Develop a "basic backup schedule" mode for when Tado outage or loss of internet

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Comments

  • Please open up your api, so that Tado can be integrated with local domotica controllers like Home Assistant, Domoticz, ...... without internet access.

  • Agree, it’s a major concern when buying IoT stuff.
    Also continuity of service in case Tado shuts down for instance.
    Also you should be able to control your heating when you’re home, even if there’s an internet outage.
  • Can I add a +1 to this, our bridge power connection is loose and has dropped out a few times and genuinely shocked there wasn’t a failover local solution.

    Optimal solution

    As another user has indicated should be a ‘connect to tado cloud table which syncs to local bridge’. If it needs tado to release a new bridge to install a small storage chip to record the table then it please just release the new bridge. It’s clearly a function we need.

    Alternative interim solution

    Appreciate new hardware might not be a day 1 easy fix. In interim could App alert that it is offline so couldn’t complete schedules change.
  • I asked TADO in 2017 about same issue and no action has been take from this time tado got this message logged under ref 223868

    From: tado° Help Center <support@tado.zendesk.com>

    Date: Sunday, 29 January 2017 at 21:59

    Subject: Request 223868 received: how to control smart thermostat and schedules without internet and some other issues

    ##- Please type your reply above this line -##

    Hello

    We have received your request and will process it as soon as possible. The reference number of your request is (223868). To add any additional comments or information, please just reply to this email.

    In the meantime we recommend that you have a look at our FAQs. Here you will find answers to many common questions as well as instructions for problem solving.

    Your tado° Support Team



    29 Jan 2017, 21:59 CET 


    (Part of my email to TADO not including personal data)

    1. how to control smart thermostat and schedules without internet, on the device, I'm not able to controls temperature, increate the temperature and running hot water on/off
    2. can you please provide a comprehensive help about how to perform requested tasks without internet? As no documents are available on your support portals
    3. can you as well tell me if are you planning to have and offline app or management console application which can perform same task as the online one

    Currently I’m a bit disappointed with this product 

  • ......................... +1

  • Three years this has been a known issue and Tado haven’t even responded. I’m abroad and my wife and 2 year old are at home in the UK. My wife isn’t technical and I’m a couple thousand miles away and the internet has gone down! Up until this point I’ve recommended Tado systems, fully integrated them into my house and two of my work places. But this event has made me decide I’m out; when I get back I’m going to sell my Tado kit and either go back to “dumb” (but doesn’t fail at the most basic task) valves and thermostats until I can find a “smart” system that is actually genuinely smart.
  • Mywindowisyourhouse
    edited December 2020

    We really need this. I am 100% they can do this with the current hardware, but they fail to do so.

  • Essential functionality I dont understand how it is missing. Tado overheated my flat causing extra cost for me. Develop it ASAP, please and and least answer us in the thread.
  • It happened to me many times recently causing much extra cost. Please develop a local schedule asap. Thanks.
  • Hey @tado, any comment or answer?
  • Sim
    Sim ✭✭
    edited December 2020

    Again this happened to me. My internet went off and the heating stayed on. Luckily I was at home. Come on Tado sort it out. It can't be that difficult!!!

  • I’m guessing there is a fundamental choice of architecture that makes this difficult with Tado.

    With Philips Hue, you control everything by communicating directly with the hub on your network when you’re at home. It means that all you lose when the internet goes down is the ability to change things from outside the home or integration with other services (IFTTT, Alexa etc).

    Presumably with Tado everything goes out via the servers even when you’re on the same network and the hub is actually pretty stupid?

    I’d even be prepared to spend more money for an upgraded hub that has these capabilities, I’ve got that much investment already in TRVs.
  • Sim
    Sim ✭✭

    dmnc, Like you I have invested a lot in Tado with TRV's and I would be more happy to spend money on an upgraded hub to that can save schedules locally and not malfunction if the internet goes down. However, in the meantime I am going to keep bumping up this thread until Tado at least acknowledge this flaw.

  • This thread is almost 2 years old but no improvement at all nor a single feeeback.
  • Sim
    Sim ✭✭

    Bumping this thread back to the top

  • Sim
    Sim ✭✭

    Bumping this thread back to the top

  • @dmnc I'm not sure if that is the case though that you can't communicate locally with the Tado hub and change the temperature etc since Tado is HomeKit compatible and HomeKit is required I believe to be accessible even without internet.


    Bit of googling and I can see people using Home Assistant via HomeKit integration to be able to control Tado without using Tado servers, so it is possible.

  • Bump this essential request to the top
  • jcwacky
    jcwacky ✭✭✭
    There’s no need to bump posts. This is currently the 3rd most voted for active request. Posting to bump just annoys everyone subscribed to the post when they receive a pointless email notification.
  • Sim
    Sim ✭✭

    jcwacky - Just turn off your email notifications within the forum settings then.

    This maybe the 3rd most voted for but Tado have shown no acknowledgement, even if they have no plans what so ever to update or review this in the future, a response from them would be nice to prevent these pointless posts.

    Instead they are more focused on adding pointless easily achievable things such as showing Santa in the geofencing tab over Christmas or adding a global on and off button which can already be achieved by IFTTT.

  • jcwacky
    jcwacky ✭✭✭
    edited January 2021

    @Sim I agree that Tado should post an acknowledgement to this thread indicating they are aware that it is a highly requested feature. However, I am confident that Tado are actually aware of this thread and how many votes it has.

    This is the 6th most requested feature on this forum (included features that have since been added), and Tado have replied to or provided a solution to the other 5 features, so they are highly like to be aware of this thread.

    Tado have been most active recently on the "Global on/off" thread, so maybe they are concentrating on finding a solution for that (the current top requested (uncompleted) feature) first, and will then look at the next most popular requests (Child lock and backup schedule).

    As the original poster of this request nearly 2 years ago, I too still feel strongly that this an important feature, and am still interested in other peoples thoughts on the matter, as well as getting notified of any response from Tado, so I don't want to disable email notifications. But I can assure you that posting repeated "bump" posts is not going to help get this feature implemented. (If anything Tado might see the multiple posts by one person and presume that it's just a small subset of users who want this feature.) By all means, send multiple requests directly to Tado though.

    Unlike other requests which can "easily" be completed in software, this one may require new/upgraded hardware, so it is likely to take Tado significantly longer to resolve. As we saw with the External Temperature Sensors, they did not acknowledge the new hardware existed at all until it was officially released, so I'd expect the same thing to happen if they are working on an upgraded bridge with backup schedule functionality.

  • Hi @jcwacky

    While I concur with your sentiments, I still feel that Tado have a responsibility to ensure that the customer is kept abreast of their actions with regards to their progress (or not) of the 'top' requests/complaints.

    We hear about the "roadmap" without ever seeing the "roadmap"

    Perhaps Tado Support can open a section covering Tado's development schedule.....this action in itself would reduce the number of 'unnecessary post bumps'

    Imho.... Tado development is abismal.
  • Personally, I think a lot of people have bought Tado without actually knowing what features it does or doesn't have and then get upset when it doesn't do what they want it to do.

    As Tado has a money back guarantee I am surprised that more dissatisfied customers haven't returned their systems and replaced them with something else.

  • jcwacky
    jcwacky ✭✭✭

    @GrayDav4276 I agree that having a public roadmap would be nice, on the face of it. But I believe that Tado has realised (like most other companies these days) that having their plans public often ends up frustrating more customers than it appeases. Mostly due to unexpected complications and internal changes in priority that result in delays to publicly announced features.

    The reason I believe this to be the case is that Tado used to have a public roadmap, here is a screenshot of it from a year or two ago:

    But they discontinued it shortly after this screenshot was taken. As you can see, many of these features still haven’t been implemented today. You can imagine how many angry customers there are who purchased Tado (rightly or wrongly) after seeing a desired feature of theirs on the official roadmap, expecting it to be added soon, only for it to never be implemented, and they have more of a right to be angry/frustrated than those waiting for a feature that has never been confirmed by Tado.

    Don't get me wrong, I was very disappointed when Tado pulled their public roadmap, but I can see why they did it.

    And if you're thinking that they should only add items to the public road map that they can commit to. In software and hardware development you can unfortunately never guarantee that. Just look at Apple, famous for not giving any details of upcoming software or hardware until it is ready to ship, yet in 2017 they announced their AirPower charging mat, a product which never shipped and was subsequently cancelled 18 months later after multiple rumoured issues with the product.

    I think the most we can hope to hear from Tado on this feature request is that they are aware many people are asking for it. I don't expect confirmation they are working on something, or even to hear they it's not something they plan to add.

  • I am a bit disappointed in Tado customer service and device as well. This is an essential feature otherwise it can easily under/overheat the property causing extra cost and any problem like getting cold etc. Not even a single reply which requires 5 mins and that negligence I experienced during technical chat recently.
  • Hi @jcwacky,
    Yes I fully understand your interpretation of this scenario......however I feel that Tado has provided 'what appears' to be levels of functionality that either don't /can't work as customers 'misinterpret' tha actual level of functionality that is 'actually' available with the 'physical' constraints of their devices and operation ability.
    Still.....I fully appreciate that Tado are not going to advertise their product as......"Not bad....better than nothing"....it's a little bit like
    "Never mind the quality feel the width"
    or to quote Monty Python.............. "Beautiful Plumage"

    You are correct that there are a lot of customers who have purchased the Tado 'dream' without fully researching the product.....but unless they had joined the Community, then the only available interpretation of the functionality is the one provided by Tado themselves.....which is in my opinion a little bit 'smoke & mirrors.
  • Schippie
    Schippie ✭✭✭
    edited January 2021
    So, just to be sure.. What happens on losing connection? What do the radiator & thermostat default to? Haven’t had this yet, luckily
  • jcwacky
    jcwacky ✭✭✭

    @Schippie Upon losing connection to Tado's servers, each "zone" will remain at its last setting until the connection is re-established. So if a room is set to 20ºC at the point the connection is lost, it will stay set at 20ºC (still turning the boiler on and off as required) until the connection comes back, irrespective of whether you have it set to go "off" or to a different temperature at a set time. If a zone is "off" or on a low temperature, it will remain on this until re-connected. You can manually adjust each zone via the on-device buttons, or via HomeKit (I believe).

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ ✭✭✭

    @jcwacky Yes, HomeKit control (which is essentially a form of manual control) still works if there is no connection to the Tado servers. What isn't clear to me is if the defined 'revert' limits set for cancelling manual control still apply while there is no connection to the Tado servers (I haven't tried it hence I do not know).

  • Will
    Will
    edited January 2021

    @jcwacky I find it hard to believe that a new Internet Bridge or Wireless Smart Thermostat would be required for this functionality. Both communicate via a 6LoWPAN radio and that's about it. The only possible hardware that could be required to be upgraded are the Smart Radiator Thermostats if they're not capable of storing the schedules, or being put passively into a mode where they respect the schedule. I say passively because they are probably not capable of actively assessing this due to battery life.

    On the face of it, this seems unlikely that they would not be able to do this, but without knowing more about Tado's architecture it's not possible to say.