Sudden Drop in Range (and other issues)
TL:DR:
1) Tado has been fine for 3 months. Then at 0800 this morning, every device disconnects from my internet bridge.
2) By moving the Internet Bridge to be next to the Wireless Receiver I manage to get that to reconnect, as well as the devices in that room, but no other devices.
3) Upon beginning to reconnect each TRV, they *all* start reporting "Low Battery", even though the newest is only 2 weeks old.
4) Upon resetting them again they stop reporting "Low Battery", but the Internet Bridge is still unable to connect to anything further that 1 room away, even with line-of-sight via open doors.
The sudden decrease in range, simultaneous loss of every device (even the ones in the same room as the Bridge), combined with the weird issues with false low battery reports, make me want to blame a software issue. Has anyone else experienced similar?
Full Story:
I've had my Tado system for 3 months now, with no real problems (a couple of issues fighting single radiator valves not calibrating, but the main functionality has been fine). Then all of a sudden, about 08:00 this morning (going by the graphs), every device in my flat disconnected from the Internet Bridge.
I noticed about midday (it was sunny, for a change!), and started trying to reset various devices, as well as contacted support. Support said "Based on our data, all tado° devices lost the connection to the Internet Bridge, while the Internet Bridge had a connection to the internet, which isn't a common issue."
I eventually moved the Internet Bridge to be near my boiler (and the Wireless Receiver), and after a few resets got the Wireless Receiver, a Wireless Temperature Sensor, and a Smart TRV (all in the same room) to connect. Unfortunately changing this temperature still wouldn't cause the boiler to fire, and no other TRVs in the house were connecting.
At this point I was getting quite cold, so I tried calling the emergency help line, but that just got someone else to take over the chat I was having with support. They just started copy and pasting the standard help stuff about making sure there are no large metal objects near the bridge, so I carried on doing things like re-pairing devices while I went through there steps.
Then suddenly every single TRV in the house started reporting "Low Battery". When I reset them all, they all stopped reporting "Low Battery". Currently I can connect them all to the bridge no problem, but only if they're in the same room as the Bridge. I've tried putting one back on a radiator in the next room (it's maybe 5 meters, with a direct line of sight to the new Bridge location through open doors), but it can't hold a connection.
So I'm now at a point where all the valves in my house are wide open, and I can just turn the heating on and off by toggling the temperature in the only room that works, so I'm now worse off than I was before I dropped £500 on Tado equipment. Support have stopped replying (I assume because it's gone 5 on a Friday!), and in any case just want to repeat the advice from the FAQ articles, completely ignoring the fact that it worked just fine for months until everything stopped working at once.
Help!
Answers
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Actually, I lied, I can't even control when the boiler fires, it's currently stuck off even though every (connected) room is requesting heat. Wonderful.
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@Mount3E I can't help with all of it, but typically if your wireless receiver is the zone controller for all of your rooms and it loses connection to the bridge then all rooms will report as "No Remote Access". What's odd in your case is that the graphs also stopped reporting which does suggest everything did disconnect, and not just the wireless receiver.
In terms of operating your heating now, have you tried starting your heating from the button on top of the wireless receiver just to prove that definitely still works?
The room that is working, I assume it's got the zone controller set to be the wireless receiver, so can actually request it to fire the boiler?
I appreciate that doesn't help solve the entire issue, but might at least allow you to get some heating going.
It does almost sound like it's more of a bridge issue if everything disconnected at once, but that's a guess.0 -
Tado is unreliable,i use it for a while but disappointed,just an app for a lot of money,sistem has many many flows cause is cloud based,that is the main issue. Lucky me i have my old thermostat and i am using weather compensation with it and my trouble with Tado has ended,no connection lost,no lost of heat and less gas and electricity used.
My view is this: get Tado just to fail you at some point in time! Keep a second thermostat in your house if you don't wanna freeze or left without hot water at shower. As long as Tado will be 100% cloud system will fail even if Tado soft is good,internet is not controlled by Tado. Let say u buy a fancy car but the road is full of potholes and sometimes gaps in the road, can u make it to the end of the road if that car maker will offer only that road for that particular car? Will you be relaxed if u make it or full of ₩#@#$^*¥₩!
This is my view on Tado,fancy but can fail at any time.
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Hi cbd20, thanks for the reply.
Re your first point, that's actually the situation I've found this morning - whilst all rooms are displaying "No Remote Access", the Wireless Receiver is the only device showing as "No Remote Access". I can still blink the individual devices under the other rooms. I've tried activating pairing and re-pairing the Wireless Receiver, but no luck yet.
Yep, the boiler does fire if I press the buttons on top of the Wireless Receiver, but only for a short time until it shuts itself off again, as far as I can tell. Is there some combination of buttons to just switch it on full-time? Would be a useful workaround.
I'll try and get back in touch with support today - hopefully they do have some form of support over the weekend!
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@Mount3E you could try turning off all your TRVs by removing all the batteries and leave just the bridge and receiver running. Then turn on and link a single TRV. This will rule out a rogue TRV that may be corrupting the radio network. Otherwise I suspect you have a faulty bridge. It connects to the internet but the radio interface has gone a bit deaf for some reason. To test the bridge you will need to replace it - perhaps Tado can ship you a replacement (or provide a better explanation why your entire system is offline).
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Good plan - I've turned off all TRVs, and the Bridge still can't maintain a connection to the receiver when it's in the same room.
Yeah I'm leaning towards blaming the Bridge too - working perfectly for 3 months, then suddenly being unable to connect to anything reliably.
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@Mount3E I'm inclined to agree it seems like a faulty bridge.
To answer your question about the buttons on the wireless receiver, if you follow the instructions here you should at least get heating and hot water:
I last had to contact support just before Christmas and found they were responding at the weekend, so fingers crossed you can get in contact.
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So I had a similar problem after a power outage. ALL TRVs and thermostats would no longer connect. After a very long investigation my hypothesis was that it was wifi interference. I could prove TRVs connected within a very close proximity but any further than a meter and they stopped. I also had connection then lost it again. I even set up a new spare bridge!
I discovered that my new Electricity Smart Meter runs ZigBee wifi which is the same range as the Tado 868Mhz having had some fantastic support from Tado via email the tech offered to change the channel (didn't even know it was possible). Since then the comms has been fine! It may just be a coincidence or other factors, but if the tech changed the range when he said he did, within the hour all TRVs were connected again!
I am again hypothesising but when the power went off for 24 hours, it restarted all wifi devices hunted for the best channel to operate on, this time they clashed or were too close. Previously it had worked since the new meter had been installed 8 weeks ago ONLY because it had selected different channels - it's a guess but....
The smart meter was supplied by EON and has a SmartView 2 handset. I did not test to see if just unplugging the handset solved the problem with Tado.
Testing the comms - I had the bridge close to a TRV and via the App got it to blink, when it was close it was almost immediate, when you moved away a short distance the TRV no longer blinked. When back in range, a queue of all the missed blinks seems to get transmitted to the TRV. Normally changing the temp via the App gives an almost instant response anywhere in the house. This stopped working until the new channel was configured.
Anyway this will\may hopefully help someone else!
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PS There is a button on top of the boiler control switch that allows you to turn the heating on permanently. You can then open or close TRVs manually for heat.
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@Mount3E Did you ever find a solution?
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