Hive 851816 Thermostat for Heating and Hot Water control (conventional boilers) with Hub, White, 620.0 mm*150.0 mm*620.0 mm
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Hive Thermostat for Heating and Hot Water (Self Install) with Hive Hub
Heating and hot water control from your smartphone, tablet and laptop
Take control of your heating and hot water anytime, anywhere. Hive makes controlling your heating and hot water easy from your mobile, tablet or laptop. The updated Hive Thermostat brings an elegant and sleek touch-button design, intuitive control and easy-to-use features. Hive works no matter who supplies your energy and will work with your existing heating system. With Hive, you’ll never need to heat an empty home again so you could save up to 110 pound a year on your heating bills.
- Heating and Hot Water schedules – set up to 6 daily time slots
- Heating and Hot Water Boost – for up to six hours
- Automatic Frost Protection – helps prevent frozen pipes
- Geolocation – heating alerts when you leave or return home
- Holiday Mode – tell Hive your holiday dates and come back to a warm welcome
- Temperature graphs – keep track of how you are using your heating
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Control your home hands freeOur devices work perfectly with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri. Turn up the heating, find out what the temperature is and so much more. All with your voice. | Your heating in your handOur app gives you control of every aspect of your heating. Turn it up, down, on or off, set schedules and get notifications if you accidentally leave it on when you head out. | Boost your heating with a tapIf your home isn’t as warm as you want, boost your heating or hot water so you get cosy quickly. You don’t have to worry about turning it off – it does that automatically. |
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A smart way to save even moreWith our award-winning Hive thermostat, you could save up to 110 pounds per year. Combine it with Hive Heating Plus and this could go up by an extra 40 pounds during the cold months. Please note: multizone setups and first-generation hubs don’t support Hive Heating Plus. **subscription feature | Spot potential problems and get them sortedHive Heating Plus comes with our Heating Efficiency Monitor. This monitors your heating 24/7 and notifies you if anything’s out of the ordinary. Get early visibility of any problems, like a build-up of sludge in your radiator, so you can get things fixed quickly. | Unlock powerful usage trendsUsing our Hive Heating Plus service, you can see weekly and yearly overviews of your usage and how changes in behaviour impact your spending with Cost View. Plus, with Integrated Weather, you can see how changes in the outside temperature affect your consumption and how long it takes your home to heat up. |
| Weight: | 860 g |
| Dimensions: | 15 x 62 x 62 cm; 860 Grams |
| Model: | 851816 |
| Colour: | White |
| Manufacture: | Hive |
| Colour: | White |
This is the best thing I’ve bought, heats the house on your way home with a touch of the button to boost for 1 hour. Put your daily schedule in and let it fo the work for you. When it’s not needed just lower the temperature. If your house goes below the hive automatically kicks in.
You probably need a professional to install, although if you can figure out the control wiring from your boiler, you may be able to do it yourself. It is essential to make sure you have the right model for your boiler. There are two versions of the receiver (the part that is wired to the boiler): one for combi boilers (which most people now have, that produces hot water directly to your taps, as well as to the central heating); another for conventional boilers (where you have a separate hot water cylinder and cold water storage tank). Each will not work properly with the other. Mine was installed in a flat which I let out and I only understood the problem weeks too late to return the item.
Hive technical support was excellent and they supplied me with the correct receiver very quickly. It was easy to install as it just clipped into place where the previous receiver had sat.
Once properly installed it is very easy to use with an intuitive and simple user interface – way better than my previous Tado setup. The app for your phone is very good too and I can monitor and, if necessary, control the heating wherever I am in the world.
For installation I used the service offered in the Amazon listing, with mixed results. First, they cancelled a visit at short notice. which was very inconvenient. More importantly, they failed to tell me that I had the wrong receiver and just bodged the wiring, which meant the central heating only went on when you switched on “Hot Water” (not needed on combi boiler) and so the central heating thermostat did not switch it off. I would recommend your own installer or to do it yourself – if you can figure out the boiler control wiring then it shouldn’t be hard.
I have removed a star for an otherwise excellent product because the item description should make it VERY clear that this model will not work with Combi boilers (the norm these days) and the “expert” installation company the seller recommended failed to tell us there was a problem.
This device is great. Turn heating on and off from your phone, either from your armchair or on the way home from work. Saves me a lot of money as I am in and out at different times and never know whether to set the heating to come on. Especially as its so expensive now. This really is a great idea.
Had this professionally installed so simple for me but required a call out. Great to be able to control through single thermostat and apps. Still getting to grips with how smart this is in terms of understanding the house – think that requires a subscription. Will update when I know more.
I made the mistake of getting this via Amazon Warehouse. When it was installed, I couldn’t add the hub to my Hive account. As it turned out, the hub had been registered previously, and the registration can’t be undone. Customer “Service” only option was for me to pay to have the controller disconnected again, and send the whole lot back for a refund (leaving me with no heat or hot water). I ended up having to purchase another hub, so any money saving benefit of using Amazon Warehouse was more than wiped out.
Edit:
2 stars added, as the replacement hub connected really easily (once I’d reset the the thermostat and receiver), and the whole thing works as described, and connected up to my Alexa account very simply.
I really like hive thermostat 2 channel, I can keep the best controls to heating radiators and water. In my case I called plumber and electrician to install motorised valve (to keep separate control). I really recommend Hive.
I bought this to replace the 19th century technology that we used to control our central heating and hot water boiler. An electrician fitted it. I set it up… surprise surprise it was almost too easy!
Once connected to wifi via the supplied hub it did the rest for me, I was so surprised I couldn’t quite believe all was well and went through everything to make sure it was indeed connected and operating correctly, it was! I then programmed i.e. set start and stop times. A very useful email turned up, from Hive, listing voice commands YES it had connected to Alexa which I had not even got around to thinking about.
On the strength of this I bought a couple of dimmable Hive bulbs and once connected to power they connected, via the hub, to Alexa and work flawlessly.
I’m not getting younger and setting up new tech can be a nightmare so this was a very agreeable experience and one for which Hive is to be congratulated and which other manufactures should emulate. Just in case I’ve drifted off course from the purpose of this review let me state: The Hive hub controls my heating and hot water & two (for now) light bulbs effortlessly and efficiently. Totally recommended.
Love the combination of hub,controller and thermostat. Easy to program and use after an electrician has installed it all. Brilliant product to enable you to control your central heating.
I like that it’s wireless so it’s in the living room as that’s the one we heat most. What I don’t like is it’s a sales vehicle for British Gas. To get all the bells you have to drip 3.99 (when I read that initially it was 2 so you can see the intent) a month out of your bank account. You can do quite a lot with the basic app functionality and you do get graphs but only one day and that doesn’t seem to be current. I do like it, a lot but I don’t like having anyones hands in my candy jar. I installed it myself but I’ve done an electronics apprenticeship. There are excellent videos on the web so if your at all competent at DIY it’s an easy install. A nice bit is the standard backplane so swapping out an old dual channel controller is easy.
Easy to use and program.aesthetically pleasing and being able to control your water and heating whether on the go or glued to the sofa this is a must and I’m sure it’s going to help with the gas bill
Great product, however don’t purchase the installation alongside this product as still waiting since November for either a refund or the equipment to be installed.
We had someone come a fit this as I’m not good with electrics!
Was fitted in about 30 mins. My heating is now super easy to use and it seems to be working better and more economical I upgraded to give heating plus which was well worth the money as the date I get from usage is really helpful !
Recommended!
We had this installed professionally as part of the package and was excellent . Allows efficient management of central heating & hot water and all from my iPhone
But you can turn the thermostat temperature up and down using your voice.
This product exceeded my expectations, so easy to install and set up.
Being able to regulate your heating is great, helps with fuel cost and you can come into a cosy home as the ap is do easy to use and switch on your heating before you arrive home
This was a massive upgrade on our previous thermostat and has given us a bit more control over when the heating is on and at what temperature. Very easy to use.
This hub was a bit tricky to install but very easy to use once installed. It takes time to connect to all the parts and internet.
For great heating and hot water control this is perfect. So easy to use and add app to phone for more detailed control. No wasting money or energy if not home
Fitted to a Grant OIL Boiler.
1. Fitting
Didn’t have to mess around with any wiring at all, clipped straight onto my original programmers (Drayton) bracket.
Took about half hour to update and get all connected with the hub, receiver and thermostat. But was simple for anyone that can follow instructions on an app.
2. Use
Absolutely saves oil and the environment after not having a thermostat in the past. Can just ask Alexa to heat the house on a cold morning before getting out of bed.
Would recommend 100%
Excellent telephone assistance. Easy to set up, works absolutely brilliant wouldn’t be without it. My Best Buy of the year.
I think this is one of the best gadgets ever.
So easy to use and controls temperature very accurately. I particularly like the boost function to give my room a boost in temperature should I need it.
Settings menu a doddle and best of all control it from your mobile phone!
Bought for someone else I’ve already had one for a few years can’t recommend them enough.
Great price
Best getting a professional to install it
Easy to use with the hive app
I plugged in the hub to back of router and powered up.
All came online quickly and I was up and running.
Initially I kept my old wired thermostat on the wall and turned it up to max. This had the effect of allowing the hive to do all the controlling. After a few days I unwired the old thermostat following a tutorial on youtube.
I am especially impressed with the app, in that it controls the system wherever you are. I thought this would be a paid function, but no, I can turn the heating on and off and check temperature wherever I am.
I find I use the app exclusively for programming schedules and controlling the heating. Another great free feature is the daily graphs showing room temperature and boiler activity. I find this useful to see how quick a room heats up cools down. I’ll be able to see effects of extra insulation for example, or pump speed.
All in all a huge improvement on old style heating controls. I personally chose to put my thermostat on a stand so I can move around or change the room which I want to monitor.
A bargain, will save me a fortune.
Expensive but very user friendly. Easy access to change controls for heating hot water. Mine professionally installed. For multiple zones need additional thermostats. So far so good also can control on App.
Original review:
I was a bit apprehensive considering some of the nightmare stories but I guess I was lucky enough to find an electrician (not a British Gas person) who had done this before.
I got the hub up and running before he arrived just in case I had to call for support – worked fine out of the box. However, I’d installed it in a temporary area and when I moved it to it’s final resting place, had to restart the thermostat again (unplugging the battery is the only way of turning it off!)
Turned it back on once the installer arrived and luckily the wiring of my boiler (Potterton control on a mexico boiler) was well done in the past and he took circa 30 minutes to install both the thermostat and the receiver. One gotcha was not uninstalling the old thermostat which meant it was still controlling the boiler.
I had created a hive account and once the product was ready added the USB hub to the app.
I have docked two stars because:
1) There is no web interface to view/control the thermostat. Why should I have to download a 90 MB app on my phone!
2) British Gas are rather cheap by shamefully asking for 4 (really?!) per month just to give you access to your usage data! The nest which is a learning thermostat doesn’t need an app or any payment to share this data! There was a very good article online but I read it after I had already purchased the hive
t3.com/news/5-things-i-wish-id-known-before-buying-a-hive-smart-thermostat. Hopefully B Gas will come to their senses and give users their data!
Bought this for my daughter because she has just set up home in a house that has an old oil boiler with no thermostat in the house. The heating was either on or off. It was controlled manually and difficult to get a nice constant temperature. The old control unit was easy to remove and replace with the hive one and took about half an hour. Everything else was set up in a few minutes. The difference it has made to the house is fantastic. They keep the thermostat in the living room most of the time and then take it to the bedroom at night.
The house is a comfortable temperature now and they are not needlessly using oil.
Now all we need to do is get TRV’s fitted and they can save more money on heating.
This product has been a genuine game changer. I now can change the temperature of the house on my way home from work or when I’m out walking the dogs. It has saved me quite a bit of money as I don’t need to keep the heating on alll the time. The Mrs loves taking it when the house is warm.
This product has been a genuine game changer. I now can change the temperature of the house on my way home from work or when I’m out walking the dogs. It has saved me quite a bit of money as I don’t need to keep the heating on alll the time. The Mrs loves taking it when the house is warm.
Had a gas engineer fit this for a fair price . Does exactly what his says and what I needed .
Instead of the old thermostat being in the kitchen. . It’s now in the lounge , where we spend most of our time . We use Alexa with it. And it’s handy to adjust heating when your on your way home
Had a gas engineer fit this for a fair price . Does exactly what his says and what I needed .
Instead of the old thermostat being in the kitchen. . It’s now in the lounge , where we spend most of our time . We use Alexa with it. And it’s handy to adjust heating when your on your way home
Surprisingly, the thermostat doesn’t get used much as the app is easier and more convenient. Everyone in the house has the app installed and can operate the water or heating very easily. Timed Boost feature is very useful and editing the schedule is super easy compared to my old stat that had an lcd display.
In times of ridiculous energy costs, it’s very handy to have this level of control. The price isn’t cheap but what you get is an advanced piece of kit and, used properly, should save some money on energy costs.
I used to leave the heating on a schedule but now fine-tune times and temps on an hourly basis depending on who’s in and what the weather is doing.
Connection to the boiler was very easy – but I do have a technical background and am not afraid of circuit diagrams! An engineer should have it up and running in 30 minutes max.
Watched a few videos on line and that was it job done no need to pay for anyone to come out. There was already a wireless thermostat in place so almost like for like
found the install of hive straight forward thanks to UTUBE videos still struggling with the mobile app, currently given up trying, I expect to save a few quid as my old programmer was ancient and hive can be programmed better.
Welcome to the 21st century, great replacement for my old thermostat. Really pleased with how this works, so easy to operate either manually or by the phone app and the really good thing is you can control your heating away from your home so you can come home to a nice warm house without having to wait for the heat to get up to temperature after you return home. Was easy to fit and set up myself but, be careful if you are not fairly handy with DIY and electrics, if in doubt get a qualified person to install.
We love this. It was installed by the engineer after fitting a new boiler. At first the hub would not connect to our internet and he had to call tech support who resolved the problem fairly quickly. The system works beautifully. You can set up a schedule to control the heating each day. You can also control via a thermostat and an app on your phone, which means you can adjust the heating remotely. We think this is brilliant and so easy to use
Fitted easily to a combination boiler. Especially if you already have a timer added to the boiler.
Read some feedback about British Gas struggled with it. Why doesn’t that surprise me. And half decent electrician can fit this.
Links to Alexa really easily controls really well. I don’t see drops in temp too much like my old thermometer. Can set loads of on offs for every day. Dead easy to use via the hive app. Tell Alexa and she will alter it. Control it on the move.
Very very pleased.
Had one of these in our previous home. We moved into a new build and they put the thermo in the lounge. Half the house was warm and the rest colder.
We now have the hive which we can move around and now put this in the kitchen and this appears to wrk well for us. 2 weeks. Very happy with the purchase. I did use a professional to install so I make no claims there. Very happy with this product an also gives us the ability to switch on when we are out and about so the house is warm when we get home.
The hive programmer came in three parts, a hub unit to connect to the network, a receiver that requires hard wiring to the existing heating system and the wireless programmer which is also the heating thermostat. Wiring was easy being an ex electrician, the base plate is the standard base as used by mini minder programmers and countless others and if you are lucky there may not be any wiring to do as the new unit may clip on to the existing baseplate. I was not so lucky as the lugs on my now redundant base plate were to large to fit in the slots so it was a case of undoing the cables and noting which numbered terminals they came from. The new base plate uses the exact same numbering system so was fairly easy. The hardest part was getting the hub to work as it did not like several of the locations I first tried. If close to televisions or radios it may not work due to interference, but after several attempts I managed to get it up and running. Getting it to work by Alexa again was fairly simple and now I have voice control, great from my bed in the morning as I am a slow riser and can command the heating and hot water to come on before rising. In fact I do not use the inbuilt scheduled timer as it is cheaper for me to just put the heating on when I start to get cooler and the hot water when I need it. I have noticed my gas consumption has gone down but it will need a hard winter before I know if I can recoup the initial high expense.
We managed to get the hive wired in fairly easily given ours is an older boiler. We then tried to set up the connections and that was definitely not simple. We initially got it working with the thermostat but couldn’t get it connected on the app so had to basically start from scratch again and eventually it all connected. We have had one instance of losing connection but on the whole it’s been fine. I do love how easy it is to schedule, boost and advance even without being in the house.
We managed to get the hive wired in fairly easily given ours is an older boiler. We then tried to set up the connections and that was definitely not simple. We initially got it working with the thermostat but couldn’t get it connected on the app so had to basically start from scratch again and eventually it all connected. We have had one instance of losing connection but on the whole it’s been fine. I do love how easy it is to schedule, boost and advance even without being in the house.
Upgraded my old thermostat to the hive and glad i did , looks stylish and you can purchase new surrounds to match your decor if you like . Easy to use and set up app . Love that i can turn on my heating and control it while I’m out . I also have the hive light bulbs which all link through the app to .
I also have linked it through my google nest so when feeling lazy don’t even have to move off the sofa to turn the heat up .
Would recommend especially if its on offer ( which is what urged me to buy mine , also included installation, don’t know how hard it would be to install yourself )
After 3.5 years use, this product has definitely shown its worth, and in this time I have had 0 technical issues.
As seen by the images, I’m one for leaving the protective film on, and it has lasted this entire time. The rest of the product is like new apart from the top buttons, they have began to yellow (we don’t smoke, naturally turning yellow). However this isn’t very prominent and still looks a high quality device.
This system integrates with alexa perfectly, you simply state “set heating to x degrees” and it adjusts to that, with alexa providing feedback.
The ability to monitor the termpature remotely via the app such as when outside the home is brilliant, and it ensures you don’t come back to a cold house, or a house that is too hot. Also within the app you can set a schedule, for instance each morning between 6am-8am to be at 22 degrees, and you can also adjust each day of the week, so on a weekend you aren’t woken by a sweltering house!
The only 2 issues I have had:
-If you scroll the dial too fast it won’t register an increase and sometimes may decrease, however this isn’t a major issue.
-Over time the thermostat temperature seems to be reading a little higher than the actual room temperature, by 1 or 2 degrees, but it’s predictable, and we have learnt the true value compared to this.
I would 100% recommend this product and I would say it is an integral part to any smart home! Couldn’t be without it now!
*Stand not included
Not once, not twice but thrice I’d arranged an installation date with British Gas who on the alloted day simply didn’t turn up. After the second no show, no goo when over the Winter period the next available day they were able to offer me was 2 months later! Pure incompetence from BG with respect to scheduling of install dates/keeping customers informed.
Product itself is highly recommended. Easy to use. I love being able to control the heating from my phone (even when I am in the house – it means I don’t have to physically go to the boiler to do it).
As recommended, My husband and I had completed the download of the app on our phones before the installer was due to come.
Does exactly what it says on the tin. The app is easier to use than the thermostat itself. Easy to program, we’re just fine tuning at the minute as it’s only been installed a few days.
Hive support was pretty poor. I booked a morning appointment weeks in advance as I was working an afternoon shift that day.
Got a 5 hour time slot for engineer arrival. No other estimate on the day. I called hive to see if there was a time or the engineers number to call. Got fobbed off with ‘he’ll be there by 12pm’. Didn’t arrive, so called again. Eventually arrived 10 minutes before the end of the 5 hour slot. I was now late for work and had to call to book a half day holiday.
The engineer rushed the installation and didn’t set it up to the WiFi. Isn’t that the whole point?
He muttered something about calling hive.
I set it up myself after he left.
I’m sure it will be a good investment overall. Just very disappointed with the service.
I’ve had Hive a couple of years now. B.G. installed it very quickly and efficienly.
It’s stylish, simple to use manually, via the app and via Alexa. I find the app easier to use than using the controller manually as it’s easier to see what’s going on and also simpler to set schedules. I’s great to be able to switch the heating or hot water on or off when I’m at the beach, away from home etc. and to be able to monitor indoor temperatures if I’m away during cold weather.
Alexa works well with the controller though upgrades to one or the other do sometimes mean the commands change slightly, sometimes being an improvement and other times mildly frustrating. be aware that Hive specific commands, such as ‘Boost’ have to be given to Alexa as ‘Alexa, ask Hive to boost the heating’ wheras normal commands such as increasing the temperature generally, are given as ‘Alexa, set the heating to 20’ for example.
I’ve just purchased some Hive light bulbs which seem to work very well too and a radiator thermostat which I’ve yet to install.
This is the best thing I have ever bought for my house. We had an old thermostat that either froze you or cooked you. This was professionally installed by British Gas and integrated with my Alexa. Now I can control my heating seamlessly and I think I’m gonna make a lot of savings on gas. Its stylish and smart. Thing is as well, you can program it easily for times of the day so your never heating an empty house. I would highly recommend this item to anyone who wants to try and save a bit of money on fuel !
Purchased to replace my existing Honeywell ST9400C Programmer and CM927 Wireless Room Thermostat so British Gas installation was straightforward and took approximately 40 minutes. Ordered installation online on 31/12/2019 and had to wait until 27/01/2020 but was worth waiting for as I found Hive system easy to setup. To schedule heating and hot water via the iOS app is very quick, especially as you can copy any day’s 6-cycle schedule to other selected days. You can switch to Manual mode instantly if you wish or override (boost) scheduled times as required or simply switch off. You can even select ‘Ready By’ mode for heating whereby rather than switching on at your selected target temperature, the system will instead learn how long your home takes to heat up and then starts your heating at the right time for the target temperature to be reached at the time you have set. Holiday mode is useful too if you want to set your leave and return dates/times for peace of mind.
If you want to use the Geolocation facility, this can alert you on your mobile if you have left the heating on when leaving your home or alert you if the house temperature is too low as you return, together with other optional smart actions.
The thermostat looks good and I can relocate mine quickly from the wall bracket to the Hive Chrome Stand in any room as needed, so most of the time, it resides on its attractive stand in the lounge.
Having purchased three Hive warm-white LED lamps, I use Hive Actions on the same iOS app which I have setup myself to switch on such things as the porch light at 50% before I arrive home or a table lamp in the lounge to switch on at 40% for movie watching. With additional Hive window or door-opening detection accessories, you can if you wish build on this to create your ‘smart home’ so the Hive Hub, which is supplied via the BG engineer (along with the Thermostat dual-channel Receiver [for controlling heating and hot water] that mounts next to your boiler) keeps your home network of devices all connected plus allows you to control everything from wherever you happen to be in the world.
It’s great to be able to instantly check on the current temperature of the house when out and about so as to ensure you only heat as and when necessary. Prior to this installation, I would need to set the heating before leaving home by estimating when I would be returning at a time which might change. Overall, I highly recommend this system as it is well designed and is quite liberating to use!
Excellent product & service from Gas installer.
I am very pleased that I purchased this Hive thermostat with Professional Installation from Amazon. Every step was clearly notified & the installation was trouble free. I cannot believe how much I have used the Hive app on my phone & it is so easy to control hence saving money by turning the heating up or down or on & off as required. I also have a dimmable Hive bulb which I can fully control on the app. I haven’t yet connected it to Alexa but have no doubt that this would be useful too. I never want to be without Hive & would highly recommend it to all.
Having switched from another smart thermostat supplier I was already used to its features.
So far so good it does everything it should do , I also have the matching smart plug which is great for when you are away etc.
I had a complex wire system due to the old smart thermostat that was a free trial.
So I went for the installation from British Gas, I am glad I did as he removed the old switching unit and another junction box for me and installed the new control unit.
I wasn’t confident in doing it myself but if you are then great, It would seem all you need is the control box with is wired into the junction box that controls all the heating, The old room thermostat is redundant as is the old programmer ( wires clipped and taped up )
I paid for the installation as well, only had to wait a week, considering it was the week of Black Friday I was impressed. Really impressed with the Hive and how easy it is to control it. The British Gas Engineer was brilliant, so thorough, explained everything, called back the following day to check it was still connected to the internet and it was all working well.
Since buying this and having the installation from British Gas I have been delighted with the increased level of control and temperature accuracy that we have experienced when compared with our old analogue thermostat and boiler controller.
We currently have the thermostat “free-standing”, i.e not wall-mounted or even an a stand, but this does not seem to in any way detract from its operation. Making changes to the off-on schedule and/or temperature, either via this unit or, more often via the phone app is extremely simple and straightforward.
All in all, an excellent purchase!
Had this installed by a British Gas engineer.
All went extremely well, the engineer knew exactly what he was doing.
I have a y-plan system and would never switch to a combi.
The reason is, that if my boiler is ever faulty, then I lift a couple of electric radiators in from the guarage and switch the immersion heater on.
With a combi you would have no hot water to bath or shower in, unless you have electric shower. I have a power shower so need a tank of hot water to feed the power shower.
The Hive reacts perfectly with Alexa and give me the option to set Heating or hot water on as a scheduled set up and also via voice commands to Alexa.
Seems perfect in every way.
Would I recommend it, oh YES
Once installed exceptionally easy to use
Been using for quite a while now and its been easy to use and reliable
Alexa integration is great with no issues around voice control
There are a few criticisms
1. If you work shifts then not enough daily slots but if you work 9 to 5 then plenty of time slots
2. Integration with Alexa & Life360 is great for turning heating off when everyone in house leaves BUT it turns settings to off rather than to schedule mode.
This means heating won’t come on at scheduled time later in day….you have to manually turn it back to schedule
Really impressed with product overall and would highly recommend
You can set it from the device if you dont have the app or your phone is flat and its worth learning how to use both but the app is more straight forward to use . Compared to a standard thermostat and timer this is more flexible with a lot more options to adjust for every day of the week and you can adjust it from anywhere through the app. Boost buttons on device and app so if you need more hot water then quick and easy .The options with Alexa to control is handy and the commands are quick and responsive. Pleased with purchase and as thermostat is moveable and not hard wired its another benefit as you can take it in to any room and set the heating for the room your in. There is override buttons on the hive receiver so all covered if issues with wifi.
Wanted to update the heater timer for ages, was going to fit myself, but with the offer on at the time it was as cheap to purchase with installation.
Booking engineer was simple, fitter was done in a matter of 45 mins and fitted, up and running and tested.
Linked it to my Google home hub with ease.
Love that heating and water can be controlled via app, by voice on on the actual unit.
Great feature is you can program it to switch on to a certain temp when your within a certain distance from home.
Can’t fault it, it’s brilliant bit of kit.
Only negative and it’s not really a negative is no smart phone apps currently for it, would be nice to be able to control the settings from my watch ad well
I paid for the install.
We have a new boiler, a Vokera Evolve 36c. Gas engineer looked baffled and ended up phoning one of his colleagues for help.
Engineer number two arrives and seemed to have a better idea how to install, nevertheless the two of them were in long discussion about it for quite some time.
Anyway, they managed to get it installed and after some testing via the thermostat and the iOS App it seemed to be working as it should.
They left.
An hour or so later I went to wash my hands and – NO HOT WATER, no water at all actually from any of the hot taps.
Cold taps working fine, plenty pressure.
Called the gas guy again, the clueless one and he gets all defensive on the phone but agrees to come back.
Still waiting, I shall update later.
Not a good experience so far but the product itself is not to blame.
Had the 1st generation Hive at a previous house. This review is based on that experience as well as the new unit.
Very easy to set schedules
Very easy to boost/change schedule to suit needs.
We have a fairly standard day, so do not need to have a “learning thermostat” like Nest.
New unit looks and works (and looks much) better than the previous one, making it much easier to change things without using the app.
Already noticed that our use has dropped, because I’ve found it much easier to tweak settings so that the heating/hot water schedule now fits our actual daily routine. Further tweaks will bring it down even more.
Overall very happy with the Hive system (including straight forward fitting by British Gas) and the second generation Hive unit.
I bought this Hive Thermostat including installation. It’s worth keeping an eye open because with Prime membership you can buy it much cheaper and the sale price alters quite regularly. I paid 149.99.
It works faultlessly via touch controls on the unit or using the app. I have a smart meter installed and I notice the gas usage reducing quite a lot by a bit of smart scheduling the heating.
Fitting doesn’t take very long and I guess this is dependant on your boiler. My boiler isn’t very old and was told it was very straightforward. Personally I wouldn’t like to attempt self insulation. Leave it to British gas.
Really pleased with my Hive.
We were looking at this system for a while, but had been a little put off by some of the negative reviews. Anyhow, a deal came up and we bit the bullet. I had considered trying to install this myself if we bought it to try and save money, but having now witnessed the installation and also the saving we made on the Amazon deal I was glad that I left it to the experts. On delivery, you get the Thermostat. Everything else follows later after you have created a Hive account and booked your British Gas engineer to come from a card that is in the thermostat box. The engineer then brings the hub and the receiver. Our engineer was here within 10 days, he phoned me 15 minutes before arriving too. He took around 1.5 to 2 hours to install, test and demo all. He gave me a full demonstration of everything and gave me some tips on where I could find out more about it. On installation, he installed the receiver, which replaced the old timer switch that was next to our boiler. He then installed the Thermostat in our hallway, safely blocking of the wires from our old one. He then did something in the cupboard where our hot water cylinder is located (not sure what he did here). Finally he connected the Hub to our router. We have been running the system now for over a week and although connected to our Amazon echo, we find it is not required or necessary to do so as the apps on our phones and online are amazing for control and setting up timers. The apps also give you history on the temperature of your house over time, days, weeks months years etc… If you are on the fence and have an old timer/thermostat etc…, just do it and don’t be afraid of the British Gas engineer doing the dirty work for you, they were very good for us and we don’t even have British Gas services.
Does what it says on the packaging. Good stable app and looks nice and flash on the wall.
Note – I have an ideal combi boiler and purchased the heating and hot water option, as this was the only one in stock and on an amazing offer. When the British Gas engineer came to fit it, they simply bring with them the hub needed for your boiler, of course by having a combi my options using this is to turn on my heating as my water is on demand.
It’s safe to say I have fully set up my routine added quick action to turn heating off and have my movie night option.
If you’d like to make your home a “Smart home” then this is a great first step. And lastly a massive shout out to the engineer, nothing was to much hassle. Took my old thermostat down fitted my new one, even filled in the screen holes so I could get on with the painting.
Does what it says on the packaging. Good stable app and looks nice and flash on the wall.
Note – I have an ideal combi boiler and purchased the heating and hot water option, as this was the only one in stock and on an amazing offer. When the British Gas engineer came to fit it, they simply bring with them the hub needed for your boiler, of course by having a combi my options using this is to turn on my heating as my water is on demand.
It’s safe to say I have fully set up my routine added quick action to turn heating off and have my movie night option.
If you’d like to make your home a “Smart home” then this is a great first step. And lastly a massive shout out to the engineer, nothing was to much hassle. Took my old thermostat down fitted my new one, even filled in the screen holes so I could get on with the painting.
Having purchased a number of other smart devices for my home it was just a matter of time before I invested in a device that (I hope) will help me save money on my heating bills. My existing thermostat was a generic one with little to indicate the temperature and target temperature. The Hive does that for you and much, much more.
I purchased the device as it was on a special deal with free fitting included by British Gas. The device arrived the next day and the fitting was arranged via the Hive website, by entering the provided Redemption Code. The gas engineer arrived a week later to fit the device. The fitting took all of about 45 minutes and the engineer even guides you through the set up process.
SETUP
Setting up the Hive application is very easy. I have an iOS device and downloaded the application. Start the app by registering your details and then once registered you simply search for the connected Hub by entering the code on the back of the Hub. The app connected straightaway and I could see my default schedule for thermostat and heating control once I had paired the Hub and thermostat.
CONTROL
Controlling the thermostat is very easy and setting the schedule to my own preferences is a simple case of selecting start and end time. You can set as many or as few as you want.
BUILD
The front screen is clear and well lit up where you can clearly see the target temperature and the current room temperature. The screen is well made with a clear display and the standard casing (white) fits in well with my decor.
SMART FEATURES
You can manually override the settings/schedule from your phone. The app also lets you set up actions that can be performed when you have multiple Hive devices. For example, you can set Hive up to turn down the heating when you leave your property amongst a range of other actions.
OVERALL
So far I am pleased with the purchase and will only be able to tell whether this saves me money in the long-run.
Brilliant Product! Very happy with it.
Works perfectly well with our Combi Boiler. British Gas engineer installed this for us 2 days after it got delivered. Took him about 45 minutes to install. Box comes with a code which you tell Hive live chat who then arrange your engineer.
Also got this hooked up to the Hive App and our Alexa. Works seamlessly with Alexa commands. Perfect for out of home use too. Open the hive app and your able to set your heating so it’s toasty when you arrive home. Lots of cool features like boost mode, schedules etc which I’m sure we will use when on holiday
Overall very happy with the purchase. We bought a 15 stand too so it sits on our Mantle Peice.
Brilliant price too, 149.99 including installation!
Highly recommeded!!
Bought this on an Amazon Warehouse deal (saved about 70) and it was in A1 condition. Arranged for the British Gas engineer to install it about a week later (not bad for being in the middle of a cold spell in early February, I expected a much longer wait). They turned up when promised and the install took less than an hour. It turned my basic ‘dumb’ gas combi boiler in to a much more versatile heating system. I can now program different schedules for every day rather than just have on/off/timer and I love the level of control you get with with the app. Not tried linking it to Alexa yet, but so far it does everything I want of it. Very happy customer.
Just had our HIVE installed. Although it took a total of 5 weeks for British Gas to install it due to busy Christmas period, its a great product! Love that you can control your heating from wherever you are on your phone. You can also put the thermometer anywhere in the house however I have had it put up on the wall where the old one was.
I didn’t have the greatest of experience with British Gas engineer. He was not very polite and just wanted to get the job done and get out quickly; not very helpful in telling me how it works. Luckily I researcher it quite a bit before purchasing it. Also, Instead of asking me to provide my HIVE thermometer, he installed his own one that he brought along and then asked if he could take the one I purchased from Amazon, to which I refused. And asked him to install my one and remove his one.
We purchased the hive middle of November and l promptly requested an install. As another reviewer mentioned, British Gas appear to put you at the end of the queue as the earliest install date was for mid January.
Three weeks later and l finally got around to downloading the hive app and registered, going through my original emails from hive which mentioned they would send me an installation confirmation. I’d not received one so rang the hive team.
It turned out that whilst they could see the planned install date, the install request hadn’t been fully actioned. At this point l was expecting all the slots to have been booked and for the install to be put back perhaps weeks.
To my surprise they had lots of free slots including one the next day, so we ended up with an install five weeks earlier than planned.
Installation went smoothly and we’ve had a chance to play around with it.
We live in a 50s build so not the best insulated and the thermostat is an ancient thing in the hallway, with numbers in Fahrenheit. We didn’t have an accurate idea of temperature as despite becoming experts in Fahrenheit to Celsius conversions the heating would tend to stay on for the full duration of the timed settings on the boiler.
The Hive gives a real time temperature and now the boiler cuts out when the target temperature has been reached. It seems strange but the house is now warmer, without the boiler running like crazy.
The app is simple and straightforward to use and you can geofence your home so the hive will remind you if you leave home with the heating on.
The only downside is the schedule. You can change the heating schedule day to day but you can’t have, say, different schedules to change between if you work different shifts from week to week.
This is a feature that people have been asking for, for at least the last four years – so one star off for that.
Certainly looks promising and will be interesting to see if it brings heating bills down.
Now can control heating and water from anywhere and be notified if heating left on etc. When not on the schedule keeps an eye on the temperature and will turn heating on if in danger of frost damage for piece of mind
I think so far the biggest impact for us is the easy access to the schedule which we can monitor and change with minimal effort. The old timer was a clunky old digital one which was setup 10 years ago before kids etc and we didn’t even bother to change daylight saving times etc. Now we have things set to the bare minimal with added use of boost for heating/ water when in extra over Christmas etc.
Fantastic product! Great value too as bought in the Black Friday sale (which I’m sure is the case every year!). App works very well giving you the opportunity to turn the central heating on and off whenever you like and from wherever you are, settings available include tracking your location and asking you fig you want to turn the heating on or off (doesn’t do it automatically, just asks you if you want to). Fitted by a British Gas engineer which took just over an hour, and he needed to plug into your wifi router and the mains and fit a receiver next to the boiler. The thermostat replaced was positioned where the old one was, though it can be placed anywhere.
Just a point on the fitting, this was a bit of a frustration as they gave me a date and approximate time for installation, the day came and they didn’t turn up, called Hive customer services who put me in touch with British Gas, who said ‘they couldn’t come as they were really busy’, which meant having to take another day off to be in for the installation which was really annoying – but it’s in now and works wonderfully.
This product is a great replacement for the old thermostat I have a disbility so it makes my life so much easier now that I can operate everything from my phone without having to get up. I use an iPhone and the app isnt’ runnning smoothly yet as when I put a schedule in it doesn’t save the times and changes, I have contacted customer services they told me to uninstall and then reinstall app which I did and it made no difference so I’m still waiting to hear what to do about that but I can still use it manually anyway. Also you don’t get any paperwork from British Gas to say what work was carried out I needed this for my landlord and even checked before installation however this was’nt the case so now I’m having to try chase it up with customer services with no luck so far.
I decided to order the two channel heating and hot water thermostat with professional installation via Amazon when there was a deal on in November. The thermostat arrived soon after with my free echo dot as part of the deal. I booked my professional British Gas engineer visit through Hive online via the leaflet that came with the thermostat it was surprisingly easy and I had an appointment booked just six days later! I had two British Gas emails reminding me of my upcoming visit and Simon the BG engineer turned up as arranged. I have a gravity fed type cylinder with a thermal store in the airing cupboard and a regular Worcester Bosch Greenstar 24i condensing boiler downstairs in the utility room. The BG engineer only had to remove the front off my previously installed Salus programmer that separated the hot water for summer use and put the Hive receiver (which he brought with him) onto the existing wires and backplate. It worked a treat. The Hive little WiFi signal hub was plugged into my modem and all was working via the thermostat. I’d already downloaded the app in readiness of my installation so my BG engineer showed me how to set up my schedules plus boosting the hot water and heating. He didn’t set the receiver to gravity fed mode as this keeps my hot water separate when I just want hot water (thermal store cylinders take hot water from the boiler to store it for radiator heating and hot water through the taps and showers, you have to have the hot water on so it can store hot water, the boiler isn’t on all the while nor the pumps) I hope this helps others with a thermal store cylinder with a condensing boiler, you need the two channel receiver not just the heating one as you need the hot water too or your central heating won’t work with a thermal store cylinder.
The app is easy to use I haven’t as yet set this up with Alexa echo dot as it’s very easy on the app on my mobile.
I paid for the installation and took the day off work. The engineer failed to turn up the first time, when I rang British Gas they kept telling me he’d be there soon, the 6pm window passed but he was still coming. Needless to say he never turned up. The second appointment came, engineer turned up thinking he was fixing the boiler, luckily he did manage to fit the hive. I was supposedly given a 30 cheque for the missed appointment but that hasnt turnedup either. The product it self is quite good, does what its supposed to. Not sure its a must have but it makes it easier to schedule the heating. I use my smart phone rather than Alexa, because its easier. Sometimes the app loses connection, but overall pleased. I certainly wont be changing my gas supply to British Gas though.
Bought as a black Friday deal, so I expected to have to wait a few weeks for install, however when I went onto the website there were plenty of available slots, and I waited no more than a week (which fitted in with my schedule). The engineer was here for about 90 mins, and did a good job with the installation.
It’s handy to be able to set different temperatures for different day and timeslots, and to be able to control the heating from our phones.
The only downside so far (and it’s only a small issue for us) is with hive generally. You can only use one account to control hive devices, so if there is more than one person in the household they have to share the same account, which means you can’t ringfence certain devices.
Some reviews say you can wire this in yourself, I disagree unless you are a gas installation engineer. I did think about doing it myself but as it was a Black Friday sale I opted to go for a paid for engineer install, he spent a lot of time in the boiler replacing my existing wiring from my old thermostat, installed a wireless receiver by the boiler and a hub on my wired network. The app works very well on my phone and iPad, you set a time for it be ready at so you don’t have to predict when you want it warm. There is an away from home setting that turns the heat off while you are away and back on when you approach home. A holiday mode that sets a frost protect mode on for however long you need. All in all very impressed, it does what I expected plus more. The installation was 9 days from buying so again I think British Gas has got the timing right, some people said it took months. Love it!
Upgraded our heating to smart. Got a nice deal via Amazon, including an Echo Dot. Installation is via on-line, using the code in the Hive pack. Engineer came and installed everything in around 1.5hrs. The thermostat is a tidy bit of kit and the app is simple to use. We’ve had for a month now and no issues whatsoever as we have excellent wifi throughout the house. Minor quibble is the app very occasionally freezes and transferring a day schedule across to other days can’t be done (unless I’ve missed something). In all, excellent so far.
UPDATE: turns out I have missed something regarding schedule copying. It can be done!
Other than nearly scratching through the code for the professional installation (I don’t currently have a thermostat so didn’t know where to start) this is a great product. Been wanting one ever since other family members got them. The anti freeze (turns your heating on if it gets below a certain temperature) feature is a nice bonus!
Other than nearly scratching through the code for the professional installation (I don’t currently have a thermostat so didn’t know where to start) this is a great product. Been wanting one ever since other family members got them. The anti freeze (turns your heating on if it gets below a certain temperature) feature is a nice bonus!
I’ve now been using the Hive system for just under two years and have had a great experience. There were some issues on install, the first engineer sent was unable to fit it properly and we were left without heating for two days in the winter as a result. Not great! However, after this initial problem, the experience has been great. The system is so easy to use and I have to say the customer service from Hive has been fantastic. They noticed our signal was struggling a little and sent a signal booster free of charge, when we swapped to a new combi boiler they sent a new receiver that was compatible with this free of charge and I’ve recently had an issue with my thermostat and they’ve sent a replacement, again, free of charge! Thanks for making such a great product and providing wonderful customer service. I’d thoroughly recommend contacting them via social media as it generally gets a quicker response than an email. My only gripe is that the bulbs etc can be a little costly but in general they drop down to a decent price around bank holidays, Black Friday etc.
Impressed with hive so far. It allows our heating to work for us. We can switch it on from anywhere if we are feeling cold.
The thermostat itself gets covered in fingerprint marks.
I was a bit dissapointed that it took about three weeks to get an appointment for installation. I hadn’t been warned that I would need to do to help on the day. I could have had the app downloaded in advance and an extension lead ready to plug the hub in for example.
If you order the product with installation you will only get the thermostat, everything else was brought by the engineer.
The major drawback is the lack of functionality with Google home devices, hive say they are working on this. Amazon alexa is slightly better but still not fully integrated, apparently nest is better.
Overall – great product – really makes sense.
This is the only Hive piece worth having – it should really save money over time – though I see now the price has gone up fifty quid in less than a month. The bugbear, though, was I ordered in early January and was then delivered the control box without the hub – British Gas didn’t install until over a month later!!!! I had the heating kit and a whole load of light bulbs that I couldn’t set up and use as the engineer brings the hub with him – dur brained it must be said. It also meant that by the time I had the install done and could play with the bulbs my Amazon return date had passed – which I didn’t think was fair either.
This is the only Hive piece worth having – it should really save money over time – though I see now the price has gone up fifty quid in less than a month. The bugbear, though, was I ordered in early January and was then delivered the control box without the hub – British Gas didn’t install until over a month later!!!! I had the heating kit and a whole load of light bulbs that I couldn’t set up and use as the engineer brings the hub with him – dur brained it must be said. It also meant that by the time I had the install done and could play with the bulbs my Amazon return date had passed – which I didn’t think was fair either.
Works a treat and easy to install. (once I solved the existing thermostat problem)
Literally takes 5-10 minutes to install the only problem I had was when I removed my existing thermostat, the heating wouldn’t come on. I discovered this was down to a missing connection the boiler needed which was no longer there as the thermostat no longer clicked on or off. A simple terminal block reconnecting the relavant wires and it works perfect. Now I can stop the wife messing with the heating.
Works a treat and easy to install. (once I solved the existing thermostat problem)
Literally takes 5-10 minutes to install the only problem I had was when I removed my existing thermostat, the heating wouldn’t come on. I discovered this was down to a missing connection the boiler needed which was no longer there as the thermostat no longer clicked on or off. A simple terminal block reconnecting the relavant wires and it works perfect. Now I can stop the wife messing with the heating.