Boiler not getting messages from thermostat
I have had a full set of radiator thermostats for the last year. They worked well.
I've just had a wireless receiver and smart thermostat fitted. They do not work and my installer is unable to work out why.
At the moment the only way I can get the boiler to turn on is if I turn the boiler off at the isolator switch for 30 seconds and then turn it on again. The boiler starts up for a few seconds and then shuts down again.
Does anyone have any ideas?
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I should add that the hot water on my combi boiler is working fine. If I turn on the hot tap the boiler fires up.
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Are the rad stats (TRVs) on every radiator?
Do they still work (i.e. call for heat)?
Are all the devices (TRVs and smart stat) showing in your devices?
Is there any zone controlling (i.e. are the TRVs in any way linked to the smart stat, or are they all independent of one another)?
What happens if you deactivate the wireless receiver/smart stat? Do the TRVs work as they previously did?
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Are the rad stats (TRVs) on every radiator?
Yes
Do they still work (i.e. call for heat)?
Yes
Are all the devices (TRVs and smart stat) showing in your devices?
Yes
Is there any zone controlling (i.e. are the TRVs in any way linked to the smart stat, or are they all independent of one another)?
Not sure. I think they are independent. How do I tell?
What happens if you deactivate the wireless receiver/smart stat? Do the TRVs work as they previously did?
I don't know. I will find out and let you know.
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What happens if you deactivate the wireless receiver/smart stat? Do the TRVs work as they previously did?
No. I removed the wireless receiver/smart stat from Home, then set the heating to boost to 25. The boiler has not fired up and the radiators are still cold.
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CORRECTION. THE RADIATORS ARE NOW ON!!
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When you say you set the heating to boost to 25, how did you do that?
Was it at a smart TRV, or the smart stat? (Presumably not the latter because you removed it?)
I don't use the TRVs myself, but the zone controller settings are settings/rooms&devices/[choose room]/scroll down to heating zone and see what it says
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I set the heating boost to 25 on the app on my mobile phone.
I don't have heating zone listed under settings/rooms and devices/ choose room. Under room (eg living room) I have Manual Control, Temperature Offset and Dazzle Mode. That is all.
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Hmm, ok, let's leave the zone controller for now.
On the tado app, can you see tiles for each device (room)?
Raise the temp on one of those, which should trigger the relevant TRV, which should in turn fire the boiler?
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This will be easier to do tomorrow. We have an external oil fired boiler, and it isn't that easy to tell if it is on in the dark, and all the radiators are hot at the moment, thanks to the boost they got earlier. I think I'd better call it a day for now. Thanks for your help. We have heat thanks to you. I'll do what you suggest tomorrow morning.
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I missed your correction. Great to hear you have some heat.
From what you say, I suspect your smart stat perhaps isn't pairing with the bridge (it's wireless, right?).
You can investigate this by establishing that each TRV is working properly. Turn them all down to below current room temperature, then turn one above room temp and see if the boiler fires (that rad should get warm, but the others should stay cold). Then turn it back down (boiler should switch off). Repeat for each one, and if it all goes to plan, finally try the smart stat. If nothing happens with the smart stat, it's might not be paired with the bridge.
If it is paired and still doesn't work, do check all your TRVs are set above room temperature. If not, when the smart stat calls for heat, the TRVs will still stop the heat getting to the rads and might also stop the boiler firing if there's insufficient flow through the system. (To stop the boiler overheating).
Once the smart room stat is set up, make sure you pair it with the rad stat in that room. Otherwise, the rad stat may close before the smart stat reaches temperature, and the smart stat will never switch the heating off.
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OK. Thanks.
This morning my husband turned on the boiler at the isolation switch and we got heat in all radiators.
When I checked at around 11 a.m all radiators were still warm, but some seemed to be cooling down. I guess this was because the room temp exceeded the temp they were set at.
I have just tested trv's. Results were mixed. We have five radiators but the boiler only fired up for two of them, the spare bedroom and the dining room. I find this odd because these two rooms are the furthest away from the modem/ internet bridge. (I was thinking that maybe all I needed to do was get an extension lead to move the internet bridge further away from the modem, but not sure that would work now).
The smart stat is in the same room as the living room radiator, which was one of the radiators which failed the test, so I can't tell whether it is paired or not.
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Ok, so perhaps a few things in there.
If all your radiators were warm, that indicates that the TRVs were all calling for heat (or at least open) at that time and, as you say, the cooling down indicates they were satisfied at set temp and so closed down.
To double check, put each of them on full and see what happens. The boiler should fire and all the radiators should heat up.
Having established that the TRVs are working, you then need to test the room (smart) stat. As you said you have TRVs on all rads (?) then you can't just raise the temperature on the room stat. The TRVs will also need to be open to get any heat into the system, and as they're all smart TRVs (?), they'll fire too (so you won't really know which device is calling for heat - although the app should show you - and whether that signal is reaching the boiler).
Instead, you need to first pair the room stat with the TRV in the room it's in. This will make that TRV open when the room stat, rather than the TRV, calls for heat. Then turn up the room stat and even if all other TRVs are closed, you should get a call for heat and the radiator in that room should heat up.
The smart room stat isn't really going to add a great deal over your existing TRV set-up, save that you can pair numerous TRVs to it, which will then open and close based on the temperature at the room stat, rather than at the radiator. This will be more accurate in the room the stat is in, but potentially less so in other paired rooms (e.g. if you decide to zone the whole floor to that temperature).
There are other threads on here detailing how to pair devices together.
Hope that helps you further.
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One other question.
Did you have to start the boiler at the isolation switch because the programmed schedule for the TRVs isn't working, or for some other reason?
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Last night the boiler went on firing up to the point my husband was going to bed (I go to bed early - I'm disabled). He turned off the boiler at the isolation switch to be on the safe side. Actually it was only 11.30 pm and the main bedroom radiator was set to go off at midnight.
I have set the target temperature for all radiators to 25. The room temperatures are between 17 and 23. I made the alteration about 10 minutes ago. All of the radiators are hot EXCEPT the spare bedroom and the dining room, the same two radiators which were working when I did the test earlier!
The living room radiator had a red spanner symbol this morning. I have tried to remount it, but it is not lit up and the app tells me it is offline.
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Thank you for your help.
I don't feel at the moment that I am making much progress. The living room radiator thermostat is now telling me it needs a new battery but that it is connected. It doesn't seem to like the recharged AA batteries I replaced it with, so my husband has gone to purchase some non-rechargeable ones. I presume 'connected' means paired?
I removed the smart thermostat from the app on the advice of the engineer (who was supposed to ring me today, but hasn't). I don't even know how to replace it. I can't find any instructions on pairing either. I think I'll give up for today and have another go tomorrow.
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If you have two rads off when the others are on that could indicate the system is not balanced properly (ie. the flow can't get to all the rads simultaneously). However, if they were all previously working together, that is unlikely to be the case.
I do believe the TRVs don't like all rechargeable batteries, at least insofar as reporting their status, so unfortunately, good quality disposables are likely to be the way forward.
Connected does mean paired, yes.
The instructions for pairing the smart stat with the bridge should be in the manual I sent you a link to above.
In terms of what next, if the TRVs in the spare bed and dining room are not calling for heat when they are below set temperature, could they be offline? There is some despair on this forum that the signal range from the bridge (plugged in to your internet router) isn't great. They might be intermittently dropping out.
I'm afraid that otherwise, I'm pretty much out of ideas at the moment. I wish I could help you sort this out as I'm sure it's really frustrating.
I'm copying in @johnnyp78 and @GrayDav4276. They know their way around the TRVs far better than I do, and they may be able to help you with configuration.
Otherwise, all I can suggest at this stage is you try to get the engineer who installed to fix it asap, and in the meantime, raise a request for technical support with Tado, explaining your personal situation and the need to have working heating. In all likelihood, these are configuration issues, and Tado should be able to guide you/the engineer through the correct set up procedure. Go on to www.tado.com and click on the orange chat button at the bottom right. You'll get an automated chat 'bot' at first, but stick with it and they will revert, eventually. Make it sound as urgent as you can, and keep onto them.
Good luck...
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Sorry, I looked at this earlier and can’t be much help. I think the installer probably messed up the wireless receiver installation. Is everything showing in the correct rooms on the app? Is the wireless receiver set as zone controller for the trvs?0
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Thank you DM9... and Johnnyp78. Tomorrow I'm going to read all your comments again and try to get my head round the details. But tonight I can add the following.
The Living Room trv is now showing E4. My husband and I followed the instructions for de-calcifying, but did not succeed in cancelling it. I have contacted support over this issue - finally managing to get round their bot.
The wireless receiver is not added to rooms and devices, so it is not shown as controlling anything. That can't be right can it?
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It sounds like the wireless receiver hasn’t been registered. You need to scan the qr code on it with the app. If there isn’t one you can enter the serial number manually.0
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An update. Did manage to get through to Tado, non virtual, advisor. She eliminated virtual Room 6 with its open window and registered the smart thermostat. The correct radiators started heating up and all seemed Hunky Dory.
Just one problem remained to be sorted -- an e4 message on the living room trv. Sent in photos and waiting for reply.
Then the boiler stopped working again. It should, at this time, be heating two radiators, living room and dining room. Living room has the E4 problem, but the dining room radiator should be belting out heat and it is stone cold.
So tomorrow will be Day 6 of installing tado. I'm wondering if it would be simpler to move house.
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You should certainly ask for your money back from the installer if nothing else, given that your heating was working fine before.1
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I've already told Eon that I'm raising a dispute over my credit card payment.
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Just another update. Today Tado support advised me to try moving the internet bridge. I wasn't able to do so until late afternoon because I was waiting for Amazon to deliver some long leads to replace those supplied. My husband and I then tried a couple of new positions (no tittering missus). It didn't have the slightest effect. The boiler has been off all today, and there doesn't appear to be anything else we could try to get it working.
Fortunately we have a wood-burner and an electric heater, so we won't freeze to death, but it is going to be a difficult Christmas (at this point I rate my chances of getting the system fixed before Christmas as nil).
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This is shocking.
Are Eon not coming back soon to at least revert everything? Shouldn't they be liaising with tado to get your system properly installed?
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Given that eon messed up the installation, you’d be well within your rights to get a different installer in to fix it and charge it to them.0
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Another update. I can't contact Eon until Monday morning, so over the weekend I might as well keep trying to get the system working.
I started by deleting the living room radiator thermostat on the app. This trv is faulty (E4) and Tado are going to replace it. It is in the same room as the smart thermostat.
This had the effect of turning on the boiler and then the radiators started heating up. Eureka! And then they started cooling down again. I then tried removing the other four radiators one at a time, and the same thing happened. So now the app only has three devices: the smart thermostat and the extension and the internet bridge.
It is probably a waste of time, but I think I'll try adding the trv's again one at a time, to see what happens.
On another topic, I wonder whether I would have decided to install tado if I'd known how difficult it would be to place the internet bridge. Tado have told me it should be 3 metres from any of the devices. I have small rooms in my terraced house, three metres is almost the width of my living room. But additionally it should be 'in front' of the modem, and there shouldn't be a metal box such as a fridge between it and any of the devices. Nor should it be in a corner or between furniture and the wall. In order to make sure the tado internet bridge is able to communicate, I've placed it in my kitchen, but It is in an awkward spot.
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If you can get the system to work adequately without the TRVs as a workaround until you can get this sorted, then at least you'll have some heat. Put the wireless smart stat in the main living space, so you have control where you need it most - bearing in mind that if that's where the wood burner is, it'll at some point kill the heating everywhere if the burner's on.
If you're able to reinstall those that aren't faulty, they should then independently call for heat when those rooms are cold, and switch off again when they're at temperature.
Unfortunately, you're by no means alone in your disappointment over the range of the bridge. It's probably the biggest technical flaw in the current system and attracts lots of adverse comments. (That and the customer aftercare.) So much so, that even though I've been on tado for ten years, with a v1 system (which was actually a beta test product), and with a bridge behind the router, on the floor between the TV stand and the wall and that works, I am very reluctant to install the V3+ I bought over a week ago. I can't believe the current product iteration could be worse than the final test product, but I read an awful lot of commentary suggesting it's bum rubbish.
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Just another update. I know it is unlikely, but I keep hoping a knight in shining armour will come along and miraculously solve my problem.
These are the rules that my boiler is following;
- The boiler will not send heat to the radiators when called to do so by the Tado app. This rule applies both for scheduled heating or for manual override.
- The boiler does turn on and start heating the radiators at around 1.40 a.m, every night, until we turn it off at the isolator switch. How long it would continue heating is unknown. At 1.40 a.m. the app is not calling for heat.
- The boiler will also send heat to the radiators if I either install a tado trv or uninstall it. However in both cases the boiler only stays on for a couple of minutes.
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Hi. Sorry to hear you're still having these problems, especially as the weather's getting colder this week.
Having finally installed my V3+ yesterday (not without issue), I've learned a bit more about the current products.
As @johnnyp78 mentioned above, you need to confirm that the wireless receiver is registered (it should be listed in the app in settings/other devices) and that the receiver is the selected zone controller for each of the TRVs and the smart stat. (This is in settings/rooms/[your room name]/scroll down to zone controller and ensure the receiver (device with code starting 'BP' is selected)
Since your installation, the receiver now physically fires the boiler (sends the signal via the relay), and is the only way that the remote sensors (TRVs or smart stat) can actually turn on/off the boiler.
See if this gets you up and running. If it does, we should be able to help you then get the smart stat paired with the relevant room TRV.
@johnnyp78 - anything above sound wrong to you/anything to add?
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Not without going round and looking at the system in person. @Janel are there any heatgeek registered installers near you? They might be the best bet to sort it out.
https://www.heatgeek.com/find-a-heat-geek/0
