Convert a Danfoss Randall 102 Timer to Hive Active Heating

 If you have one of these Danfoss 102 old dial type timers you will know the biggest problems with these are the time indicators being pushed round instead of switching and also these timers have no flexibility.

I had just moved in to a new house and had a very old gravity fed system with the Danfoss 102 as the controller and really wanted to make the system as smart as possible.

Gravity Fed Central Heating System

I went with the Hive system because they fully supported a gravity fed central heating system system where basically if you have the heating on you have to have the hot water on at the same time.

You need to make sure you get the dual channel Hive Active Heating receiver the single channel version will not work with gravity fed systems.

Danfoss 102 to Hive Wiring

First off I am not a qualified electrician so if you are unsure of anything consult a qualified electrician, secondly make sure the electricity is off and you test to make sure it is off before you proceed.

This is the link to the Danfoss Randall 102 Installation and User Guide.

Once you get the faceplate off the Danfoss 102 controller, by unscrewing the small slotted screw in the bottom, you will see that there are 6 terminals.

  • Incoming mains was connected to Earth (terminal 4), Neutral (terminal 5) and Live (terminal 6).
  • Hot water (DHW) was connected to Live (terminal 1), Neutral (terminal 5) and Earth (terminal 4).
  • Heating (HTG) was connected to Live (terminal 2), Neutral (terminal 5) and Earth (terminal 4).
  • There was also a brown wire connecting common (terminal 3) to Live (terminal 6).
Danfoss Randall 102 wiring
Danfoss Wiring Diagram from their Installation Guide

Before you remove the wires from the Danfoss controller make sure you label up each set, mains, heating and hot water this will make sure you don’t get them mixed up once connecting them to the Hive controller.

Danfoss 102 wiring labels

Wiring the Hive Controller

Wiring up the Hive receiver was probably the most difficult part as the terminals were not very easy to connect multiple wires to. Depending on how you are going to mount the Hive receiver I would recommend connecting each terminal to a separate Wago connector and then connecting the wires in to the Wagos.

  • Mains connected to Neutral (N terminal), Live (L terminal) and the earth I wired into a Wago adapter, rather than use the Earth tether on the Hive receiver.
  • Hot Water cable Live was connected to terminal 3, with the Neutral wire connected to the N terminal and the Earth connected to the Wago.
  • Heating cable Live was connected to terminal 4, with the Neutral wire connected to the N terminal and the Earth connected to the Wago.
  • No wires were connected to terminals 1 or terminal 2 on the Hive receiver.
Danfoss 102 TerminalsHive Receiver Terminals
13
24
3Not connected
4Earth
5N
6L

The finished wiring looked like this.

Hive receiver wiring from Danfoss 102
The finished wiring on the Hive Receiver

Put the front back on and it is now ready to power up.

Hive Active Heating Gravity Fed Mode

Once the system is powered up you just need to switch the Hive receiver into Gravity Fed Mode, you do this by:

  • Switch off the power to the new Hive receiver and boiler.
  • Wait at least 5 seconds, then switch them both back on.
  • Press and hold the hot water button for at least 10 seconds.
  • The Hive receiver status light will show blue when in gravity fed mode.

That is it you should be able to press the heating button on the Hive reciever and the boiler should fire up and both the hot water and heating lights should turn green.

All that is left it to just setup the system using the Hive app.

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