Dumb Ubbink questions

[Alan Ambrose]

Jeez this must be harder than necessary and I can't see any instructions on Ubbink's site. Ubbink tech support seems to be one man who's main policy seems to be to ridicule whatever you want to do. If you take him as his word, even though Ubbink have them in their product portfolio and sell them, half of Ubbink products have no useful function. Also, some retail outlets are quoting 15 working days i.e. 3 weeks delivery (e.g. https://www.ventilationland.co.uk/en_GB/p/ubbink-air-excellent-48c-valve-adapter-125-1x90deg/27952/ ), but tech guy says he's sitting in the Midlands right next to a huge UK shed full of product.

 

+ This valve adaptor. It doesn't have obvious fixing points or instructions. Do people cut it off at one of the annular rings and mastic it into position or use that odd horizontal piece on top somehow? Both?

 

 

+ I wanted to use this kind of valve to balance next to the manifold rather than at the terminals, but this exists only in 75mm AE34C size and not in 90mm AE48C size - which, of course, is the one I'm using. And there's no AE48C to AE34C adapter.

 

 

 

[JohnMo]

I used a mix of manufacturers to get what I wanted (all 90mm).

 

If an adapter is available or doesn't suit nm it another manufacturer Zehnder etc.

 

Ubbink 90mm duct to Zehnder adaptor 

[Jolo]

1 hour ago, Alan Ambrose said:

+ This valve adaptor. It doesn't have obvious fixing points or instructions. Do people cut it off at one of the annular rings and mastic it into position or use that odd horizontal piece on top somehow? Both?

 

Yeah it's a weird design, isn't it? I'm sure I saw a bracket at one point, into which those flat bits at the top would slide. But I can't find it now. Maybe I dreamt it?

 

Anyway, I just drilled holes in the flat bits!

 

Also strange that the two-duct valve adaptors have sensible screw points. There's a new design which is even better, as it has a pair of screw points at the top and the bottom of the main section.

 

1 hour ago, Alan Ambrose said:

+ I wanted to use this kind of valve to balance next to the manifold rather than at the terminals, but this exists only in 75mm AE34C size and not in 90mm AE48C size - which, of course, is the one I'm using. And there's no AE48C to AE34C adapter.

 

Are you aware of the restrictor rings they sell, which click into the distribution box? https://www.ubbink.com/gb/products/ventilation/air-excellent-ventilation-ductwork/distribution-boxes/air-excellent-dbox-internal-air-restrictor-ring/

 

I used the Ubbink AerFlux online tool, and I have to say it made setting the flow up really easy, as it tells you how each ring should be configured. https://www.ubbink.com/int/advice-service/aerflux-configurator/ Although I don't know if it takes the UK building regulations into account, it definitely has the Dutch ones, which may be slightly different.

 

1 hour ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Also, some retail outlets are quoting 15 working days i.e. 3 weeks delivery (e.g. https://www.ventilationland.co.uk/en_GB/p/ubbink-air-excellent-48c-valve-adapter-125-1x90deg/27952/ ), but tech guy says he's sitting in the Midlands right next to a huge UK shed full of product.

 

VentilationLand seems to be an auto-translated version of the Dutch site https://www.ventilatieland.nl/ -- alhough it's possible that the Dutch site is an auto-translation of the German https://www.lueftungsland.de/ ! I'm not sure how it all ties together.

 

I'm not sure how these companies work behind the scenes, it's possible that VentilationLand has to wait for a big delivery from Brink. But then some other similar sites don't seem to hold any stock of their own, instead the goods arrive from other retailers/warehouses (even though the price may be cheaper than on the other sellers' own websites!).

[JohnMo]

18 minutes ago, Jolo said:

Yeah it's a weird design, isn't it?

I think it's designed to fit the other way round, so a floor rather than a ceiling and then just gets screeded in place.

[JohnMo]

I used Epicair for my Ubbink stuff. Pretty good delivery and prices, just about the only company that had stock of anything during COVID, so used them after as well.

[Alan Ambrose]

>>> so a floor rather than a ceiling and then just gets screeded in place

 

Ah

[Alan Ambrose]

Ah, yeah, now you point it out, it looks likes it designed for that way up. They might have said... or had a picture like that on their web site. Maybe their marketing people didn't understand it either.

 

I see that the Valve Adaptor Extension says 'Simple to cut to desired length for seamless customization' so presumably the ribs on the Valve adaptor are meant to indicate that you can cut it to length. And, hey presto, it has a picture of the valve adaptor hanging from a magic support above the ceiling and ending up flush with the ceiling plasterboard. That's clear then...

 

 

 

Edited 16 hours ago by Alan Ambrose

[Post and beam]

I have just been through this pain most of this year while installing mine.

For the first floor ceilings i had to build a wooden 'bridge', screw the piece to it and then mount between the rafters. In my case the blocks were 85mm tall. I chose that height so that the opening at the bottom was either flush or 1-2mm up inside the ceiling plasterboard.

Dont forget the gaskets around the Ubbink part for your airtight seal. They are not cheap.

I have 250mm posi joists downstairs so there was more room to play around. Still had to screw in a mounting block for the piece to screw up into though.

Most of my orders for bits took about 3 weeks to arrive from Holland. I was not organised enough to plan out and remember all the other bits i needed so multiple orders were needed.

[Post and beam]

It all fits together like this.  Its a very positive and secure 'click' when it goes together.   I have used an adjustable ceiling grill in my house which i hope will allow enough adjustablilty  to mean i dont need to use the restrictor rings that come with the distribution box.  If you think about it, using those means you need to open the distribution box for every minor configuration tweak. All of your ducting will be connected to the box and i imagined this would be a nightmare.