Tado V3 vs Evohome ?

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  • pixxelbob
    Automated Home Lurker
    • Apr 2016
    • 6

    #16
    Maybe I'm being overly cautious, but my boiler has a 10 year warranty I'm hopeful the controller will be still useable then. Yeh the app is a nice to have for me anyway. Controlling from your phone is a gimmick in my opinion, my setup works seemlessly without touching it which is exactly wanted, I use it very rarely to switch set/cancel quick actions which admittedly I could use ifttt to automate that. Evohome can be completely updated with new software & new features if Honeywell could be bothered as the controller supports OTA firmware updates, they're very quiet on that front which is a shame.
    Last edited by pixxelbob; 12 January 2017, 08:37 PM.

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    • IvanOpinion
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Dec 2015
      • 48

      #17
      Originally posted by DBMandrake View Post
      Does anyone have any first hand experience of Tado V3 or at least pointers to proper reviews or technical information on the architecture ?

      I don't have any intention to switch (I'm too invested in Evohome now anyway) but given that the price is nearly identical to Evohome, the feature set looks very similar, and it seems to have swayed someone who was considering Evohome I'm curious about how good it actually is.
      I'll also be interested to hear how they compare in practice. Having installed Evohome in a scout meeting hall a year ago, I've been wondering about it for my own home, but Tado now seems to be a contender. (For me, it is individual control of rooms that is of interest.)

      One interesting advantage of Tado is that they effectively offer a free one year trial. Strictly speaking, they offer your money back if you feel your savings are lower than you expected. But it is for you to decide if the savings met your expectations and they don't require you to prove it, so effectively they are offering a no questions asked money back guarantee. That might convince me to take a risk on, say, whether the valves are too noisy or I would get the savings I was hoping for.

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      • rcopus
        Automated Home Jr Member
        • Nov 2014
        • 49

        #18
        I'd like to see a contender to Evohome too.
        Honeywell seem to have forgotten about it and it's becomming the iPod of the thermostat/heating world.

        I too suffer from the boiler demand occurring after I've turned off the heating completely and when rooms are already over temp. Why on earth the Evohome controller doesn't tell the BDR91 to turn off the boiler immediately and then worry about the HR92's later is beyond me, it's simply dumb design. Before someone tells me it's because the HR92's are receiving the instructions first: 1) there's no reason the BD91 can't be informed immediately 2) we're talking 5-10 minutes after every single HR92 has fully closed does the BD91 seem to cease entirely.

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        • IvanOpinion
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Dec 2015
          • 48

          #19
          Of course, Heat Genius also offers competition to Evohome, but it seems to get very little mention on this forum. I'm not sure if this is because there is anything in particular wrong with Heat Genius or just because Evohome fans happen to have gravitated to this forum.

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          • doni
            Automated Home Jr Member
            • Jul 2016
            • 24

            #20
            I had a good look at tado before buying evohome back in November. I was turned off by some of the negative reviews of the existing tado thermostat - although there are no review out there (yet) for the radiator thermostat. The heating I need just to work without always having to troubleshoot it (it needs to be wife proof), and I wanted to see real world validation before I would go to it.

            Netatmo also have a radiator thermostat due for release (looks very similar to tado!?), but again no reviews. Lightwaverf is another option, but that has lots of negative reviews that stopped me, even through alot of my existing automation is lightwaverf based.

            Evohome, by comparison, has been around for sometime and has a good support network (Richard@evohomeshop has given me lots of invaluable advice). Yes, it has some limitations and I'm sure we'd all like to see the current software being evolved, but it has 95% of what I need and the wife feedback has so far been a good.

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            • DBMandrake
              Automated Home Legend
              • Sep 2014
              • 2361

              #21
              I had a chance to have a quick look at the new Tado V3 radiator valves today - not on a radiator though, just out of the box, but I was able to note a few things.

              1) It's completely cylindrical and quite small in a grey matt finish - smaller than many TRV's and significantly smaller than the HR92. Diameter is roughly the same as an HR92 with the screen folded in, however it is not nearly as tall - I'd say about 20-25mm shorter, so it is quite squat.

              2) There is no LCD display, the only form of display is a "through the plastic" LED dot display which can display a two digit set point temperature. This only seems to light up when you are turning the dial to manually adjust the temperature, it does not seem to display room set point, and it goes out completely after a few seconds. When it is not lit the presence of a display is not apparent at all, it just looks like a plastic cylinder.

              3) Turning the dial manually only lets you adjust in 1 degree steps, and the display does not appear to be capable of displaying a full stop or half degree digit. (Perhaps the smart phone app provides smaller steps)

              4) There are no exterior buttons or visible controls - the only control seems to be being able to turn the top of the cylinder, a bit like an Amazon echo volume knob.

              5) The main body has a twist to lock action on the base which is screwed onto the radiator valve. On the underneath of the unit hidden when mounted on the base is the battery compartment and a binding button. The centre pin driver is a large flat black circle rather than the narrow metal pin you see on an HR92.

              6) It has a bar code sticker on the side which I believe is used to bind the device to your Tado account - similar to what you do with Cisco Meraki AP's.

              7) There is a small hole on the edge of the flat top, presumably for one of the sensors.

              8) It fits standard M30x1.5 by default but also includes three adaptors in the box.

              I didn't hear the motor running to see how noisy it was but not mounted on a radiator it wouldn't tell me much anyway.

              So it looks nice enough, but very minimalist - apart from a hidden binding button, a single turning top section for temperature and the set point display there is no other user interface - if it has any other customisable settings (like the HR92 does) they must only be accessible through the app. With such a minimal UI troubleshooting connectivity/binding issues could be challenging.
              Last edited by DBMandrake; 6 February 2017, 11:10 AM.

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