Moved into new house with Tado and central heating completely dead but hot water works

I have just bought a house and moved in on Thursday in Radcliffe Greater Manchester.

I have never heard of Tado before and have never even had gas central heating or a gas boiler before.

The guy who sold me the house has been very honest and I trust him. He tells me the gas central heating works

and all I have to do is set it on the Tado wall panel. However when I click through the options on the Tado controller panel on the wall there seems to be no setting for heating, but there is one for hot water. There is a hand which points upwards which I have set to 25. Basically the hot water works but the heating is completely dead and I have no clue how to set it up. I do not have broadband installed till Tuesday but the previous owner says that should not be a problem as the Tado controller on the wall should still work.

Is there anyone I can call to send me an engineer to my house to get the central heating working and explain to me how I everything works? Can I just call a gas engineer? I am with scottish power for gas and am paying them for an annual service. Would any gas engineer know how to fix a system with Tado software or do I need to get a specialist Tado engineer. Is there any way to simply disable the Tado software and switch on the heating by turning the handles on the radiators. Is there a number at Tado I can ring to get help with this.

Any help is appreciated as I have no central heating in the house now and have not had it for a few days. I need to get this fixed quickly.

Thank you

Comments

  • cbd20
    cbd20 ✭✭✭
    Hi @jogey, do you know what tado devices are installed in the property? Does it have a tado extension kit or wireless receiver wired into the boiler?

    If so, then you can force the boiler on using the button on the top. See here for the extension kit instructions:
    https://support.tado.com/en/articles/3387246-how-can-i-control-my-heating-system-when-the-radio-link-between-the-smart-thermostat-and-the-extension-kit-is-lost

    Did the previous owner leave the internet bridge behind - the bit that connects to the router? I believe the tado devices need this to communicate with one another, even if you have no internet access. My gut feeling is that it's missing or off, and therefore the thermostat can't tell the extension kit/ wireless receiver to fire the boiler.
  • Hi cbd20

    There are two tado devices one in the corridor and one underneath the boiler on the kitchen wall. I am not sure if either is wired into the boiler.

    To be honest as my knowledge of tado and gas are both absolutely zero it is going to be pretty much beyond me to sort this out. Do I need a Tado specialist to sort this out or can I just call any gas engineer please?

    If I need a specialist Tado engineer do they have a customer support number I can call them on please.

    Thanks for your help

  • I should add that I have a cancer diagnosis and my wife has rheumatoid arthritis. I phoned a gas engineer and they said I should contact tado but tado do not give out there phone number and there chat support is simply some kind of robot which is basically unusable in my situation. I really just need a technical support specialist to contact me to help me sort this out or an engineer to come to my home to sort it out but this seems impossible with tado

  • rafm5
    rafm5 ✭✭✭
    edited October 2021

    Hi @Jogey

    So the guy is very honest and you trust him, but he wasn't able to spend a minute and turn the heating on for you?

    I would expect that the owner should know that kind of stuff unless he had leaved there only in summer.

    Take some photos and share here, to give us more info about your present devices.

    As far as I am concerned if these devices are linked to his account you won't be able to set up your own Tado° profile. Tado° can't simply remove a device from one account and link to another unless you have some sort of evidence that this is a genuine request. You need to sort this out first wit him.

    Tech support will be able to guide you, but really it is up to you to resolve.

    Try this link: https://www.tado.com/gb/care/local-installers?latitude=53.5578669&longitude=-2.3764178 (hopefully this should give you some local professionals in Radcliffe.

    Tado° support line 0203 893 2159

  • cbd20
    cbd20 ✭✭✭
    Hi @Jogey, sorry to hear about your situation. @rafm5 is correct in that if the previous owner still has the devices registered to him, he needs to deregister them first and ideally, as I suspect, if he's got the internet bridge that'd help too if he could provide that. This would then enable you to register them in your name, and get the system up and running properly.

    A good place to start would be the number provided above as they can talk you through what's necessary.

    A heating engineer is unlikely to be able to get the tado system running unless the above is done. They can of course remove the tado devices altogether and replace with another set of boiler controls, if that was your preference.
  • So thanks to both of you I am able to log in to the internet app as the previous owner added me and have removed him from the app so I am the sole person appearing in people now for my home. I am adding a screenshot that shows that it says no remote access for heating and hot water. I had broadband installed today in the house. I am honestly not sure if I have the internet bridge but I have added photos for the two tado devices in the house one on the corridor wall and one on the kitchen wall under the boiler. I have also added pictures of the boilers in the house one in the kitchen and another up on the third floor as well as white boxes near the boilers which might be tado devices or not as to be honest I am too techically ignorant to know. If any of you have any idea how to fix this from these photos I would be really grateful for any advice. In the meantime I will try and get one of the gas engineers from the tado list above to fix it. Thanks once again

  • Ok I just spotted the support line I will try that thank you

  • They say they are terminating their phone support when you call the line.

    Then they are asking me for the serial number of the internet bridge, but I am not sure which of these devices is the internet bridge and where the serial number would be. They say this serial number is on the app but I am not sure where. Any help to find the serial number would be very appreciated. Thankyou.

  • cbd20
    cbd20 ✭✭✭

    @jogey great pictures and they really help understand your setup.

    So the rectangular box with tado written on it mounted on your black tiles is the extension kit. This will will be the device that ultimately tells your boiler to fire up and open the respective valve for hot water or central heating according to the schedule and temperature provided by the room thermostat.

    The square white tado box is a room thermostat.

    The tado internet bridge looks like this:

    It's a small device only around 10cm long. It should connect into your internet router. My suspicion is that the previous owner took it with him or if you're lucky maybe has hidden it in a drawer somewhere. If you can get that back and plugged in, I reckon your whole system will fire back into life.

    The two devices you have communicate to each other via the internet bridge and use the internet bridge to access the tado servers which store the heating schedule, so you really do need it.

    In the app, if you click settings -> Rooms and Devices. Then at the bottom should be the internet bridge. This will show the serial number of the originally registered device. If you click on it, it will show the device status. My guess is it'll show as offline.

    If the previous owner no longer has it, you may be able to purchase another one although they are typically only sold bundled with other devices as part of a starter kit. If you can get hold of tado they may be able to provide one outside of a starter kit.

  • Hi @Jogey ,

    The Internet Bridge is a small white device about the size and shape of a middle finger, it has a group of 3 white LED lights and a further single LED light ......all on one surface. This device is connected directly into the router and also has a power supply.

    If the previous house owner has removed the Internet Bridge (possibly for his new home)......then you simply cannot get your Tado system functioning......the Internet Bridge is the "heart" of your system, and you will have no access to the Tado Servers......therefore no access to any scheduling for your devices.

    I suggest that you contact the previous house owner to ascertain exactly what he has done with the IB

  • Thanks all. I have just found the internet bridge.

    I have BT fibre broadband. There are two routers a black one called smart hub 2 and a white one on the wall.

    Which one should I plug it into please.

  • I actually do have a good internet connection. Please also see photos attached. The internet bridge has no lights on on it.

    Here is a pic of the other BT device on the wall. I'd be grateful if you could advise me what I am doing wrong

  • Please see attached pic of

    the other device on the wall

  • cbd20
    cbd20 ✭✭✭
    @Jogey you're almost there.

    You need to also plug it in to a power socket using a USB power cable, into the spare port on the bridge.
  • Ok so I reckon it is all connected now. Thanks so much

    But unfortunately the heating on the gas central heating radiators has still not come on. One thing I notice straight away is that the current temperature is reading 30.5 degrees but the room is freezing. If anyone has any idea what is going on with that I would appreciate it please.



  • cbd20
    cbd20 ✭✭✭
    @Jogey Change that temperature offset field back to 0 for now. That is used to offset the measured temperature if you believe it is reading incorrectly. Little surprised that the offset would be set to 10 at all to be honest.
  • The central heating is working! Thanks so much to all of you on this forum you really helped me out.

    Have a good one,

    Jogey

  • rafm5
    rafm5 ✭✭✭
    edited October 2021

    Hi @Jogey

    Also, have a look @ the Timer option. Yours is currently 1 min, so if you decide to manually control Tado°, it will work only for a minute. IMHO 15 min. should be enough to make the house warm, but again everyone is different, so the devices we use.