Develop a "basic backup schedule" mode for when Tado outage or loss of internet
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Changes aren't easy. Look @ Apple. No more headphone jack in their phones. People were not happy and against the change, but this is now a standard! Some people will be upset that they spent a lot of money on an 'obsolete project', but... sometimes there's no better way to progress than by completely re-designing the project.
The time will tell.
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Wishful thinking - I saw the bold text and got all excited...0
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@oakway Just to reiterate what @Jurian mentioned, your boiler won't work without electricity anyway, and everything will come back up and start working when the power is restored. So even with a non-smart heating system, you still wouldn't have any heating during a power outage. This is the same for most boilers and heating systems. If, on the other hand, it was your ISP informing you there were going to be internet outages, then this is when you would be at risk of issues, and your wife and child would need to manually adjust each heating zone using the physical device, as the heating schedule won't work while you have no internet.
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400 votes out of a customer base of tens (probably hundreds) of thousands isn't very many.
[Tado has reportedly sold 2 millions thermostats]
Beware the echo chamber effect in a forum.
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Yes, fully support this idea. TBH I hadn't really appreciated the system would fail this way. This should be top of the list of things ot do. It is an essential fix to a real and pressing problem, not an enhancement.
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@what_a_tado True, but it's also the kind of feature that most people probably won't realise they'd like/need until they have an internet outage.
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Just a reminder that if you use HomeKit then that still works during an Internet outage. And if you have a HomeKit home hub (Apple TV, HomePod) then you have the ability to set up basic automations to control the Tado stuff (except hot water currently).
So two big 'ifs' there, and certainly it is a lot of hassle and not something you should have to even contemplate. But until Tado addresses this major deficiency it might provide emergency backup for some folk.
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@jcwacky True, but the lack of this feature should have been known prior to purchase so why buy the product in the first place.
When I investigated smart thermostats over 4 years ago Tado ticked all the boxes apart from this known limitation. I still purchased it as the risk was minimal when compared to the benefit of the other features it provided.
Would I buy Tado now? Probably not as other products are out there such as Drayton Wiser which weren't available then.
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@what_a_tado actually when I bought my tado the marketing, website and literature was misleading (in my opinion).
Wording from memory (or to the effect of) ‘in an outage your devices will operate to their earlier scheduled setting’, which to a then novice sounded great.
Of course what that really means is if it is on it will stay on and if it’s off it will stay off. Also there was no mention of a need for a stable internet with 100% uptime.
Admittedly I didn’t trawl the forums looking for problems - a mistake I’ve learned!
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@Flow I agree that the information provided by Tado on their website is somewhat lacking but I did find the articles in their Help Center informative. I don't think the forum was around at the time.
I must admit I personally always look for problems when buying tech so when it does go wrong I am fully prepared for it. When I first installed Tado I unplugged the internet bridge just to see what the impact would be and how I could work around it.
Thankfully I have only had one instance of my internet being down.
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I'm astonished that TADO hasn't fixed this fundamental error in its design. I have woken up to a blinking control box and no hot water for 2 mornings this week. My wife wants to me to switch the system back to our old 'dumb' system that always delivered every morning.
It's an expensive system to abandon but it's useless if TADO aren't intending to fix it.
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@Bonza I believe that Tado has already said somewhere in this thread that they can't implement this feature on the existing hardware.
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@what_a_tado when I say the "fix' I understand that any 'fix' can't rely on the wi-fi to be operating correctly. But I will try to read the whole of this massive thread as some proposals sound like a possible solution.
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I hadn't actually realised that lack of connection to the internet would cause the whole thing to fail. I thought that as long as there was power in the house and the devices were connected they would still work. I'm going to be in a lot of trouble with my wife and I may well switch to a different system before I go TRV control and my investment is still relatively low.
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I suppose it's some relief to note that - at the very least, a more sophisticated, not server reliant - bridge (or something else to remove cloud dependence) is under consideration.
Personally, I'd have thought that, rather than an entirely new bridge, a separate accessory controller or a modified thermostat might be an answer. Given that the existing thermostat can be used to make manual, local changes (eg in the event of an outage) then a similar device, but with a schedule memory and rudimentary clock, might solve. It could form part of an updated starter kit set and also be sold as an accessory to existing users. It would simply replace (one of) the existing thermostat(s). I had a wall 'stat that had basic on/off programming onboard, all manually set, which kept time to quartz accuracy - which is good enough - 30+ years ago and only replaced it when I got Tado.
Regardless of how this is eventually implemented in hardware (if!), one key requirement, I'd say, is for it all to work from the smartphone app as it does at present where there is no cloud connection. It needs to be capable of using the local WiFi/LAN to transfer data from the app to the "schedule holder" in whatever form that appears.
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@RetsimLegin you’ve described what the bridge/hub should be!
I would think having a second control device could create conflict with the existing bridge?
FYI you can actually use Apple HomeKit today to punch out manual commands (not for hot water) if that’s an option in your house.
I’m forever hopeful that Tado agree it’s far far better to make a replacement and compatible bridge/hub that works offline as well as online.
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@GrayDav4276 While nothing concrete has been said, reading between the lines, it's pretty clear that Tado are currently working on offline capable hardware and are hoping to release it next year. Trust me. 😉
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@jcwacky unless you know something we don’t, all the support folk here have been able to offer are vague insights.
I think the best we got was ‘it’s a priority’ from Rob, when pushed. But clearly this sits behind the priority for compatibility with new protocols and increased range - for which Rob had seen a prototype iirc.
Why do you think it’s pretty clear? Also I recall we were given guidance late last year that we would see something new in 2022..
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"FYI you can actually use Apple HomeKit today to punch out manual commands (not for hot water) if that’s an option in your house."
Indeed. Not for hot water.
I'm not "invested" in the Apple ecosystem as I find it too restrictive/narrow, so I'm not going to buy an iPad just for this purpose; not even a used one. I did borrow an Apple device to try Homekit. It was only then I found it is useless for hot water, which would be a requirement. And should be provided for (of course). And the loaned item has gone back to its owner.
So, no; not here I'm afraid.
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Our internet cable was accidentally damaged a few weeks ago (still waiting a reply from tado since then) and I was surprised to ring that without internet the whole tado system doesn’t work on a local network.
I really can’t work out why this would be the case??
Even more frustrating, I had child locks on most radiator thermostats and so in the cold weather we couldn’t turn on our roads as they were locked off and the app wouldn’t work.
This feels like a massive oversight even though an edge case it just doesn’t make sense to require internet for the system to work like my hue lights do0 -
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Without the internet the app and the schedule won't work, but the thermostats can still be controlled manually. Removing the batteries from a TRV and re-inserting them is meant to disable child lock so that the TRV can be used manually to heat a room.
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Can I suggest you add your "upvote" here
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I am in the process of carrying out my due diligence before potentially buying & installing Tado on an extensive six zone underfloor wet system.
To not have a fall back, local user based back up facility is a totally ridiculous, fundamental flaw and probably a show stopper for us. Anything can and frequently does happen with internet connections. For such an otherwise capable system this is a serious weakness of the system.
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@GrayDav4276 totally agree. Sadly, I will never recommend Tado as a viable option until it is clear that any new hardware resolves this issue, and is backward compatible with the current setup.2
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Thanks for your comments. I recently changed the batteries in a lot of my units and they still have the child lock on so no reset @GrilledCheese20
