Testing the Tado° heating interface

Here is a continuation of the presentation of the Tado° universe following the presentation of the Tado° X thermostatic faucet, Today I will introduce you to the Tado° application, its special features and especially what differentiates the management of Tado° Heating and management from other brands.

As previously presented what differentiates Tado° products from other brands starts with the integration of the Thread protocol associated with Matter object management. Coupled with well-finished products and complementary products that make this brand a must in heating management and totally autonomous. Basically you will not particularly need an Opensource Manager like Home Assistant to make great savings on your gas or fuel bill.

Tado X Wired Starter Kit

By Tado°

Tado-X Starter Kit, wired thermostat and bridge, connects the thermostat via dry contact directly to the boiler

Buy Now out of Amazon

As a reminder, if you just buy thermostatic taps that you can turn on or off at your convenience, you will only save a maximum of 15% on your bill. Where Tado° differentiates itself is that it will allow you to directly control your boiler and thanks to that you will be able to make up to 40% savings, which is very interesting especially for a return on investment that will be much faster.

In various articles and videos with August we have talked many times about a similar installation with Home Assistant and thermostatic taps that control your boiler, and it works so let’s dissect the Tado° universe.

I must say that the application is very well done

Video presentation

Often requested, never done, I am launching into a new explanatory format that will accompany the associated article, some readers have reported to me the difficulty in following the articles accompanied by animated gifs, which seems to me to be an obvious observation, so I will make the effort to feed the Haade Youtube channel.

Installing the Tado° app

Let’s not waste any time, let’s move on to installing the application on your smartphone.

For Android

Simply scan the QRCode below to directly access the installation on your phone. At the time of writing, the application is rated 4.5/5 with more than 5000 voters, which is very well rated.

More informations on Qrcode

This QRcode allows you to download the Tado° app from the playstore you have the choice between scanning this QRcode from your smartphone or clicking directly on the link below.

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https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tado&hl=en

For Iphone

Simply scan the QRCode below to directly access the installation on your phone. And there too at the time I write these few lines the application is rated 4.5/5 with more than 5000 voters, which is very well rated.

More informations on Qrcode

This QRcode allows you to Download the Tado° app from the Appstore you have the choice between scanning this QRcode from your smartphone or clicking directly on the link below.

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https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tado/id574418486

Good news the app is already very well rated

How to get started with the Tado° app

To get started Tado° support has very well documented his entire universe, including how to get started with the application Apart from this article you will find everything you need to learn how to control your heating.

Set of 3 Tado° X thermostatic taps

By Tado°

Set of 3x Tado° X thermostatic taps, probably the most advanced tap on the market, matter over thread compatible

Buy Now out of Amazon

First step

You will need to create an account if you haven’t already done so, otherwise if you want to test the application before making the purchase. Tado° has made a demo account available.

The Demo account is an interface that is not complete because you will not have access to the module settings, only to the frontend management (you do not have access to room modifications, etc.), but it’s already not bad for testing the Tado universe.

When you first connect, you will not have a connected device as in the image below. But if like me you have already connected from a device then you will find the list of registered devices you will just have to select one or the other to resume the configuration, or simply create one if it is your first device. Then Tado° will ask you to accept geolocation, like many applications Tado will take into account the presence or absence of people in the home.

Add your first device

Adding a device in Tado follows the Matter integration logic, if you have already integrated a Matter device before, adding a device in Tado° is identical. If on the contrary it is the first time that you integrate a Matter device. Then in step 1 you will have to scan the qrcode available with the box or behind the product. I strongly advise you to keep the Matter labels which are much easier to Scan. But know that if you cannot scan the QRCode you can also use the code available below with 11 digits: XXXX-XXX-XXXX.

The screenshot above only shows 4 steps, out of the 8 actually defined by Matter, but these are as you can imagine the important steps for integration into Matter. I deliberately started with the bridge because it is the one that integrates the Thread protocol without it you will hardly be able to integrate a Tado° thermostatic tap. Then I will install a thermostatic tap and a boiler control thermostat.

Overview of the Tado° app settings

Configuring an application is essential to understand and optimize its operation, the Tado° application is as announced earlier, very well done, so there are quite a few settings, but not too complicated to understand.

I have detailed the TADO° application in 3 key steps:

1. the settings
2. the more function
3. the home page

So yes, there are a lot of screenshots, almost indigestible, and I am still not even 100% sure that I have not forgotten something!

Tado°

By Tado°

Tado° X thermostatic faucet, probably the most advanced faucet on the market, matter over thread compatible

Buy Now out of Amazon

Rooms and Devices

This tab lists the devices included in the application such as (the Thermostatic head, the smart thermostat and the bridge).

The rooms function in Tado° is a very important function

When adding a device Tado adds this device in a room with a systematically different random number, you will then have to rename this room or move the device to an existing room.

By clicking on the 3 small dots at the top right you can delete the device if you wish

Below in rooms and devices you can see that the thermostatic valve is in the room renamed Living room and the smart thermostat in the room named hallway.

When you click on the room you can:

1. rename the room
2. control the heating function by room with 3 sub-functions (until the next time block, by timer, or until the programming is reactivated)
3. Finally, the last function you can associate the room with a smart thermostat (in short, a boiler controller)

At Tado° it is the room that takes precedence over the device and in greos the automations are done by room.

Here in the settings of the end Devices (faucet and thermostat) you will be able to:

1. see the connectivity and the battery status
2. change the name of the room or move the device to a new room
3. Activate or not the child safety

1. Show installation instructions (may be useful)
2. Change the temperature reading compensation factor
3. Link the device to a matter hub (useful if you change bridges or if you switch to home Assistant)

That’s it the settings are identical for smart thermostats, as for the bridge you can only configure it if it disconnects from the wifi network.

Set of 3 Tado° X thermostatic taps

By Tado°

Set of 3x Tado° X thermostatic taps, probably the most advanced tap on the market, matter over thread compatible

Buy Now out of Amazon

House details

In the house details, there is nothing complicated either:

1. you change the name “House” to something else
2. enter the main address determinant for geolocation
3. Modify the contact details of the resident

For people management it’s different from a traditional home automation system, of course you can modify your normal account you created it during your first TADO° connection, but you won’t be able to create other accounts, on the other hand you can invite people to download the application and to create an account for your environment.

the Tado° application is 100% Cloud, a point that I don’t like, but hey that’s how it is!

Auto-Assist

Auto-Assist is a skill, an add-on, by clicking on it I realize that it’s paid. It’s like charging for automations in Home Assistant, that would be heresy. But who says Cloud says storage and server use, so you pay for the transfer of information and the company has access to information about your heating.

Auto-Assist explanation by Tado°

Geolocation

The Geolocation tab includes the settings for the location of your home (essential for heating automation when no one is home), provided you have the Auto-Assist subscription!, in this tab you can also configure the smartphone that will be associated with the presence, because you can configure several devices for a single account.

Open window detection

In the settings you will also find the open window function, as a reminder when the temperature drops quickly the application considers that a window is open and automatically cuts off the thermostatic valves, the function is configurable by room and you can also set a cut-off duration. But for an automatic shutdown you will also need the Auto-Assist subscription, otherwise you will only have a notification on your smartphone and you will have to manually turn off the heating.

Smart Programming

A big block of heating management, programming is also done by room and not by device, by default Tado° creates a daily program with predefined time blocks, in the management you can also set the absence mode.

In absent mode you can:

• set a temperature
• if deactivated a frost protection function takes over.

In presence mode

• you can create or delete time blocks
• and copy the programming to duplicate it in another room.

Functions without feedback!

in the settings some skills do not present anything like:

• the weather application
• ambient well-being
• analysis and statistics

Weird especially for existing and free functions, why put these tabs!

Notifications and Appearances

Notifications are essential especially if you do not have the Auto-Assist subscription you can activate/deactivate:

• the low battery indicator
• absent/present mode reminder
• open window reminder
• energy and cockpit reminder

As for appearance there is a light and dark mode as well as the automatic mode.

More tab

The more tab groups together:

• your account information that can be modified
• links to the tado and community help centers
• an option to install the beta version

Then the analysis functions are grouped together, you can disable the usage behavior function, but this function does not block all the information sent to Tado°, they certainly record all the temperature and consumption information!

Main Tab “Home”

Let’s come to the tab that interests everyone, the home page is full of very useful functions

off-programming-boost functions

1. The off system allows you to turn off all heating modules with a single click.

2. The programming system allows you to switch all devices to programming mode with a single click
3. The Boost function is a very interesting function because it allows you to put all devices on forced heating for a period of 30 minutes with a single click in order to allow the home to heat up quickly.

Tado X Wired Starter Kit

By Tado°

Tado-X Starter Kit, wired thermostat and bridge, connects the thermostat via dry contact directly to the boiler

Buy Now out of Amazon

Boost function

I have captured the boost function to show you how it works. Tado° has natively implemented a highly requested function on the forums, where you need to create an automation in Home-Assistant, Tado has made it simple.

Temperature management options

When you enter the device management interface, in addition to increasing the temperature manually, switching to programming mode you have access to two other functions:

1. directly to the global programming page
2. access to the heating history which will allow you to see the heating and humidity curves at a glance.

Manual Mode Time Stop Change

The function up to the next time block can be changed, shortened or increased to infinity.

The cool thing about the tado° app is also the change in the color of the wallpapers depending on the room temperature or the change in the target temperature.

Reorganization of the Rooms

As you can see on the image below, the organization of the rooms is of course modifiable, by simple drag and drop, the organization will be seen directly on the home interface.

Editing devices by room

As I have said several times, tado° manages the priority of heating by room and not by device. One of the strengths of Tado° also lies in the combination of devices by room.

• On the screenshot below you can see on the left image a single Living room device group (because I put the smart thermostat in the same room as the thermostatic valve).
• On the right image the two devices are located in a different room

When only one room is set the “modify rooms” tab disappears.

In the following screenshot I show you step by step the modification of the corridor room of the “smart kit” device by transferring it to Living room.

Once modified you will find on the main interface with only one living room icon, and what is magical is the fact that the application no longer uses the temperature reading of the thermostatic tap but that of the thermostat kit fixed to the wall. With a simple change of parts you can use the temperature function of the kit which is much more accurate than that of the tap located near the heating body. This is an ultra interesting function and simple to set up.

While under home assistant it would be necessary to integrate an automation which calibrates the temperature of the thermostatic tap with a remote probe.

Tado°

By Tado°

Tado° X thermostatic faucet, probably the most advanced faucet on the market, matter over thread compatible

Buy Now out of Amazon

Auto-Assist On the main tab

On the main tab we also find the famous paid auto-assist function. At a glance you can see the advantages of subscribing to such a subscription.

Automations with Tado° are paid and that’s a shame.

Well-being tab

While in the settings the well-being tab does not show any information, on the main page it is quite different. You will be able to view all the information on the air quality and humidity of your home and those by room. The color of the wallpaper will change depending on the feeling of the room.

you can also see at the top right the outside temperature of your home, the weather adaptation function works well and truly.

Home Tab

The home tab allows you to switch from present to absent mode with a single click and thus turn off the heating (as a reminder, you can change the heating setting in absence mode in the programming settings).

I still regret that this function is not available directly at the top of the main page.

Energy-Cockpit tab

The unfortunately paid energy-cockpit tab still lets you see the percentage of energy savings achieved. For the history functions and cost simulators, you can either brush yourself off or put your hand in your wallet.

Tado°

By Tado°

Tado° X thermostatic faucet, probably the most advanced faucet on the market, matter over thread compatible

Buy Now out of Amazon

the + of the application

• well rated on the Playstore and Appstore platforms
• Easy interface to learn
• color changes according to temperatures
• simple programming
• A Boost function
• A combination of temperatures by automated rooms
• many help links
• Some automations available by default

the - of the application

• The automations for the most part are paid by Auto-Assist
• no management by devices
• impossible to manually add a user
• obliged to use the application no Webapp
• 100% Cloud application

Conclusion

Here is a fun heating management application that will allow you to easily make great savings energy, unique to Tado°, I still deplore the mandatory monthly subscription to access all the automations and feedback of energy saving information. Another negative point Tado° is 100% Cloud, your heating will work perfectly locally, the rest happens on the Tado° servers