Launch a range extender or upgrade to mesh network
Comments
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^^^ in summary, we failed to tell you Tado was only for small properties and since most people don’t have an issue we’re not going to do anything to fix the problem. We (Tado) will not advise new customers of these limitations despite being fully aware of them for many years.
In the future we will launch a new product with better range support but it will not be backwards compatible with older devices and you older disappointed customers will get nothing.
You can try to stick tin foil, or move the gateway every few days or even remove TRVs from your configuration because despite you buying a stylish “set and forget” product we failed to advise you that for about 5% of our customers (the ones that spent the most too) that our product does not meet their requirements.
But really, what Jurian is saying is that nothing is fundamentally going to change and please can you loyal customers stop whinging about your disappointment in our poor product.4 -
Steve posted the perfect summary of my disappointment in Tado. I so regret my current setup. I wish to return it all.2
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"Furthermore, I strongly suggest you at least consider (or even test) removing any "problematic" devices from being able to call for heating from your heat source controller. This will at least eliminate the risk of a heat request remaining active on the boiler because the original requesting device has lost the radio connection."
Why do you, again, put the responsibility of fixing the problem with the customer? It should be possible to modify the firmware in such a way that there is some time limit on heat requests, so that a lost connection does not result in an infinite heat request as some users have reported. When a heat request is valid for e.g. 20 minutes or an hour, and has to be re-confirmed by the requesting device within that time limit, that issue is resolved (and no high energy bill is resulting) without leaving the customer worried.
This whole topic airs a "sorry we designed it wrong and we are not prepared to change it", probably as a prelude to "hey guys, we have designed an entirely new system to solve all your issues, you can upgrade at the tado.com webshop with a 20% discount for existing users"... that is not what users want to hear.
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At least, the cloud should keep in mind if a certain VA hss gone dark (and it can see this, as it can display it as offline in the app), that it's last information should be disregarded.
This won't save you if the internet goes out, or the bridge loses contact with the element(s) talking to the boiler, but at least you protect against the case of that remote radiator in the basement/garage/etc. going offline.
One would hope that there is already some sort of fail-safe in units that drive the boiler that decide to switch it off (and go to manual control only) if they lose contact with their bridge for more than X cycles of their firmware's main-loop.0 -
I personally don't buy the "we can't comment until it's public". Companies talk about roadmap and plans all the time (even Tado used to have a public roadmap). I appreciate that Tado prefers not to, but exceptions can be made. And it would buy a lot of good karma for people in this thread to get a simple confirmation whether the next-gen controller would be backwards compatible with existing SRTs or not; even if we get "no" for an answer, we would for sure appreciate the transparency, since we'd be able to make an informed decision whether to move on to another vendor or stick to the existing one (living with the existing limitation, hoping for a buyback discount sort of scheme when v4 is out or whatever).
Looking at what IKEA did with Dirigera/Tradfri, they announced early enough that they will release a new (Matter) gateway and that it will be backwards compatible. I'll stop short of jumping to conclusions, but if Tado had/has similar plans I don't see why they wouldn't call them out.
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It's slightly off topic, but why is it that when all my STV's are connected fine in the Tado app, sometimes some STV's say 'no respons' in Homekit? Most of the time it's the same STV, sometimes at random. I post the question here, because apparently this is monitored by Tado people, on other communities I get very little respons. I've been in touch with support, but other than the usual proposed solutions; 'changing the IB position, no fridges, freezer etc.', no real solution. And I fail to understand why, when in the Tado app all is working fine, in Homekit is not, other than a miscommunication between the two.
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@lode_r The faulty Homekit integration is just one out of many things Tado does not acknowledge. They don't work on improvements either.
The advice to go around this is to disable Tado's Homekit integration, and use a third party Homebridge plugin. The following plugin did a great job, far more better then the Tado-app:
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Yes you are right, Tado is not compatible in the way they integrated it. Unfortunately iOS 16.2 will not improve it. The issues are on the side of the Tado-app anyway. I found that disabling it in the Tado app and using Homebridge instead, was a breathtaking improvement :)0
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I’ve been quietly watching for updates on this theme since we spent hundreds of £’s earlier this year. We’ve lived with 25% of the TRVs not connecting to the bridge and therefore only working like a £5 valve - turns out this brand is pretty rubbish, hardware is not fit for purpose and yet all I now hear on the radio is Tado advertising their rubbish every day to more unsuspecting potential customers. I can tell you, for a majority of U.K. properties that are solidly built, this product is useless and rather than save money, the hundreds of £‘s you’ll waste buying it will never be recouped. That’s before you have to keep replacing batteries2
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A small update on my remark on the Homekit issue 'no respons'. I placed a small cardboard with tin foil behind the 'problem STV's' and since then (fingers crossed) no 'no respons' anymore. But I will set up a proper Homebridge configuration with an older mac mini.
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Today again a brand new day where my employees and customers are complaining that it’s cold. All because the tado-devices lost connection again and didn’t turn on the heat according to plan.
I am super embarrassed towards my customers, but am letting them all know that this is what you get when you install Tado equipment.
Develop the software for the use of a second bridge guys. It has been so many years now.. There really is no excuse anymore.3 -
@Robti , Someone used his spare time and the Tadoo-API to make a Homekit integration. It is so much better then the Tado-app.
You would expect Tado to improve this over time, but for years there was zero development. They don't actively improve it, just maintain it.
Just like the other issues, where development is also at a standstill. Except for marketing, that's where they thrive.
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Just bought a Tado system and 18 TRVs spanned over a 3 story house to replace my Hive system.
I've now discovered that the range on the Internet Bridge is not good enough, and I'm most likely going to have to take it all out and return it for a refund.
Plus 1 to request a range extender or the ability to use multiple IBs
If Tado could at least confirm something like this is on their roadmap (which no longer appears to exist), then I'd be willing to put up with a few of the further away TRVs being unusable until the problem is resolved.
Based on the lack of progress since this thread started, though, I'm not holding my breath!
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@ChadH
It's a shame all the time you will have wasted getting everything set up.
Return asap as it's unlikely any solution will be compatible with the current generation of equipment.
Let us know which product you end up with.1 -
Mine has now settled down and is working really well and reliably in both houses. One is a six bedroom 2 storey house of about 5,500 sq ft built from 1920 with various steel beams we put in. It has 15 valves. The other is an 1840s London town house of 4,800 sq ft over three floors with 14 valves. Getting both set up was difficult at first but it can be done.-1
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@CIW agreed. Ours is the same - a large stone walled house that if you read this thread you would think Tado would never work.
It has worked perfectly for the last four years without disconnections after finding the best location for the bridge (for us, that was high up in the loft).
However, understandably nobody wants to hear positive stories, just the negatives.
I will still never recommend Tado to others though until they resolve the reliance on a stable Internet connection.2 -
As far as I can see the comments made by tado have not taken into account one quick fix they could have with existing the hardware which would be to allow more than one bridge/gateway and Yes this may take more programming to make it work but you could do it. Most large houses with this problem will have wifi mesh already setup so plugging in another bridge would be simple. They have yet to explain why you cannot? Over to you @Jurian0
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They have explained it:
They don’t have the developers for it.
They don’t see it as a priority.0 -
Add another customer here who is ready to ditch tado for a system that works in my house. Victorian 3 floor place with thick stone walls. The trv in my boiler room and furthest washroom disconnect more often than not despite moving the bridge around. I realise this is my house that is causing the interference which is why I’ve bought routers and Wi-Fi products thst work with it. I’d love to keep tado but it currently doesn’t offer the flexibility I need. I don’t care about local control. I just want all the TRV’s to be able to stay on the network. Have had tado since about 2017 in a smaller house where it worked great. Not now I have 13 trvs to manage.
I’m surprised no one yet has looked into sniffing the network and see if they can build their own repeater. It’s not like you have to unencrypt anything. You’re merely passing the data on.1 -
I'm in an old stone walled house and whilst I love tado concept am continuing to struggle. I "fixed" the internet bridge issues to the TRV's by mounting the internet bridge in the loft (no mean feat as it needs wired internet), but it's up there hanging off a piece of timber.
Now my problems have shifted to the extension kit losing connectivity to the internet bridge - at time of writing, no connection since 10.08am this morning after working fine for weeks😒 - reboots of internet bridge and extension kit haven't got them talking again.
I'm guessing it's another trip into the loft and try moving the internet bridge a couple of feet to see if that helps ... FRUSTRATING and I know I'm then gonna knock a TRV out of connectivity range.
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Depending on the wiring of the extention kit, it might be easier or more effective to move it around a little (or a lot...); still frustrating, of course.0
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I see that I'm not the only one having the Tado range issue... that I discovered after having installed more TRVs over time like many others.
What concerns me the most is that this thread has been going on for years and that Tado has still not delivered anything to fix this major issue. 6lowpan repeaters, two bridges accepting to use the same account etc...
I understand that when the thread was started @Rob explained it was only a minority facing this issue, that technical solutions were complex, and so on... but after a couple of years everybody would have expected Tado to have developed a solution (software using multiple bridges or hardware...). But it is not the case despite the fact that big apartments and big houses are great clients to satisfy: many heaters, lots of space, important market segment to satisfy.
So where are we with this @Rob @Jurian? ETA for having a commercial solution?
End of the year is coming, today is Black Friday, many people will buy something from Tado and discover in a few months that they cannot install more because of range limitation :-(
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@Pete I seem to have got over my range limitation. To be fair, initially my internet bridge was inside a metal server cabinet that probably wasn't helping 😁
However, looks like I may have to jump back on the refund train! I've just discovered that four of my 'rooms' won't heat unless one of the other rooms is heating.
Turns out there is a 10 room limit. Yes, I can get around it by zoning some rooms together - eg join bedrooms and en-suites together, but it's not really fit for purpose. It just means I'm heating radiators that I don't want to heat!
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@ChadH
I'm pleased for you.
I think you may have misunderstood the 10 room limit. Set the primary 10 rooms to the zone controller, leave ensuites and minor rooms off the zone controller. All rooms will operate independently, only downside is boiler won't come on if you are just trying to heat an ensuite on its own. No rooms will be heated unnecessarily.0 -
Yeah, I saw this as a suggestion, but I'd rather have the room heat more than it should on an accurate schedule, rather than a schedule that might happen but only if another room needs heating.
On that second option, I'd still need to heat rooms that aren't currently needed just to make sure the room that isn't on a zone controller. Eg if I want to boost the en-suite, I'd have to turn on the bedroom radiators to make it happen, so am still heating unnecessarily.
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Guys, please stay on topic, we need a range extender first.
Why don’t you two just get a room ;)1 -
Range extender, multiple bridges in one house/account, more devices per bridge, more functional rooms/zones per house/account, more houses/accounts per app, easier switching of house/account in app, being owner of one installation and invited on another with the same account/email are all very much related... Faces of the same coin, so to say.
Scalability....2 -
I'd also like for a range extender. Is anyone from Tado monitoring this forum?
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