False Low Battery
Trv packed up with low battery notification after only 25 days.
Nothing wrong with batteries, having removed, tested and refitted them the status is showing as good battery and fully working.
Was this a physical loss of battery connection or a problem with the Trv software?
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Bumpety bumpety bump
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I to have had the same battery issue. My Tado system is around 4 weeks old (8 TRV's at the moment). One has twice given a low battery warning out of the blue using the new supplied batteries 2 weeks in. Swapped the batteries with another TRV and all well until another 2 weeks passed and the same suspect TRV has given me a low battery warning.
I doubt very much its a battery issue as 1 they are new and 2 surely if a battery issue then the TRV I swapped the batteries with would have given me the error.
No connection issue warnings at all, although as a test I have swapped the suspect TRV with one much closer to the bridge.
I have been told on a FB Tado group it could be a sticking valve pin but all look nice and clean and my errors have happened during the day when no heating is on. I dabbed a bit of oil on the pin anyway.
I've raised it with Tado but on the interim has anyone overcome this?
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Same here, one out of my ten TRVs might be a Monday-morning-special, or the supplied batteries were a bit off. The TRV is in one of the colder, remoter rooms, but as heating there is essentially permanently switched off anyway, it shouldn't have to do much real work, just tell the rest of the world that it is 17 degrees, the moisture level is a bit high, and all is well. Let's see how long it takes it to drain a fresh set of duracells..0
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I also received a low battery alert for one of my TRVs on 2/11. On checking the app, there was no warning and they still show green today
Possibly just a blip with Tado as this is the first false warning I've had in 3 years
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I wonder whether it is that horrible battery clip causing disconnections.0
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I'm having a similar issue but only in 1 unit. It lasted about 6 months no trouble then said it was out of battery after a couple of other units so no worries. I invested in the rechargeable enloop batteries as suggested by Tado. Put them in 2 days later "low battery". So I charged some other ones and put them in, 2 days and "low battery" again. This is getting frustrating.1
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How would I know if these are old? They were bought as new in October.
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I think you can just remove the valve actuator, as if you want to change the batteries. It should say VA02 in white on black just below the Auth. Code.0
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@luteijn Thanks. Just checked and it says VA02.
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De Ja Vu or what!
Yesterday I had another trv went down for low battery. Today checked the batteries and both were 1.5V.
Tried them back in but no change.
Put in new batteries (1.56V) and the trv came back from dead.
Changed back to the original (dead?) batteries and they are now OK. Hence my original question: " Was this a physical loss of battery connection or a problem with the Trv software?" or I could add "or is it a problem with Tado server?
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A comment from Tado, who I have spent £1000 with, would not be unwelcome.
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Funny though as £1000 spent to reduce heating costs is pretty high on my list.
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I put some ikea rechargables in my one Monday morning special TRV, as it tore through its original and replacement alkaline batteries doing nothing but station keeping (basement/garage is set to 5 deg., actually it is 16 in there.
-)no low battery indication, even though 2.4 V is a lot less than the 'empty' alkaline cells still have. Probably it recognises these must be rechargables that have a way flatter voltage-time de-charging profile.
-) After 3.5 days, the TRV went 'offline', no warning for low battery. Couldn't be arsed to replace them yet again, radiator is hard to reach, and a fresh set will probably drain quickly again.
I'll probably put a wax-TRV set to 1 back on that radiator, and use the TRV as a sensor to call for heat in a more accessible (for me to replace batteries, and for radiowaves to hopefully conserve power) place.
Probably I'll also just rig a 3V DC power supply up for it, WAF is not an issue in the basement, so not an issue to pull out the ducktape and baling wire for some redneck engineering.0 -
@luteijn Don't know what WAF is but wax, duck tape and baling wire looks to be a "smarter" solution.
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'wife acceptance factor'. Moved the problematic knob to a different spot in the basement, if batteries still won't hold out for a week, it'll get some wires instead of batteries...2
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I've just had low battery warnings from two sets of Ikea LADDA 1900 (suspected Eneloop clone) within 30 minutes. This is the third set since installing eight sets brand new and fully charged in September. One set took just 280 mAh till full. The next set are on charge now.
Clearly there's something bogus going on. SRTs are V02.
EDIT : Today's second set took 324-370 mAh till full. So not even close to empty.
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Same here. "Low battery"... after 25 days (new TRV/original batteries). Not very happy.0
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I call this phenomenon Phantom battery warning.
I've had it twice.
Once before Nov 2nd took batteries out tested they were fine, only a week old commercial Duracells.
Put back in still low. A few days later it went .
This week a different room. Another low battery. Took off the TRV, batteries out, still low.
2 days later the low battery warming is gone.
I wonder how much they are sponsored by battery companies.0 -
Same here. Just reporting to add impact in case someone at Taco is reading this.
Entire house changed to Taco. 12 TRV, wireless thermostat.
Every x days in a row one of the rooms triggers a low battery warning. Only to disappear and change to 'good' the next day.
Definitely a bug in the way Taco queries the battery state.
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I would say it is time for Tado to answer this. It is clearly a Tado problem, not a customer issue because so many people are having these false low battery warnings FROM TADO and then find that the batteries are good. Therefore it is TADO that is sending out false information that is causing radiators to shut down for no good reason.
Please TADO, can we have a response?
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I am getting low battery from a number of valves now. Replaced with brand new ones and two still indicate that they are low in charge…0
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Apparently battery warning followed by no battery warning is because if trv is busy applying motor to close clave, that may send a low battery warning. If it then is only reporting temp for a bit, using little v that many turn off battery warnings
There is though an issue when even using enlop batteries but the pro version is deemed by Tado not to be an acceptable battery to use. Far far to fussy on battery type and should not have been released with this issue ( and the awful battery compartment )1 -
Had my first warning today on eneloops and within a few hours of the notification it had turned the rad OFF. Replaced with spare set and then checked old set and they where showing good state of charge on multi-meter.
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Just because a battery measures 1.5v, doesn't mean it can still deliver enough current to operate the valve. I would assume tado is measuring this to trigger the alarm
I've also had low battery alerts appear and then go away but they do return and stay so I suspect that tado has just refined the alerting process as battery performance can vary due to temperature0
