Why is my radiator valve making a noise?

Lightwave Radiator valves (TRVs) make a light whirring sound as they have a motor installed which needs enough power to push down the radiator valve.

Each valve will occasionally calibrate. The calibration state means that the TRV will cycle the valve fully open and closed a few times (calibrate) in order to a) maintain it’s operational range (so that when it’s fully closed the radiator is fully turned off and when it’s fully open that the radiator is on full/fully open) and to b) de-calcify the valve pin (preventing the pin from ceasing up over time, and ultimately needing personal maintenance). This mode is most commonly entered just after a valve has fully closed (the point at which a TRV’s most likely to recognise it needs to adjust it’s range).

The TRVs Temperature can be adjusted by a horseshoe on the app as you know but to reduce the noise and battery consumption level and make the TRV more stable then choose a 1 to 5 positioning blocks (Open/ Close) by pressing on the 2 small arrows next to the horseshoe.

The numbers relate to the normal operation of a manual TRV, using position 0 will have the TRV fully closed, while position 5 will have it fully open. Using the numbers in between will open the valve a certain amount, 1 being ~20% open, 2 being ~40% open and so on. Each TRV can be set to a target temperature or a fixed pin position from a rating of 0 to 5 (0 being full closed/0%, 1 is 20% open, 2 is 40%, 3 is 60%, 4 is 80%, and 5 is fully open/100%). You can set this in the same way as setting a target temperature. So we’d recommend setting this overnight, the TRV won’t run it’s motor and you won’t be disturbed.

The heating system is designed to turn on and off based on the set temperature and current temperature. However, to extend battery life, the temperature threshold to open & close is 0.5C +/- your set temperature. For example, if you set 21C, the heating would switch off when it goes above 21.5C, and back on again when it falls below 20.5C.

We would also note that the temperature reported is rounded to 0.5C in the app. The valve may have been at 22.3C, targeting 22C, but would need to reach the 22.5C threshold before shutting down.

If you are finding that the valves are fully opening and closing then this could be due to them being overly tight on the physical TRV. They will calibrate if they close and find the end position (ie closed) too quickly. This can happen if you have stiff physical TRV pins also.

TRVs do not operate with the thermostat, they behave independently . However you can use the Call for Heat feature which enables you to call for heat via the Thermostat , you need to set this up via our web app :