I have been dealing with Pentair support for the past 3 months to get them to send me the proper screws to mount the CVA actuators that came with my ET8 P/S and a separate Intellivalve. I can't be the only one trying to put Pentair Actuators onto Pentair Valves, but according to them no one else has reported this problem.
My pool was finished back in September so I wanted to get my actuators installed to control the water features when I realized the longer actuator screw was getting difficult to screw in after only a couple threads. I pull the screw back out and compare it to the one I just took out of the valve and notice quite a few things different:
The top screw is the one out of my Pentair CPVC 3-way valve.
The middle screw is one out of a Hayward valve the PB installed.
The bottom screw is the longer one that came with the actuators.
As you can see the Hayward and actuator screws are essentially the same save for the length. But the top screw that came out of the Pentair valve is a self-tapping, high-low thread with a larger helix angle (meaning more slope to thread). The high-low is supposed to allow for a better bite into softer material with less chance to back-out from lateral forces and vibrations -- perfect for this use case. Conversely, the actuator screws were just a standard thread (non)self-tapping screw that would install nicely into the Hayward valve, but would cross-thread the Pentair valve. Support had some difficulty in understanding what was wrong and thought that I had a mix of old and new that was incompatible, but after receiving several replacements from them with the same incorrect screw I was finally able to convince them to send out a field rep to lay eyes on the situation. His 1-minute analysis was to just put (force) the longer screws in as thats just how they come... When I asked about cross-threading the valve he said those screws are only meant to hold the actuator on and not to apply any real pressure to keep the valve lid onto the body. Am I the only one who doesn't understand why these valve manufacturers would use eight screws when only four are really necessary
I find that hard to believe as I already have an untouched valve that has a slow leak from where the lid joins the body.
With that said, I see someone posted this back in 2009, but nothing easily searchable since (Pentair / Compool valve actuator mounting screws). So has no one else had this problem or are you guys just forcing the actuator screws into the valve?
My pool was finished back in September so I wanted to get my actuators installed to control the water features when I realized the longer actuator screw was getting difficult to screw in after only a couple threads. I pull the screw back out and compare it to the one I just took out of the valve and notice quite a few things different:
The top screw is the one out of my Pentair CPVC 3-way valve.
The middle screw is one out of a Hayward valve the PB installed.
The bottom screw is the longer one that came with the actuators.
As you can see the Hayward and actuator screws are essentially the same save for the length. But the top screw that came out of the Pentair valve is a self-tapping, high-low thread with a larger helix angle (meaning more slope to thread). The high-low is supposed to allow for a better bite into softer material with less chance to back-out from lateral forces and vibrations -- perfect for this use case. Conversely, the actuator screws were just a standard thread (non)self-tapping screw that would install nicely into the Hayward valve, but would cross-thread the Pentair valve. Support had some difficulty in understanding what was wrong and thought that I had a mix of old and new that was incompatible, but after receiving several replacements from them with the same incorrect screw I was finally able to convince them to send out a field rep to lay eyes on the situation. His 1-minute analysis was to just put (force) the longer screws in as thats just how they come... When I asked about cross-threading the valve he said those screws are only meant to hold the actuator on and not to apply any real pressure to keep the valve lid onto the body. Am I the only one who doesn't understand why these valve manufacturers would use eight screws when only four are really necessary
I find that hard to believe as I already have an untouched valve that has a slow leak from where the lid joins the body.With that said, I see someone posted this back in 2009, but nothing easily searchable since (Pentair / Compool valve actuator mounting screws). So has no one else had this problem or are you guys just forcing the actuator screws into the valve?
