[Released with tado° X] Make the Smart Radiator Valves quieter
I find the Tado Smart Radiator Valves are too noisy for use in bedrooms. The motor noise when opening/closing the valve is loud enough to disturb sleep. I have had to set my bedroom schedule in a way that ensures the bedroom heating will never turn on when we could be asleep, and so have to manually turn it on everytime I wake up. Not ideal.
Could you either find a way to make the existing valves quieter, maybe try slowing the motor down so it takes 30 seconds to open, rather than 1 sec? Or develop a new, quieter, radiator valve.
This is my biggest complaint with Tado, and why I struggle to reccomend it to others.
(Yes, I have been in touch with support, they were unable to improve things).
Comments
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This would be great, though I believe other smart TRVs have the same issue. I guess it is down to the type of motor used as they would need to be very energy efficient, but if the current version can't be modified in the way you suggest, maybe Tado could produce a Silent version, with a different motor type (USM like the ones used in Camera Lenses?). If cost is a factor they could produce both types and if silence is critical, then you stump up the extra for the rooms where this is required
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Use the heat in the bedroom as an alarm. If you are turning it on when you wake why not set it to turn on a few minutes before you wake. I can't sleep with the heating on I heat the room before bed and just before I wake.. works for me.1
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@Chapstar37 It’s the noise of the Tado TRV turning on that wakes us up. So we can’t set the heating to come on before we wake.
But, yes, I have thought of setting the Tado to turn on at the same time as our alarm, but we often change our alarm time based on various factors and I wouldn’t want to forget to also change the Tado timing and get woken up too early.0 -
I think the noise level is rather good. The duration of actuation is extremely short also. I've tried Evohome, which while slightly quieter, is much slower and therefore more noticeable.
However, that said, if it wakes you up, then it wakes you up. I expect it might be possible to improve - I have some actuators on an underfloor heating manifold that are silent in operation. However, they do take a few minutes to open.
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I agree with jcwacky. The valves are too noisy to use in bedrooms.
If there was an option to have it operate more slowly and quietly, but for longer I would use it.
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Just a thought... Tado is capable of talking to IFTTT... any way that you could integrate the two with your alarm in any way?
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Having just installed a couple of TRVs in bedrooms I definitely vote for this and would be willing to pay the extra for a quieter motor2
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I actually think they are pretty quiet compared to others. Mind you, I used to use LightWave TRVs and they were dreadfully noisy so maybe I am just spoiled by the Tado TRVs being much quieter. having said that, ideally they would be silent in operation.
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I suggested to Tado to allow the valve that is used in the bedroom to remain in an open position, but not send a signal to the Thermostat to draw heat from the boiler. Then, when another TRV (one which is not in the bedroom) turns on in the morning, the heating would come on in the bedroom, without the noise.
You could then set the bedroom TRV to turn off when desired in the morning and come on when you wanted before bed.
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@Jcwacky If you use the Alexa app to wake you up you could set a routine so that she also turns on the heating for you. Another way is to use IFTTT.
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@Andee Thanks for the suggestion! That's a good idea. I use our clock radio as our alarm and for whatever reason I don't trust any phone apps to wake me up reliably other than built in alarm app! I had thought about making something which would detect the noise from the radio and turn the heating on! Never go around to it though.
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It's indeed noisy for a child room or bedroom. I didn't know that before I bought it. 😏
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As a new user of Tado having just installed the system in my home I did install the Smart Thermostat Radiator Valve in our bedroom. The idea is excellent but as has been said by some, they are noisy and in a bedroom that is bad for your sleep. The noise seems to be mainly when they first open or close on a schedule change. With this step change they go from closed to open rapidly or vice versa. I would have thought there could be a way so these valves slowly rather than one rapid action when they are activated by a schedule change, hopefully that would stop or minimize the noise.
I knew the valves made a bit of noise but as I set my schedule so they opened about an hour before we usually got up I thought we could live with that. I made the mistake of not fully taking the overnight temperature in to account. I had set it down to 18C and at 3:30 am we were woken by this valve, and when I looked the room temperature had fallen to 18C which is why it had activated then. So I now have it set to OFF overnight until my scheduled start time, when I am in bed I am not bothered what the room temperature is.
So hopefully tonight I will get an undisturbed sleep.
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I agree. I discovered this too to my unpleasant surprise. Would have not bought a valve for the bedroom in it's current state.
One thing got me thinking though. The sound that the Tado makes lasts almost one full second maybe even more. Why does it take the valve such a long rotation to make an adjustment in the water flow. I don't suppose it had to fully open and then later close to correct the temperature? I would think it would only take one click up or down.
Would love to have this clarified by a Tado representative. And hoping that a firmware update could fix this.
Thanks, Jan2 -
I too find the valves noisy and have tried adjusting settings to get enough heat before waking up without too much noise.
I think a “silent” mode would be good where the valve only opens one step at a time over a longer duration and, if controllable with current hardware, more slowly. Anything to reduce the impact of any noise.
I also like the idea of tado working out how to leave the bedroom valves partly open so when the boiler starts in the morning some heating happens before the valves need to change.
I too would pay a premium for quieter “bedroom” valves.1 -
Same here, too noisy. Helpdesk said try to turn the pump speed down, but that did not do anything. When you sit beside a thermostat it is ok. But somehow the sound resonates through the system, increasing the volume, giving a noise that wakes you up. I too think opening the valve more slowly would help.
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I would pay a small premium for a silent valve.
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I completely agree; they are too noisy for use in bedrooms. I have a tado TRV on every radiator in the house except for the bedrooms. Here's hoping a quieter version is in development specifically for bedrooms.
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Our new Tado TRV in a bedroom actuated no less than 5 times over a 30 minute period starting at 4am! Everyone in the house has reported worse sleep since the system went in a week ago.
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Just installed 4 Tado TRV's in my bedrooms that were previously controlled by a single Smart Thermostat. Very disappointed with them, they're definitely too noisy, and even worse (for me), they do not read the correct temperature if the radiator is hot, meaning the rooms never get properly warm.
Very likely I will remove and send them back, a shame as they are a good idea, but poorly executed.
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I couldn't agree more with this proposal. I use them since 2017 in every bedroom and they are noisy enough.
In order to minimise the problem, I preheat the room (19-20C) before I go to bed and then set the temp at a lower value (16-17) until I wake up.
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So I installed a new (arrived today) vertical valve, but did the pairing in a dark room and noticed that there’s four icons on it that I hadn’t noticed before. One of which was a bed. Is this new? Or perhaps indicates there’s maybe partial support for a quiet night mode?0
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@ChrisBarrett Well spotted! Although just checked my valves that I’ve had for a couple of years and they have the icon on the display too. It’s just never used. So my guess is that they had originally planned a “sleeping” mode (probably just a different set point temperature) but for whatever reason didn’t launch it as a feature.0
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Agree. The issue is made worse 1. By our steel radiators, which act as sound boards, and 2. winter, when the system is working harder during the night to maintain the set back temp.
I sometimes find guests have removed a valve, putting it on the floor!!
I assume they are driven by stepper motors? In which case, simply reducing the frequency would reduce the vibration (whilst extending the duration of the open / close action)0 -
It would be great if Tado could offer a wax based actuator similar to underfloor heating actuator heads. These would take minutes to actuate (which wouldn't suit some) but would be silent and therefore ideal for bedrooms.
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I have a different make of valve. Not sure if it's possible with Tado to do what I did. I'd be interested to know as I'm thinking of converting over to Tado.
Can you set the valve to be open but for the boiler not to be set to heating?
I would set the heating to go off at the boiler when I went to sleep say 11pm and to come on at say 6am. I would also set the valve to be set to 21 degrees at 11pm to 8am. So during the night the valve would already be fully open and when the boiler fired up at 6am the radiator would heat not waking me up :)
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@ElliotA Not possible with Tado I'm afraid.
But it has been suggested here: https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/473/trv-mode
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I've just recently purchased Smart TRVs for all the house. Installed them downstairs first, working great. However, as soon as the wife heard the noise they make when attempting to maintain temperature, I'm currently banned from installing them in any bedroom.
We have a 1 year old, and it's very important to keep the temperature within a sweet spot so they don't overheat and equally don't wake up because it's become too cold. The smart TRV would achieve this, but with the current noise levels could wake the baby up. Sleep is EVERYTHING.
The idea of slower step on the motor sounds promising, but would need to be tested. It could end up being like that person in the cinema who is very slowly and carefully opening up a wrapper, but ends up making more noise and annoyance that just the short quick get it done noise.
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Hi All,
Having read all your comments, I have not install the smart valves in the bedrooms yet, but trying to think of workarounds for reducing a number of times the valves have to open/close at night and was wondering if you could help answering the following questions:
1) Is it possible to regulate how much heat goes through radiators, i.e. same way it could be done on normal valves by setting them to 2/3 (out of 5). I don't want them to be heated fully and would like the temperature to be raised gradually
2) Is it possible to limit number of times a valve goes on/off in an hour/2 hours/8 hours, etc. I am trying to avoid situation where the valves turn itself on and off numerous times and wake us up
3) Is it possible to have a Master temperature thermostat, which switched the boiler off, while the radiator valves are still on, so no heating goes through. The scenario I am trying to create is where the radiators come on at 9pm and valves stay 'open' until 6am (and set it to very high temperature, so they never reach the temp and are always on). At the same time I would have the temperature thermostat which would measure the temperature in the room and when it reaches the desired degrees- it switches the boiler off and therefore even though the radiator valves are open- no hot water goes through them. Is there any way to create this scenario?
Perhaps IFTT could help setting any of that up? Anyone tried?
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1) Tado does this automatically depending on the difference in temperature between the setpoint and the room temperature. You don't have any control over it, e.g. to tell it never to open fully. You could possibly do some complex tricky to have IFTTT or similar constantly adjust the set temperature so it is only 0.5ºC higher than the room temp hopefully making Tado never fully open the valves.
2) Not possible, without Tado adding an option for it (unlikely IMHO)
3) You could maybe do this with a non-Tado thermostat, but depending on your setup you may need to wire this in between the Tado extension kit and the boiler. It may also confuse Tado, if it sees that it is calling for heat but the room isn't getting hotter, it may report it as an issue and/or change its heating profile for the zone. Ideally, Tado would give us the ability to keep the valves open for set periods of time.
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