My opinion: Tado needs to improve

macaroon

Summary:

• Tado loses signal every day, multiple times per day and takes my heating/hot water with it.
• Tado's products need vastly better connectivity options.
• I truly cannot believe there is no "offline schedule" built in to Tado by default. That should have been a critical day one feature before the product was ever launched, yet somehow… somehow it's still in beta testing right now, years after the product launched.
• Tado needs real-time support instead of waiting hours/days for a reply. It is unacceptable to wait for help while your home has no heating/hot water.
• Tado's core product lineup is incredibly confusing, especially re: OpenTherm-compatibity, and has been this way for years.

Detailed version:

My saga with Tado actually starts several years ago, when I started looking into heating systems. I wanted a heating system which supported modulation (i.e. could adjust flow temperature) and control hot water separately.

I have the UK's most popular model of oil boiler but Tado's website was (and still is) unable to tell me if my model of boiler supports digital/EMS/OpenTherm connectivity.

According to forum posts I read a few years ago, Tado's flagship offering (the wireless thermostat) used to support digital connections but then suddenly dropped that support, apparently because UK installers found it "too confusing" (it's literally two wires). Their EU version of the same product continued to support digital connections but (surprise surprise) that version is £100 more expensive to buy in the UK.

Apparently if you want wireless digital control in the UK you need to either buy the discontinued model, the EU model, or some kind of extension kit.

Anyway, after much frustration I abandoned the idea for years, until recently.

Recently I felt inspired to try again so I scoured the web looking for more info about OpenTherm/EMS support. I found a video from HeatGeek where a representative from Tado talked spiritedly about how they wanted to re-clarify OpenTherm support. Optimistically I checked Tado's website and found… absolutely nothing has changed. Tado's UK wireless thermostat still lacks digital connections and the EU version is still £100 more expensive.

However this time around I discovered that the wired thermostat does support digital connections so - stupidly - I bought one of those and decided to give it a try.

Installing it was way more difficult than it should have been because the Tado app refuses to provide instructions for connecting Tado directly to boilers. "Fair enough", you might think… they don't want people tinkering with their boiler. But what if, like me, you don't actually have an external thermostat? Undaunted by this Herculean task ahead of me, I yet again turned to forum posts to get this installed…

Spoiler: the boiler installation is literally two wires, and the polarity doesn't matter (so it doesn't even matter which way round the wires are connected). And yet they claim that professional installers find this "too confusing…"?

After installation things seemed to be working well, but a few days later the real fun started.

Tado started experiencing frequent (daily) disconnections. I've lost count of the number of times my heating and hot water have gone off during the past few weeks.

This really confuses me because my internet bridge is only down the hall from my thermostat, on the same floor of the house, separated by just two doors. Signal loss and interference should be minimal, yet Tado remains flaky.

Why don't the Tado devices use a mesh network instead of relying on point-to-point? Why don't they use WiFi so they can tap into the various WiFi extenders everyone's got all over their home? (And why does Tado's internet bridge require an ethernet connection anyway? That alone immediately limits the positioning of the bridge to wherever your router is, which might just be the room furthest away from the boiler.)

Anyway - Tado is still giving me daily disconnections, and this brings me to my main frustration. Perhaps even more frustrating than the frequent disconnections: Tado does not support offline scheduling out of the box.

This truly boggles my mind. Offline mode should be considered by any sane person a #1 mission critical feature. When designing any internet-connected device, the engineers should ask themselves: "what happens if the internet is unavailable?"

The answer to that question in Tado's case is - apparently - "the people freeze in their homes." That is simply not acceptable and should never have been acceptable.

Then there's Tado's support. A friendly "live chat" icon hovers on Tado's website - I can see it as I type this post. But don't be fooled - it's not actually live chat. It's an email support form masquerading as live chat.

This means when Tado has gone offline (yet again) and you're shivering in your thermal socks, you're gonna have to wait at least several hours, if not days, for someone from support to get back to you.

All of the above is to say I deeply, deeply regret purchasing Tado products.

davidlyall

Questions

1. What is the construction material of your internal walls? Even though it doesn't appear far for the signal to travel, your house might be killing the signal
2. How far is "only down the hall" and what are the doors made of?
3. Can you move the bridge to a higher position and have it held upright? This is known to help signal issues. A powerline adapter or WiFi extender with ethernet port is ideal for this

The wireless smart thermostat doesn't have digital connections because it's wireless. The clue is in the name! You need the wired one for that. As far as I'm aware, Tado only discontinued the digital connections on the UK wireless receiver but some time back, confirmed they would be reintroducing them

WiFi can't be used as it's too power hungry. That's not an issue on the extension kit/wireless receiver since they're mains powered but the other devices are all on batteries and just wouldn't last long enough. 6LoWPAN should be good enough for this application but really needs mesh which, I agree, should have been implemented from the start but perhaps wasn't due to power consumption issues

Offline scheduling should also have been implemented from the outset but at least it's here now if you want it

Personally, I've not experience the response delays that others report with support but I do feel that Tado should offer a priority support service if you take their subscription for auto-assist etc

macaroon

The wireless smart thermostat doesn't have digital connections because it's wireless.

It still has a wired transmitter which connects to the boiler, though. That's where you'd connect the digital bus wires. That's how it works on the EU version which Tado deems too complex for UK installers.

My walls are standard plasterboard. Two hollow core doors separate the boiler room from the router which is approx. 10m away.

I understand WiFi is power hungry but Tado's wireless bridge could at least support WiFi instead of requiring an ethernet connection; then it could be placed more centrally in the home without needing to be near the router or an ethernet jack.