Which Smart Thermostat?

poosemon

poosemon

poosemon

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What are the go-to smart thermostats these days? I was wondering why my house was so warm over the last 48hrs and just checked the old thermstat (wall mounted - digital - not smart) and looks like the display has gone. Have attempted battery replacement etc and looks like it may have given up.

So, looking to replace, and therefore would make sense to go smart to give app control, easier control on holidays and remotely etc. What are the go to these days?

We are reasonably imbedded in the google eco system - have google speakers, use android phones, nest front door bell. However, I read numerous posts about the Nest Temperature units not being entirely reliable and google been not massively great on support when they do break.

What are the alternatives - At this time, I can't make the full jump to smart trvs but it is an option for the future.

Have seen Hive, Drayton Wiser mentioned. Any others I should be looking for?

We have a combi boiler, all rads have a TRV. Thank you for any advise!
 
Hive is my go to because at least it's backed by Bg. For whatever that's worth.

Nest is a classic Google random entry and won't be surprised if it gets binned soonest.

Tado is the most compliant and uses the Open therm standard if your boiler supports it.

If I was starting again, it'd be tado.
 
I've got a full Drayton Wiser setup with TRV's on all my rads, and have found it to be great. Gives me full control over the heating of each room individually, or I can set up schedules and 'moments' to automate the heating, or change it very quickly and simply.

I've also got it integrated into Home Assistant and use a Tile Keyfob, to automatically set the heating to away mode when I'm at work etcm which works brilliantly.

I've also found the customer service/support to be fantastic. I was having a slight issue with my hub disconnecting from my wifi. I called, spoke to someone in the UK who was very helpful and was able to pull logs from the hub and got to the bottom of the issue very quickly. It turned out to be a known issue and an updated firmware came out very quickly which solved it. Over all I'm super pleased with it.
 
dlockers said:
Hive is my go to because at least it's backed by Bg. For whatever that's worth.

Nest is a classic Google random entry and won't be surprised if it gets binned soonest.

Tado is the most compliant and uses the Open therm standard if your boiler supports it.

If I was starting again, it'd be tado.
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Hive being back by BG is worth nothing. They used to have a range of lights, home automation and cameras - that was all recently binned. They're not a company I'd ever recommend. I used to have Hive, and then when I had a new heating system installed I wanted a boiler that supported OpenTherm and Hive does not. My intention was to give the Hive system to my dad, and replace his thermostat. You can't do that apparently. Hive's hub is locked to an account when you set it up. They can't unlink it, and so to be able to give the system to my dad - I'd would have had to buy a new hub (~£60) and throw away the perfectly functional one that I was previsouly using. Disgusting.

You call out Tado for being 'compliant' and supporting OpenTherm but Nest supports it too. How is Tado anymore compliant than Nest? I've had Nest since before Google bought the company. Not sure I'd go with Nest for a new system now, but I certainly don't expect it to to lose support.

Drayton Wiser or Tado is what I'd be looking at, the reason is SmartTRVs which I don't think Nest supports very well. I've not seen anywhere that says it supports the TRVs calling for heat.
 
I have Honeywell Evohome. If I was doing it again I'd get the same, where really well, supports all sorts of setups, much more customisable than the others I've looked at.
 
GeX said:
Hive being back by BG is worth nothing. They used to have a range of lights, home automation and cameras - that was all recently binned. They're not a company I'd ever recommend. I used to have Hive, and then when I had a new heating system installed I wanted a boiler that supported OpenTherm and Hive does not. My intention was to give the Hive system to my dad, and replace his thermostat. You can't do that apparently. Hive's hub is locked to an account when you set it up. They can't unlink it, and so to be able to give the system to my dad - I'd would have had to buy a new hub (~£60) and throw away the perfectly functional one that I was previsouly using. Disgusting.

You call out Tado for being 'compliant' and supporting OpenTherm but Nest supports it too. How is Tado anymore compliant than Nest? I've had Nest since before Google bought the company. Not sure I'd go with Nest for a new system now, but I certainly don't expect it to to lose support.

Drayton Wiser or Tado is what I'd be looking at, the reason is SmartTRVs which I don't think Nest supports very well. I've not seen anywhere that says it supports the TRVs calling for heat.
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Hive dumping lighting made sense because hive was for heating and Hue do lighting much better

The hive Hub nonsense is a pain, I agree. I refused to take my hub with me when I left and just swapped over email and password to the new owner. You could do the same very easily with your dad.

I never dissed nest for its compliance, I dissed it for being a Google product that isn't in their main discipline and likely to end up on the 'products Google has binned' list (Google it, there is a website that tracks it).

Tado is the answer.
 
valve90210 said:
I've got a full Drayton Wiser setup with TRV's on all my rads, and have found it to be great. Gives me full control over the heating of each room individually, or I can set up schedules and 'moments' to automate the heating, or change it very quickly and simply.

I've also got it integrated into Home Assistant and use a Tile Keyfob, to automatically set the heating to away mode when I'm at work etcm which works brilliantly.

I've also found the customer service/support to be fantastic. I was having a slight issue with my hub disconnecting from my wifi. I called, spoke to someone in the UK who was very helpful and was able to pull logs from the hub and got to the bottom of the issue very quickly. It turned out to be a known issue and an updated firmware came out very quickly which solved it. Over all I'm super pleased with it.
Click to expand...
As an aside with HA you can just track your phone instead which works better than tile keyfob (as soon as you leave home instead of when your phone pings your tile location :)
 
Happy with tado.
Had it 2 years. Does all I ask of it.. Nearly.

Not sure if it still works.. But if you get an old pre version 3 bridge off Ebay you get geofencing for free! :D

Not sure I'd pay for geofencing but I do like it.


Only thing I wish with tado was you had "away" mode scheduling like "home"
Currently you can only set a single 24/7 temp in away mode
 
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I've had both the Tado and a Wiser thus can compare the differences:
Tado
Internet based schedules, thus if Internet fails the schedules also fail and any ch/hc will need to be turned on manually on the smart thermostat
The schedules come on at a delayed time after the scheduled set time, although this is random amongst owners.
The relays in some wireless receivers can be icky and need a clout to work, again there only seems to be some faulty ones.
The srv's are widely optimistic with the room temperatures.
However it is fairly sophisticated in the app's setup compared to the on/off srv's of the wiser setup.
I'm getting random battery low notifications from one srv when the batteries are fine.
It has no range extenders, so if you live in a large property then the srv's might lose their connection.
No smart plugs.
Support is poor.
Wiser
Hub has a weak wifi connection.
Srv's can be noisy.
Basic system compared to the Tado, but that can make it easier to use.
Schedules continue to work even when the internet goes down.
There are override buttons on the hub that can boost the ch or hw which are easier to use.
They have smart plugs which act as range extenders for the srv's.
Support is better.

If I could do it again I'd chose the wiser over the tado but the Tado starter kits are cheaper at under £100.
 
poosemon said:
Thanks for the feedback so far - looks like tado or drayton seems to be the way to go!
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I'd put Hive back in the mix based on the feedback on Tado above. Needing to be online is an absolute no no for me. Nothing worse than waking up without hot water.

Opentherm only matters if your boiler supports it btw.
 
Think the thing I am seeing most is no to Google nest! I've just messaged the has engineer who services our boiler and he swears by hive compared to others but highlights nest particularly as one to avoid.
 
ShivP said:
As an aside with HA you can just track your phone instead which works better than tile keyfob (as soon as you leave home instead of when your phone pings your tile location :)
Click to expand...
How do you set that up, I've seen a few mentions of it but not really looked into it. The Tile route was simple as I already had the Tile on my keys anyway.
 
poosemon said:
Think the thing I am seeing most is no to Google nest! I've just messaged the has engineer who services our boiler and he swears by hive compared to others but highlights nest particularly as one to avoid.
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All the engineers seem to but I cannot think of one reason it is any better as a quick search reveals similar issues and they seem more expensive to start with
 
cuke2u said:
All the engineers seem to but I cannot think of one reason it is any better as a quick search reveals similar issues and they seem more expensive to start with
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Hive has none of these issues afaik. Ive used it for 4 years without issue - smart TRVs etc. the only reason I didn't recommend it was the opentherm thing. But online only is a major glitch tbh.
 
I had the original Hive setup and it would disconnect far too frequently, then BG stopped my Hub from working, meaning I lost all functionality, simply because as it was deemed too old and constantly emailed me wanting £60 for a newer hub. Lost all app connectivity/scheduling, just left with manual control on the stat. I think i even lost control of my Hive Smart Bulbs. Irritated me so much I removed the lot. Just creating e-waste and blackmailing into upgrades.

I moved to Tado, it has never dropped out and works fine for me.
 
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Another Drayton Wiser user here. In the earlier days it was somewhat fragile, dropping off line and generally being a nuisance, but for this past year or 2 it’s been superb, never drops out unless there’s a power or broadband issue.

I had a minor issue that made the app freeze on first opening, but that has been sorted in a recent app update.

As said already, if you lose internet, it still works, and there are physical buttons on the hub which allow you to boost it manually.

It does need a good WiFi signal close by the hub, as it doesn’t have the greatest coverage.

Support is great and they’re always working on the app which has been tweaked quite a bit too.

For the price, especially when Amazon have it on offer, I think it’s great.
 
Diggsy said:
Another Drayton Wiser user here. In the earlier days it was somewhat fragile, dropping off line and generally being a nuisance, but for this past year or 2 it’s been superb, never drops out unless there’s a power or broadband issue.

I had a minor issue that made the app freeze on first opening, but that has been sorted in a recent app update.

As said already, if you lose internet, it still works, and there are physical buttons on the hub which allow you to boost it manually.

It does need a good WiFi signal close by the hub, as it doesn’t have the greatest coverage.

Support is great and they’re always working on the app which has been tweaked quite a bit too.

For the price, especially when Amazon have it on offer, I think it’s great.
Click to expand...
I'd have Tado's more sophisticated application of heat management combined with Wiser's spread of technology and with their practicality as well...
 
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