Tado Users - Possible Subs Charges Incoming

Kainz

Kainz

Kainz

Soldato
Joined
15 Dec 2002
Posts
23,829
Location
In a cowfield, London, UK
So they are testing the waters with their BS 'marketing' as they say. It is only £1 a month but that isn't the point as it paves the way for future increases in price as per every other subscription out there. I've got my setup hooked into Homekit so I can still (and will) do away with the Tado app if they go down this route. The other smart home hubs like Alexa and G.Home can also be used in place of the app but obviously a functionality is lost.

I've got Tado at my place since 2020 and at my mothers since 2018 iirc. She hasn't got a homekit setup so I may need to look at something in future (get her a cheap apple hub).


Tado Marketing Test - Page 5

I absolutely love the video. Sums up the clusterf Tado manage to cook
community.tado.com community.tado.com
 
The slippery slope was the reason I dumped the Ring video doorbell and as I am currently sampling the market for this kind of product, I shall pass on Tado.
 
Got about 10 tado thermostats, would be raging if they start to charge for it and would recommend it to no one. Shambolic tactics if anything comes from it but think it remains tbc.
 
Hyburnate said:
I'm so glad I have an opensource only rule, the thermostat is the only thing I haven't yet sussed and was considering Tado but not now...
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I've done this DIY in Home Assistant using temperature sensors and a contactor for the boiler connection. I just haven't done a way to give it a nice UI for schedules and boost etc, beyond the standard "dial" thermostat.

Full disclosure, I haven't actually put it into use yet - I wired the contactor up to a bulb so I can observe the proof of concept for a while. But it works!
 
Nothing in my app currently, but I won't be paying for a subscription for this. I'm sure it won't be long before someone figures out how to hack the firmware and make it run locally!
 
It has left me quite peeved really. I've recommended/or installed Tado in so many peoples homes over the past years. My elderly mother has it at her home so if she gets locked out somehow I will be absolutely raging.
 
Won't be buying or recommending tado to anyone else. Tado was. Borderline on being money saving before.
With a subscription cost increasing every year to even use the product?
Nope. Probably go back to dumb system once this (inevitably) comes in.
 
A real shame, as they looked like some of the better ones & I was looking at them for installing in my home.

Now I think I'll most likley just go with generic Zigbee valves & control it all with home assistant. Have full control over it then & no obcelesence by subscription to worry about.
 
R.C.Anderson said:
A real shame, as they looked like some of the better ones & I was looking at them for installing in my home.

Now I think I'll most likley just go with generic Zigbee valves & control it all with home assistant. Have full control over it then & no obcelesence by subscription to worry about.
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How do the generic Zigbee ones work, do you need some kind of smart heating control hub to turn the boiler on when the TRV calls for heat?

I found these on Amazon, nearly half the price of Tado
 
413x said:
Won't be buying or recommending tado to anyone else
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Based on something that may never happen? Especially in the UK where there are all sorts of legal implications to a company adding a subscription charge for a product originally sold as not requiring one. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm sure that's not legal, and customers can simply return their kit for a refund. I doubt TP Link will want that. If they did do it in the UK, the subscription would have to enable a feature not yet in the product. I'm pretty sure the same happened with Hive and they soon backtracked and added a bunch of stuff most people don't need but kept the core functionality free.
 
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nst68 said:
How do the generic Zigbee ones work, do you need some kind of smart heating control hub to turn the boiler on when the TRV calls for heat?

I found these on Amazon, nearly half the price of Tado
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You can use a contactor. It's like a smart switch but, importantly, it doesn't bridge its power supply and the two wires that it connects to each other. Dead cheap and easy to wire.

I'm sure there are finished products that market themselves as heating controllers or thermostats too. They might be more convenient but ultimately, you're still just bridging 2 wires from the boiler to tell it you want heat.
 
nst68 said:
How do the generic Zigbee ones work, do you need some kind of smart heating control hub to turn the boiler on when the TRV calls for heat?

I found these on Amazon, nearly half the price of Tado
Click to expand...
It depends how DIY you want it to be. Most boilers (like LuckyBenski said) just need 2 wires connecting to turn the boiler on, and therefore a relay of some form is all you need if you can control it. There are zigbee units that are aimed at boiler control that do this, but tbh you could probably use a smart light switch or something similar if you wanted, as they're normally just an internal relay that you can turn on/off. I believe there are some boilers, however that have more control possible, such as altering the power output etc, but I've not really looked into these.
 
I'm sure I saw someone say that you can't do the hot water with homekit, only heating. Might be wrong there though. And yes, of course they are going to try and subscriptionise (deffo a word) their product. Its really hard to just sell hardware and maintain software without ongoing revenue streams and I assume they are feeling that now.

As others have said though, we bought this because it was subscription free. As others have also said, I believe they would be on very thin ice if they tried to do this for existing customers as consumer protection stops companies from fundamentally changing the product post sale.
 
I haven't looked into this over the past few days but I hope Tado have got a ton of feedback from owners, enough to make them stop dead in their tracks. Probably won't happen mind.
 
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