Zones not working independently anymore

Hello,

can someone please with my tado system, ive had nothing but issues with it since day one but now its almost impossible to use.

Its quite along story so appreciate anyone who takes the time to read it and offer advice as i am getting pretty much no help from customer support.

My system is as follows:

1x wired smart stat down stairs ( zone 1) with no smart trvs installed in this zone.

1x wired smart stat upstairs (zone 2) with 3x smart trvs in different rooms on this floor (no smart trv installed in the master bedroom where the room stat is installed)

1x extension kit for the hot water.


When i first installed the system, i could independently control each zone and the hot water was on a smart schedule, however the smart trvs were not assigned to any zone so would only really work when the main smart stat was switched on and the 2 way valve was opened.

I contacted customer support and they correctly assigned the smart trvs to zone 2 so that each room could call for heat as required ( or so i was led to believe this was how it would work) I was away with work when this change was made so never actually had a chance to test if it was working 100% but the wife seemed to think it was working better.

I came back from work a couple weeks later and noticed that despite having the smart schedule set up for each zone, the only way i could get zone 2 to heat up was to also turn up the heat on the stat for zone 1, this seemed to get 5he heat moving around the bedrooms in zone 2.

I again contacted customer support and got the following response:

From the information you have provided, we understand that you have a heating system as described in the 2nd option in this Help Center article. The Wireless Receiver/Extension Kit controls the central heating boiler (and, in some cases, hot water). On each floor, there is a wired Smart Thermostat controlling a heating zone. In addition, the radiators are equipped with Smart Radiator Thermostats. 

In such a case, your radiators will only get heated when both the Smart Thermostat of that heating zone and the Wireless Receiver/Extension Kit call for heat. This means that in your tado° system, the Smart Radiator Thermostats have to ask for heat from both the Smart Thermostat and the Wireless Receiver/Extension Kit.

The Smart Radiator Thermostat, however, is designed to only ask a single tado° device for heat. It can’t, unfortunately, inform both these devices. As a result, the radiators with the Smart Radiator Thermostats might not receive heat when asking for it. Therefore, tado° can’t replace all devices in your setup. 

You can still use tado° Smart Thermostats with the Smart Radiator Thermostats for individual room control. We recommend that you reinstall your old programmer and not use the Wireless Receiver/Extension Kit. If you had bought the Wireless Receiver/Extension Kit from the tado° webshop in the last 30 days, we’re happy to provide you with a free return voucher.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Kind regards

So that has left me all abit confused as i know for a fact that before the smart trvs were assigned to zones, i could control each zone without having to have the other zone switched on.

I have been onto my tado app and can see that now each smart stat is set to have the extension kit as its zone controller, and none of the smart trvs are assigned to any zone, it also does not give me an option to assign smart stat as zone controller to each trv, the only thing it will let me assign is the extension kit.

I have looked at zone controllers on the tado site and found it is possible to have a wired smart stat set up as a wireless smart stat and on a wireless stat it is not possible to use it as zone controller due to it not been connected to the system valves, and it is possible to to reinstall the stats as a wired device instead on the app.

The story continues as i have came home today to find that it isnot possible to switch on the heating upstairs at all even when i set downstairs stat to heat up as i was doing previously, the only way i can get it to heat up is to manually open the two way valve and leave it like that until its heated up then manually close it again. And also the smart trvs are now overheating past the temperature they are set at.


Anyways if youve read this far iappreciate it and really just need some advice as to how to correct this as i when i specced the system tado confirmed that all these parts were compatible and should work fine, and now i, been told to remove the extension kit which is really jaut pissing me off.


thanks in advance

Answers

  • maybe change the smart stat that the TRV's are assigned to and try again.


    I that doesn't work then send your kit back.

  • Hi I too am having this issue. I have a two zone home with two motorised valves controlling the heat, one for each floor. I have a wired smart thermostat on “one valve” and the wireless smart thermostat using the extension kit to control the second valve.

    I have installed two smart trvs onto our system in two other rooms on the same floor as the wired thermostat.

    The issue I have is that the wired thermostat does not show as a zone, only the extension kit. Therefore the trvs on the floor / zone they are in cannot request heat from the boiler. Whatever I have tried, including pretending to re install the wired thermostat, it does not show up as an option in the app.

    Why?! It really should not be this difficult. Surely there could just be an easy way, in app, to allocate zones?

    I’ve let a chat yesterday on the support forum. Still awaiting response. Hopefully they can solve, but really, the options should just be in app.

    Very confused user. If anyone knows how to get the wired thermostat to show as a zone option, I would greatly appreciate it 😊

    Good luck with your issue @richysgc
  • @PeterPan its a nightmare mate it really is, im now at the point where the upstairs stat does not function the 2 way valve at all so im having to manually open the valve by hand. Ill post in here if i get it fixed and hopefully it will help you out with your issue.

  • I have this exact same situation and am also desperate to find out a resolution.

    I previously had 2 wired thermostats, one downstairs and one upstairs. Both of these controlled each of these zones independently.

    I have installed the wireless receiver and replaced both old thermostats with Tado Smart thermostats, and then also added various Smart TRVs. I'm in the same position as you in that if the TRVs want heat they can only get it if the Thermostat is also requesting heat.

    I got the same response from TADO as you @richysgc - specifically:

    "

    In such a case, your radiators will only get heated when both the Smart Thermostat of that heating zone and the Wireless Receiver/Extension Kit call for heat. This means that in your tado° system, the Smart Radiator Thermostats have to ask for heat from both the Smart Thermostat and the Wireless Receiver/Extension Kit.

    The Smart Radiator Thermostat, however, is designed to only ask a single tado° device for heat. It can’t, unfortunately, inform both these devices. As a result, the radiators with the Smart Radiator Thermostats might not receive heat when asking for it. Therefore, tado° can’t replace all devices in your setup. 

    "

    But then I've read other people who had this issue and did get TADO to sort it! So I'm now very confused.

  • Hello @Marsh,

    i eventually got tado to get the heating working to a fashion, they made the adjustments so that each stat was a zone controller, the hot water was controlled by the extension kit and the trvs were linked to the relevant smart stat.

    However once this happened i them had no control of the heating and nothing would work, ended up contacting tado emergency. Anyways the only way they could get it to work was to have each smart stat set to have the extension kit as the zone controller.

    This meant that the smart trvs could no longer call for heat independently and only work when the heating is actually on. When i bought he tado system it was tado spec’d the system and ensured me everything would work and he trv’s would be able to keep my daughters room good temperature for her all the time (this was the main reason i bought tado.

    Im like yourself, i have seen other people have got the same set up as mine and theirs seem to work which is frustrating that mine wont work as it was sold to me.

    Sorry its probably mot the answer you wanted, hope you get your issue resolved. I wish i had never wasted a single penny on tado and got a different system, its been a waste of time for me and think its ridiculous that its also a subscription service.

  • Hi @richysgc,
    I really don't think you have got your setup correct..... Imho
    The Extension Kit would normally be the "Zone Controller" and some of your SRT's 'could/should' be part ot a "Tado Room" and the Tado Room could/should have a Smart Thermostat as the "Measuring Device"....... so in this instance these SRT's would "Open & Close" their relevant Radiator TRV, and the Smart Thermostat would measure the Tado Room temperature and would "Demand Heat" from the boiler via the "Zone Controller...the Extension Kit"
    Some of your other SRT's could be set to "INDEPENDENT" in the settings for the device, in "Rooms & Devices"..... these Independent SRT's will then only supply heat to their respective Radiators when the boiler has a demand for heat from one of the other Tado devices.

    If it appears that I'm telling you information that you already understand....then I apologise, and sorry if I've wasted your time.

    Good luck with your issue.
  • Hello @GrayDav4276 ,

    No mate don't apologise i am all ears for any help or advice to get this set up correctly.

    As it currently is now, both wired rooms stats for zone 1 and 2 have the extension kit set as there zone controller when i look in “rooms and devices”, and all srv’s are set to independent, the only option i get when i click on “zone controller” for the srv is the extension kit or independent. Should i not be able to assign the smart stat to the srv so that it knows which zone they are in and can open the correct 2 way valve?

    Is it possible to have it so that each srv can call for heat as required with my current set up or do i need to remove the extension kit from the system and re-install my old programmer for this to happen?

  • Marsh
    Marsh
    edited February 2021

    Hi @GrayDav4276 , thanks for the input. As @richysgc says, just happy for some input and assistance.

    So my set up is very similar to @richysgc 's set up. The difference is that each of my TRVs have the relevant Smart TRV as it's zone controller.

    So. to clarify, downstairs "Hall" Smart thermostat and upstairs "Landing" Smart thermostat are each their own room and have the wireless receiver (extension kit) as the zone controller. Then all TRVs have their own room with the relevant Smart thermostat as their own controller, e.g. "Kitchen" and "Lounge" have the "Hall" thermostat as the zone controller and "Bedroom 1" and "Bedroom 2" have the "Landing" thermostat as the zone controller.

    This works in terms of opening the correct valves for the downstairs and upstairs hot water circuits, but it still leaves me in the situation where if one of the rooms needs heat, the smart thermostat has to be already requesting heat (as this is what opens the relevant valve) or nothing happens. This clearly isn't ideal, because I don't want to always have to ensure that the smart thermostat is requesting heat to a higher level than a specific room, just to get heat to that room.

    Again, any help or advice much appreciated. I'm really hoping I don't have to send all this TADO kit back - I currently have 2 smart thermostats and 8 TRVs!

  • I think you need to have your upstairs stat wired through to the receiver through to the zone valves for hot water and upstairs rads. The receiver is then a zone controller for upstairs.

    For downstairs, the wired thermostat is wired directly to the remaining zone valve for downstairs, ie not through the receiver. The downstairs stat is then zone controller for downstairs.

    The rooms upstairs which have trvs need to be associated at room, not device level, with the upstairs zone controller. Likewise any trvs downstairs need to be associated with the downstairs zone controller.

    In this set up, you can have the upstairs stat heating set to off, but if you turn up an individual trv, it will send a call for heat to the associated zone valve controller (the receiver in this case), and open the upstairs zone valve, firing the boiler. The individual trv will be heated to the set temp, whilst all other rads remain off.

    This works for me. But if a late response to your post but it may help others trying to work this through.

    Part of the issue is loose usage of the word ‘zone’ this is determined by the physical pipe work and plumbing, a zone controller is a tado term meaning the device wired to the zone valve.
  • i have manged to have 2 zones wired inot the extension kit and it controls my hot water. Works like a dream. If you need to know how I did it message me and Ill see what i can do to help

  • @Morbster appreciate this is an old thread but any help would be appreciated. I have 2 motorised valves controlling the upstairs and downstairs heating, I formerly had danfoss RM230 room thermostats and a danfoss fp7898 programmer connected to my Turco combi boiler with the hot water option on the programmer controlling the upstairs circuit.

    I have something similar to what's in this thread, 2 wired tado smart room thermostats and 4 smart TRVs on each floor.

    Each wired room thermostat is its own zone, but similar to what's been said already it seems that for a TRV to work the room thermo must also be requesting heat from the extension kit though I haven't enabled ext on the smart thermostat (currently) therefore when it's calling for heat in a zone it's currently calling its own zone. Downstairs.

    The downstairs TRVs call the ext kit and upstairs are independent of zone. This is only the current setup I have tried all combinations of settings, including swapping the upstairs wired thermostat for a wireless one. I'm close to swapping out the extension kit for the old danfoss programmer but would be loathed to do that.

    Any help appreciated, I haven't yet contacted support.
  • Since the software lacks the flexibility to do this out of the box, and tado doesn't give you acces to the raw hardware to homebrew your own software that would allow you to translate a call for heat from the radiator to a signal both 'open' to the motorised zone/floor valve and 'fire' to the boiler, I suppose you're stuck. You could maybe add extra relays to operate the floor's valve and (all wired in parallel) fire the furnace via on/off over a second set of poles, but you'd not have modulation...
  • @DarrenFinlayson If you have 4 SRTs upstairs and 4 SRTs downstairs do you actually have any radiators that dont have a SRT? Once you have SRTs on all radiators the zone valves and wired Smart Thermostats seem rather pointless. Maybe locking them open and getting all the SRTs to call the Extension Kit directly. Could the wired smart thermostats be repurposed as wireless temperature sensors for better accuracy in a couple of rooms.
  • I have another 16 radiators without smart TRVs but I get your point, however how do the TRVs know which valve needs open for the respective floor? I appreciate the TRV will call the ext kit as the zone controller but I don't know how the TRV communicates which floor
  • Actually got it working with the following setting:

    Upstairs WORKING
    Heating zone self
    TRV heating zone upstairs wired thermostat
    R01
    HC02
    HW yes
    Ek No
    R01

    Downstairs WORKING
    Heating zone extension kit
    TRV heating zone extension kit
    T5
    HC01
    HW yes
    Ek Yes
    R01