Best Wifi enabled thermostat
Discussion
My Tado experience so far hasn't been great (customer service wise, not actual product performance). I ordered a thermostat starter kit and some of their TRVs a couple of weeks ago. I got an order confirmation email, but nothing since then. I was aware when I ordered that the TRVs would be back ordered until next Feb, but I was kind of expecting them to part ship the thermostat in the meantime.
Last week I tried phoning them to confirm/ask that they would part ship my order (£400 in total). Took 3 attempts at dialing the number before it would even connect (switchboard swamped?), and then it was impossible to get through to anyone in sales - I just kept getting technical support people who would put me back on hold, eventually tech support asked me to phone back later and try again. Left it til today, but still them same is happening on the phone. This time tech support suggested that I email them my request instead. So let's see if that gets me anywhere instead.
Last week I tried phoning them to confirm/ask that they would part ship my order (£400 in total). Took 3 attempts at dialing the number before it would even connect (switchboard swamped?), and then it was impossible to get through to anyone in sales - I just kept getting technical support people who would put me back on hold, eventually tech support asked me to phone back later and try again. Left it til today, but still them same is happening on the phone. This time tech support suggested that I email them my request instead. So let's see if that gets me anywhere instead.
mjb1 said:
My Tado experience so far hasn't been great (customer service wise, not actual product performance). I ordered a thermostat starter kit and some of their TRVs a couple of weeks ago. I got an order confirmation email, but nothing since then. I was aware when I ordered that the TRVs would be back ordered until next Feb, but I was kind of expecting them to part ship the thermostat in the meantime.
Last week I tried phoning them to confirm/ask that they would part ship my order (£400 in total). Took 3 attempts at dialing the number before it would even connect (switchboard swamped?), and then it was impossible to get through to anyone in sales - I just kept getting technical support people who would put me back on hold, eventually tech support asked me to phone back later and try again. Left it til today, but still them same is happening on the phone. This time tech support suggested that I email them my request instead. So let's see if that gets me anywhere instead.
A handily placed Tweet normally wakes things up as well...Last week I tried phoning them to confirm/ask that they would part ship my order (£400 in total). Took 3 attempts at dialing the number before it would even connect (switchboard swamped?), and then it was impossible to get through to anyone in sales - I just kept getting technical support people who would put me back on hold, eventually tech support asked me to phone back later and try again. Left it til today, but still them same is happening on the phone. This time tech support suggested that I email them my request instead. So let's see if that gets me anywhere instead.
I got my Tado V3 thermostat back in October, but i still don't have the new bridge for HomeKit. Winter will be over before it comes i suspect. I've sent them an email saying i'm not sending back my old beta rental kit, or paying for it until they actually send me what i ordered. I am awaiting a response.
Harry Flashman said:
OK folk, so one week of living with Evohome:
Cons
-
- Honeywell’s installation instructions are balls. Useless to an informed amateur like me, and next to useless to a plumber/heating engineer who has never fitted one before. I suspect that this is so that you have to use a Honeywell engineer, at that cost
-
I fitted mine myself - boiler, tank, valves. Took me a couple of hours, tops, to wire it and pair everything. Thought it was pretty straight forward tbhCons
-
- Honeywell’s installation instructions are balls. Useless to an informed amateur like me, and next to useless to a plumber/heating engineer who has never fitted one before. I suspect that this is so that you have to use a Honeywell engineer, at that cost
-
Matt.. said:
I got my Tado V3 thermostat back in October, but i still don't have the new bridge for HomeKit. Winter will be over before it comes i suspect. I've sent them an email saying i'm not sending back my old beta rental kit, or paying for it until they actually send me what i ordered. I am awaiting a response.
I'm having similar issues getting anyone from Tado to listen to me - all I'm asking is that they part ship my order instead of waiting until they have everything in stock.Harry Flashman said:
OK folk, so one week of living with Evohome:
Pros:
- The fine control on the system is great, with individual rooms getting heat when you want them.
- The motorised TRVs are really quiet when they adjust.
- Temp readings seem pretty good so far (although see below regarding bathrooms with electric underfloor heating)).
- The fine control on the setup screen is good, allowing you to do things like control the hot water temp in the Megaflo. We have been having a smelly hot water issue in our house (was derelict for 3 years, and we used the Megaflo that came with it, so it may have been a bit skanky). Have dealt with it (so far) by turning the boiler up and also setting the hot water temp to 70 degrees (instead of the usual 60) to heat the hot water very high. Now set back to 60. All done from the base controller.
- The kit is nicely engineered.
Cons
- Very expensive. At £1300 + £350 fitting/setup for my system in a 5 bed, 4 bath house with UFH and 12 heat zones, it will likely take years to pay back compared to something like a Nest with TRVs.
- If you have a Megaflo, fitting it is a sod. This is because these cylinders don’t have a dry sensor pocket and have non-intuitive controls. You do not want to accidentally disconnect the overall safety shutdown on them while fitting the Evohome. Get a Honeywell engineer to do it – my usual plumber was scratching his head over the whole setup.
- Same for the underfloor heating controller. Not at all intuitive.
- Honeywell’s installation instructions are balls. Useless to an informed amateur like me, and next to useless to a plumber/heating engineer who has never fitted one before. I suspect that this is so that you have to use a Honeywell engineer, at that cost
- Honeywell’s phone helpline is hopeless as you can never get through. And they take days to respond to e-mails, or sometimes don’t bother at all.
- The base controller looks a bit cheap and plasticky compared with a Nest/Tado etc.
- The Total Connect 2 App was initially a bit rubbish and down for planned maintenance. Has been fine for the last week, though.
- The fine control needs careful programming, and you need to learn the system. It is nothing like as intuitive as, say, Nest, and there does not seem to be a single button option to just turn the whole house on from the app to the same temperature. You can turn it all off with one button, but not turn it all on with one button.
- Heat control in bathrooms can get confused easily by electric underfloor heating that is not part of the Honeywell app. I walked into the loft wetroom yesterday morning and it was like a sauna as both electric UFH and Evohome controlled rad were blasting heat. I turned down the UFH for this morning and all seemed fine.
- It won’t currently control electric UFH, so all of the bathrooms are run on a separate control system for the UFH, and Evohome on the rads. Clunky.
I would agree with the post above that Nest is inadequate for a house. I have it in my flat, with some manual TRVs, and it works just fine. Evohome obviously suits a complex and large heating system better than Nest. But it is expensive, complex and hard to set up as a DIYer. And time will tell what my heating bills look like.
Also, if Anyone wants a good Honeywell engineer in London, Lee of LJB Heating in Richmond. Young (which frankly is a boon with this stuff – half the older engineers I have met/spoken to scratch their heads and mumble “witchcraft” when faced with this stuff), personable, knowledgeable and fair pricing. He also picked up on a few Gas Safe things that my plumber (who has been a nightmare throughout this renovation project) had failed to get right(!)
i'm a spark and fitted one for a mate with underfloor heating last yr, we had a good play and i realized you can control lights or electric underfloor heating using thisPros:
- The fine control on the system is great, with individual rooms getting heat when you want them.
- The motorised TRVs are really quiet when they adjust.
- Temp readings seem pretty good so far (although see below regarding bathrooms with electric underfloor heating)).
- The fine control on the setup screen is good, allowing you to do things like control the hot water temp in the Megaflo. We have been having a smelly hot water issue in our house (was derelict for 3 years, and we used the Megaflo that came with it, so it may have been a bit skanky). Have dealt with it (so far) by turning the boiler up and also setting the hot water temp to 70 degrees (instead of the usual 60) to heat the hot water very high. Now set back to 60. All done from the base controller.
- The kit is nicely engineered.
Cons
- Very expensive. At £1300 + £350 fitting/setup for my system in a 5 bed, 4 bath house with UFH and 12 heat zones, it will likely take years to pay back compared to something like a Nest with TRVs.
- If you have a Megaflo, fitting it is a sod. This is because these cylinders don’t have a dry sensor pocket and have non-intuitive controls. You do not want to accidentally disconnect the overall safety shutdown on them while fitting the Evohome. Get a Honeywell engineer to do it – my usual plumber was scratching his head over the whole setup.
- Same for the underfloor heating controller. Not at all intuitive.
- Honeywell’s installation instructions are balls. Useless to an informed amateur like me, and next to useless to a plumber/heating engineer who has never fitted one before. I suspect that this is so that you have to use a Honeywell engineer, at that cost
- Honeywell’s phone helpline is hopeless as you can never get through. And they take days to respond to e-mails, or sometimes don’t bother at all.
- The base controller looks a bit cheap and plasticky compared with a Nest/Tado etc.
- The Total Connect 2 App was initially a bit rubbish and down for planned maintenance. Has been fine for the last week, though.
- The fine control needs careful programming, and you need to learn the system. It is nothing like as intuitive as, say, Nest, and there does not seem to be a single button option to just turn the whole house on from the app to the same temperature. You can turn it all off with one button, but not turn it all on with one button.
- Heat control in bathrooms can get confused easily by electric underfloor heating that is not part of the Honeywell app. I walked into the loft wetroom yesterday morning and it was like a sauna as both electric UFH and Evohome controlled rad were blasting heat. I turned down the UFH for this morning and all seemed fine.
- It won’t currently control electric UFH, so all of the bathrooms are run on a separate control system for the UFH, and Evohome on the rads. Clunky.
I would agree with the post above that Nest is inadequate for a house. I have it in my flat, with some manual TRVs, and it works just fine. Evohome obviously suits a complex and large heating system better than Nest. But it is expensive, complex and hard to set up as a DIYer. And time will tell what my heating bills look like.
Also, if Anyone wants a good Honeywell engineer in London, Lee of LJB Heating in Richmond. Young (which frankly is a boon with this stuff – half the older engineers I have met/spoken to scratch their heads and mumble “witchcraft” when faced with this stuff), personable, knowledgeable and fair pricing. He also picked up on a few Gas Safe things that my plumber (who has been a nightmare throughout this renovation project) had failed to get right(!)
https://theevohomeshop.co.uk/honeywell-evohome/28-...
I was going to wire his christmas lights through it so he could control them from the app!!
It will switch up to 5 amps giving you 1150 watts
Edited by caterhamboy on Tuesday 20th December 18:30
My Drayton / MiGenie setup seems to be working OK after the initial slightly dubious weekend. I'm still not entirely convinced I know how to use the boost function the best way, but it works for what I actually need.
And I have a WEMO plug/socket installed now driving a 30amp relay on my hot water tank immersion heater so I can control that remotely for just boosting the hot water in the tank when I want it.
So happy for now, I can start worrying about 'zones' and things later on, but see no need to at the moment.
And I have a WEMO plug/socket installed now driving a 30amp relay on my hot water tank immersion heater so I can control that remotely for just boosting the hot water in the tank when I want it.
So happy for now, I can start worrying about 'zones' and things later on, but see no need to at the moment.
Having a nest fitted tomorrow. Small home with a combi boiler.
Not to fussed about zones, just want an easy interface to control the heating.
Also want to be able to heat the house up when returning at night (3-5 nights a week differing times of return).
Looking forward to seeing what its like.
Any owners got any tips/feedback?
Not to fussed about zones, just want an easy interface to control the heating.
Also want to be able to heat the house up when returning at night (3-5 nights a week differing times of return).
Looking forward to seeing what its like.
Any owners got any tips/feedback?
I had a big box of bits from Tado arrive yesterday (which is odd as I took them up on their offer to delay until February...) - Smart Thermostat, bridge, Extension box & 15 TRVs.
There are some hurdles to overcome, but it's pretty much there now, things to be aware of (especially if you're doing the TRVs):
- Out of the box everything needs a software update - including the TRVs themselves, until the extension box (which the TRVs talk to) has had its update TRVs wont work as the software it's comes with (on mine at least) doesn't know what they are, you can still pair them however. You can't influence the updates - they just happen in the background, but are slow - I suspect Tado might be getting rather a lot of traffic at the moment with the TRVs etc.. being released, mine has a further 9 TRVs to update, I'd imagine by tomorrow morning it'll have updated everything, wouldn't normally be an issue, but because the extension box doesn't work with the TRVs out of the box getting it up & running is harder than it should be (it wouldn't be hard for them to put a note on the webapp to say this isn't going to work until the firmware updates have happened).
- Converting from a 2 heating zone setup was a bit of a chore, mainly because (& this doesn't seem to be explained anywhere, a chap from their helpline mentioned it in passing) when you use an extension box to control your heating & hot water you shouldn't wire the smart thermostat - it'll just mess things up - the relay in it isn't used - it talks to the extension box (over the wireless link) & that does all the switching
- Pairing 15 TRVs is a slow process, takes a good 5 minutes each & you need a computer / phone per TRV to do it (so you can't just do all 15 at once, I had 2 going at a time - one from the app on my phone & the other from the web app on a computer), I have one which is refusing to pair properly, they're getting back to me on it
I am really pleased with it though already & their to do list for the coming year looks good - the TRV hardware appears to be decent quality. My wife has the app on her phone & seems to be getting along with it well. We're away for the Christmas break - be interesting to see how well the location stuff works & if it gets things going again as we get closer to home.
There are some hurdles to overcome, but it's pretty much there now, things to be aware of (especially if you're doing the TRVs):
- Out of the box everything needs a software update - including the TRVs themselves, until the extension box (which the TRVs talk to) has had its update TRVs wont work as the software it's comes with (on mine at least) doesn't know what they are, you can still pair them however. You can't influence the updates - they just happen in the background, but are slow - I suspect Tado might be getting rather a lot of traffic at the moment with the TRVs etc.. being released, mine has a further 9 TRVs to update, I'd imagine by tomorrow morning it'll have updated everything, wouldn't normally be an issue, but because the extension box doesn't work with the TRVs out of the box getting it up & running is harder than it should be (it wouldn't be hard for them to put a note on the webapp to say this isn't going to work until the firmware updates have happened).
- Converting from a 2 heating zone setup was a bit of a chore, mainly because (& this doesn't seem to be explained anywhere, a chap from their helpline mentioned it in passing) when you use an extension box to control your heating & hot water you shouldn't wire the smart thermostat - it'll just mess things up - the relay in it isn't used - it talks to the extension box (over the wireless link) & that does all the switching
- Pairing 15 TRVs is a slow process, takes a good 5 minutes each & you need a computer / phone per TRV to do it (so you can't just do all 15 at once, I had 2 going at a time - one from the app on my phone & the other from the web app on a computer), I have one which is refusing to pair properly, they're getting back to me on it
I am really pleased with it though already & their to do list for the coming year looks good - the TRV hardware appears to be decent quality. My wife has the app on her phone & seems to be getting along with it well. We're away for the Christmas break - be interesting to see how well the location stuff works & if it gets things going again as we get closer to home.
robsdesk said:
My wife has the app on her phone & seems to be getting along with it well. We're away for the Christmas break - be interesting to see how well the location stuff works & if it gets things going again as we get closer to home.
This works very well in my experience. There are two of us in our house and we come and go at various different times. Once you've got your target temperatures and times setup then you can just forget about it. We didn't notice any additional battery drain on the phones either.There have been a couple of times when one of us has had a dead battery meaning the system doesn't know where you are so it stays in it's current state but it's easy to override from the thermostat once you're home or web app if you can get to a PC and as soon as the phone fires back up it goes back to normal operation.
mjb1 said:
My Tado experience so far hasn't been great (customer service wise, not actual product performance). I ordered a thermostat starter kit and some of their TRVs a couple of weeks ago. I got an order confirmation email, but nothing since then. I was aware when I ordered that the TRVs would be back ordered until next Feb, but I was kind of expecting them to part ship the thermostat in the meantime.
Last week I tried phoning them to confirm/ask that they would part ship my order (£400 in total). Took 3 attempts at dialing the number before it would even connect (switchboard swamped?), and then it was impossible to get through to anyone in sales - I just kept getting technical support people who would put me back on hold, eventually tech support asked me to phone back later and try again. Left it til today, but still them same is happening on the phone. This time tech support suggested that I email them my request instead. So let's see if that gets me anywhere instead.
Finally managed to get some sort of response out of Tado relating to part shipping my order. They are now saying that any orders that had TRVs in them will not ship until February, not just that the TRVs won't be shipping til then. Apparently their website specified this at the time of ordering (pretty sure it didn't, only that that the TRVs weren't available until then).Last week I tried phoning them to confirm/ask that they would part ship my order (£400 in total). Took 3 attempts at dialing the number before it would even connect (switchboard swamped?), and then it was impossible to get through to anyone in sales - I just kept getting technical support people who would put me back on hold, eventually tech support asked me to phone back later and try again. Left it til today, but still them same is happening on the phone. This time tech support suggested that I email them my request instead. So let's see if that gets me anywhere instead.
They are refusing to part ship the thermostat kit (that is in stock and available), unless I cancel my order and place a new one, which would mean losing the 20% discount. If I'd known at the time of ordering, I could have just placed two separate orders - I'd have had the thermostat weeks ago, and just waited for the TRVs to come later. Not impressed with the way they've handled this.
Morning and Happy New Year,
We`ve been running the Tado since the first gen came onto our shore without fault, recently upgraded to the new and latest Smart Thermostat with extension kit, t has ran faultless since installation and easy to operate.
We then changed out 2 x existing Electric Underfloor Heating Thermostats for 2 x additional Tado Smart Thermostats, set them up and had the firmware updates and so on via Tado HQ. The temp range is 0-25 c and even when the temp is up to 25 c the floor is only luke warm?
The underfloor heating isn't the only heat source in the rooms as they have radiators but the tado doesn't seem to be heating the floor as much as expected..anyone have any experience of this or can shed any light ?
We`ve been running the Tado since the first gen came onto our shore without fault, recently upgraded to the new and latest Smart Thermostat with extension kit, t has ran faultless since installation and easy to operate.
We then changed out 2 x existing Electric Underfloor Heating Thermostats for 2 x additional Tado Smart Thermostats, set them up and had the firmware updates and so on via Tado HQ. The temp range is 0-25 c and even when the temp is up to 25 c the floor is only luke warm?
The underfloor heating isn't the only heat source in the rooms as they have radiators but the tado doesn't seem to be heating the floor as much as expected..anyone have any experience of this or can shed any light ?
Nest question:
Just trying to set up my while I'm away so the pipes don't freeze. There's no 'frost guard" option, but after a bit of playing around I've ended up with the selection showing "Away"
when I click on it, it shows ECO with a leaf logo. From the settings the lowest temperature I can select under Eco temperatures is 4 degrees.
so does that now mean that any time the temperature drops below that my heating will fire up?
Not sure I've managed to explain it that well!
Just trying to set up my while I'm away so the pipes don't freeze. There's no 'frost guard" option, but after a bit of playing around I've ended up with the selection showing "Away"
when I click on it, it shows ECO with a leaf logo. From the settings the lowest temperature I can select under Eco temperatures is 4 degrees.
so does that now mean that any time the temperature drops below that my heating will fire up?
Not sure I've managed to explain it that well!
HotJambalaya said:
Nest question:
Just trying to set up my while I'm away so the pipes don't freeze. There's no 'frost guard" option, but after a bit of playing around I've ended up with the selection showing "Away"
when I click on it, it shows ECO with a leaf logo. From the settings the lowest temperature I can select under Eco temperatures is 4 degrees.
so does that now mean that any time the temperature drops below that my heating will fire up?
Not sure I've managed to explain it that well!
That is how my Salus works. We are away at the moment, house on Eco mode so 13.5 downstairs and 15c upstairs.Just trying to set up my while I'm away so the pipes don't freeze. There's no 'frost guard" option, but after a bit of playing around I've ended up with the selection showing "Away"
when I click on it, it shows ECO with a leaf logo. From the settings the lowest temperature I can select under Eco temperatures is 4 degrees.
so does that now mean that any time the temperature drops below that my heating will fire up?
Not sure I've managed to explain it that well!
HotJambalaya said:
Nest question:
Just trying to set up my while I'm away so the pipes don't freeze. There's no 'frost guard" option, but after a bit of playing around I've ended up with the selection showing "Away"
when I click on it, it shows ECO with a leaf logo. From the settings the lowest temperature I can select under Eco temperatures is 4 degrees.
so does that now mean that any time the temperature drops below that my heating will fire up?
Just realised after writing the below that you said 'Nest question' not 'Next question' so this isn't relevant to you, but still applies to Tado in case anyone else wanted to do it and as I'd written it anyway might as well post it.Just trying to set up my while I'm away so the pipes don't freeze. There's no 'frost guard" option, but after a bit of playing around I've ended up with the selection showing "Away"
when I click on it, it shows ECO with a leaf logo. From the settings the lowest temperature I can select under Eco temperatures is 4 degrees.
so does that now mean that any time the temperature drops below that my heating will fire up?
Your assumption that 4 degrees is the lowest the house will get to when set this way is correct, though.
Is this Tado? if so, you're doing it a bit backwards but it will work. If you go to the scheduling page, choose Away then under the 'ECO-Balance-Comfort' slider turn 'Set Away Temperature' to On and you can choose your own target away temperature (which is what it sounds like you have been doing). But, if you then set Heating to Off from the slider below, it will put the system into Frost Protection for you automatically.
What you're doing is manually choosing a target away temperature rather than letting the software intelligence choose it, based on your distance from home vs time it will take the house to heat up and the local weather conditions.
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