I just want to give you a feed back of what I’m testing right know: radiator valves.
I’m a Tado° (V3, not V3+) user for more than 1,5 year know and I’m super happy with them and the app.
As a new Homey user, I wanted to try new things (z-wave things) and make them works with my existing Tado° setup.
That’s why I bought this:
Danfoss LC-13
Fibaro FGT-001
Eurotronic Spirit
Product
Tado°: The device looks great and robust, no cheap, it’s not so light. You have to turn it to change the temperature. When you change the temperature manually or remotely, the temperature appears on the device. I like it.
Danfoss: It looks “pro” too, no toy. The device is lighter than a Tado but it’s ok. There are (hard) buttons to control the temperature. It’s less convenient than turning as a Tado°. There is a screen but if you’re not just in front of it you just see nothing: bad point !
Fibaro: I love so much the design. It’s not a big thing it’s just good to see it on a radiator. The quality is good as Danfoss and Tado. Bad point: you cannot see the target temperature on it… you have to understand colored circle to know if it’s cold or hot.
Eurotronic: That’s the one I love the less… It looks like it’s big for nothing if you see what I mean… Buttons look a little bit cheap BUT there is a screen (better than the one on Danfoss) and it’s really cool.
Install
Tado° is super easy to install (hardware/software). Download the app, us QR Codes to add devices, create rooms and it’s done.
Danfoss Installing the device on my radiator was easy (there are all easy to install) but I had some difficulties to add it on my Homey z-wave network. Know it’s ok.
Fibaro A nightmare ! The valve is still not installed. Pairing was difficult (started pairing and after few moment “No device found”…). The calibration is not good at all (maybe my fibaro has a problem), he doesn’t “close” the radiator.
Eurotronic: the best one ! 5mins to put it on my radiator, install app on homey and add this device on it. What a pleasure !
Use
Tado° Homey app is also great and provide different useful cards to create flows. There is also a “Tado Device” which provides weather/position/outside temperature/solar intensity that can be nice too when you create your flows.
Danfoss There is no temperature reporting with this valve and i’ts a little bit annoying ! Cards are very limited (you can only change temperature).
Fibaro I don’t know yet ! But it looks like temperature is not well reported as other Fibaro sensors I have btw.
Eurotronic The one I prefer (with Tado°). You can manage “modes” (eco, manual, off,…) and temperature for sure.
At this point, I still prefer my tado valves BUT I’m really impressed by Eurotronic Spirit and super disapointed by Fibaro (again - maybe it’s because I use fibaro devices with Homey and it’s not enough optimized…).
I will use them and give you feedbacks. If you have questions, I wrote this for that
If you’ve tried this devices or other devices, I can add your feedback to this post !
Feedbacks from other users
Tado°
– @Undutchable “Personally I do prefer the Easy use of smart schedules on a smart phone, over the Design, Use and Install. I’m happy with Tado V3+.” (Dec 18)
– @Hannes85 “I bought v3+ as well. Biggest waste of money ever. Don’t do it :). Literally not a single noteworthy extra/new feature.” (Dec 18)
Danfoss
Fibaro
– @motom001 “I try the fibaro FGT-001 with similar results. Looks great but doesn’t work. They don’t send the temprature and doesn’t recive commands from Homey. I spend two Day until I sent all back.” (Apr 19)
– @Fred6 “It connected fine for me and also the external sensor got paired. BUT something was wrong with the inner mechanism. It wouldn’t calibrate correctly and could not move the pin on the radiator valve. Sad, because its small and nice looking.” (Jun 19)
– @victoroos “My fibaro works great after getting the latest firmware. For my one room system, it is amazing!” (Jan 20)
Eurotronic
– @Xtasy: “I personally use the Spirits and I agree with you, design wise they aren’t perfect. They are a little too big but I really like their reliability.” (Dec 18)
– @anon8748058: “I must say that I am VERY happy with them from day one. Cosmetically they aren’t that great, but they do their job (quick response, and they feed back temperature reliably) I bought a pink ‘cap’ (iin stead of the white or gray one they ship with) for my the one in my daughter’s bedroom and that looks okay-ish now (she’s happy with it )” (Dec 18)
– @Brinkie: “Right now I have one Eurotronic Spirits valve installed a few weeks ago for testing purposes and I’m very happy with it. I’m probably going to replace all other valves in my home as well with Eurotronic Spirits.” (Dec 18)
– @Fred6: “I received the Eurotronic today. Ok, so it is big, true. BUT it’s a lot more quiet than the Fibaro or Smartwares radiator valves. And the ring to connect to the radiator looks a lot more solid. Connection is good and works like a charm. Good price and good quality.” (Jun 19)
Devolo
–@mapulu: “The radiator valves from Devolo looks the same like from Danfoss. But the Devolo did report the actual temperature which the Danfos doesn’t.” (Dec 18)
Some while ago I was in the market for thermostatic radiator valves. I ended up with the same short list as you have. I didn’t go for the Tado’s as they are always internet-driven (if your internet connection is down, or if Tado has a disruption you can’t control your valves). That was a big nono for me.
The Fibaro had A LOT of bad reviews, for being unreliable (though cosmetically very pleasing), so I scrapped that one too. The Danfoss doesn’t report back the ‘current temperature’, which was a requirement for me.
That left me with the Eurotronic Spirits. I must say that I am VERY happy with them from day one. Cosmetically they aren’t that great, but they do their job (quick response, and they feed back temperature reliably) I bought a pink ‘cap’ (iin stead of the white or gray one they ship with) for my the one in my daughter’s bedroom and that looks okay-ish now (she’s happy with it )
Thank you for feedback @anon8748058 ! I’ll add your comment to main post
Yes I’ve already stopped playing with the Fibaro and ask my money back. Sad story that was the one I was the most exited to test
I’ll make some videos to show how Danfoss, Tado et Eurotronic works with Homey to continue my test and give info to the one who’s searching for vannes.
Do you use some sort of heatlink or heating hub (a device that is in between the boiler and the thermostat) with Tado or one of the others? Cause that would be quite essential information.
I have Plugwise, these valves also trigger the boiler when heating is requested in a room. That’s quite a cool feature since it permits room-by-room heating.
I don’t own a Tado system, but from what I understand:
The Tado radiator valves communicate towards a ‘bridge/hub/control unit’ (give it a name ) which is controlled via the internet via an app. Homey then talks to the bridge over http(s).
The radiator valves I have (Eurotronic Spirit), communicate directly with Homey via z-wave.
The fact that the one communciates via a hub and the other doesn’t, is indeed interesting info to add. Also, if a hub is needed/used, if communciation goes over ther internet or not is interesting. (So can you still control your heating, if you internet connection is down, or if (in this case) Tado has a disruption, or decides to stop their services.
Nice comparison of thermostatic radiator valves! Right now I have one Eurotronic Spirits valve installed a few weeks ago for testing purposes and I’m very happy with it. I’m probably going to replace all other valves in my home as well with Eurotronic Spirits.
I can’t really compare, but from the reactions sofar it seems I picked the best one! I’m not very keen on its looks, but it’s not that bad either. It’s about the same size as the original valves, so I can’t complain.
Exactly that. They’re not ecstatically pleasing, but on the other hand, the manual ones aren’t (I had Sanfoss ones, with the 1-5 numbers on them) either. The Spirits do however, do their job reliably. One of my favourite recent purchases.
Some of these valves can signal the heater/boiler directly (Plugwise, Honeywell Evohome). So if the valve detects it needs heat, it can trigger the boiler, all other valves in the house close and only that room is heated.
This makes it possible to heat each room individually. Not just the livingroom.
To me, it sounds like Tado can only open/close a radiatorvalve, but not make sure it heats up. Correct me of im wrong.
Tado and Eurotronic Spirit can be told to set the target-heat in a room. (it has an internal heat-sensor) though it doesn’t talk to the boiler.
The Eurotronic Spirit also feeds back the current (measured) temperature.
When the room is (closer to) the temperature you configure it to, it automatically closes the valve down a nodge (or completely).
The Eurotronic Spirits can also be set manually to a specific percentage open. I’m not sure if the Tado’s can do that too.
Stating your message of 6hrs ago, is it true, … you DO NOT need an extra switching module with plugwise or honeywell thermostat valves?
I was wondering who the boiler fires up. It only needs een on/off signal, but who is doing this.
I myself have the watts system in my house and working fine. It is a stand alone system which is not covered in an app by Homey sofar.
The Adam is between the Thermostat and the boiler. It is connected to wifi on one end so you can talk to it via the app. On the other end it uses Zigbee to talk with the valves (Plugwise Tom).
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