Matter compatible smart heating for all

Verdict

A proper multi-room heating system for modern-day life, the Tado X system runs over the mesh-based Thread protocol, which makes it fast to respond to changes and extremely reliable. Matter support means that every major third-party smart home platform is supported, and direct control means that these are as fast to use as the native Tado app. With powerful schedules, smart automated features (via subscription), and support for OpenTherm and heat pumps, Tado X is a brilliant smart heating system.

Introduction

Smart heating has been around for well over a decade, but Tado X is the first system I’ve reviewed to be built on modern standards, using Thread for device communication and Matter for third-party control.

It’s sleek, fast, quiet and powerful to use, outstripping older systems based on proprietary standards. There may not be enough in it to justify an upgrade, but if you’re starting from scratch, this is the heating system to buy, provided you can get all the necessary components.

Theromstats and Controllers

• Can call-for-heat or run with an existing system
• Smart TRVs give individual radiator control

Like Tado V3+ before it, the Tado X system has a range of options, depending on what you want to do. At its simplest, you can replace dumb TRVs around your home with the Tado X Smart Radiator Thermostat (£79.99), leaving your old heating system behind for control when the boiler turns on and off.

This installation is good for renters who might want more control over their heating but aren’t allowed to touch the existing heating system. Using the radiator thermostats, you need a Thread border router on your network; if you don’t have one, then you can buy the Bridge X (£59.99). A kit with one radiator thermostat and one Bridge X costs £139.99.

If you want Tado X to control your boiler, you can replace a wired thermostat with the Wired Smart Thermostat X (£99.99). Again, this will need the Bridge X if you don’t have a Thread Border Router. You can also use the wired thermostat in combination with the radiator thermostats if you want individual room control.

For those with gas boilers, looking for full flexibility and control, there’s the Wireless Smart Thermostat X Start Kit (£159.99), which includes a programmer (heating and hot water) and a wireless thermostat. The programmer connects to your boiler and supports simple on/off controls plus OpenTherm, which is required for Tado X’s most advanced features.

With just the Starter Kit, you replace a single thermostat in your home. You can add Smart Radiator Thermostat X devices for individual room control, and each one can call for heat from your boiler. The Programmer is a Thread Border Router, so you don’t need the bridge.

The Heat Pump Optimizer X (£229.99) is similar to the Programmer, but designed specifically for controlling all types of Heat Pump.

Finally, if you have zone valves or single-zone underfloor heating, you’ll need either a Wired Smart Thermostat X or another Wireless Smart Thermostat X Starter Kit. There’s no heating manifold controller for more complex underfloor heating installations as you get with Honeywell Evohome.

Installation

• Simple to install
• Radiator Thermostat X devices come with adapators

I’ve been running Honeywell Evohome since it launched in the UK and have found it reliable, but it’s starting to feel a bit old, plus it’s slow to respond and the app hasn’t really been touched in years. For modern smart homes, the promise of Tado X with Thread and Matter support seemed like too good an opportunity, so I switched my home to this system.

Tado X, like its predecessor, is designed for home installation, with the app able to show detailed instructions for thousands of boilers and existing heating systems. In my case, I started with the Wireless Smart Thermostat X Starter Kit, using it to replace the existing Honeywell BDR91A boiler controller.

At this point, a slight word of warning. My old system used a simple on/off relay to control the boiler, but my boiler is capable of using OpenTherm, as is the Tado X system. By following the in-app instructions, I would have only had on/off control; it’s worth checking to see if you can boost your system with an upgrade to OpenTherm.

OpenTherm is a system that allows your heating system to modulate your boiler, only heating water to the minimum level required to hit target temperatures. It’s capable of reducing gas usage and saving money, so is worth using if you can.

I have a combi boiler, so didn’t need to connect up the hot water control; for systems with a separate hot water tank, hot water control gives full timed control over the process.

Once connected and powered on, I had to select the type of system that the Programmer was connected to, using the button on top. The app got me to connect the Programmer to my Wi-Fi.

At this point, I was ready to start installing the Smart Radiator Thermostat Xs. These are smart thermostatic radiator valves, which control water flow through a radiator automatically, shutting them down when the room’s at (or near) temperature, and opening up when there’s a need for heat.

These are installed by scanning the Matter code on the back, and then following the instructions provided to install them physically.

Tado provides a lot of adaptors in the box, but for most installations, you probably just need to unscrew the old TRV and screw on the Tado X version. That’s all I had to do with my Honeywell system.

The Tado Smart Radiator Thermostat X is squat and compact, with a fixed screen at the front. Installation takes you through connecting it to the radiator valve, and then setting the language.

There’s also a choice setting the screen orientation, with a choice of four positions, each a 90-degree turn. That’s handy, as I could align the display to the angle of the TRV. For example, my bathroom radiator’s pipes come out of the wall, rather than the floor, so I needed to rotate the screen to see it clearly. Automatic calibration then takes place with the smart TRV working out how far the valve pin moves.

It’s nice to see that the TRVs run off rechargeable battery packs, chargeable via USB-C on the rear. According to Tado, batteries will need charging once per year, but there should be a saving on having to use replaceable AA batteries.

In-app, I was asked to add each valve to a room; if you’ve got a room with multiple radiators, you can add multiple TRVs to it, and have them all run off one schedule.

Once I was done with the radiator valves, the basic system worked, and turning up the heat on a Smart Radiator Thermostat X would open the valve and tell the Programmer to turn the boiler on.

In my house, I had one more job: my underfloor heating. This was controlled via a second Honeywell BDR91A, which I had to replace with a second Wireless Smart Thermostat X Programmer and then connect a Wireless Temperature Sensor X for control.

Installing the Programmer was easy, with in-app instructions, but the app doesn’t let you name each Programmer, and they’re listed by serial number only.

When I connected the Wireless Temperature Sensor X, I found that it was set to control only the new Programmer, and it wasn’t calling for heat. I found the setting, and I changed the Temperature Sensor X to control both zone controllers, which fixed the issue.

However, the lack of names can cause problems in the future. If you have to connect a new TRV in the future, you’ll have to choose which Programmer it will control; without names, it’s hard to work out which one is for the boiler and which one is for underfloor heating or zone.

Features and Performance

• Matter compatible
• Some features require a subscription
• Very fast and very quiet

Although a brand-new system, Tado X uses the same app as the older Tado system and largely has the same features. That’s not an issue, as the Tado system is one of the easiest to use, but it does take some work to get it all set up.

Each room you add has a default schedule, which probably won’t suit your needs, so you’ll want to change this. It’s easy to do, and each day can have its own timeslots, with each timeslot having a target temperature. Once you’ve got one day sorted, you can copy it to other days, and you can copy a room’s schedule to another room, and tweak from there.

As well as the Home schedule, each room can be set with an Away temperature, which can be a fixed temperature or the Frost protection mode.

Away temperatures are used when Tado is set to Away mode, which you can do manually or Automatically using the Geolocation skill, which works with multiple devices, so each family member can have an account, and the heating won’t turn off if any family member is at home.

It’s something to watch out for if you’ve got guests in the house, as you going out can turn the heating off, so you’ll need to remember to turn it back on.

Geolocation works brilliantly, and reliably, particularly as it has a secondary backup of detecting when your device is connected to your home Wi-Fi. It’s not free, though, and comes as part of the Auto-Assist add-on, which costs £29.99 a year or £3.99 a month.

If you don’t subscribe, then Geolocation sends a notification when you leave home, prompting to turn your heating off. It’s not quite as neat a feature, but at least the notification gives you the opportunity to turn your heating off.

Auto-Assist also adds automated Open Window Detection, which uses an algorithm to detect when a window is open, shutting down heating in that room for a limited time to avoid wasting energy.

It generally works well, but it can occasionally be confused. One morning, I had a shower, and then opened the door to the walk-through wardrobe in my loft room. As that was colder than the ensuite, Open Window Detection kicked in and shut down the heating in the bathroom. For regular issues, you can disable Open Window Detection on a room-by-room basis.

If you don’t pay for Auto-Assist, then Open Window Detection will ping you a notification to remind you to turn off the heating in the affected room.

Finally, Auto-Assist also gets you Care & Protect, where Tado X will monitor your system and send you alerts if it notices any strange patterns in heating.

Is Auto-Assist worth the money? Well, yes, overall it is. I know we live in a world where we expect everything to be free, but Auto-Assist gives Tado a steady income stream to keep developing its app, and maintaining the system.

If you don’t fancy the yearly payments, you can subscribe monthly during the cold months and cancel your subscription when the heating goes off for the year.

Weather Adaptation is always available. For this, Tado X uses a weather forecasting service and then adjusts the temperature of your heating flow so you don’t overheat your home on warm days or end up with a cold house on a cold day. Tado told me that this feature requires an OpenTherm connection.

So far, the features I’ve mentioned are for automation, but there are plenty of times when you may want to take manual control, say boosting the heat of a room that you’re sat in. This can be done easily from the app, using the simple slider to select the temperature you want.

There’s then a choice for Tado X to keep the override permanently until the next change in schedule or for a set period. The app remembers the setting you choose on a room basis. Impressively, app control is extremely fast. With my old Honeywell Evohome system, and even newer systems such as Drayton Wiser, I was used to making a change in the app and then having to wait for five minutes or more until the smart TRVs kicked in. With Tado X, app changes are made almost instantly.

From the app, there are few settings that apply to your entire home. Boost Heating lets you increase every room to maximum for 30-minutes, which is handy if you want to warm a cold house. You can also return every room to its schedule, and turn every room off.

I could also make changes on the smart TRVs, turning the outside dial to adjust the target temperature.

By default, changes made this way are set to be permanent, but on a per-room basis, this can be changed so that manual overrides last for a set period (say, an hour) or until the next scheduled change. Do change this setting soon, or you risk running your heating on a higher setting permanently. Again, changes made are extremely fast, happening as close to instantly as possible.

I like the option of being able to turn the dial until the calendar icon shows, which resets the TRV back to using the pre-programmed schedule.

I have to say that the Tado Smart Radiator Thermostat X TRVs are the quietest that I’ve ever tested. My old Honeywell EvoHome TRVs, and those included with Wiser and Tado V3+ whirred to life, but the Tado X versions barely make a sound.

There are similar controls on the wireless temperature sensor, which is powered by three AAA batteries. The screen is off by default, but a tap of the button shows the current temperature for a short while, before showing the target temperatures.

The buttons let me change the target temperature, with the app again letting me select how long an override should last. Just like with the TRV, the wireless sensor can be set back to run on schedule by selecting the temperature with the calendar icon next to it.

If you don’t want people in the house messing about with your temperatures, there’s a Child Lock option in the app that disables manual control on a device-by-device basis.

As the system is Matter compatible, you can add Tado X devices to compatible smart home systems, including Apple Home, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Each device has to be added individually to each system you want. Just adding the nine devices in my house took the best part of an hour to get them into Apple Home.

Once in Home, I could turn a device on or off, and change the target temperature. Temperature changes are made as though they were manual overrides on the device, and last for the time set in the app.

Using Matter is not much use for wide-system control, such as turning the heating off everywhere, as I could only control individual devices and couldn’t toggle the entire system’s mode (Home/Away). However, Matter is still useful as it gives voice control over devices, and allows for automations. For example, in HomeKit, I could have my Tado X device turn up to 18°C when motion was detected in a room; and turn off again when no motion was detected for 20 minutes.

That’s handy, but it would be nice if Tado made motion sensors and integrated them properly into the app in a similar way to how Genius Hub does.

Note that the old Tado Skill for Alexa and Google Assistant doesn’t work with Tado X, and there are no plans to add any kind of web API. As it stands, third-party control is via Matter only, and that’s the way it will stay.

I’ve been running Tado X for a few weeks now, through regular November weather and the freezing blast that came in. What’s impressive is that the system manages to hit the target temperature, or thereabouts, without massively overshooting. It’s more accurate than Evohome, which was good, but some rooms could overshoot.

Tado X is also extremely reliable. Thread has been built as a mesh network, so there’s a stronger overall signal throughout my home; some people have complained about the older Tado system, as it can have range problems. Range and interference can be an issue with other systems, too: I went through a phase where Evohome refused to work until I moved the controller into the middle of the house.

Tado X also collects information on your home, with Air Comfort measuring heat and humidity, and suggesting what you need to do to balance the two out to make a comfortable room, such as turning up the heating or turning on exhaust fans to reduce humidity. They’re useful tips that take Tado X beyond being a simple heat-only smart system.

Energy IQ measures how often the system is on, and estimates costs and savings. It’s a bit early in my Tado X journey to get meaningful results, and every house is different (as is the weather each year), but I’ll keep an eye on consumption and usage and will update this review in the future.

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