Drayton by Schneider Electric Multi-Zone Smart Thermostat and 2 Smart Radiator Thermostat Kit – Combination Boilers Only – Heating Control
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App controlThe Wiser app takes your heating to the next level of smart. With winter on the way comfort is key. Save up to 50% on your energy usage and maximise comfort by controlling your heating and hot water on your phone. | Insights and Heat ReportInsights help you to make wiser decisions when it comes to controlling your home heating. The Heat Report lets you see exactly what your system is up to – anytime, anywhere. Helping you to save energy. | Energy savingsOver 80% of a home’s energy consumption is used for heating and hot water, so when it comes to heating your home, Wiser will have a big impact on your energy usage. Wiser smart heating controls could save you almost 50% on your energy usage. |
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Smart speaker compatible“Alexa, turn off the heating in the kitchen” Connect your Wiser Thermostat to Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant to enhance control and comfort. Use voice commands to check the status of rooms and make simple changes to your system. | IFTTT compatibleIFTTT automates your heating using geofencing, turning it off when all members of the household leave home, whether it’s for a day or for a fortnight. You’ll never need to think about turning the heating on or off again while you’re home’s empty, just sit back and enjoy saving more energy and money with Wiser. | Wiser smart modesFeel warm and cosy exactly when you want to be in Comfort Mode; let the system turn off the heating at the best time in Eco Mode; and instantly reduce all setpoints while you’re away to avoid over-heating an empty home, using Away Mode. |
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| Boiler Type | Combi | Conventional (boiler with separate hot water tank) | Combi or Conventional with two heating zones | Combi | Conventional (boiler with separate hot water tank) |
| Heating and Hot Water? | Heating control | Heating and hot water control | Heating and hot water control with two heating zones | Heating control | Heating and hot water control |
| Radiator Thermostats Included? | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Can I add Radiator Thermostats & Smart Plugs? | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant & IFTTT? | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Energy Saving Smart Modes? | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Easy to install? | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Weight: | 820 g |
| Size: | Multizone 1 Heating Only |
| Dimensions: | 8.9 x 13.8 x 24.5 cm; 820 Grams |
| Model: | WV714R9K0902 |
| Colour: | Sandstone Fabric |
| Manufacture: | Drayton by Schneider Electric |
| Colour: | Sandstone Fabric |
| Size: | Multizone 1 Heating Only |
Fitting and setup was really easy, and replaced our Center Honeywell EHE0200361 Wireless Thermostat and BDR91 Relay without any modifications to the wiring from our Baxi Duotec combi boiler. See my photos showing the wiring layouts of both old and new.
Drayton being a British company is another big plus for me, I like to support our home grown companies.
Discovered this product while searching for feedback on the Google product, which I had expected to buy. This is much cheaper and after 3 weeks of use in my house seems much more powerful and ideal for my needs. I have 2 separate heating zones plus hot water, each with a motorised valve so bought Kit 3. Temperature control has hugely improved compared to my old mechanical thermostats. It’s too soon to tell if costs have reduced. I would give it 5* if the app was more powerful such as being able to extract data for more detailed analysis. Although it does integrate with smart meters I am unable to have one. I plan to add the radiator valve kits, fortunately I already have Drayton radiator valves so fitting should be very easy. Unfortunately thir pric on Amazon has just increased by 5 so will have to shop around
Does what it says on the box. Bit of an issue with app crashing but overall happy with the purchase.
Initially app was forcing me to touch thermostat as it couldn’t obtain the temperature but now after 1-2 month of use, that issue is gone. App keep loghing me off randomly and fails to launch many times. I just use the basic features but happy with purchase.
The Honeywell system is very nice and gets good reviews, but so does the Drayton at way less than half the price, and can control more zones. It’s a challenge to work out the components of the Honeywell system, and many are not available through Amazon now.
I wanted Alexa control, OpenTherm (though not using it yet), room thermostat and 6 radiator valve heads. The cost for the Honeywell system was about 1050, and the Drayton was 382, BUT on Black Friday I paid 274! It costs more than that just for the Honeywell controller!
Everything is easy to install, the hub comes with the industry standard backplate and cost me less than 50 to replace the old non-standard one; if your system has a standard backplate, you don’t need a plumber or electrician for any of this! Download the Drayton Wiser app, connect the hub, press the setup button, connect to your network, done.
Add the room thermostat, which is simple AND if it is assigned to the same room as radiator thermostats the room thermostat overrides, which makes sense as the temperature near the radiator is warmer.
The radiator thermostats are simple too, connect to network, assign it to a room, allow it to calibrate itself, finished. BUT, be prepared to spend time adjusting the temperature to get it to what feels comfortable where you are in the room, OR buy a room thermostat for every room; I didn’t.
The app is clean and simple and provides some useful analytics that show what you have set the temperature to, and what it achieves by when; there’s an eco mode that predicts when it’s getting near temperature and shuts off a bit before, as the water is still hotter for a while; there’s a comfort mode that will switch on early to achieve the set temperature for the time you set. If you’re a geek, they provide an API so you can write or download programs to extract data and control the system.
So, what’s the benefit of spending the money?
Before, like many, I had a wall mounted room thermostat that turned the boiler on/off, and manual thermostatic radiator valve heads to adjust the temperature in other rooms. The downside of this are many:-
I don’t sit by the wall thermostat, and I now know it’s actually 5C warmer there than where I sit!
The boiler was set at a temperature and was on unless the room thermostat or timer was off. Now, it can come on just to provide heat for the bedroom and bathroom a little before I get up, then mainly the lounge where I am most of the time, and the back bedroom which I don’t use gets a low level of heat at times when the other rooms are up to temperature i.e. a flexible dynamic system.
OpenTherm takes it a stage further and adjusts the boiler water temperature depending on what is required when, saving more energy.
This system was really easy to install to my boiler, but if you are are unsure always consult a qualified person. The valves are dead easy to install if you already have Drayton TRVs on your radiators.
Doing the app setup was a little flaky 1st time, I had to cancel and start again and then it went through with no issues.
It’s very good for scheduling heating, for example to not come on during the day, and what I really love is the daily line chart showing how the room temperatures and when the heating comes on.
I have a loft room that gets colder than the other rooms, so the fact this can independently call for heating is great.
I purchased the Thermostat and a number of TRV’s, NOTE: don’t fit to all the radiators in your house, you need to keep one radiator uncontrolled as a heat load to allow your boiler to cool down – it wont be on all the time, only for a few minutes after the controlled radiators have reached their temperature – I’m only saying that to save you buying too many TRV’s (although Amazon where great in returning the one that I over-ordered), I also used a Drayton Wiring Centre LWC3 to make my life a bit easier, but you can get away without it.
The installation guides are very clear, and even when I got a bit stuck, the tech support from Drayton was prompt and clear. Drayton even offer a series of You Tube video’s to aid the installation process…combine this with videos from Bosch Worcester and you are on a winning streak.
The app is very easy to use, and although I have yet to compare energy use with previous year, I can immediately tell I am saving energy. Whereas before, the whole house heated needlessly to a comfortable level, as I walk around my house I can tell the “lived in” zones are still comfortable, whilst the spare room is cold and the bedrooms are only heated when we need them…..why was I heating these rooms before??
If all goes well, this system is easy to set up.
After a week of use and a few days where heating is beginning to get called for briefly, I can see temperature control is responsive. Radiators are quiet and they heat up same as they did with the ordinary TRVs.
Some potential downsides.
1) You cannot control the system at all other than via wifi and software. So you could not, for example, turn off the hot water and/or heating manually other than by, switching off power (which in my case is the fused spur in the airing cupboard).
2) The wifi of the hub is weak.
Ping monitoring it, it regularly fails to respond. On two occassions the left LED has came on solid red and the unit was offline. I needed to switch the unit to setup mode and back and wifi connection came up.
3) The iTRVs seem lighweight. Some other reviewers here experience issues with these early on. I hope they last as they will form the bulk of the investment, if you go all out smart with Wiser.
Hopefully it manages to pay for itself with energy savings.
I replaced my Drayton Wireless Thermostat with new ‘Wiser’ Heating Controls. I bought the Kit 1 and subsequently 7 more Wiser TRVs.
I was disappointed to find that the Wiser Room Thermostat WiFi signal was too weak to successfully link to the new Hub R (which had directly replaced the old Wireless Thermostat Unit (by the boiler in my loft – which always worked reliably!)
The answer was obvious, I had to buy a Wiser Plug ‘extender’ (another 38). Great the system worked.
Next I fitted the two Wiser TRVs (from the Kit 1) at the extremes of distance from the Hub R. One Wiser TRV would not pair reliably. Yes – I had to buy yet another Wiser Plug ‘Extender’ and find the optimal position for its location.
My house covers 3 floors (top a loft conversion) walls all brick. My extenders are both on 1st floor at opposite ends of the house, and everything now works reliably.
I am very impressed with the many features of my Wiser system and in particular the ability for ant TRV to ‘call’ for the boiler to run when it’s room schedule requires heat.
The Hub R is linked to my home WiFi and my iPhone has the Wiser Home App downloaded (needed for set up).
The App is brilliant and very easy to use and navigate. Too many features to describe here!
The system can also use Amazon Alexa and I have even linked Wiser to IFTTT App which now automatically switches the heating off / down when my iPhone is away from home.
You can also control everything from the Wiser Home App when anywhere!
WISER has exceeded my expectations, except for two things, namely:
Poor Wiser WiFi signal strength.
No temperature ‘offset’ to correct the true room temperature for the Wiser TRV measured temperature (shown in the Wiser Home App.
I would buy again as the overall cost /features compares very well against main competitor systems.
I researched a lot of products, and although this one looked really good, I couldn’t help but wonder why the TRV heads were 40 rather than others which were around 60. I thought they may be inferior. I need not worry. They are brilliant. I’ve worked in IT for 30 years, so setup was a doddle. Even installation was one screw and just swap my old timer for the Wiser hub. It fitted on the old backplate so no wiring required. I just turned my old thermostat to max so it just kept the thermostat permanently switched on, giving control to the new Wiser kit.
Once installed, I set up the schedules for each room individually. On an old system, you set all radiators to switch off at a certain temperature, but if you have all radiators set to 20 degrees, for example, then if the temperature is 18 degrees, then obviously all radiators will switch on. With the Wiser Smart Heating system, you then go one step further by saying (for example). I want the bedroom and bathroom to come on between 6 and 8.30 at 20 degrees with all other radiators OFF. I want the office radiator to come on at 8am at 21 degrees, and the bedroom and bathroom to go off at 8.30. I want the office then to turn off at 5pm, but I want the lounge and hallway to come on at 4pm till 11pm. And I want the bedroom to come back on a 9pm. Stuff like that. It basically means that I am running 1 or 2 radiators all day (or until they reach the required temperature), whereas before I would have been running 10 all day. I can only assume that with the horrendous price increases in the UK for gas, this has made a huge difference. We have a reasonable sized 4 bedroom detached house, and after April, our monthly gas and electricity bill will rise from 100 per month to 130 per month. This is the lowest of anyone we know. We are on standard tariff as our supplier went bust, so we had to change supplier recently to a new one, and they had no fixed price deals going, so we ended up on standard which is one of the highest, and we have smart meters, so they know exactly how much we use. People we know in smaller houses than us are paying far more than us (in some cases more than double). I can only assume it is the Wiser system making the difference. But it makes sense, as having 2 radiators on instead of 10 is a big difference.
The only negative. The app needs some more thought and some work. It’s great at setting basic schedules, but they need to listen to customers more. I think it must have been designed by a developer. When I first had it, I gave them some feedback saying it is really good, but you should be able to have overrides to the regular schedule for specific dates (like on Microsoft calendars). E.g Aunt Ethel is coming to stay next Thursday for 2 nights, so during that period keep the spare room at 21 degrees. The only way I can see is to wait until the day of arrival and then amend the regular schedule to suit or set it a constant temperature and tell it to ignore the schedule. But with both of these options, you have to remember to undo it afterwards. I heard nothing back.
Overall though, this is an exceptional system, far better than I could ever have hoped for, which I believe is saving me a lot of money, and probably paid for itself a long time ago. It just needs (like all apps) ongoing customer engagement and development. I would be happy to perform this role for free as I have been heavily involved in mobile app development and I love this product, and I would love to be able to help others save money with the fuel price crisis in the UK.
Have these units on my radiators. They are controlled from a phone app or with the help of an Android simulator can be run from a PC. Commissioning is easy with LED indicators.
Batteries are on the reverse side to the indicators which makes them difficult to change especially since the polarity indicator is difficult to see. I have taken to unscrewing the head, replacing the bateries. refitting and recommissioning. The only indicator of the state of the batteries is in the app which is not ideal.
Initially purchased specifically so we could keep babies room a constant temp and not have the whole house heated up all night.
We had a look at the instructions for wiring it into the boiler thinking it would be possible for an experienced diyer as videos and blogs seem to suggest. Wrong we ended up not attempting it in case we messed something up and had no heating
Once the unit is wired into the boiler it’s a breeze to set up. We have since added more TRVs so all our radiators are controlled individually. We don’t use the room thermostat at all as it seems to mess up the room it’s in abd make it call for heat more than it should so we’ve turned it right down and left it in a corner.
Great system, wish we had done it sooner.
************UPDATE AFTER 7 MONTHS: System has worked well for the past 7 months and is saving on gas. Only issue I have had is some of the thermostats lose connection on a regular basis. However we recently had a power cut of about an hour after which all thermostats came online with no further drop outs. I must assume the range extenders were not functioning correctly with the thermostats. So if you have thermostats with intermittent drop outs perhaps switch of power to the main controller and any range extenders you have in your system for a few minutes.**************
Installed the system in a 5 bedroom bungalow with 13 radiators. Installing the control unit next to the boiler was simple. Removed old Drayton unit and installed new (uses the same mounting plate). Replacing the radiator thermostats was simple. System configured and now running.
Issues found was with a weak WiFi signal at the control unit next to the boiler configuring the timing and temperature settings was slow, slow to update. Had to move my WiFi booster closer to the boiler. To avoid thermostats not responding I also had to add two range extender/ plug units.
Ran the system for a few days to check if reliable which it is. Changed the mode to ECO mode so hopefully will start to make some savings.
It would help greatly if the App displayed the signal strength at the hub from each the thermostats. Determining the requirement for and positioning of the range extender/ smart plugs would be so much easier.
Also I don’t see the point of combining the range extender function with that of a smart plug in the same unit. The position of the range extender is determined by signal strengths and is unlikely to be where you need a smart plug. Drayton should make two separate units ie a range extender unit and a smart plug unit. It would make more sense.
Note: If you are someone not comfortable with modern technology and want a heating system which is simply on or off not involving batteries, wifi signals, thermostat signals, Apps, etc this may not be for you.
I was looking to stop heating rooms that we don’t routinely use and the radiator valves connected to the Wiser app have achieved this just as I wanted.
We already had manually operated Drayton TRVs and so it was an easy swap to install the automated versions.
We needed to replace the backplate for the hub, disconnect the existing wired thermostat and substitute a permanent link in its place but this was straightforward for a competent DIYer following the wiring diagram.
Some of the radiator valves were too far from the hub to connect reliably and so I needed two extender plugs which addressed the problem but added to the installation cost.
The app has a few minor niggles, but generally works pretty well and integrates with Alexa. Graphs that plot each room’s temperature over time are useful to confirm that things are set up properly.
The major downside that we have experienced is not related to the Wiser system. When several radiators are switched off by the system, water is not necessarily following the route through the pipes that applied when the system was “balanced” at commissioning. This has created a hissing type noise in the “open” radiators that is noticeable but not outrageous.
When the radiator valves open and close there is a very short buzzing noise from the motor.
Finally there can be unexpected noise at night when a room gets too cold relative to what is programmed. The boiler will then fire up and, while it can be annoying, this is what should happen. The solution is to set the room temperature even lower during the night!
It remains to be seen how quickly I might recoup the high costs of the system from reduced heating bills but a month after installation I’m happy enough.
Works great but you need the whole system for best experience. Control unit plus thermostats plus valves. App works well but there is no global controller.
These do everything that teh other well known brands do, and at a much more affordable price. Reliability is good.. I have had teh 1st system for just about a year now, never let me down. ECO mode is a bit hit and miss, in early Autum and late spring as it monitors the outside temperature and ovverides whether the heating should on or not. try telling that to somebody that lives in a North facing house!
The app could be improved, but its adequate, and you still get more info from it than the other well known brands. Can be integrated into IFTTT, but I dont.
All I will say, is dont hesitate, buy it, especially when its on sales prices… cheaper than a regular wireless thermosta
I have old Danfoss TRV’s and the adaptors supplied didn’t fit. I managed a DIY fix with some aluminium sheeting and some jubilee hose pipe clips. Once I’d got them fitted they were easy to set up and control.
This unit was very easy to fit, no need for a plumber. Paired up quickly and I have found the app very simple to use, connected with Alexa well too. Clear Commands are processed well and the unit keeps to schedule.
I had a new heating system installed this year which came with a Honeywell TR3 programmable wireless stat.
No smart connectivity or app.
I did a bit of research and went for the Drayton because of the cost and reviews.
I’m absolutely delighted.
I bought the starter kit which had a thermostat, control box and 2 wireless TRVs.
After an hour of thorough googling I decided to wire the control box myself, which was easy enough after going through a few forums.
The set-up was a doddle, as was adding the TRVs.
I ordered another 5 TRVs on the spot.
All my rooms are now wirelessly connected to both the app and Alexa.
So I can set room temperatures by voice.
The app itself is easy to use and links to IFTTT, so it’s geofenced and switches off when I leave the house, and back on when I get home.
Handily the app can aggregate temperatures, so where I have 2 radiators in one room it uses an average temperature.
The bathroom radiator is the only one that doesn’t have a TRV on it so I put the thermostat in the bathroom.
Basically I can individually heat any room in the house as long as I leave the bathroom radiator on.
At this price I couldn’t be happier!
Highly recommended.
We recently replaced our boiler and decided to fit to fit Drayton Wiser at the same time. The plumber installed the hub and fitted the needed valves to the radiators, but left us to do the actual configuration and fit the actual TRV heads.
After reading some of the reviews on here I was a little concerned that given the size of our house we’d have issues getting the TRVs to pair. Thankfully the setup was very easy! Walking through the setup steps in the app I didn’t encounter any issues getting the hub to join the Wifi, and the TRV heads found the hub without issues. I did find that when joining to Alexa from an iPhone I had to turn off the popup blocker in Safari temporarily, but that was easy enough to sort.
Some people have complained that the TRV heads miss out on having an LCD display, but compared to the boxy looking Honeywell/Bosch TRVs I think they look a lot cleaner/more attractive for not having them (and that played a part in choosing this system). The twist to boost temperature up/down works well, and anything else can be done in the app.
Future wise, Drayton don’t advertise support for underfloor heating but it appears to be coming – the first time after I power cycled the hub the app sported an option to connect to an underfloor heating controller. It’s available elsewhere in Europe, so I think it might become available in the UK too.
I’ll keep an eye out on the reliability of the system, but so far so good.
Having just replaced our 20 yr old conventional boiler with a much more efficient one I decided to invest some of the projected savings in further enhancements.
Replacing an old freezer and rescheduling the hot water is already making substantial savings on electricity and Smart Heating is an obvious next step.
First I reviewed the available products and decided that Wiser was the best value for money and offers all the functionality that we need.
I considered iTRV’s but eventually decided that the additional cost was not worth the investment but the option is still available in the future (though our Giacomino TRV’s also require a special adapter).
The big worry was installation and a bit of research showed that our BG UP25 controller has exactly the same wiring as the Wiser Smart Hub so I went for it. It took only a few minutes to shut off the power, unscrew the old controller and replace it with the new one. The existing thermostat is now turned to 100% on and will be removed in due course when the boiler is serviced.
Connecting my iPad and programming the hot water and heating was very straight forward and there are some youtube videos available to explain the different modes (away mode, eco and comfort) which offer savings on top of setting the old style TRV’s in every room.
The system has now been commissioned and is working as expected.
I am thinking that I will use Away mode in the Summer so that the heating does not come on and for the Winter I have a schedule with 15C at night and 20C during the daytime.
A bit of research and I found the IFTTT site which links to the Wiser account and allows you to create a free account and automate the system even further eg) an applet that runs at a certain time each day to switch to Away mode in Spring and Autumn so I don’t need to keep altering the heating schedule.
I would certainly recommend checking out this system if your requirements are simple and you want good value for money.
Update:
so it’s been in place for 7 days and I have been closely monitoring the system and the power use.
As regards hot water, I have put extra lagging on the cylinder (12) and I am only heating water on ‘bath nights’ (x3 a week) giving a clear reduction in electricity usage. It actually seems sensible to heat to 65C so that the water is still usable even after three days.
Central Heating – I am not sure that Comfort mode is working with my new condenser boiler set on Economy so I have turned it off and forward scheduled my settings to get the full impact of heating when I get up in the morning. I have also scheduled a boost on ‘bath nights’ so that it doesn’t feel chilly getting out of the bath.
Overall the system is working exactly as I want and giving me control and feedback my major power usage. I already have some understanding of the time it takes the house to cool down and heat up.
It will be interesting to review this when it gets to freezing and sub zero temps later in the winter.
Wiser smart Radiator Thermostat
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Still very happy with the basic system so I tried adding a smart radiator thermostat.
My existing TRVs are Giacomini so I ordered the adapter which is available online from Conrad electronics or Amazon.
Fitting the adapter was ok but does requires a very small Allen key to tighten the nuts.
My experience is that the temperatures recorded by the smart radiator thermostat go wacky at the start of the day about 15 mins before the schedule kicks in and the heating fires up. (Photos attached).
I tried re calibrating and factory reset but the problem persisted and I’m still waiting for a response from the support team so I am looking to return this in the next few days.
Instead I am getting another smart thermometer which I will use as a sensor to record room temperatures and adjust the manual controls and existing TRVs. I could probably acheive the same with a simple digital thermostat but for a little extra cost the wiser smart thermostat will record the temperatures.
Update: 20/11/20.
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Overall I still have a very favorable opinion re: the Drayton Wiser Smart Heating system – as it is easy to install, performs well and allows me to control energy consumption in these difficult times.
The Smart Radiator Thermostat did not work for me at all and I returned the product which may have been faulty. As stated above, my strategy now is to have two Smart Room Thermostats and this is working very well. In truth I might have done the same by getting a cheaper analog max/min thermostat but it’s nice to have the data recorded and two rooms allows you to exceed the 8 event s a day limit on a schedule.
I’ve had two control systems from the boiler manufacturer, neither were cheap and both failed within two years. Won’t mention the manufacturer but they are one of the higher end domestic boiler manufacturer. The boiler is a combi but the wiser system would easily integrate with a heat only boiler system ( one with a hot water cylinder).
The system was very easy to install, the thermostatic radiator units simply unscrew and the wiser radiator unit screws straight on. I was replacing my old honeywell Thermostatic radiator controls. The kit comes with and adaptor which will allow the unit to fit most makes of radiator TRV’s without the need to drain the system. I found the unit very easy to set up and pair the TRV to the system. The only criticism is the system isn’t opentherm compatible so its simply a on/off but the way the system performs is very much like a opentherm system.
With standard thermostatic radiator valves these simply shut the water off to the radiator, this doesn’t interface with the boiler, only a room thermostat and time lock can turn the boiler on and off. With this system it is possible to turn the boiler on and off when any of the TRVs are calling for heat which is fantastic. For instance if your working from home and only want to heat say the living room and kitchen this system will allow these rooms to be controlled simply and efficiently without trying to heat the whole house, as long as each radiator has a wiser unit fitted. Instead of heating the whole house you can now control each room however and whenever you wish.
We have noticed a drop in the gas bill which is really why this system was fitted an long with reducing the CO2 footprint.
The house is small but WiFi is always an issue, ro the point the computer upstairs has trouble with WiFi so its hard wired, to date I’ve not had any issues with connectivity at all, this isn’t to say if you have a larger property or a poorly placed router a range extender maybe needed.
We have had this system. I have had to change the batteries in one or two units in that time, to be fair these are the ones that come with the unit so I don’t expect them to be the best, changing the batteries and reconnecting the TRV back to the system only takes a few minutes and probably will take less time now I know the procedure to rediscover the TRV.
Lots of data can be accessed in the app, so the tech minded gadget lover can see what the system has been upto.
Initial cost is a bit high but compared to the benefits this system provides is comparable to fitting a control system to a existing system, without the need to run cables to time clocks, room thermostats etc.
All in all I can’t recommend this system highly enough.
Very simple to install . Competitive price. Recently installed with new heating system . Have every confidence in product so now time will tell
Good upgrade for our manual Drayton timer system – easy to use and set up via the app. Backplate fitted our existing plate – setting the water and heating schedule via the app took me a little time to work out but easy now . My wife happy that she can overide the system from work making sure she is warm when she gets home. Have not set it up with Alexa as yet as using the wiser app is easy to use in the first instance
I bought this on a whim really as I was about to put my old Honeywell, wired, programmable thermostat and Siemens time switch back into my system following the fiasco with the Hive I had for less than 6 months! Noticed this Kit 2 as a warehouse deal “like new” so decided to give it a try.
Very easy to install, with only 2 units – the combined boiler switch/hub/controller and the very small and neat wireless thermostat (the Hive had 3 units – the extra one required an Ethernet connection to your router).
One installation hiccup was although all three boiler controllers state they will fit straight onto your existing, industry standard, back-plate in fact the Hive would NOT fit (it has a couple of extra profiles on the side of the box) so I had to fit Hives own mounting (not very good quality terminals). When I came to fit the Wiser controller it would NOT fit onto the Hive back-plate – it would have fitted the Siemens original one though! So I ended up changing the back-plate on both installs – at least the Wiser version has better quality terminals.
A further problem arose when I was starting everything up on the phone app – it appeared the Hub was already registered to someone else – thanks Amazon! Strange as when I received the unit it seemed to be factory sealed,the batteries were shrink wrapped, protective film on screen ans even the clip in desk stand was included?
At this point I let go a few expletives as I knew that with the Hive system, once the hub is registered to an account, it absolutely cannot be re-assigned – you have to buy a new hub for about 70!
However I decided to ring Wiser support – not expecting much in view of my previous days call to Hive – nearly 2 hours long – 50% unintelligible audio, lots of resetting of my router, changing cables, standing on my head – all to no avail and when they said “advanced tech support would ring me within 72 hours” to sort it out I decided that was the taking the mickey – Screwfix refund beckoned!
My call to Wiser support was totally different – a very helpful, polite, friendly and knowledgeable lady, whom I could easily understand on a clear phone line, just needed to know where the kit had been purchased and the serial number of the hub. Within 5 minutes the previous user had been cancelled and the hub was now registered to me – excellent stuff, exactly how customer support SHOULD work!
Pros:
Easy to fit / very neat small thermostat unit with the option of wall mount or desk mount / so far the app works well (the ONLY way to program a schedule) and has lots of options and information / attractive colour display / simple 3 touch button control to adjust room temperature or select boost feature / possible to control the system from the app if your internet connection goes down – just press the “setup” button once then connect your phone/tablet WiFi to the built in Wiserxxxxxxx access point.
Cons:
No Hot Water display on the thermostat (HW boost or over-ride ONLY available at the hub or on the app) / often the flame symbol stays illuminated for a long time after the room temperature is satisfied and the boiler has turned off (very slow update) / no proximity sensor to briefly turn the display on when you approach it
Overall it seems a good workable system and if it proves reliable I might just shell out and fit the intelligent TRVs to all my radiators BUT, as I need 12 of these at a cost of around 480 I will have to be very sure of the reliability first – It would be nice to be able to schedule and temperature control various different rooms at varying times – almost like “zoning” without the extra plumbing and valves etc!
Just a last word on my previous Hive – when the hub failed it also managed to corrupt the time setting in the thermostat and although they say “you can still run the schedule without internet”, you probably could EXCEPT there is NO time setting function available in the menu so yes, it would run the schedule BUT about 8 hours out of sync with the actual time – useless!
Relatively easy to fit – some rewiring needed for controller though which needs care. Set up is really straightforward. Work well. My one reservation is the radiator valves are quite noisy when they open / close so not best suited to bedrooms if you want the heating to come on before you wake up.
I will admit I’m not using many of the smart features, but so far this has exceeded expectations.
It came as an Amazon return, which meant I soon had an opportunity to interact with customer services. Despite it being Christmas Eve afternoon the phone was promptly answered and the device reset within 10 minutes with the help of a friendly and knowledgeable gent. Another 10 minutes saw the whole thing up and running. The install itself was a simple matter of following the instructions.
I love the fact it has an Opentherm module even though I cannot use it in my system as it is split into upstairs and downstairs zones. They didn’t cheap out. Both stats paired without issue and have stayed connected ever since. Numerous system changes (heating and wifi) and power outages have failed to upset it.
So far everything works exactly as intended. I am also impressed that it does indeed seem to be quite smart. It measures humidity, which is required for accurate heating. Most impressive has been the way it now chooses to boost the heating early in the evening, while it has less work to do, and then just let the temperature drift down to the set level by the time it is scheduled to set back for the night. The ability to keep track of weather and heating patterns from since it was installed is also great. As I’m just zoned for downstairs underfloor heating and upstairs radiators I haven’t had any of the range or battery problems others have reported when using radiator smart valves.
Overall: Excellent performance so far and the only Smart Device that has proved less trouble than its non-smart equivalent. I’d happily buy another.
We have a house with solid walls. Some rooms are warm and stay warm, others go cold really quickly.
We had a Worcester 34cdi with old drayton RF controller built in, and at night the bedrooms used to drop way below the setpoint of the wall thermostat – not great for kids bedrooms – especially when mold started for form in the colder rooms, so had been looking at Smart control systems. (Insulation is a few k so trying this option first)
This kit came on a treasure truck offer few months ago so bought it, plus 3 additional radiator valves.
Had to arrange an electrician to install the wall plate and the hub to the boiler… 60ish and less than an hours work.
The rest is done via the app on your phone.
Positives:
-Responsive accurate control of the system
-Able to have a temperature zone everywhere you have a sensor
-You can create a schedule of times/temperatures and assign multiple rooms to that schedule, or you can have a schedule per room (as we do as our use of each room fluctuates).
– Radiator valves (TRVs) *very* easy to install and setup (just observe the battery polarity markings!… as the typical “springs” arent the same as other appliances… I spent 30 mins trying to figure out why none of my valves was powering on…to see that the batteries were in wrong!). TRV up/down can trigger a 2c boost for 1hr for that zone.
– If you have a TRV and wall control in a single zone then the wall control automatically overrides the heating-demand on the TRV itself.
– TRVs are simple in that there is no pull out display like the honeywells. Just boost up/down twists to change current setpoint.
– Not too loud… slight whir for split second when temps adjusting… eg if too cold you hear the valve open, then the heating comes on. If the boiler is on and they dont want heat… then they whir shut.
– Make sure your valve-body pins are free… get pair of pliers and shift up down a few times with a little wd40 so the motors dont have quite as much work to do.
– We have solid walls, but didnt need the range extender. Furthermost valve needed to be connected to hub a bit closer, but always responds to control now connected.
– android app is intuitive and easy to make changes in; there are now also battery status bars for each device and alerts when getting low. Plenty of insights of how your house behaves thermally, compared with say the outside temperature and what rooms heat when. (Mine is saying to install a TRV in our lounge as we are overheating it constantly as its an “always on” radiator – which had suspected).
– comfort mode works out over time what your room takes to heat vs outside weather and turns on the heating before scheduled time so it reaches the set point when youve told it to. Works pretty well IMO.
– there is a “eco” mode but not tried it out. Apparently its turned our heating down quite a few times when not needed… time will tell if reduces bills, but we bought it more for comfort so that we didnt have to wake up in middle of night to turn heating up for the kids.
– hub range pretty decent. Our hub is in our outhouse round back of house and we still get 2/5 signal upstairs at front of house; the rad valves seem to maintain decent connection just the app sometimes struggles.
– each of the smart TRVs can be “locked” so can only be changed via the app… useful if you have little hands that like to fiddle with things that whirr and flash
Negatives:
ipad app:
– layout… doesnt landscape when you turn the screen
– doesnt have the “settings” options… for that I have to use my android phone… so wouldnt have been able to setup using our ipad. Also doesn’t work with older ipads (we have a mini it wont install on, which might have been useful to just put on a wall in the hallway)
Android app:
1. latest update… if low signal to the hub it sits waiting to connect to the hub before you can change any settings… previously you could go in, review and only when you came to change something would it complain about hub connection… now… it just blocks everything. Loathe to buy the range extender given its 1 corner of the house that has the problem and we are moving our boiler soon.
2. Initial setup – I couldnt create an account without the app being connected to my hub… so as such I couldnt do that side of things before my hub was actually installed
All access is via the “app”… that is you have to have a phone/tablet to control the system with any granularity; there is no way to login online and make changes, even though you can control the system via the app when away from home.
Only things missing IMO from the infrastructure are:
– TRVs dont have a temp display on them (see honeywell).
– a more advanced display control unit to upgrade to (see honeywell)
– underfloor heating manifold (again…Honeywell) (we are planning this on our extension next year, so if not available will have to change systems, but for the price “right now” this is a no-brainer)
– ability to login via a web-page and do all the same things the app can do
So far so good. Id **thoroughly** recommend and would buy again.
Update: replaced my lounge radiator lockshield with a wiser trv (for some reason this was our pass-thru, so moved them to the bathroom rad instead). Head registered then lights would randomly start flashing. +/- worked in opposite direction and then it disconnected and lights were flashing at random. Clearly a dud. Raised with Amazon who sent out next day replacement (which works perfectly) and now our lounge wont be epicly overheating whenever any other room demands heat.
If you have a smart meter you can also integrate with that, but my supplier (BG Evolve) doesnt do smart meters – not sure how it looks on the app.
I like the insights view shows you when heating was turned on or off during setpoint cycles. It shows external temp (from weather forecast) and internal temp in the room vs setpoint so you can see how outside temp influences internal temp and then when the system triggers. I guess it means you can look and see if its triggering when you arent using that room and adjust the schedule for that room – which I had done up front as our activity is fairly predictable
Where to start. Well swapping over the controllers was an absolute doddle, and the smart room thermostat did all the work itself. It all seemed so simple. And then the problem hit. Trying to connect the controller / hub to my WiFi. So many times it said it connected but then the app couldn’t find it, red lights flashing, green lights flashing. It nearly went back in the box and to the UPS returns point. However I swapped some emails with Drayton Support and they suggested I try a different phone to the Huawei P30 I had been using. I tried an old Samsung S7. This time during the connection the setup light went solid red so I contemplated an unopened bottle of whisky. As I contemplated for about 10 minutes, the light went solid green. The app still wouldn’t connect. I had set the guest wifi to 2.4GHz having previous experience of smart things. Eventually in despair with thoughts of a hefty hammer I changed the 2.4 GHz WiFi back to 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz auto. Closed the app, restarted. At first it still refused to register / find the hub. And then a miracle – it found the hub after a few tries. It all works now. Only 6 hours later.
So the secret to not spending 6 hours. Set your guest WiFi to 2.4 GHz. Run through the connection routine as far as the register page and remote control. At this stage you are directly connected to the hub on a temporary network. On your phone “forget” the passwords to your home WiFi networks or your phone may switch networks when it shouldn’t. At the end of setup, tell the hub the name and password of your guest WiFi. It should turn solid red. Make sure the hub setup light changes to solid green – can take 10 minutes. At that point, change your Guest WiFi back to 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz auto. Give it a few minutes to settle. Connect your phone to the guest WiFi. Complete the registration and click to remote connect. You may need to try a couple of times. If not return to the register screen, skip, logout, restart the app, try again. Perseverance seems to be required. Put your hammer and bottle of spirits away, relax with a nice cup of tea. You can now reconnect to your main WiFi and test whether the hub can be controlled from a different WiFi. Test with mobile WiFi too. Drayton support come back quickly if you need them but hopefully my experience will help you complete the process a lot quicker.
Once set up you can control both central heating and hot water remotely from your phone. On that basis I would give the product 5 stars but the setup instructions only 2 because whilst it is easy when you know what to do someone needs to tell you how when it doesn’t work first time. Switching WiFi networks around a couple of times – not in the manual, not intuitive unless you’ve gone through the pain before. Changing phones – never would have thought of that. Drayton support were good, 4 stars. So overall a 4 I think.
If you are operating a Wiser system then the integration of the Wiser Smart Plug into the system is so simple and the plug is easily controlled by Wiser App. Not particularly cheap, but it is very convenient if you want to turn something on an off on the other side of the house, like a heater, before you go to bed, or get back to the house.
It took me a while to set up because I found the instructions a little confusing – maybe because I’m old! Once it was set up, I was very happy with everything.
On tehe occasion that I had to use tech support, I found that they were very busy and responces from them took a long time. Problems were solved in the end.
I’d certainly recommend the product.
I got this as a Black Friday deal last year, and am incredibly impressed by how this has improved my central heating control. The house has 8 radiators – each of which now has a Drayton Wiser room thermostat (where I bought 6 more in addition to the two that come in this package) – with the room thermostat in the lounge.
I’ve noticed that the temperature in each room is a lot more stable than before – and the boiler fires up a lot less too – which should hopefully save me quite a lot on my gas bill! And the house has been lovely and warm during the recent cold snap, where the outside temperatures have averaged around -5C for a week or so.
Best of all, there is an integration available for Home Assistant – this is an open-source home automation system that I run on a Raspberry Pi 4. So I can control all my Wiser thermostats from within Home Assistant – as well as keeping track of signal strength and battery levels for each thermostat – and graphing the temperature in each room over time in Grafana.
So, to summarise, an excellent system, and fantastic value for money to boot!
For those of you using the Wiser Home Assistant Integration. These sockets provide a power measuring entity as well as extending the Wiser Zigbee network. I am running the Drayton system in parallel with a Zigbee2MQTT system and it all seems fine so far. Expensive until you compare them to other power measuring sockets.
I bought this on a Black Friday whim when it was a crazily low price, and that’s a big reason for my score. It’s easy to forget once you’ve installed it, which is great in that it hasn’t caused us any problems – but, I question just how useful it really is compared with a modern wireless thermostat like the one it replaced unless you fully invest in smart radiator valves too.
If you have an existing standard control panel backplate, installation is incredibly simple – one of the key reasons to buy this over something like Nest which would’ve involved very complicated wiring changes, particularly in a multi zone house like mine.
The ability to ask Google Home to warm up a zone is great – though again I wonder whether this just encourages laziness when I could get off the sofa and press a button instead.
Super simple to activate away mode, even if you forget before you leave home, easily switching off the heating until you return and saving energy costs. Doing this via the app remotely is great (and easier than having to go into the boiler cupboard) but it lacks a calendar function to set when it should come back on (e.g. a few hours before returning home), which my old thermostat did have.
The mysterious eco mode is also apparently saving many hours of energy use according to the app, but I have absolutely no idea how it’s determining when / how to do this, so some simpler info in the app would be great. Time will tell whether this is really reducing energy costs.
The app itself isn’t the prettiest, and there are times it feels unintuitive – but it generally gets the job done. There’s a novelty element to it to start with, but after a few months I now tend to just use the thermostat controls, or Google Assistant.
But the key thing I’ve realised is that, dependant on property layout, the truly smart solution would be to warm up the house room by room – and in my case this would mean spending quadruple the price on radiator valves too. This is a cost I simply couldn’t justify based on convenience alone, and I doubt the energy savings would be significant enough to warrant the extra investment either.
In summary, a good purchase if you can find it at the right price, but be well aware of its limitations and whether it’s worth it compared with what you already have.
After many months of research, I settled on Wiser because it seems more specifically designed for traditional British DCH and HW systems. I fitted the system in half a day, replacing the old wiring centre with a 16-way Drayton unit (recommended), and adding the controller in place of the four(!) time clocks and two wired thermostats that controlled the old system. I connected the controller to the wiring centre with a length of 5-core cable from Wickes, and added two extender plugs from Amazon and nine radiator valves from an Independent plumbers merchant. The install was straightforward, although the instructions could be clearer for DIY installers. Allow extra time to make sure you understand everything before you start removing the old system. All the items paired perfectly and provide exact control of every room individually, minute-by-minute, for each day of the week. A massive step forward from what we had before. Since installing I asked one question to Drayton’s tech support, which was answered quickly and helpfully. Highly recommended.
TWO YEARS LATER: I’ve ended up with 14 wireless radiator valves, 3 switches and 2 room thermostats on the 3-zone system. My observations are as follows:
1) The system’s wireless connections are flaky, and subject to interference
2) Drayton Controls doesn’t want to acknowledge any issues publicly, but they have a list of systems they suspect interfere with Wiser (see photo above) which is worryingly long, and included Amazon Echo products, which they specifically say the system works with!
3) Their support lines are responsive, but soon run out of system knowledge. I’ve spent c.5 hours on the phone to them this month.
4) Often the random problems disappear, but without anyone knowing why.
5) The radiator valves are too weak to stop water flowing through radiators when turned off. Noisy too.
I’m keeping the system, as I really can’t be bothered to rip it all out and start again, but I’d advise new buyers to research all other options and assess which has the best wireless connectivity.
Bought this to replace a Drayton Digitst wireless thermostat as I wanted to add timers and have better control of the heating, was really easy to fit and setup.
Using the thermostat in the living room and have a single wireless radiator valve in the bedroom, and it’s easy to keep the rooms at a comfortable temp or boost when needed from the phone app. I don’t have Alexa or Google Home and the app works fine without them.
This is just first impressions in terms of a diy-er installing the smart hub, two roomstats and a couple of smart plugs.
The actual upgrade of the controller to a smart hub was very easy. The backplate had to be changed but the instructions were easy to follow as I had the wiring diag of the old controller. That probably took less than 30 minutes after which I could use my central heating and hot water via the boost buttons. Pairing of the roomstats was also fairly straighforward.
What was extremely difficult was connecting to the cloud. The app is buggy and idiosyncratic and I was getting repeated failures. There is nothing on line or via the app to help.
Tech support though were superb. I twice got through on the phone straight away – and on a Saturday.
Eventually they resolved the issue and it was extremely complex to diagnose.
1) I have a 5g mesh network but the hub only works at 2.4g.
2) It doesn’t like vpn so that had to be disabled.
3) There were issues with randomly losing the wifi connection to the hub – it was resolved by putting in some smart plugs to boost the internal signal from the hub but there was no way of knowing in advance whether that would cure the problem as there was no indication of signal strength through the house
So bottom line on the hub install is, Tech Support was the saviour and I needed smart plugs.
TRVs, once installed seem fine – just a little too easy to upset the smart install process when physically installing the valves on the rad (just dont turn the top of the TRV by accident as you do it as it seemed to switch to another function.
Overall though I’ve got a pretty good smart heating system with no installation cost 🙂
After using the awful salus thermostat. I am really pleased with this product. I have 1 stat up stairs and one down stairs to regulate the house temp to 20’c 24hrs for the baby. Just remember to set up the scheduler in a traditional boiler cackhanded method way when trying to make it run for 24hrs per day. You can control the via the WiFi or data. Also the app needs improving when registering the device.
Very simple set up and app is easy to use, only drawback for me is that the new Wiser thermostat unit does not replace the old thermostat as its a battery powered movable unit makes for easy instal and portability but you have to keep the old thermostat on the wall or remove and make the wiring safe plaster or patch over / redecorate, would be great to have a version powered from the mains like the Nest/Hive etc. to replace original.
Ran into a few problems with the installation of the Hub. I have no experience of wiring and my original Controller did not have a back plate as shown in the Wiser instructions. But on phoning Drayton Wiser one of their experts sorted it for me while I was on the phone. Their support is quick in answering your call and really the best call centre I have ever encounted. The system was up and running in half an hour and I have since purchased and added Thermostats to all my radiators. The control the system gives you over your heating costs and the ease of control is great. No more getting up and altering Trv’s I now get more heat where is needed for less money.
Super easy installation, just be sure to read through the manual before you start.
I was replacing a Drayton timer and room stat with this system, plus I had Pegler TRVs which the Drayton Wiser ones drop right on to. I left the old room stat in place just at max temp as I didn’t want to mess with the boiler wiring plate.
I’ve added a smart plug and range extender to ensure the whole house is covered. Just need to order ten more TRVs now when the prices drop!
Only bug for me is it doesn’t yet work with Hubitat smart hub so automatic away mode is tricky for now (only through IFTTT).
I installed the hub over a 3 channel system and never had to look at it again. Instructions are straight forward to install the hub.
Added the smart trv to the radiators that are least or never used. I had an issue with one trv and it was replaced by their return policy.
The app had numerous updates and works fine. Works flawlessly with google home using the command “raise the temperature” or “turn on the hot water”. Scheduling through the app is quick and responsive. Just be aware by default everytime hardware is added to the app it automatically adds a schedule which you need to delete or your system turns on.
The support team are fab too. Happy with my purchase alone just for the customer care.
Very convenient system and will recommend to friends
I used this to retrofit to an existing older model, non-integrated set of thermostats for controlling three zones – Domestic Hot Water, underfloor heating, & radiators.
It was plug and play, and with the Wiser Heat phone app, I can monitor and adjust the temperatures and timing when I’m in another country.
I had a minor problem with setting my address, and this was solved very quickly by the tech support people at Drayton.
After 13 years we have a thermostat controlled oil heating system thanks to Drayton. Having previously owned houses that were built with thermostats wired in, I had forgotten how effective these can be. Leap-frogging over the lack of wiring has been accomplished using this smart Wi-Fi device setup. So, you need the controller on the wall that replaces whatever timer device you have been using. This links via your Wi-Fi router to your thermostat which sits in your room. The water pump can now continue to pump water that circulates but the boiler fire system only uses oil at the rate it needs to maintain the temperature you set using your thermostat. This temperature control can be modulated via the Wiser app on your iPhone or Android device or Amazon Alexa. More than one person can have the app on your phone controlling the boiler over the internet via your Wi-Fi router. If the internet fails, your heating will not because the Wiser system simply uses your router whether or not it is connected to the internet. Our internet failed across the country (Ireland) after I installed the device but our system heating kept going and was connecting perfectly throughout the 4 hour outage. I had read where another user had praised Drayton for this ability to directly connect to the controller. Of course you still have an override button on the wall controller. So, finally you will need a 2.4ghz router to make this work. If you have a modern 5ghz (5G) router you will need a bit of help in the form of a bolt on additional 2.4ghz router. This is simple to set up and will enable all Alexa devices to work such as smart sockets or bulbs. I highly recommend the ASUS router which sends out both 2.4 and 5ghz signals and allows VPN to be added as Smartvpn —Amazon sells this! Anyway we love our Drayton system- our boiler central heating is oil fired and single circuit. The heated water always travels around the water immersion heater and around the radiators. Dual circuit systems have separate control for water heating-simples!-enjoy!
Firstly, don’t listen to the negatives, they’re clearly from rival brands or people who didn’t quite understand the installation.
Replacing the old thermostat with the new one was a breeze! It took less than 5 minutes. 4 screws.. The wires were already in the right order, so it was a quick swap from the old back plate to the new one. (Requires a screwdriver)
The installation of the android app and linking up the hub was done in 2-3 minutes. It was straight forward and the instructions were displayed on screen.
Installing the radiator valves was really quick. I was dreading doing this because although I’d class myself as a bit of a geek, I’ve never played with radiators before. But it was as simple as unscrewing an old valve and replacing it with a new one..
I’ve seen a few people moaning about the app, saying it was impossible to use.. well I’m confused because it’s just as good as any other smart app. It’s just like smart life with extra heating options.
All in all it’s brilliant and if anyone gets stuck installing it, give us a shout.. Everything you need is in the box aside from a screwdriver, but who doesn’t own a screwdriver?
Make sure you turn off the power to the boiler before doing anything!
**10/10**
I have Drayton Wiser system for more than a year, and I love it, I can thank it enough for the comfort it added to my life. I have done another review of the entire system.
For the thermostat, I think they are essential for comfort. Each bedroom has one, and I think this is how it should be!
The automated radiator heads from this system are great, but they are not precise with the temperature. Of course, they are 2 cm from the actual heat source. It is impossible to be precise. It is like trying to measure your kitchen temp with a thermometer inside a heated oven.
I placed those 2m from the radiator, and when you add it in the system and select the room, the system knows that from now on it will use this thermostat temp instead of the radiator head. And oh boy, it does make a difference. The temp control is far more stable and smooth. No more getting too cold or too hot. If you set 21C, it will be 21C all the time.
The thermostat itself is not the best piece of hardware; it is sometimes slow; there is no visibility of the temp without clicking on it and has minimum functionality for the price. It is only to change the temperature or give a boost. Nothing more! For the price, it should offer more, in my opinion.
So, I do recommend this piece, as it makes the system as good as it can be and definitively adds a lot of comfort to the room that it is located.
Had it nearly a year and so far so good.
The winning feature of this system is that it doesn’t rely on the cloud unlike most other systems. That said using the app remotely does rely on their servers working but so far there have only been a couple of occasions when this hasn’t worked.
Because the device works locally if integrates nicely with Home Assistant.
Whilst the hub has buttons to allow you to boost the water or heating for 2 hours, what would make this perfect is the ability to turn off would be really useful.
I have this system installed in my house along with multiple (3, soon increasing to 5) radiator thermostats & two smart plugs.
It was fairly straight forward to install.
Some electrical knowledge & an idea of how to configure the wifi will help, but isn’t essential as the instructions provided are clear & concise.
It’s provide great control & insight over the heating system whilst reducing energy costs.
The technical support available from the manufacturer is also first rate. Their quick to answer the phone & reply to e-mails.
Please be aware the radiator thermostats do require periodic battery replacement as they are wireless etc.
I’d thoroughly recommend.
The hub is continuously losing connection. While all other devices still work, Wiser does not. Spend quite some money on it, but now regret I didn’t buy Tado or Nest. Support is just as bad as their products. Wouldn’t recommend.
Had a few issues setting the system up initially but the helpline were very good and helped getting it running quickly. So far we’ve had no problems and had no need for the plugs to boost the signal. Once set up the app and the system is easy to use.
A direct replacement for the old controller – simple removal and a replacement of the controller (hub). Followed the connectivity instructions and connected quickly and easily. App downloads & works OK, all features I need are there. I would like an ‘off’ setting for the heating (during the summer) but this is possible by using the ‘Away mode’ option with the hot water switched on. You can also use the ‘manual’ option but each device needs setting, so a bit more hassle. I found that the temperature readings on the TVRs (radiator valves) to be low but after contacting Wiser, did a reset and they are pretty good now. Thought about knocking off a * but as the support was quick and effective so I didn’t.
I have moved one of the TVRs around the house and it connects OK (with out an extender) at my furthest radiator ~8m away and through 3 walls. My walls are lathe and plaster. Will be buying further TVRs.
I have tested out of the house (3G) and it all works as if I am in the house.
Gives independent room heating if you have one on each room . Down side they dont have mesh technology so you could have drop outs . I have over 11 and with the controller mounted central works great and gives full control over the house .I’ve purchased the trv on Amazon as low as 32 so look for your deals .
The Good, schedules and remote control work really well and temperature control is great (at least as reported by app vs the set point) the graphs and visualisation in the app are informative and useful. haven’t changed the batteries in either thermostat since install so 2 years+ at this point – which is a pleasant surprise.
the not so good, heating can be triggered by placing the mobile thermostat somehwere cold – which is a sneaky way of putting the heating on without changing the set points ! but thats a husband and wife discussion point rather than technology related.
the smart start or eco mode (starts boiler early to reach set point by the time the schedule requests) is a bit hit an miss (as reported by the app. doesn’t always reach temp target by schedule time, but once at target temp it controls really well.
improvments recently – record of number of hours call for heat activated, temp vs setpoint
would like to see – call for heat timeline vs temp, download of data from app.
really happy with the system, other family members have hive, and for me this is more flexible. I have purchased a TRV but not yet fitted it so will be interresting to see how well that integrates with the app.
I’ve had this running for about 6 months now. Although in my use-case it is working fine, I am finding the feature set pretty limited (given that what is missing is generally software).
There is no ‘Work from home/holiday’ setting. Actually, in my case, I’d really like to have an option of A or B week. You can force ‘away’ mode to keep the heating on, but then it stays on till you remember to turn it off.
There is no CSV save/restore for settings.
Away mode doesn’t have a ‘away until’ setting. So this means I can’t easily say I’m going to be out for most of the day.
Comfort mode can mean the heating coming on rather too early in the morning (and mine is noisy).
There is no data export for easier analytics (although there is a HomeAssistant plugin, so this has a viable workaround).
Alexa can’t ‘boost’ the temperature or turn on the hot water.
A hot water thermostat would be nice (although a little hard to use).
Proper multi-account design is rather sad to see absent.
The radiators were super fast to change and pairing thermostats was super easy. I have this unit setup with Google home and it works like a treat. Hey Google, what’s the temperature in my loving room 😉 I love it. I can setup each radiator with separate schedules and different room temperature. If for some reason you need to boost heating in one or more rooms you can twist the radiator thermostat and it will power up or simply use app or tell your smart home to boost heating in any rooms.
I think this is way better than Nest or Hive – I had both of them in previous houses but Drayto (shneider) is super easy and you can install it yourself without a fuss.
Highly recommended and massive bill saver as you heat rooms that you want.
* The ‘setup’ light flashes green/amber, turn off/on and just tap the ‘setup’ button
* Inability to pair your phone to the hub, ensure the phones data is off during this procedure
* Ensure your router Wi-Fi channel is set to 1 or 11, to insure stability of connection
When our boiler was fitted, we were given a basic, very basic remote which allowed only hours to be set, as a result I often extended it to constant and some nights forgot the put it back to timed, on all night. The other annoyance with that remote stat was its temperature ‘sampling rate’, this left the heating on till I was sweating and off when the sweat started to freeze (hyperbole) but really not good. To replace said stat was over 200, this cost me under a hundred on Black Friday Deals. The sample rate is excellent giving an even temperature by switching the boiler off/on more frequently. Be aware however that as this being battery powered, transmits the signal at a set rate. This means that although you change the setting, either stat or phone, it may not react immediately but it will soon.
The apps default setting will not be to everyone’s taste but are so easily changed, see screenshot. A lot of controllers have a ‘boost’ button which does nothing but override for a predetermined or settable period of time, here however, boost means exactly that, by 2% over the current temperature for 30 minutes to 3 hours.
I can’t help myself rambling on about this setup because I have lived with that horrible stat for some time so if you want ‘simple’ with a great Customer Service, I don’t think you can go wrong here.
Overall good, but range issues on one radiator thermostat, some difficulty setting up the wifi, and poor WiFi range, make this a considered buy rather than a no brained. Had to reposition the hub after install because of poor WiFi, and one of the radiator stats periodically “loses” comms for a day. But when working, it is a great system
Absolutely brilliant! Our house was ALWAYS cold (1912 twin brick, non insulated, suspended timber floor) the difference this has made is wow….
Granted the zones that are ‘off’ are colder but the spaces you are in when you get a good schedule set is warm! The reduction of the gas bill is marked too! As the boiler is only heating 1/2/3 radiators at a time compared to 13 when it was conventional heating.
I know friends with Hive and Nest but this system makes them look gimmicky!
The thermostat itself is pretty redundant if you install valves throughout your house as, the heating won’t actually come on if all the rooms are up to temperature and you try to turn that up.
UPDATE: Drayton support actually reviewed the ticket and provided an advice about the valve. So my impression is much better now.
Purchased the version for heating only with two thermostatic valve heads.
Fitting the heating controller was easy as it only requires four wires to be connected to a standard wall plate. Connecting to the termostat is easy using the setup.
Now the not so great things. The device is about three meters and one thin wall from my Virgin media router. Despite this the hub has weak signal and the connection can take ages.
Contacted Drayton if they sell compatible valves with the thermostatic heads as they sell some other heads with valves was a kit. My current valves are not compatible with the thermostatic heads or any adapter. However their reply was that they only support the product and closed the issue.
So in general I find the product fine but the support quite useless.
I have a newly built 4 bed room town house (3 floors). I have 2 heating circuits with 2 room thermostats and a hot water tank with a thermostat. Lounge is on one heating circuit and rest of the house is on other heating circuit. I have ESI programmer, ESI room thermostats and Hot water thermostat.
My requirements were:
1) Independent room temperature control – Met
2) Easy installation without major wiring changes – Partially met
3) Geo fencing – Met with IFTTT
4) Amazon Alexa integration – Met but with limited operations.
5) Energy saving – Met
6) Opentherm interface – Opentherm itself is not compatible where the system has a hot water tank with external water temperature thermostat. So even though my boiler has opentherm module, the system won’t work with my setup. Opentherm enables wiser to control boiler temperature in real time to reduce the gas consumption.
Why I chose this kit?
I did a lot of research in this area and I found the following
1) Google nest: No seamless way of having individual radiator thermostat temperature control. We can use Energenie smart TRVs with MI software but the integration is clunky and unrealistic.
2) Tado : Features like Geofencing are subscription based which is not a great way to save money.
3) Hive: Although it is possible to install smart radiator thermostats to get individual room heating control, reviews suggest that the radiator TRVs are taking 1 hour to turn on. Recently hive released a firmware update to reduce this time to 30 minutes. This defeats money saving objective. Also, the radiator TRVs don’t have the same priority as the room thermostats. This way, if the room thermostat reaches target temperature, even if TRV calls for heat it won’t work.
Some information about the wiser system:
I purchased wiser kit 3 (Comes with Wiser hub, 2 room thermostats) and I purchased 4 radiator thermostats separately.
Wiser hosts a 2.4 Ghz radio network to communicate with room thermostats and radiator thermostats.
It is advised to use a 2.4 Ghz wireless home network with WPA2 security (But it worked ok with my dual band wifi network which hosts 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz frequencies with same SSID).
Installation procedure and issues I faced:
Note: It is important to know TRVs which are linked to specific heating circuits before starting the installation process.
Step 1) It is advised to remove the existing room thermostats and short the call for heat wire so that the thermostat calls for heating all the time. I achieved this by simply turning the thermostat to maximum temperature so that it is calling for heat all the time.
Step 2) I had ESI programmer which I removed from the back plate. The back plate of ESI programmer is different from wiser’s back plate. I had to removed the cables from existing back plate and labelled them. Then I removed the existing back plate, installed the wiser back plate and connected the cables to wiser back plate as described in the manual.
Step 3) After the wiser controller turned on, it hosted a wireless network. I installed wiser heat app on my android phone and from wifi settings, connected to the wifi network hosted by wiser hub.
Issue 1) Android system detects that the wifi network hosted by wiser hub is not providing internet connection and requests the user to switch wifi. While this prompt is open, wiser heat app can’t find the wiser hub. So, I had to select the option on wifi settings to stay connected to wifi network hosted by wiser. After this the wiser heat app found the wiser hub
Step 4) I paired the room thermostats and Radiator thermostats with wiser hub via the wiser heat app and started installing the radiator TRVs.
Issue 2) After pairing the radiator valve with the wiser hub, I went to the top floor to install the radiator thermostat. After the calibration started, the mobile phone lost wifi connection with wiser hub due to poor signal and the configuration failed. So, I came back to ground floor, connected to wiser wifi network and then completed the setup. This resolved the issue.
Step 5) After pairing and installing room/radiator thermostats, we have to connect the wiser hub to home wifi network which is by far the most painful step of all.
Issue 3) I hosted a 2.4 Ghz wireless guest network with WPA 2 network security as advised in the manual. I tried 10 times to connect wiser hub to this guest network but it failed every time. Ironically it connected to my dual band home wifi network (Which hosts 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz frequencies with same SSID/wifi network name) with WPA/WPA2 security with no issues.
Step 6) Created new account with email address etc. This completed without any issues.
General issues reported by users.
Some users reported that Wiser system has issues in homes with Philips hue lighting system. But I didn’t face any issues as I have Philips hue lighting at home.
I called wiser technical support to know the signal strength of my radiator TRVs. They told me that I don’t need to worry about signal strength until the TRVs show offline frequently in wiser heat app. So far, I didn’t see any issues.
The TRVs make some noise when they turn on and turn off. As my kids are older, I am not finding this as a real issue.
Look and feel of wiser heat app.
This app is functional but not flashy. It has everything that we need from a Smart heating system. If you are someone who can figure out things by using apps, then it should be a breeze for you.
Advise to product team:
The wiser hub power led blinks in the same way when it loses wifi connection and when it is updating the firmware. This won’t help the user to understand what’s wrong. Please change the power led blinking pattern so that we can distinguish the difference.
The Alexa integration provides very basic functionality. Please add functions to alter heating schedules.
In the next version of Radiator TRVs, try to reduce the noise.
Final verdict:
This is by far the best smart heating system for the price in the market but to set this up and use it, user must have a troubleshooting mindset. So, non-technical users must opt for professional installation 🙂
One thing to note is that you do need the thermostatic valve on which to connect the thermostat. Mine were a like-for-like replacement so no plumbing was involved.
Google Home and Alexa integration works as advertised (although fractions of a degree don’t seem to be possible.)
Overall (although I’ve only had it for two weeks) it’s proved to be totally reliable and is likely going to be what I stick with.
After looking at smart heating controllers for a long time I finally decided on this Drayton Wyser system. Easy to Install and backed up by Schneider – what could go wrong.
This Kit2 version is used to control both water heating and central heating. I already had a Honeywell C21 timer/programmer controlling an Ideal Standard boiler. The backplate on the existing timer was the same as the Wyser, so following the instructions it said disconnect the existing thermostat in the living room and simply swap out the controller. Checking the diagrams looked fine as the connections matched what I had in front of me.
Following the instructions I downloaded the app on my Android phone and started the process. Initially you have to connect up to the local Wyser WIFI created. What is the most important piece of missing information during set up is that when you connect your phone to the Wyser WIFI is that due to the Wyser WIFI not having internet connection you have to check the option on the phone to Always connect to the WIFI service – if I had realised this at the time I wouldn’t have had the problems trying to get the system set up. Once realised my set up issues was down to not ticking the box on the phone WIFI set up the rest of the set up and account creation went through very easily.
Ok – time to check the heating, however when the thermostat called the boiler to switch on – nothing, just a click then silence. After a call to their technical team it turns out that you need to disable the original thermostat but connect the 2 existing wires together. Once done the system has worked well.
Easy to set up and monitor the room temperature and timing control for the water
1 week on and very happy with the install – if only these little set up issues were documented on their FAQ’s and it would have taken literally minutes to set up.
Hardware is great, all fits, easy to install but the software has a mind of its own. See picture, flame is on but the room temperature is higher than the set point. I also see that the boiler on/off on the controller seems very random and not much correlation to whether or not there is a flame showing in the app.
If the software is worked out this will be 5 starts, let’s hope for updates soon. Once fixed, will be great value for money and I predict you will easily make the cost back in one winter season.
I am at home most of the day and need to have some rooms heated but not all of them. I live in an old house that is expensive to heat and hard to insulate. Having done what could be done, I wanted to save further on fuel and began looking at the rooms that were empty all day but were still being heated because the heating was on. The Drayton Wiser system appealed to me because I can set schedules for every room that would benefit and only heat them when they needed to be heated. It was fairly easy to install: my radiators had non-standard TRVs (Thermostatic Radiator Valves) and the smart TRVs would not find and neither would any of the adapters. In the end I drained down my system and swapped the TRVs for some very cheap ones from Toolstation that were compatible with the new smart TRVs, and then I could easily fit the smart TRVs where I needed them. I did the wiring myself – that was trivial.
My house is very spread out being a chalet bungalow and I found two of the smart TRVs were about on the limit of the range from the Wiser Hub, so I bought two Wiser Smart Plugs – these are very expensive compared with other Smart Plugs that I use but they also function as an amplifier for the Wiser Hub ensuring that those two zones always get a good signal.
I’m not going to write here about all of the benefits of a smart system – if you’re looking for a smart system then you’ll already know most of those from their advertisements. I looked at several systems including Hive and Nest and felt that the Drayton Wiser system offered the best value for me because of the ease of setting up zones. It has all of the features of the others apart from Nest’s ability to not have schedules instead opting to learn what you want by observing how and when you set your heating.
Drayton not only had the best match of features for me, but it was the best price, and Drayton have been making heating control systems for donkey’s years – they are a household name for heating.
The app has some very interesting statistics (graphs) to show you how your heating is performing. It has intelligent modes that can shut off the heating for a room if there’s a window open there. It works well with Alexa. With the help of Life360 and IFTTT it is easy to set up geofencing so that if nobody is home it goes into background heating mode and then automatically resumes the schedule when someone arrives back home again.
Now on to why I only gave 4 stars when what I’ve written suggests 5 stars…
[a] If there’s a power cut, or the internet drops out, then often the hub gets “stuck” and cannot reconnect to the Wiser cloud – it sits there with a red light on. My son-in-law has the same system and also experiences this issue. The heating still continues to work, but you can’t work it or monitor it remotely. The fix for this is to turn off the master switch for the heating, thereby shutting down the hub for 2-3 minutes and then turn it on again – but you need to be at home to do that UNLESS: I fitted a smart plug in the power feed to the Wiser hub so (remotely) I can cycle the power on and off. Fortunately, we don’t get many internet outages or power cuts.
[b] It’s quite an investment in time to set up all of the schedules and I change them with the seasons [1] Spring and Autumn, [2] Summer and [3] Winter – I have requested (but had no feedback) that it ought to be simple to have the App store your schedules as a SET so that you could restore each SET as and when you need it.
Bottom line: brilliant system but nobody’s perfect.
Purchased this to add to my Samsung smartthings system, knowing that it wasn’t directly compatible but could be botched into place using a community-provided DTH, some tinkering in webcore, and a horstmann thermostat.
3 purchased, one was faulty, but due to the cheap yet awkward system I’m using, it took a bit of fiddling to determine it was knackered.
2 hints…. The valves take up to about 90 secs to respond to changes in setpoints. Not a great deal of time, but an eternity when initiallly building something like mine. Also, valves don’t tend to close/open unless there’s about 1 degree more of less than the setpoint, so that’s another one to watch out for. Right now, I couldn’t be happier with the system but it was a fair challenge. To put together.
Trying to be clever and keep things tidy I initially installed the base unit very near the boiler. This was a mistake as you should put it in as central location as possible in order for it to see your router/TRVs. (and preferably away from large metal white goods that are going to interfere with signals).
Naively I assumed that the new smart TRV(thermostatic Radiator Valves) would be compatible with the old lockshield(tap) valve controls. You require compatible thermostatic Radiator valves and I had to install 4 new ones for the planned system. (cheap units are available for around 7 each – and you don’t seem to be able to buy just the valve body). These require the system to be drained and a bit of plumbing work.
Good points
While it takes a while to get used to the philosophy behind the new control, its great being able to switch individual radiators off. We have noticed that the system heats up so much faster and each radiator gets hotter.
I’ve found the app very intuitive and relatively clear.
The integration with Alexa is seamless and brilliant.
The thermostat is very accurate and the TRVs accurate enough.
You have the option for the system to switch on at fixed times (normal mode) or to be clever and use ambient temperature to determine start times (comfort mode)
Bad points.
Sometimes it takes a while for the boiler to be requested to fire despite the indication of Flame ON displayed on the app.
An indication of the position/status of each TRV would be useful.
It would be nice if the thermostat was non-backlit LCD with the display on all the time rather than having to wake it up to display the current temperature. I also assume that only the thermostat temperature is used in its assigned room rather than the associated rooms TRV — does the system just ignore the TRV temp?. (I also wonder if you can have a cheaper system without the thermostat as I’m not sure it adds much.)
Things that still confuse:
The app has too many ways to change room temperature. E.g
* There is a boost function which has a time limit. (also enabled from the TRVs control). Does enabling from one radiator automatically apply the same boost to others assigned to the same room?
* You can also change the room temperature without the boost time limit.
* You can also set the room to MANUAL (shown as a HAND on the app) control.
I’m still unsure if ALL or any of these settings are automatically overridden by a scheduled temperature change?
Word of warning for those with an older system. I had planned to smart control just 4 of 13 radiators in rooms only used part time. I did this but noticed how much warmer the whole house was. The problem being that 6 radiators/towel rails in my house do not have TRVs (just lockshield taps). The living areas would get up to temperature with bedrooms ‘smart controlled’ off, then prior to bed these would switch on but request the boiler ON for prolong periods to get them up to temperature. However, obviously the 6 radiators/towel rail with lockshield valves would then get very hot in rooms already up to temperature. So I’m now having to convert these to TRVs or smart. In summary — your house requires TRVs!
This is a very good system and I’m not entirely sure what features are missing or that you’d ever need. Only concern is the longevity of the motorised TRVs at 40 a pop.
Replaced the wireless (not internet enabled) thermostat that came with my boiler with this system. I was lucky enough that that my switch over from old to new was straighforward, requiring only 4 wires at the side of the boiler to be wired into the Drayton Wiser Hub. Once this was done, connecting to the new system and setting up the phone app took a matter of minutes. I was also able to get it to work with Alexa very quickly and easily. Now that it’s set up I can turn on, or adjust my heating from anywhere with an internet connection/mobile phone signal – not just in the house. Alexa can tell you how warm it is, and you can raise or lower the temperature with Alexa too. There are some smart features on the app, you have a weekly planner for how you want the heating to react, but you can also set it to eco mode where it adjusts itself automatically – I haven’t tried this yet. So far, I only have one thermostat and the hub. I plan to get the Wiser smart thermostatic radiator valves so that I can control all radiators in the house from my phone too, as this will obviously incur savings on my heating bill if radiators not needed can be scheduled to be off and automatically come on at certain times of the day. Overall very pleased. I also had to contact support as I couldn’t work out how to change the wifi (I have more than one wifi signal in my house and wanted to change the hub to a different one) – they responded within the day and were spot-on with their reply, and I was able to resolve my problem. Many thanks to Wiser Support! 😉
Only a few days in with the Drayton Wiser Thermostat 2 kit, but so far very impressed. Having already a standard backplate for the controller I had it installed and up and running within 30mins driving the mrs nuts by turning the heating off and on via the App.
My only improvement point would be with the app itself, although very straightforward and intuitive it would be better if there was a visual indicator on whether the system is running manual or auto (programmed timer)
The heat report from the app is very good if you’re like me and like to know the system statistics.
Overall very happy with the purchase.
Like most people I was deciding between this, Tado, Nest and Hive. After realising my existing programmer was Drayton and this would be an easy plug and play it was a no brainer. I really didn’t want to try book an installer which might take weeks and then require me to be home at some ridiculous hour of the day when I should be at work. And to add the installation would then double the cost. It works well and I love being able to switch the heating on/off remotely if I realise I won’t be home anytime soon.
The main receiver simply replaced my existing timer unit next to the boiler – the standard UK backplate meant no fiddly rewiring (but do check that your backplate is wired suitably for it – there’s details in the box, or get a professional to fit it)
I easily connected 1x TRV and the room thermostat to the central unit, then created an online account through the app. I was turning on and off the heating and hot water from my phone in no time.
I had an issue with a faulty TRV – Amazon customer service was great – after a bit of nudging – to replace the TRV only, rather than un installing the whole kit.
I spent several days phoning and emailing Drayton’s Liverpool-based support centre because the TRVs, while appearing to operate correctly, were not physically opening the valve on my radiators. I have oldish Danfoss valves – their fitting type is supported (there’s an adapter in the box for such values), but eventually we ascertained that the very small distance of travel of the pin in my Danfoss values were incompatible with Drayton TRVs, which expect a distance of travel of >5mm or thereabouts.
I almost kept the system, but without TRVs. The online app is great, and the room stat worked a treat. But zonal control at a great price was what sold it to me, and I wouldn’t get zoned control without TRVs. Reluctantly I uninstalled the whole kit and returned for a refund – excellent customer service as always from Amazon. Looking to Nest or Hive as an alternative non-zoned system.
The price of this kit rises and falls quite dramatically – I was gutted when I realised it wasn’t compatible with my rad valves because I got this at a great price – 140 quid.
If you have Drayton values, or modern Danfoss valves on your radiators, I seriously recommend giving this a go, particularly if you can grab it at a good price.
Well made, UK support, solid wifi and proprietary communication. (and no separate unit requiring a mains plug and LAN-cable connection to your router like Hive, or some other systems. I think only this and Nest are the only systems which connect to your home wifi and don’t require hard-wired cable and a separate unit)
It was easy to install and get up and running, the system has been in for about 12 months now, the batteries last well in the devices and the noise of the thermostats turning on and off isn’t too loud (but they aren’t quiet by any stretch of the imagination)
The recent changes to the app are very welcome and were needed, well that’s all the good stuff.
Here is why i rated it 1 out of 5
I wanted to be able to control this from my phone and it just doesn’t work, the connection is so intermittent it can never be relied upon, the days when it does decide to work it’s just to slow and laggy connecting to the system.
I must have completely reset the whole system about 5 times in the past 12 months, i’m writing this today as yet again my phone is unable to connect to the system even though nothing has changed from yesterday and i find myself hitting the reset button once more, now even though i classed this as “easy” to install it’s defiantly not something you want to be doing every few months.
I’m just about ready to pull the whole system out and stump up for a Nest or other better know (better designed) system. do yourself a favour and don’t try and skimp like i did you’ll just regret it.
The inhouse thermostat work just fine but it really takes the smart out of a smart heater to only use this as it has extremely limited function i.e temp up or down there is no individual room control.
Edit……
I’m leaving what I wrote previously as it was my experience however the last 12 months seem to have gone much better, I connection issues seem to have stopped and no more resets have been required, the app has also been improved. My current experience is a smart heating system working as I’d wanted it to and now I’m happy to recommend this to anyone.
In the end I have sent this all back. The radiator thermostats would not control the radiators and I’m fed up faffing with it. Looking at the reviews for Hive and Nest, I don’t think they will be any better, so I will just fit a traditional heating controller and room stat.
The initial setup can partially fail. This seems to happen if you don’t have good WiFi signal. You have to get the failed setup deleted by staff at wiser who are most helpful.
The other issue I had was once I had installed a Powerline WiFi extender it dropped WiFi and signal to stats and trvs. Nowhere does it state powerline systems can cause interference to WiFi and rf signals throughout the house.
After moving the hub further away from fused spur and attaching ferrite cores to power cables to limit the interference the system is stable and working well don’t think I’ll even need the wiser plug.
A full review would take ages – I will just say that I do a bit of DIY and found the whole thing very easy to fit. The rad valves are simple to do if you have TRVs already. The only problems I had using the system in a large house was some of the rads lost signal with the control unit. I have ended up buying two smart plug extenders that have solved the problem but probably could have got away with one carefully positioned. The second problem is that I needed an adaptor to fit each of the Drayton thermostats to my rads. The advice from the Drayton hotline was unimpressive and suggested buying from a European company at vastly inflated prices. I bought suitable adaptors from Amazon – no problem. Had the system running now for a few months nd am very happy with it !
The devices all connect together easily and let me control the heating room by room from my mobile phone whilst away from the house so perfect for heating when needed. I can see on an app on my phone the actual temperature in each room and can program the target temperature room by room. It also has the normal programmable on off times day by day schedules for the house and rooms but I no longer use these as have found better ways to manage the house heating.
You do not need a on going contract to use the device via internet to access the system when away from the house – it does depend on logging on to Draytons servers but the company has been going for years and it’s unlikely their service will end in the next 20 years. The system is accessed directly via the house WiFi when inside the house so no dependency on the internet or their servers.
A really useful feature is the radiator controllers allow each radiator to be turned on individually for 1 hour (it fires up the central heating) then will turn off automatically. It means occupants can heat selected rooms on demand and not need have the central heating warm the whole house e.g. when kids want to be in their bedroom they can heat their room themselves just when they are in it and it turns off automatically when they are away. I would say the precision in targeting the heating of this feature trumps many more complicated features for convenience and saving heating costs.
I could not fit a combi boiler in the house so have a high quality hot water storage tank in the loft – I have the tank on a separate heating circuit so can control hot water heating on demand from the Drayton app on my phone or on a timer programme or by using a boost button on the central heating controller unit so no hot water goes to waste.
The online technical support team is superb – I had a problem getting the main heating controller unit to connect via wifi to the internet which turned out to be a fault with my talktalk broadband router. Drayton worked patiently with me providing technical advice to help get talktalk to understand and accept the issue and replace the broken router then everything worked.
The Drayton system has fewer features than other systems e.g. hive but is significantly cheaper whilst being very functional and well designed.
I’ve installed TRVs on most radiators. Exceptions were the two bathroom towel rails and a boxed in radiator where the TRV wouldn’t have worked since it would have given a false room temperature reading. Installation was easy and everything works.
We’ve a medium sized house, but the WiFi router is sufficiently central to provide enough signal.
Screwing the TRVs onto the valves is easy if you’re replacing similar, non-smart TVRs.
We only heat a small proportion of our rooms via the heating schedule. Most sit at 15 degrees unless we want to use the room. Because the radiators therefore only come on when needed a great benefit is they heat up far faster. Also you no longer need to balance the system. Every radiator can be on full when needed.
The Room Stat appears to be vaguely useful, but I find I’m using the app more.
Setting the programme for each room is easy, if time consuming. We have about 8 rooms defined, so four time slots for each room is a lot. That multiplied if you want a different schedule for different days. That’s a price to pay for having something with total flexibility.
December 2020 update. The system is working fine and it’s great being able to control the heat room by room. Much more comfortable having the room you’re in rapidly reaching a good temperature.
Alongside double glazing several rooms now, our heating bill has dropped by a third since installing Wiser.
The main glitch we’ve experienced is when the radiator stat AA batteries run down. The system goes a bit potty since the batteries stop being able to open and close the radiator valves reliably. Doubly confusing was that the App didn’t reliably report on the App that the batteries were low. Drayton appears to have fixed that problem.
We had a very confusing problem where the motorised valve on the central heating broke and was permanently open. This was causing the boiler to shut off periodically to cool down. Drayton support team was very attentive and helped my diagnose the problem, even though it was nothing to do with Wiser. They can interrogate the logs off your Wiser system and see if there’s a problem.
All in all Wiser is an amazing dystem which saves a lot of heating costs and makes your house much more comfortable.
Had a look at all the other smart systems but this one is the best.
I wouldn’t recommed trying to set this up if you are not tech savvy and do not fully understand hiw heating systems work I suggest you get an engineer to set it up for you.
I had a glitch setting the system up in the fact that it wouldn’t register until I switched my phone back to my router rather than the wiser unit using the wifi.
Once set up it works perfectly I had to make minor adjustments to the schedule temps as the thermostatic valves are near the floor.
I measured a temp difference of 1.5 degrees C when compared to a stat at 1.5M.
I had a wireless/timer thermostat anyway so I doubt it will save me money.
What this tech does is give me the ability to control the temp in any room at any time from anywhere.
I believe this will be more efficient when the use of the open therm tech is employed because then the system will be able to control flow temps which should enabke it to mantain a more constant temp.
I chose this over other TRVs mainly for the low price and because they are Drayton products. Almost all my existing radiators have Drayton TRVs, so it seemed a no brainer to upgrade my central heating to smart TRVs along with the Heat Hub and matching room stat. Unfortunately, this TRV is not compatible with older Drayton TRVs (it seems my radiators were fitted with TRV3s) and Drayton don’t sell adaptors to allow them to fit. Basically the metal collar only suits 30mm dia. valves whilst my old TRV3s apparently have 27mm collars. There is no mention of this specific incompatibility on Drayton’s website either, even though they have a section which covers compatibility in some detail.
Drayton were quick to respond to my problem, but were unable to suggest any solutions other than replacing all the valves on my radiators, which was outside my budget 🙁
Recently purchased a Smart Plug to work alongside a one chanel heating controller, the heating controller has worked perfectly or 12 months. I added a Wiser TRV about a month ago again everything works perfectly.
When I added the Smart Plug both the room thermostat and the Smart Plug only communicated intermittently. The TRV worked correctly. Removed the Smart Plug and the room thermostat started working.
Next day I restarted the Smart Plug in a different physical location. The whole system started working correctly. Not sure what happened but I have a working system which I am monitoring closely.
Overall I now would now thoroughly recommend it but I spent two days initially discovering the major signal strength issue and hope they will address this in future build states but I expect that will be a hardware change and not simply a firmware update so for me it is what it is but that fine now I accept its limitations.
My system consisted of a oil fired boiler that heated radiators all fitted with traditional Danfoss TRVs and a hot water tank that the boiler heated in the airing cupboard. This was controlled by a Drayton LP522 programmer and a traditional wired room stat in the hall.
Installation was easy. The Wiser hub fitted onto my existing programmer wall plate. I decided I didn’t want to get an electrician to bridge out the wired room stat as instructed. As if I didn’t like the system I planned to return it. So I set existing wired room stat to maximum so that was always calling for heat and Wiser then would control my heat.
Downloaded App, pressed set up button on hub but my phone would not find the Wiser wi fi. It turned out I was pressing button too long, its a sort quick press. Then connected no problem. Added Drayton wireless room stat, 2 Wiser TRVs to two radiators in Living Room also fitted Drayton smartplug/range extender which is not part of kit but purchased separately.
All worked well and I bought two additional TRVs. So what happens is this enables you to control temperature through App and Alexa.
Things you can do with Alexa.
Alexa What is temperature in Living Room?
Alexa set bedroom to 20 degrees
Alexa turn on hot water
Also use it to operate the Smart/plug to turn on power to a lamp plugged into it in hall
Not all my radiators are fitted with Wiser TRVs. What this means is if a Drayton TRV or the Room stat calls for heat an old manual TRV will operate at the temperature it is set at. So for example Living Room Wiser TRV calls for heat, boiler fires and radiator heats. Kitchen Radiator if old manual TRV open then that radiator also heats.
After about 4 days I ran into a problem. Devices (TRVs, Room Stat, and TRVs) all disconnected. So not visible in App. Switching off power to hub for 2 minutes eanbled them to connect again. But eventually they lost connection againTo cut a long story short I spoke to Drayton Customer services, they were able while I was on the phone to download data from my hub and diagnosed a very poor signal. Apparently the Smart Plugs/Range extenders are better at pushing out signal that accepting it from hub. So I ended up moving position of initial Smart Plug I had purchased and buying an additional 2 Smart Plugs. First Plug is 6 metres from Wiser Hub, second plug 11 metres from first and third placed upstairs.
Now everything seems to be working perfectly.
Easy to set up schedules in App so each room with a Wiser TRV can be controlled individually. There is also an Away setting that enables you to set a schedule or temperatures for when you are not at home. I use this for a frost setting. Of course you can monitor the temperature in your house wherever you are as long as your phone has a signal
I really like system and the control it gives me. Integration with Alexa is great and a real benefit.
As other have said in a large house signal seems poor and resulted in me buying 3 Smart Plugs in total. So maybe worth planning for this in case you have to go this route too.
I will update this review if I have more to add in the future.
It is 30/10/20, two years since I bought my Wiser system so I thought it was about time for an update.
I’m still pleased with my purchase.
I now have a total of 10 TRVs and 3 smart plugs (needed to extend range).
Two things I have noticed…
1 When away from home heatingis off. I often use Wiser to turn on the heating before getting home. Normally works well, but if there has been a power outage at home while away, even a really short one I cannot use the App to turn the system on remotely.
2 Last night TRVs were constantly operating motors. They were not operating heating but had lost connection to the hub. Looking at app this morning, devices not connected. I was on the phone to Drayton Support, they downloaded data from the hub. A smart plug which I used as a range extender had disconnected.
I had great, patient support from the two Drayton customer support people I spoke to. Was an hour on the phone but the problem was sorted.
As I said earlier, I am still pleased with the Wiser system.
Things I like and how I use it……
Increasing temperature in the room I’m inwithout moving of sofa “Alexa make the living room 21 degrees”
Working in the garden, feeling I need a shower. Open door, call out “Alexa, turn on hot water”, carry on working while the water heats.
Turning on heat/water while away so house heated for return (see note about power cut above)
I will continue to update my review as time goes by, but in summary the system continues to impress!
Very pleased with this product. The Hub was a quick replacement for an older Drayton timer configured for a Y-Plan on a conventional open-vented boiler (not combi) with stored hot water. Looped out the old Room thermostat at the wiring centre as required and added two TRVs & the new Room Thermostat. Needed the supplied Danfoss TRV adapters but fitted with no problems. So pleased I bought three more TRVs and now have much more control than ever & running some rooms cooler. No issues with connectivity to Hub / WiFi / TRVs etc but only a small house of brick construction. Love the occasional sound of the TRV servos operating (not intrusive) – makes you feel the system is very dynamic and responding as it should. Easy to tweak settings to find optimal comfort / economy zone.
I had issues with the unit as it was an Amazon warehouse return, when delivered it had missing parts and no instructions. Instructions were easy to rectify via the internet , setup however was problematic as the unit was still registered to another user cloud account. However after finding the support number a extremely supportive lady at Drayton got the original associated account deleted and then walked me through the recreation of the account. Product is now fully working and i’m looking forward to seeing how i can effect good control over the heating at home
The app can be improved, but it does exactly what I need it to do and more. Schedule as many periods based on the temperature I need is so convenient. Also being able to turn heating or water on and off whilst not at home is very handy. And it helps saving money too as I don’t need to have the water heated if we’re not in for the weekend.
Best spent I have ever made on a product for home!
I have to admit to being a little sceptical about the ‘use value’ of these types of control systems, especially when I looked at the cost of some of the competitor systems, however, the Wiser system seemed to be of a more sensible price level so I took the plunge, and fitted it all at the same time as renewing pump and various bits and pieces of pipework to give my heating system a good service etc.
The system is simply brilliant, well thought out and simple to fit and use with a smart phone, even for me being the wrong side of 60….I could not recommend it higher, I was cautious about some reviews speaking of noise from the valves when adjusting themselves, but I can honestly say this is not an issue whatsoever, a small click and a bit of a whir….but you have to be listening for it….I’ve got better things to do, although at first start up I did find myself standing by different radiators and changing temperatures just to hear it working 🙂
I can now control our system room by room and at different times of day, lounge snug and warm, bedrooms cool, etc etc
The system is great value for money and it saves energy by enabling you to have full control, no unnecessary heating of rooms. I can also make sure the house is warm to come home to….no more journeys home wishing the heating timer was set a bit earlier….and I can switch it all off remotely if I need to. The away mode is great, away in winter…no problem set to away mode the house is kept at a nice 16 degrees C, nicely aired and keeping the fabric of the building warm no more taking ages to ‘get the house warm’
I do wish there were chrome topped valves available.. I would fit them to our towel rails too…may be there are and I just haven’t seen them…I have three different makes of rad valves (Myson/Pegler/Drayton) around the house, the Wiser control tops fitted them all with no problem.
Overall a very good and impressive system.
I purchased the Kit plus extra TRV’s for all my radiators. It was easy to install and the app is user friendly making it easy to set up.
I had a slight issue when I first attempted to link the app to the hub and had to email the support team. I received a reply within half an hour which got me on my way again. I had to switch off mobile data on my phone until I had established the link then mobile data back on and all is now good.
This is quality equipment for the price in comparison to similar systems.
Edit 6/10/22
I have now benn using the Wiser Smart Control system for over 4 years now and I’m very pleased with the way it’s performed over this time. I had to add a Wiser plug upstairs early on as I was getting the odd drop out from the furthest devices but all is now good. I have now installed an eTRV on every radiator giving me full control.
I would definately reccommend Wiser..
My Boiler is situated at the back of the property in the kitchen, after fitting the radiator stats all seemed well except that some of the units were showing very low Wi-fi signal strength after a day the lounge thermostat lost its connection altogether, I started to worry.
I phoned Drayton and they sent out the free extender, after fitting this and finding the best position for it the signal strength improved and all is well.
Be aware that valve head adapters may be required if your heating system has 28mm valve threads, these can add to the overall cost (approx 10/12 per adapter)
This is a good economical system but it has its faults, the app might confuse some, when it displays the rooms and devices it shows the room name then a line, then the device assigned to the room then the next room name then a line, I’d have thought the room name and device could have been included in the same box. Hopefully these things will get looked at in further updates.
Bottom line I’m happy….so far.
UPDATE. Drayton have updated the app (March) the update states that it has made improvements to the signal strength and this seems to be the case, still a few things about the app UI that I personally don’t like but the system seems to be running very well now
Easy to configure.
No problems with wireless range to the TRvs.
Fitting was easy.
Only 1 of our radiator valves did not suit the Wiser TRV but we checked ahead and the plumber swapped it whilst the system was drained down.
The experience is that our Victorian, solid walled house is more comfortable and using less gas. We can control it from home or when away.
A colleague has the Honeywell system and functions seem similar but Drayton is cheaper.
Any radiators without the Wiser TRVs will come on when any room calls for heat – we left it that the hall and downstairs loo have a traditional TRV so that helps maintain a comfortable feel to the house.
Note that the motorised TRvs do make a noise – most noticeable when they first open fully in the morning. They also make a sound when adjusting themselves. Some of the family didn’t like that but we are used to it now.
Once it is set up controlling the system from phone or tablet is very easy and convenient. Does it save money? Don’t know yet but since each room can be controlled I cannot think it will anything other than save.
Did have the batteries in a radiator valve go down and it took some time before I sorted that out because the explanation for the central red light showing that batteries are down is buried a bit in the manual. It would be better if this indication was shown in the table or light indications at the back of the manual.
If you want a heating control system that you can run from your phone or tablet and does not break the bank then I would recommend the Drayton Wiser system.
Now that is has IFTTT compatibility it’s even better as I have a radius perimeter set around my house and if both my wife and I exceed that perimeter the heating will put itself in ‘away mode’ and maintain a pre set lower temperature and likewise as soon as we re-enter the perimeter the heating will turn on providing heat before we arrive back at the house – brilliant !
I downloaded the full user and installation guides from the internet while awaiting delivery – recommend doing this to aquaint yourself with the product.
It was easy for me to mount the hub and connect up to to existing wiring centre.It was then also very straightforward to link my smartphone to the hub once the app had been dowloaded and installed.
The system works perfectly – there are enough options to allow a wide variety of desired heating and hot water plans. I am pretty tech savvy, but my wife is certainly not, but we both operate the system readily in our individual ways.
The electric radiator valves actually seem to work better than the TR4 valves they replace. I think this is because the valves are fully on (open) until room is warm enough, then fully off. So no time while the valve gradually closes by heating as per my old valves – creating a longer time to bring the room to heat while the last few degrees are warmed by a gradually closing valve.
I have no hesitatation in recommending this product – it works very well, is keenly priced ( cf Nest, Hive etc), easy and clear to control, needs no additional house wiring ( eg no room thermostat wiring).