Can Hive smart thermostat downstairs be used in conjunction with 'dumb' thermostat upstairs?

ChasingtheWelshdream

Purchased from Toolstation with the signal booster direct from Hive after they remoted in to take a look.

The weird thing was, tech support were telling me things that were contradicted by my devices. They at one point said ‘you are now back online so it should be fine’ but my receiver was showing offline with a red light.  And vice-versa - that the signal strength was weak  (hence needing a booster), whereas my app showed no issues.

My grumpy email has asked for suggestions, otherwise I am deeming it not fit for purpose and returning it. I’d rather it just work though.

We do have thick walls, non-existent mobile signal,and need Wi-Fi boosters, but we had no issues with the previous wireless ‘normal’ thermostat in that same position.

Receiver is now showing the red light of doom.Fingers crossed it wakes up for the morning or the kids may stay in bed in protest!

Apodemus

ChasingtheWelshdream said:

Purchased from Toolstation with the signal booster direct from Hive after they remoted in to take a look.

The weird thing was, tech support were telling me things that were contradicted by my devices. They at one point said ‘you are now back online so it should be fine’ but my receiver was showing offline with a red light.  And vice-versa - that the signal strength was weak  (hence needing a booster), whereas my app showed no issues.

My grumpy email has asked for suggestions, otherwise I am deeming it not fit for purpose and returning it. I’d rather it just work though.

We do have thick walls, non-existent mobile signal,and need Wi-Fi boosters, but we had no issues with the previous wireless ‘normal’ thermostat in that same position.

Receiver is now showing the red light of doom.Fingers crossed it wakes up for the morning or the kids may stay in bed in protest!

Sorry you are having these problems and it does sound as if something is struggling to maintain the connection - you've clearly not got it operating well enough to even reach my ssues with the app.  Can you try it in a more limited part of the house, with the three main components close together - that might allow you to find out whether there is a basic fault with it or a problem related to the lay-out of your house? You would then know whether to take it back for a replacement or give up on Hive and try another approach.

When working properly, Hive connectivity seems remarkably robust.  I am at a loss to explain how mine actually works at all, as the main receiver is behind the closed cast-iron door of my Rayburn and I really thought that the casing of the Rayburn would effectively become a Faraday cage and block the signal.  I actually bought the Hive for another property and just installed it here as an experiment.  It works, though, and I installed a second Hive in the other property, which also seems to be working well.  I even managed to get through the barriers in place to get both systems onto a single log-in on the 'phone app (although I can't achieve the same for the version of the app on my laptop, which wierdly seems to lack the "people" option). 

Bendy_House

Oops, back to HelpfulHints

Has any of this helped?! Do you follow it ok?
Any reason why you don't wish to Smartify both zones - looks like the wiser won't cost much more for this.

AfaIk, the bottom line is: if you just want to 'Smart' the CH, you should be able to fit the receivers where the existing wall stats are, and switch your existing timer to 'CH ON 24hrs'. The existing timer will continue to time your DHW. This could well be easy-DIYable.

If you wish to also smart your DHW, that will likely need going back to your wiring centre, and two receivers (one a 'dual') hard-wired in there.

IF Smart TRVs can be used DIRECTLY with a receiver, with no need of a Hive 'stat, then  your idea for your upstairs should work, and also be DIYable. I know that the TRVs CAN be set to control the boiler - they 'open' AND tell the boiler to fire up - but I don't know if they do that 'directly' to the receiver, or via a Hive stat. So that is the Q to ask Hive, because I don't know. (I 'suspect' it's 'direct', in which case your idea should work).

Could you post photos of your wall stats, timer, wiring centre, and motorised valves, please. (Plumbing corn... :-(.  )

Apodemus

Bendy, is your 'phone app for the Hive working today?  I'm having real contact problems with the Hive app this morning  and wonder if the whole thing is down today?  I was going to install another Hive in another property today, but the property is 60 miles away and I don't want to risk going over there only to find I can't set the Hive up.

It was fine before 08.00, but completely dead now, so it has hallmarks of active work at their end.

ChasingtheWelshdream

Bendy_House said:

Oops, back to HelpfulHints

Oops, apologies for hijacking! 

Apodemus

Apodemus said:

Bendy, is your 'phone app for the Hive working today?  I'm having real contact problems with the Hive app this morning  and wonder if the whole thing is down today?  I was going to install another Hive in another property today, but the property is 60 miles away and I don't want to risk going over there only to find I can't set the Hive up.

It was fine before 08.00, but completely dead now, so it has hallmarks of active work at their end.

Having trawled through a lot of media (and I mean a lot!) on people's problems with losing Hive app connection, I came across one piece of advice which was to completely power down and reboot...the phone!  Seems to have done the trick for me!  Why the app should stall at my end when the rest of the internet is fine, is anyone's guess, but one extra "interesting" feature on the Hive learning curve!

BUFF

Bendy_House said:

If you wish to also smart your DHW, that will likely need going back to your wiring centre, and two receivers (one a 'dual') hard-wired in there.

Afaik both Drayton Wiser & Tado would only require one hub/receiver.
You would need to get the correct kit to start with though.

Le_Kirk

Apodemus said:

Apodemus said:

Bendy, is your 'phone app for the Hive working today?  I'm having real contact problems with the Hive app this morning  and wonder if the whole thing is down today?  I was going to install another Hive in another property today, but the property is 60 miles away and I don't want to risk going over there only to find I can't set the Hive up.

It was fine before 08.00, but completely dead now, so it has hallmarks of active work at their end.

Having trawled through a lot of media (and I mean a lot!) on people's problems with losing Hive app connection, I came across one piece of advice which was to completely power down and reboot...the phone!  Seems to have done the trick for me!  Why the app should stall at my end when the rest of the internet is fine, is anyone's guess, but one extra "interesting" feature on the Hive learning curve!

Another way to "get it moving" is to see if it is the phone/app; I help a neighbour with his technical issues and he rang the other day with "I can't control my heating" so I popped round; his heating/DHW was exactly where it should be and as per the settings, just would not react to the phone app.  I took his phone off him, opened the app pressed the screen and dragged it down (as you would when refreshing/updating anything), the app updated and all was well again!

Apodemus

Le_Kirk said:

Apodemus said:

Apodemus said:

Bendy, is your 'phone app for the Hive working today?  I'm having real contact problems with the Hive app this morning  and wonder if the whole thing is down today?  I was going to install another Hive in another property today, but the property is 60 miles away and I don't want to risk going over there only to find I can't set the Hive up.

It was fine before 08.00, but completely dead now, so it has hallmarks of active work at their end.

Having trawled through a lot of media (and I mean a lot!) on people's problems with losing Hive app connection, I came across one piece of advice which was to completely power down and reboot...the phone!  Seems to have done the trick for me!  Why the app should stall at my end when the rest of the internet is fine, is anyone's guess, but one extra "interesting" feature on the Hive learning curve!

Another way to "get it moving" is to see if it is the phone/app; I help a neighbour with his technical issues and he rang the other day with "I can't control my heating" so I popped round; his heating/DHW was exactly where it should be and as per the settings, just would not react to the phone app.  I took his phone off him, opened the app pressed the screen and dragged it down (as you would when refreshing/updating anything), the app updated and all was well again!

Yes,  I am used to it sometimes taking three or four attempts at dragging the screen down, watching the rotating wheel symbol and it telling me it has updated, when in actual fact it hasn't.  That's why I recommend doing this on the graph function, because on it you get a visual of what time it has updated to - unless it is showing the graph up to present, it hasn't actually updated. 

The occasion above, though was different, in that the app wouldn't load up properly at all.  It looked like it wasn't finding the right place on the Hive side of the link, wasn't resolved by closing and re-opening the app but was resolved by doing a hard reboot of  the phone.

HelpfulHints99

Sincere thanks to everyone who offered wise words. especially Bendy_House for your super-helpful breakdown.  Also thanks to fenwick458 and BUFF for your suggestions that I'll check out right now before Cyber Monday deals end.  Apologies for the delay in acknowledging or replying - other plumbing problems over the weekend! 

I will digest what you've recommended and send some more photos later as I think my original request might have introduced an unhelpful lack of clarity. 

Once again, I'm so grateful for the help and advice - I haven't been able to find any sensible help anywhere on Hive website and there are no contact numbers or support.  I should have come here first! 

More soon, thanks again 
J