Tado v Nest 2020
Probably a bit provocative to ask this on this forum but has anybody had any real world experience with Tado V3+ and Nest v3?
I've had a Tado v1 for a I think 3-4 years now and was looking to upgrade... in fact I went and bought the Nest v3 as it seemed to have better press reviews and liked the idea of it integrating with my Nest Protects scattered through our house... but now I am doubting my decision and considering returning them.
I have a slightly complex install (not really but it's not one boiler one thermostat):
- Three floors, each floor has a Tado Thermostat (basement & ground zones controlled by Honeywell valves)
- Boiler 1 (Daaldarop Combi Comfort 38/80) drives hot water and floor heating in basement + 8 radiators on ground floor
- Boiler 2 ( Remeha Calenta Ace 40 L) drives hot water and 6 radiators on 1st floor + 2 towel radiators
- Basement: 1 bedroom & one cinema room (all on one floor heating system)
- Ground floor: Entrance then a big open plan kitchen, dining & living area with radiators spread all over the place
- 1st floor: 3 bedrooms (master bedroom has Tado thermostat), office & 2 bathrooms which have towel radiators
Three things driving my desire to change:
- Can I drive extra savings or save the planet a little
- I do not have good control of temperatures in each room on 1st floor (yes I know I can turn radiator up or down)
- I like technology (so kind of geeky) and want the best situation
So why am I hesitating on Nest?
- Tado v1 was easy to install... unplugged my old Honeywell thermostats and directly cabled the Tado quickly to the existing thermostat wires
- Opened the Nest ... discovered a Heatlink (was watching all the US videos it turned out and they don't have Heatlinks 🤦♂️... yup I felt a bit stupid) and have now been struggling to find how to cable this in my multizone situation with my specific valves... I too stubborn to call out an engineer as this technology should be simple
- Nest will not really solve my desire to control individual room temperatures
So I'm now back to thinking about Tado but...
- My radiators are in radiator boxes so the radiator valves will reflect the temperature in those boxes not the room, so that would mean adding three more external temperature sensors (I get the rant on pricing of these but parking that to the side for now)
- Are Tado v3+ room thermostats just as easy to install as v1 (i.e. not messing with a Heatlink or expansion box?
- What does Tado v3+ give over v1?
Any other things I should think about?
Comments
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Eventually I got hold of somebody at Tado... the versioning is very confusing to us end users 😂 as the pack versions are called one thing but the devices are something else. So I had a v1 bridge and a v2 thermostat... I may not have got this entirely correct but as I understand it:
- v2 pack = v2 thermostats with v1 bridge (the one you cannot press a pairing button on)
- v3 pack = v2 thermostat with v2 bridge (the Homekit version with pairing button)
- v3+ pack = v3 thermostat (new hardware) with v2 bridge
Net is they recommend only replacing the bridge to get Homekit functionality. They said the difference in thermostats are actually minor so if my system was working (which it is) not to bother changing them as I would not really see any difference... nice that they did not tell me to buy something that I don't really need.
Now I am about to add 12 radiator valves and 4 remote wireless thermostats so I can effectively control my temperature in each room independently... like in the attached schematic at the bottom.
Tip: If you want to upgrade your bridge to the Homekit version... buy a radiator valve startkit which is Eur 89 currently in NL... you get one radiator valve & the bridge. Then the radiator valves are about Eur 52 each if you buy in packs of 4.
On the topic of the pricing for the remote thermostats I get that Eur 79 is not cheap but frankly for the Eur 27 extra over a radiator valve that looks quite ugly it's not that bad... what's that... like 3 pints down the pub in the UK these days? Stay in and enjoy the temperature instead for one night 🤣.
Next challenge are the radiator valves... and surprise, surprise they do not match any of the photos in their setup guide (picture below of my valve)... so hoping one of the connectors fits and works for these... as usual no response from Tado since this morning 😤on what I would need... hope I don't have to ship back 12 valves and 4 thermostats!
Once I have the valves attached I need to contact their support to ensure it is configured correctly as apparently I cannot do that due to the complexity of my install... I can add radiator valves to rooms but they have to link them to the thermostats that drives the heating system correctly 🤞.
Will try to post more once I get it setup. Thanks GrilledCheese for your help!
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