

[2.beans]

i need to do the same thing but i couldnt find anything you could buy to do it with except the right way.

 

[Nofossil]

Well. if not the right way then there's backwoods engineering. My brother had this problem as well as a cordless drill with dead batteries and a pile of bicycle parts. A couple of sprockets, a length of chain, a wooden cam with microswitches to detect position, and he's good to go. Been running a couple of years with no problems. I don't have a picture, but it's a thing of rare beauty.

 

[Rick Stanley]

Well. if not the right way then there's backwoods engineering. My brother had this problem as well as a cordless drill with dead batteries and a pile of bicycle parts. A couple of sprockets, a length of chain, a wooden cam with microswitches to detect position, and he's good to go. Been running a couple of years with no problems. I don't have a picture, but it's a thing of rare beauty.

Ah-Ha, then it IS in your blood :lol:

 

[pybyr]

Well. if not the right way then there's backwoods engineering. My brother had this problem as well as a cordless drill with dead batteries and a pile of bicycle parts. A couple of sprockets, a length of chain, a wooden cam with microswitches to detect position, and he's good to go. Been running a couple of years with no problems. I don't have a picture, but it's a thing of rare beauty.

Robinson Crusoe meets Hydronics Wonderful

 

[2.beans]

i have a belimo draft motor that i was going to mount with exhaust clamps and use some old jeep carb linkage, but it was going to look a little to scary. im sure where there is a will there is a way. ive built worse that worked. for me it would be faster to do it right.

 

[rwh442]

Looks like I'm going to improvise. I actually thought of the damper actuator route also.

Or I might just try the Nofossil route - I have an old Cutlass I can get the window motor out of - wait - no power source! Never mind.

Sorry - couldn't resist.

 

[Tarmsolo60]

I think I'd wait till spring put in a $50 zone valve and be done with it. Backyard engineering is cool, unless it's -20 and your calling your neighbor for parts off his bike for a repair. Don't get me wrong, I love making things work, but a zone valve will properly solve your problem.

 

[rwh442]

I know a zone valve is the way to go - I just DREAD taking apart the sidarm plumbing because I know it will probably end up changing the bottom also and who knows what else. Just like everything else - hindsight is 20/20.

 

[leaddog]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Johnson-Control...ptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Google the actuator to make sure it would work. Check out what you need to control, voltage etc. I didn't check it out
leaddog

 

[Nofossil]

I think I'd wait till spring put in a $50 zone valve and be done with it. Backyard engineering is cool, unless it's -20 and your calling your neighbor for parts off his bike for a repair. Don't get me wrong, I love making things work, but a zone valve will properly solve your problem.

Be aware that zone valves typically have TINY orifices, so they impose a very large flow restriction compared to a ball valve.

 

[Tarmsolo60]

Full port zone valves are available if a regular zone valve has too much restriction. The OP mentioned a zone valve head so I was just thinking zone valve, not about his flow requirements. I'm sure NoFo's brothers solution is quite a sight, Heck, he built his own condensing gasifier. I hope no one thought my previous post was in anyway negative about his solution, I just figured soldering in a new valve was a better route for us mere mortals.

 

[rwh442]

I did not know that a typcial zone valve had a small port. Thanks for the replies.

 

[in hot water]

some ball valves have casting bosses forged in to allow a motor operator to be added. Generally the top quality commercial ball valves, not the hardware type. remember you will need a control to motor the valve two directions, open and close. Motorized ball valves are not generally spring close valves as they are designed for much higher shut off pressures.

An off grid, hippie friend of mine in California wrapped a coil spring around some ball valve handles to pull them shut.

He then attached a cable to a greenhouse thermostatic window operator to pull it open. This is his "passive" no power required room thermostat control for a gravity fed radiant wall heating system. The greenhouse operators actually modulate the ball valve opening, and controls the room temperature to within a few degrees!

He also has a solar component to his radiant wall heating system. He filled his collectors with cheap vodka as the antifreeze. Much cheaper than propylene glycol, and non toxic

hr

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

He filled his collectors with cheap vodka as the antifreeze.

I was chatting with the folks from one of the boiler manufacturers a while back, and they had just returned from a trip to Russia, visiting some commercial clients. The subject of antifreeze came up, and they showed the manufacturer's folks a big drum of vodka. They insisted on shipping some back to the US. To test whether it would damage the seals used in the boiler, of course!

Joe

 

[2.beans]

vodka damages my seals and give me headache.

 

[2.beans]

i changed my mind and did it anyways. dont know if any is interested but i used two pieces of angle iron, one exhuast clamp, an old 3/8 extension, 11/16 deep well socket,a few nuts and bolts 1 hour of labor, and a Johnson Controls M9116-GGA-2. wired to my existing zone vales and now im done. ( for now ).thanks to leaddog for showing that they make actuators with higher torque ratings, that made my mind up for me. i built it for less than 50 bucks and didnt have to open and bleed air out my system.

 

[rowerwet]

great! I love DIY solutions!

 

[Fred61]

Is it a spring return or motorized in both directions? If it's motorized what signals the direction?

 

[2.beans]

its motorized both directions, i wired it up so its powered one direction all the time and powers it the opposite direction when you need it to. once the actuator hits its max resistance it de-energizes the drive motor. then when it gets signal to go the opposite direction it powers up and drives that way until it hits max resistance. then it de-energizes. the signal comes from the taco zone control, thru an aquastat. im going to use this only when it gets real cold out to bypass my storage tanks. so eventually it will be controlled with an outside temp sensor to bypass the tanks when it gets down to around zero.

 

[leaddog]

glad I was able to help. If you look around on ebay there is alot of interesting things to make things do what you want to do and cheap. There is alot of industial stuff just getting thrown out that makes a diy guy just drool. My problem is I have to many projects and I've got to much of that good stuff that I have a hard time finding it. I just love auctions and yard sales and with a neighbor that buys industial stuff to scrap I tent to see too much stuff for my own good. I've got two semi's full now.
leaddog

 

[2.beans]

my worry was the spring return, i was happy to get one motorized in both directions . thanks again.