tado heating system

Soldato
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Considering swapping my Nest Gen2, which has worked perfectly for the past 5 years for a tado system with radiator control etc.

Any users of the tado system? I'm also looking at Hive.
 
Soldato
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I have the Hive + Hive TRVs. Other than 1 rad being incompatible and the adaptor they provided not working, it's really great. Occasionally (once in 4 weeks or so), I have to physically twist the TRV to get the temperature set otherwise its "off" and won't come back on. We use it to control nursery temp. versus rest of the house.
 

Pho

Pho

Soldato
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I have Tado + Tado TRVs, it works great. I think when I got it Hive TRVs weren't a thing so I'm not sure how it compares.

They regularly go on offer so I believe I paid about £30 for each TRV rather than the current retail price.
 
Soldato
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I think its worth saying that all vendors offering TRVs, which in their own right are very difficult to make good (compatibility with the thousands of vendors over many years, most folk having really gummed up existing ones, AA batteries in such close proximity to HEAT, 'hubs' depending on wireless connectivity) you find quite polarising feedback. I imagine they're all "roughly" good.

I went with Hive because it was £160ish installed and the TRVs were on a Black Friday offer.
 
Caporegime
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TRV are simple to install? they just screw on and on or twist off? you don't even need to turn the water off all they do is push on a pin that can't pop out?


BTW speaking of heating, anyone got any of those auto radiator bleed valves? one of my rads likes to trap air.
 
Soldato
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I have Tado + Tado TRVs, it works great. I think when I got it Hive TRVs weren't a thing so I'm not sure how it compares.

They regularly go on offer so I believe I paid about £30 for each TRV rather than the current retail price.

Yup missed the black Friday deals and Tado clearance re their UK store due to Brexit. In reality, I'll just suck up the current prices I expect. I read about significant temperature adjustments required, even some instances where it's recommended to have a wireless thermostat in the rooms!
 

Pho

Pho

Soldato
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Yup missed the black Friday deals and Tado clearance re their UK store due to Brexit. In reality, I'll just suck up the current prices I expect. I read about significant temperature adjustments required, even some instances where it's recommended to have a wireless thermostat in the rooms!

Yeah the reason for that is it takes its temperature reading from next to the radiator not necessarily the part of the room where you sit which will be colder most likely.

You can set an adjustment value against each room if you like though. E.g., if Tado is set to 20c but you check on a thermometer next to the couch and it says 15c you can just enter a -5c offset via the app and it'll sort its-self out.
 
Soldato
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Yup missed the black Friday deals and Tado clearance re their UK store due to Brexit. In reality, I'll just suck up the current prices I expect. I read about significant temperature adjustments required, even some instances where it's recommended to have a wireless thermostat in the rooms!
You'll generally figure out the temp and then "set and forget". Then if you ever need it hotter, on the Hive you just tap boost. Not sure if the Tado does it, but the Hive system also lets you configure TRVs to ask the boiler to come on, if you like.

The Hive has a self-learning algorithm which I've not trained yet. It takes 4 hours.
 
Caporegime
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You'll generally figure out the temp and then "set and forget". Then if you ever need it hotter, on the Hive you just tap boost. Not sure if the Tado does it, but the Hive system also lets you configure TRVs to ask the boiler to come on, if you like.

Yep, Tado does all this, and you can sets offsets on a per-TRV basis as Pho mentions above.

I have been using them for almost 2 years, very happy with them.
 

Pho

Pho

Soldato
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Just to jump on this, did any of you find it difficult to change existing valves to TRVs at same time as this?

Any recommended TRVS to work with tado?

I had to do this as none of my radiators had TRVs. I used these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/white-chrome-angled-trv-with-lockshield-15mm-x/31811. The Tado kit comes with a bunch of adapters for different TRVs, they fit on these ones without any adapter.

It's pretty simple to do, I think it took me a day to do it all but most of my radiators were a pain to get to.

Just buy a bunch of PTFE tape to properly seal the valve into the radiator.
 
Soldato
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I had to do this as none of my radiators had TRVs. I used these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/white-chrome-angled-trv-with-lockshield-15mm-x/31811. The Tado kit comes with a bunch of adapters for different TRVs, they fit on these ones without any adapter.

It's pretty simple to do, I think it took me a day to do it all but most of my radiators were a pain to get to.

Just buy a bunch of PTFE tape to properly seal the valve into the radiator.
Thanks! I'll have to look into it when I move into the new house.

Do the batteries on the valve actuators last long? Reason I'm interested is my mrs works from home so thinking of heating just the office extension (plus bathrooms) rather than the whole house during the daytime.
 

Pho

Pho

Soldato
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Thanks! I'll have to look into it when I move into the new house.

Do the batteries on the valve actuators last long? Reason I'm interested is my mrs works from home so thinking of heating just the office extension (plus bathrooms) rather than the whole house during the daytime.

Plenty of videos on YouTube to show you how to replace them if you get stuck. You'll probably want to refill your radiators with rust inhibitor etc if you do drain it.

I've had them installed for about 11 months and I'm just starting to get low battery notifications for a couple of them so I guess about a year?

The app sends you notifications a week or two before it thinks they'll completely go so you have time to change them. If you don't change them in time I read it shuts the valve off before completely shutting down so you'd get no heat from it. If this happened and you'd ran out of batteries you could just take the TRV head off (they default to fully open) or stick on one of those manual TRVs that came with the Screwfix kit temporarily etc.
 
Soldato
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I've got a Tago Wired Thermostat starter kit being delivered tommorow. Looking to replace our bog standard manual Honeywell wall mounted wired thermostat into a smart one and Tado seemed the easiest way to do it. Our place is very small so I'll get some TRV's later should I see a need for it. Our boiler is a Valiant Eco-Tec combi so the job should be a fast one.

Edit: Well that's backfired. Got an email last night from amazon saying it was dispatched and then just recieved a text saying it is 'Undeliverable'. My last order a few days ago had the same thing happen. So I'm out of pocket by some £160 now until these clowns refund me. So much for taking time off to install this thing.
 
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Soldato
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Ok I've been using a Tado (wired thermostat) for about a week now in my small 3 radiator flat.

The experience has been absolutely positive. The system as mentioned above is just for central heating control and it handles that well. I installed my first Tado TRV last night in the bedroom and that went without a hitch and I needed none of the included adaptors. Simply unscrew the existing common TRV and pop up on the new one. Setting up the Tado is an absolute piece of cake and the app itself guides you through the process very well.

I have got a schedule setup which pops the heating on @21-22c from Monday-Friday at specific intervals of the day, and then separate schedules for Saturday and Sunday. The missus now doesn't need to fiddle with a manual thermostat anymore so she's happy. If she does need control then she can tell one of our echo dots to switch the heating off. Each Room that has a TRV has it's own heating schedule and last night I found out that you can't copy schedules from one room to another, so you end up bouncing back and forth and memorising the times/temps for the new room - a bit annoying that.

Still got the living room to equip with a TRV so all in good time. I so far haven't had any issues but my place is very small compared to house owners.
 
Associate
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Can’t vouch for the other systems but love the Tado.

20 months in and zero issues. Seems to work flawlessly. We have the controller in the hallway. Box connected to the hot water and numerous TRVs. Plus the App is quite nice.
 
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Small bump: thinking of going with tado together with a new boiler. Is this still the one to get? I am specifically looking at HomeKit compatible options
 
Caporegime
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I'm looking at this system too. With spring round the corner I'm waiting until next winter. But if buying today tado is my only contender.

Nest and hive just don't offer the trvs.
I certainly don't need a system that learns. I do need independent room control. Some rooms are cold and others baking at present due to house shape, external windows etc.

Particularly working at home. I go in different rooms at different times.


The living room does not need to be heated in the morning for example
 
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