Worcester 2000 Comfort+ II RF
Hi, I bought a new tadoº Starter Kit V3+ yesterday. I tried to set it up today, but when I scanned the Programmer, it asked me to search for my boiler (which is a 'Worcester 2000' with the 'Comfort+ II RF' wireless thermostat). It said I would have to contact support, so I tapped the button to do that and I just got a response that is so confusing!
The response said "tado° can only control your system using the relay. If you were previously using a bus interface, you may lose functionality such as boiler modulation for example.
Please confirm if you want to install the tado° system as a relay so that we can send you the installation instructions."
Now I am not a boiler engineer and I know nothing about any of this really! I don't understand what a relay is or a bus interface?! I tried searching online but it's all very confusing and I can't make heads or tails of it!
Before buying the kit, I searched on the tadoº website, and it said that it was compatible with Worcester boilers. Why do they wait until AFTER I've bought the thing to tell me I can’t use it?!
Comments
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Relay control of a central heating boiler is simple off/on (like turning a light switch off/on). Most modern boilers now provide digital interfaces which allow far better control and thus far better efficiency by controlling (=modulating) the burner power and the temperature of the circulating water. Here's a link to an article with more information on the advantages of one of the more common digital controls:
What is an OpenTherm Heating System? | Boiler Guide
I'm not familiar with which digital interfaces the Worcester boiler range have. Hopefully another user can help?
Unfortunately for UK customers the wireless controls that Tado ship only provide simple on/off (relay) control. For more details on this, and ways to get digital (modulating) control, here is a link to a discussion thread:
Hope this helps.
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Thanks very much for your reply John and for the extra info. I must say I thought this would be straight forward but am finding this all very confusing and the amount of information quite overwhelming!
It is unfortunate that tadoº have decided to limit the functionality of the "smart" thermostat in the UK! Surely any savings made by using the tadoº are going to be outweighed by the extra energy costs to run the boiler without modulation?
I wonder why they have chosen to do this?
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You are most welcome.
If you check out the "Wireless Link to Baxi Opentherm Combi-boiler (UK)" link above you will see that, on 4 Feb, Rob from Tado gave this explanation regarding the differences between the UK & EU systems:
"We received a lot of feedback from the UK that professional installers struggled with primarily the setup of the Extension Kit. Our numbers showed that, in the UK, the digital bus control for Opentherm/eBus and so on was hardly ever used.
In continental Europe there are roughly zero setups requiring 2 relays, digital adoption is way higher and we didn't get the professional installer feedback we got from the UK. The demands of the markets are thus very different."
Having checked out the many advantages that digital ('modulating') boiler control offers I decided that this was the way to proceed with my new boiler & Tado control. Since my new boiler was installed (Jul 2021) my experience has been totally positive with a considerable drop in gas consumption ( which will help to partly offset the fuel rises we are faced with!!! ).
As such, and wherever possible, I strongly suggest that all users should look to using a digital control interface rather than simple on/off (relay) switching. A quick 'Google search' should find many articles explaining the advantages of modulating boiler controls in far more detail.
If I can help further please don't hesitate to ask.
John
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Thanks very much for your replies to my post John - you have been far more helpful than the customer support staff at tado have been and have taken the time to explain things to me instead of speaking in technical terms and refusing to elaborate as the customer "support" did!
I'm afraid I have been very put off by this experience and have decided to return the kit for a refund. It is a shame as I was so excited about this system but problems during initial setup and absolutely terrible customer support experience have put me right off tado as a company. I will be going to a competitor and using one of their smart thermostats.
Thanks again for your help and best wishes for the future :)
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Thank you for your very kind words. After all the purpose of this community group is to help users & potential users of Tado products.
I'm sorry to hear that you have decided to return the starter kit.
My own experience of Tado's support staff has been far more positive (perhaps I've just been lucky?) and once set up the kit does work extremely well. There are very few boiler control manufacturers (Tado & Honeywell being the primary ones) that provide an integrated system which allows modulating boiler control coupled with multi-room smart thermostatic radiator valves. Both of these are, in my opinion, essential in order to minimise the impact from ever-spiralling fuel costs.
I, too, wish you all the very best for the future 👍️
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