Can I run two bridges off one internet router?

Is there somebody who can help with the below points please. 

I have a tado system set up in my house, comprising of an extension kit, bridge and a smart thermostat.

What I would like to do is fit the same system in the house next door which I also own. The house next door does not have any internet access, so I was hopping to use my Internet access (rooter box) in the house that has Tado already installed.

Do I need to have internet running, in the house that I intend to install Tado?

Or can I run a cat cable, from my rooter box to the boiler next door and install the bridge there?

The important question is can I run both independently?

I am willing to buy all three items (extension kit, bridge and a smart thermostat) again for next door and extend my internet to cover the next door with the aid of wifi extenders.

Best Answer

  • Jihadondvds
    Answer ✓

    Thanks for the information joey, it was very useful.

    I’ll get onto buying a new set of units for next door.

Answers

  • Note that Joey (Moderator) responded to this on 27/1/2020 - However I have set this up and had problems. Technical support then responded to say it is not possible to have two internet bridges on one home network so I showed them this post which they said was wrong and so they have deleted Joey's response. I'll pasted in Joey's original response below to make the above make more sense:

  • P_K
    P_K
    edited November 2020

    Original response from Joey (Moderator) on 27/1/2020

    Hello Jihadondvds,

    Yes, two Internet Bridges can operate from one home network and they would both have their own tado° account. Which means you can control them independently. Take note though, you cannot run two separate accounts from one tado° app. If you are an Apple user, you can add multiple tado° accounts to your Apple Homekit.

    You can indeed run a cat cable to the home. However you might want to consider using a Wifi Booster. Many of them have at least one UTP network socket to which you could attach the Internet Bridge, and in doing so connect it to our cloud.

    Here is an example: https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/range-extender/re650/

    Kind regards,

    Joey

  • Rob2
    Rob2 ✭✭✭

    It is a bit strange that having another bridge on the same internet connection would cause any problems for Tado. It should not matter how you connect them to what network. The two connections come from the same IP, but that could happen anyway when two customers are at a single provider that uses CGNAT because they have run out of IPv4 addresses (the Tado system is decades backward as it does not support IPv6 at all...). And the IP should be irrelevant to Tado, it is the bridge serial nummer which matters.

    Of course you should be (and probably are) aware that this will create two independent systems that cannot be managed from the same account, and can only be managed from a single phone when the account is switched all the time.

    Some people have asked if it is possible to install a second bridge to extend coverage in a larger house where some devices do not reliably connect to the bridge, and that is for sure (currently) not possible.

  • How to do if my bridge doesn’t detect some radiators too far ? Is it possible to put another bridge to extend his range ??
  • Rob2
    Rob2 ✭✭✭

    No that is not possible.

  • Hi @P_K - did you ever get to the bottom of what the issue is with two bridges on the same router? And did you persevere with yours and have any luck?

    Cheers, James

  • IMHO, one bridge serial number = one house from tado point of view. Then the problem is purely software configurable.
    A second bridge in a house could be defined as "dependant" on a primary one. And then, devices that reach the tado servers via the secondary bridge, be "logically" reattached to the main one.
  • Rob2
    Rob2 ✭✭✭

    @RamonCar it is not that easy. the devices connect via the bridge to get their configuration, so that should be easy to do, but they also use the bridge to communicate their heating requirements to the zone controller (smart thermostat). When that is not on the same bridge, that cannot easily be done unless you rely on networking between the bridges. (which then depends on the local network configuration)

  • Hi all, It must surely be a software development priority to allow a second bridge to an installation to cover a larger house, or in my case one with thick stone walls. Also it needs to be prioritized to allow a phone app to switch between Tado accounts / installations without logging off and back on. I have three installations under my control and this is such a pain currently!

  • I have a similar problem to MikeWJ: a very old long house with walls up to a metre thick. We use Devolo Powerline plugs to enable wifi throughout the house and I had assumed that Tado would have a similar solution. It's very annoying that I can't have a system covering the whole house at once.

  • Hello.

    Yet another new user quite disappointed about the lack of reliable long-range communication: I started to install my Tado kit:

    • Wireless starter pack (including a bridge).
    • 8 radiators heads in a 25-meters long house.

    Moreover, we suffer from an aggressive LTE deployment which impact all communication around 850 MHz (even a 868 MHz weather station signal can be unreliable since this deployment). Since Tado seems to use 6LoWPAN to communicate between devices, either they can implement mesh network (seems to be supported by the protocol) or, at least, including a second bridge (even with static pairing by "spliting and assign" eacch device on the more relevant bridge) can greatly improve the communication.

    While browsing the community forum, this kind of feature request started in 2016. More than 6 years later, there isn't any viable solution. Maybe implement mesh is not compatible with your design, but the latest workaround (2 bridges with static paring) may be suffiscient for 80%-90% of the users who can't fully rely on the Tado communication.

    You can do it. We're confident.

  • Hello.

    Yet another new user quite disappointed about the lack of reliable long-range communication: I started to install my Tado kit:

    • Wireless starter pack (including a bridge).
    • 8 radiators heads in a 25-meters long house.

    Moreover, we suffer from an aggressive LTE deployment which impact all communication around 850 MHz (even a 868 MHz weather station signal can be unreliable since this deployment). Since Tado seems to use 6LoWPAN to communicate between devices, either they can implement mesh network (seems to be supported by the protocol) or, at least, including a second bridge (even with static pairing by "spliting and assign" eacch device on the more relevant bridge) can greatly improve the communication.

    While browsing the community forum, this kind of feature request started in 2016. More than 6 years later, there isn't any viable solution. Maybe implement mesh is not compatible with your design, but the latest workaround (2 bridges with static paring) may be suffiscient for 80%-90% of the users who can't fully rely on the Tado communication.

    You can do it

  • @claudemarie27 what I like most about your double post there is the only difference I could see was the omission of 'we're confident' in the latter one.

    Yup.

    I currently run two tado bridges (a V1 and a V3+). Inadvertently set them up like this, but they are working fine. Can't say it would work for others though.

  • Hi!

    We definitely need to get tado to support extending the range of bridge in some way!

    Extender / second bridge / mesh / whatever! :s :s
  • Hi

    I also have the same problem, large house and tado is regularly loosing the connection.. It is very boring.. I have enough with this
  • I have this problem as well. Tado changed the radio frequency on my bridge and I have relocated bridge several times but still have an unstable system. Two bridges seems an obvious solution to me to cover the whole house. Tado is not a robust system. All smart accessories in my house are compatible with Homekit so should not compromise the Tado system.

  • hwhb
    hwhb

    Do you know when tado changed the radio frequency? This might explain why two of my smart radiator valves suddenly became very intermittent (they are furthest from the bridge) to the point that I’ve taken them out of my tado config and just use them manually 😕. Furthermore it can often take 10 minutes or more for closer valves to respond to a programmed temperature change when before it used to be virtually instantaneous. Come on tado, I had a very reliable system for a couple of years and now it is proving to be annoyingly unreliable. We separately need to be able to extend the range simply - just a second bridge should be sufficient even if a separate home/zone. Experience reported in this thread is unclear whether it would work.

  • hwhb
    hwhb

    One more thing to add to my comment above about intermittent connections – if the valve goes offline just before a temperature change (eg at night when it is programmed to lower the temperature) the boiler continues to heat because (I assume) the control box has not heard back from the valve that it has closed. This seems to be a major flaw in the control software. If the valve is offline then the programmed schedule in the control box should take priority.

  • hugbilly
    hugbilly ✭✭✭

    You cannot have two bridges unless you have two tadoº accounts, I think some users have done this, search the forum for details of how.

    NB, I think the frequency change referred to above only applied to that user's bridge . . .