Moving from Nest to Tado, help needed

Hi all,

My current setup is Nest 3rd generation using a wireless thermostat and a combi (Worcester Bosch) boiler.

I want to move to Tado: for the smart radiator thermostats.

The radiator valves are easy enough to buy/install, I can do those myself.

But I do not understand how to replace the Nest heatlink thing with Tado.

  • Which product do I need to buy to replace the Nest wireless setup with the equivalent in Tado world?
  • Is this something that a heating engineer typically does?

I have googled this extensively and am still confused as to how to go about this and even which Tado product I need to buy.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best Answer

  • GrilledCheese2
    GrilledCheese2 ✭✭✭
    edited April 2022 Answer ✓

    You need to purchase the Wireless Smart Thermostat Starter Kit. A wireless receiver replaces the Nest heatlink and a wireless temperature sensor replaces the Nest wall thermostat. In addition the starter kit has a bridge/hub that you need to connect to your internet router.

    The wiring between the heatlink and receiver is almost identical and swapping over is straight forward for anyone with basic DIY skills. One difference is the heatlink has two terminals T1 & T2 that are often used to supply 12V to the wall thermostat. The Tado thermostat is entirely battery powered so there is no equivalent to T1 & T2, making the installation even easier.

Answers

  • Rob2
    Rob2 ✭✭✭

    Remember you should install Tado using the wizard at web page tado.com/start not by just randomly changing over connections and trying if it works!

  • GrilledCheese above is spot on! So further to those comments I would add that the Nest T1 and T2 wires previously used to 12v power the Nest thermostat can be ‘parked’ in the Tado Wireless Receiver terminals. Also the connection terminals in the Tado WR are in a slightly different order to the Nest Heatlink. Make sure to use the common (live) and normally open (switched) terminals for both the CH and HW. Done this just couple of weeks ago and installed Tado TRVs. Very pleased with result.
  • johnnyp78
    johnnyp78 ✭✭✭

    I would consider wiring Opentherm if your boiler supports it (or has an ebus equivalent) - nearly all modern combis do. It's very simple to wire up and means the boiler can modulate its output, in other words that it doesn't just switch the hot water on and off but that Tado can tell it what temperature to output the hot water at.

    However... due to some inexplicable reasoning on Tado's part their UK kit has had Opentherm support removed, so to do this you'll either need to get an old extension kit from eBay, or a new EU wireless starter kit, or use a wired Tado thermostat linked up to control the boiler and then link it to a wireless thermostat.

    It's annoying that it isn't supported as standard in the UK but if you can bear the hassle you should see some energy savings over time.

  • I am also moving from Nest to Tado however I had a previously wired thermostat that was replaced by the Nest, is anyone able to let me know if I still need to wireless Tado kit or could i remove the Nest and fit the wired Tado version? would I also need to remove the Nest heatlink?

  • i originally went from nest to a wired tado installation, so it should work depending on your boiler.

    yes you will need to remove the nest heatlink as that is specific to the nest system.

    you'll need to hardware the nest stat to the boiler if you don't want to go down the wireless route.

  • Just chiming in, first post, also recently replaced my long standing Nest system with Tado and several smart TRVs.

    Installation was very simple, as it was almost a like for like in the wiring department.

    So far it's been good, but I'm forever tweaking to find that right balance at the moment. Nest was far simpler.....but lacked the control Tado offers.

    I do ponder the real term potential savings, as it's quite the outlay.....time will tell.