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 |
Insights - the hidden genius behind Wise
After four nights of broken sleep recently, I decided to investigate the Insights Heat Reports.
I’ve looked at these before, and dismissed them as just fancy graphs to make the system look all techy… how wrong I was!
With four radiator stats, and the weather turning colder over Christmas, I realised the temperature in the livingroom was dropping below the 16 set point at around 4am every morning and causing the boiler to fire, raising the temperature in the bedroom and disturbing my sleep.
Set point reduced. Restful sleep resumed
Easy to Install and operate
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.
A better way to control your heating
It took me a while to get it working with help from the support team. The thermostatic valves had trouble with my old TRVs – the internal motor was plenty powerful enough to open and close the valve but not enough to actually operate it in normal use. It took a lot of fiddling to get some of them working. However it is worth the effort the house is comfortable but I am not heating rooms I don’t need so I guess it saves money. It is nice to be able to tell Alexa to control room heating if say the room is set to turn off but you decide to stay up to watch a film. Or tell Alexa to turn the bedroom radiator on if you decide to get up before the bedroom rad is set to come on.
Simple install
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).
Purchased a year ago everything running smooth to date but not without a small glitch or two. Thankfully support team fixed the problem and over all I’m very content with the system.
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
Purchased a year ago everything running smooth to date but not without a small glitch or two. Thankfully support team fixed the problem and over all I’m very content with the system.
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
Good Quality Produc
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.
Heating via Wi-Fi and internet using British built 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!
Heating via Wi-Fi and internet using British built 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!
Overall, a good experience after initial setup problems.
The technical department were as helpful as they could be before I bought a system, but I was still a bit puzzled by the configuration in my house which didn’t seem typical. However…
I bought a system to control ten rooms, with the option to add two more. It wasn’t quite as trivial as they made out by replacing a controller on a standard backplate, as I had three controls, each in separate rooms. I solved this by placing the heat hub adjacent to the c/h wiring junction box and just connecting the outputs of the hub to the existing demand inputs to the three zone controllers and turning the outputs of the water and room thermostats permanently off (or removing the batteries).
There could be a better explanation that in a room with a wireless thermostat, that takes precedence over the wireless radiator thermostats in the same room but, other than that, it all seemed to go OK.
There were a few minor snags with the Insights aspect of the app on two Android phones, but the Apple devices reported data correctly and the Android bug was fixed within a few days of reporting it.
It’s great to be able to control the radiators and/or rooms individually, and it’s relatively simple to boost as and when you need it. Heating profiles are easy to set up with a good degree of flexibility – probably more than I (or most people) will need.
The helpline are very good and have been responsive in my experience so far. Let’s hope the system doesn’t suffer from some of the failures that have been reported here and elsewhere.
I don’t usually write reviews, but I felt I needed to because of the negative ones I’d seen.
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**
Nice Produc
After purchasing the Drayton Wiser Heat Hub with 2 room thermostats, I purchased 8 of these radiator thermostatic valves to add more control to my heating system. I have only installed these on the radiators in rooms that we spend time in such as living room, kitchen and bedrooms etc any other room that we pass through like hallways and corridors have the manual thermostats fitted. One tip if you remove one of these thermostatic valves after installation remove the batteries and refit them prior to refitting thermostatic valve back onto radiator, it backs off the plunger inside the thermostatic valve that pushes down on the radiator valve so makes it easy to fit. Otherwise you are trying to depress the rod on the radiator making it difficult to refit the thermostatic valve, I found this out. I find that I can’t get the valve to stay tight on the black locking ring, which is why I removed the thermostatic valve, I might have to superglue the black ring to the thermostatic valve body to stop it from turning when I operate the valve when in situ on the radiator. It does make a little noise when it operates but nothing too loud or distracting.
Flexible Control
After my previous heating controller started giving problems time came to replace it. How things have changed since my last upgrade from mechanical controllers to a digital controller to now where I can operate my heating from my smart phone and Alexa. I chose the Drayton Wiser because it was the best fit with my heating system, 2 heating zones and hot water, all I had to do was remove the old controller change the wiring around a bit and install the heating hub and fit 2 wireless room thermostats one in each zone. I remember I did find it difficult to get the heating hub to connect to the wireless router but that was most likely me rather than the hub but I eventually got it sorted. I am very happy with the system and I have added 8 radiator thermostatic valves to the rooms we spend time in. What I am able to do with this system is to set a threshold of 18 deg centigrade for all the room and radiator thermostats and the heating will start up if the temperature drops below this threshold, you can adjust this up or down as you choose, now the house is at a constant temperature, so much better. The system has open window detection to save heating a room and loosing all the heat out the open window and you can let the system know when you are not at home so it is not heating the home when no ones home wasting oil/gas. From the basic system I had before to now has been a great improvement, there are other systems available from other suppliers but this one was the best fit for my needs and installation was easy if you have the confidence to tackle it yourself, if not professional installation would be advised.
This thermostat makes the entire system so much better, even not being that good
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.
This thermostat makes the entire system so much better, even not being that good
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.
Mostly straighforward installation.
This would have been a very straightforward installation had not the electrician who installed our original CH controller made such a dog’s dinner of it. I carefully read the installation instructions and determined that it was going to be easy. However… firstly, my original model controller did not have a compatible back plate which I knew before I started. Secondly, what I did not expect was that it had been installed by someone with a penchant for connecting a wire (or two) to every single one of the nine terminals. Some led to a dead end at a junction box next to the boiler in another room, others simply doubled back on themselves and were connected back at the same terminal. The good news was I found a local electrician who came out, scratched his head, took some photos (which are probably on some electricians blog somewhere) and stripped out all the extraneous leads. After that the installation was a doddle.
The controller found my internet first time and set up was really easy. As the room thermostat was some distance from the heat hub with several thick brick walls between, I knew I would need a Smart Plug to facilitate a decent signal path. Finding the best location for the plug was ‘interesting’ due to the nature of the building layout, but here Drayton Wiser support proved to be excellent. As I tried various locations for the plug they were able to see the strength of the connection being made and their advice, patiently delivered, was invaluable. A few weeks later when I had a query, a call to their support was answered promptly and professionally.
The Wiser system has now been running flawlessly for several months and the control from the hub, thermostat or app has been very straightforward. Setting schedules is easy, and the variable boost function has proved far more useful than I imagined.
Downsides? As I spend hours each day at my computer it would be good if there was a web-based app to control the system rather than my iPad or phone and given that customer support could see the signal strength between the heat hub and thermostat it would be useful if this facility could be extended to users. Maybe a future enhancement.?
In summary, I’m really pleased with the unit. The thermostat is small and neat (and mobile), the app such a doddle to use that my technophobic wife (who never managed our previous ‘old-school’ controller) is very confident to use and the customer support has been exemplary.
It works
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.
A Great Product that i'd recommend.
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.
I have the 2-channel system, running my hot water (tank type, not on demand) and single zone heating, although with the radiator thermostats you can make it
Multi-zone without reinstalling your entire heating system! Trigger to install was my existing, rather old, timer and wireless thermostat packing up and having shopped around for a while.
While not as comprehensive a system as others, it is extremely simple to setup, particularly if you already have a Drayton timer unit – it’s just a matter of swapping the existing timer for the hub (took me literally 2 minutes with a screwdriver) and then setting up the app and thermostat (a further 5 minutes following the relatively idiot proof guide) – I am far from an electrician – making it significantly cheaper to get up as you remove the 120+ installation. The most complicated bit was working out how the thermostat stand clipped into the unit. Added bonus of a system made in the UK. You can then scale the system with the smart TRVs which I intend to do over time to spread the cost and/or chase special offers. I’ve not had any issues with the app or connectivity that some people report, I understand the app has recently been significantly improved and my house (fairly standard sized 1900s 3-bed semi) isn’t really big enough to have problems that you might get with a larger house. I’ve not had it for long enough to measure cost savings but given that my old system was going haywire before I replaced it I probably won’t be able to measure it – key thing is being able to control the heating far better.
Negatives – doesn’t integrate with wider ecosystems (apple home / nest / hive etc) so that has to be traded off against the simplicity. Alexia does work but I mostly just use the app. App can take 30 seconds to load sometimes but that’s not really been a problem.
Wish I'd Got This Soone
I took the plunge in to smart heating and considered the pros and cons of a few systems but this ticked all the boxes at a price that was affordable and I’m glad that I opted for the Drayton kit over the others. It was a breeze to install and configure through the app (I had an existing Drayton controller that I simply lifted off from the bracket and slotted the Wiser hub in its place). Although I have a small flat, for the first few weeks it couldn’t keep a consistent connection to my router which was situated only a few metres away behind a wall but I now believe it was an issue with the router as it became clear that my other smart devices were dropping off randomly – router was replaced and have enjoyed months without a single drop-out.
I love that it offers a comfort mode meaning that you set a room schedule and it learns how far in advance to begin heating to reach the desired temperature before the scheduled on time – I just set a schedule and forget about it – and I love that the bathroom is always cozy ready for my morning shower without having to remember to turn up the thermostat at night. Also a bonus that it has an eco mode so it learns when to stop heating before the scheduled off time.
The valves themselves were simplicity itself to install and didn’t need the adapter for my radiators – simply unscrewed the existing TRV’s, screwed the Wiser ones in place and the app found each straight away, and they make very little noise. The app itself is great but it’s a faff setting it up for geofencing as you need to install 3rd-party apps to make it work and have Away Mode activated when you leave the house, but once set up I just forget about it. Alexa integration is good but could be better – I can use my voice to check and control the heat in individual rooms but have yet to find a way to have the heating off everywhere without manually turning on Away Mode in the app.
Overall though, I’d highly recommend this system for anyone considering a smart home heating system that can control heating per room and that doesn’t tie you in to a subscription for basic functions (like geofencing).
Need to know this
This is a good internet thermostat and the support was v good from Drayton. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with my Huawei B535 4g modem. The system works by pairing the hub to an account run on Drayton servers via your WiFi/Internet set up. Your mobile phone must also be connected to the same WiFi network. The system uses the 2.4g WiFi band so you will need to have separate 5g and 2.4g networks – usually a simple modem setting if not on by default. The support engineers explained this and emailed me some info for my Huawei modem on using channels 1, 6 or 11 rather than auto. Sadly this didn’t work so I have lost the ability to use the app to control the system. Not too critical for us as this is installed in a Static Caravan and not in constant use. We can however still use the desk thermostat which comes with the system.
Support is just as bad as their products
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.
Easy to use system
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.
Works as it should
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.
Used for year and still only see advantages on having it!
I have used this product for almost a year now and like it. It is a lot better than Hive or Nest as it allows individual control of each room and does some real savings on heating. I live in a rented apartment, so I didn’t want to make any too significant changes in the current system. The building has a central boiler but is allows individual control in each apartment.
The wiser Central replaced the old thermostat in the wall, I needed only to add a power cord, as the previous one was battery powered, so I put a power cord and connected it to the wall socket. If this were my apartment, I would probably do something more elegant, but as I mention, I want to take this all out once I leave the apartment. That said, it is clear that I’ve installed myself; it is easy enough if you like DIY and have a basic knowledge of electrical installations.
This kit is a good start, but I bought more devices to expand the system. The radiator heads (Drayton Wiser Smart Heating Radiator Thermostat) do have a thermostat in it, but it is not precise for big rooms (as it is only centimetres from the radiator). What I recommend is have one of their digital thermostats (Drayton Wiser Smart Heating Room Thermostat) on each room as well. The Wiser system automatically assumes its temp instead of the radiator’s once they are mapped in the app to be in the same place. You should put the digital thermostat some meters from the radiator. I put one close to the baby’s crib, so the central controls the temperature in that place. By the way, if you have a newborn baby, this is amazing, as you can guarantee that you have the correct temp all the time in his room. It is peace of mind as the digital thermostat is very precise.
My set up: Radiators heads on 2 beds, 2 baths, living room(5 devices); 3 digital thermostats: 1 in the baby room, 1 in my room, 1 in the living room.
Wiser support is also very responsive via email; they genuinely try to help you, asking for more pictures and prompting you if the problem was solved or need more help.
My heating bill was definitively cheaper, as this winter I’ve only heated the rooms that I was in, all programmed to be on-off in different periods of the day and different temperature needs. Definitively worth the money.
ok, so bought the hub, room thermostat and two radiator thermostats from amazon warehouse. described as packaging scuffed but in as new condition. package arrived and it looked like the last package in the mail room, crushed and falling apart. still, once the items were inspected all were there and unmarked. first tip, go online and get the instructions for the wiser heating system you have just bought. yes i got them half price, but previous customer had attempted to install and not reset. my first mistake was not to factory reset hub and all other items. it will save days problem solving and back and forth from support. next tip, this system requires 2.4ghz internet. set up a guest network solely using 2.4ghz it will save endless non pairing issues. my main internet ssd runs 5ghz and 2.4ghz, it will not work with this item as you can’t select only 2.4ghz. so having done both of those before attempting set up all should go far easier than my installation.i messaged the support more than i chatted to my wife during the entire lock down so far. support were excellent, even when started contact before closing hours they still advised me much much later. having used this item, it was a straight swap for my older drayton hub, even the wife now fiddles with her phone checking the stats. plan is to add radiator stats on more rads as expenses allow, which is such a simple thing to do, my 13 year old son even did one. the adapters included were easy to install. this is a good product and my personal experience with alexa gets four stars, my son has some how made a second household account and alexa is questioning me more than my wife. however the app is excellent and my preferred choice over alexa. hope this helps, but rather than send it back or get frustrated contact support no issue is too small.
ok, so bought the hub, room thermostat and two radiator thermostats from amazon warehouse. described as packaging scuffed but in as new condition. package arrived and it looked like the last package in the mail room, crushed and falling apart. still, once the items were inspected all were there and unmarked. first tip, go online and get the instructions for the wiser heating system you have just bought. yes i got them half price, but previous customer had attempted to install and not reset. my first mistake was not to factory reset hub and all other items. it will save days problem solving and back and forth from support. next tip, this system requires 2.4ghz internet. set up a guest network solely using 2.4ghz it will save endless non pairing issues. my main internet ssd runs 5ghz and 2.4ghz, it will not work with this item as you can’t select only 2.4ghz. so having done both of those before attempting set up all should go far easier than my installation.i messaged the support more than i chatted to my wife during the entire lock down so far. support were excellent, even when started contact before closing hours they still advised me much much later. having used this item, it was a straight swap for my older drayton hub, even the wife now fiddles with her phone checking the stats. plan is to add radiator stats on more rads as expenses allow, which is such a simple thing to do, my 13 year old son even did one. the adapters included were easy to install. this is a good product and my personal experience with alexa gets four stars, my son has some how made a second household account and alexa is questioning me more than my wife. however the app is excellent and my preferred choice over alexa. hope this helps, but rather than send it back or get frustrated contact support no issue is too small.
Very quick and easy to install. Intuitive app which had some teething problems. Occasionally the app would ask me to login to view the heating & hot water options. Most times it would stay logged in and work immediately. I contacted customer support which has been first class. No waiting in a queue to speak to someone, knowledgeable staff who have worked hard to iron out the issue.
Very happy to recommend the system and 5 stars for their customer support.
Room heating at a touch of a button or just tell alexa to raise the temperature
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 .
eview for the 2 zone + hot water system. Installed in October 2017 and initially the servers were struggling and had intermittent control from outside the property, but not had any server issues that i have noticed in the last 6 months or so. its a new build house so has two zones and not had any connectivity issues with either the wifi or the thermostats to the hub, but the walls aren’t solid stone by any means but signal strength reported in consistant and appears solid and robust. probably 10m straight line from hub to stats, and 10m hub to wifi router.
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.
eview for the 2 zone + hot water system. Installed in October 2017 and initially the servers were struggling and had intermittent control from outside the property, but not had any server issues that i have noticed in the last 6 months or so. its a new build house so has two zones and not had any connectivity issues with either the wifi or the thermostats to the hub, but the walls aren’t solid stone by any means but signal strength reported in consistant and appears solid and robust. probably 10m straight line from hub to stats, and 10m hub to wifi router.
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.
OK, could be bette
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.
I have installed this on my Bish Junior – straight swap of the control unit took me whole 5 min – amazing!!!
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 great selling point is the ability to control the temperature in each individual room via an app and the smart thermostatic radiator valves (trvs). Before you buy check the existing valves you plan to replace. If they are the rarer M28 screw fitting be prepared to have to buy expensive adapters from a supplier outside the UK. Providing everything is compatible expect an easy to configure and adjust system.
The wiring from the boiler to the hub is simple, live, neutral and two switching wires, I actually just wired the hub to a plug (the switching wires can wait until you install it for real) to set up while sitting comfortably in my living room. Here are some pitfalls you may experience;
* 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.
The wiring from the boiler to the hub is simple, live, neutral and two switching wires, I actually just wired the hub to a plug (the switching wires can wait until you install it for real) to set up while sitting comfortably in my living room. Here are some pitfalls you may experience;
* 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.
Game changer for high bills/ cold houses!
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.
Good, but not without issues.
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
Simple and works well
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 am writing this review after using this product for couple of months. So, apologies for long review in advance 🙂
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 🙂
I am writing this review after using this product for couple of months. So, apologies for long review in advance 🙂
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 🙂
I’ve just moved to a Wiser system and needed an extra thermostat. They’re easy to install and add proper heating zoning across the house far more cheaply and far more effectively than trying to add a dual zone valve into the system. So far… I’m impressed. The app allows you to control the temperature in each room that has a thermostat installed, setting schedules as well as very easy manual override (and you can also manually override from the radiator thermostat as well). So far, I’m impressed.
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.
Not yet as refined as Tado (which I’ve had for 18 months and am running in parallel currently) but it’s clearly improving. Having less reliance on the internet is a significant plus over its competitors, particularly the locally held programme control of the heating and hot water, which is what has attracted me. The app can access and update the schedule locally too, even post setup, by pushing the setup button on the hub and connecting your phone to the setup network again – this could be better advertised. It’s a shame geofencing isn’t native to the app given the ‘green’ potential and focus of the system; although the IFTTT and Life360 option works (most of the time) it’s clunky and requires additional apps and accounts.
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.
Not yet as refined as Tado (which I’ve had for 18 months and am running in parallel currently) but it’s clearly improving. Having less reliance on the internet is a significant plus over its competitors, particularly the locally held programme control of the heating and hot water, which is what has attracted me. The app can access and update the schedule locally too, even post setup, by pushing the setup button on the hub and connecting your phone to the setup network again – this could be better advertised. It’s a shame geofencing isn’t native to the app given the ‘green’ potential and focus of the system; although the IFTTT and Life360 option works (most of the time) it’s clunky and requires additional apps and accounts.
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.
Schneider look to have utilised the proven expertise of Invensys and Drayton, plus their own deep pockets for development funding, to bring this amazing product to the retail market. I’m hugely impressed, and have bought a second setup for my daughter’s property. The key selling points for me are: the TRVs call for heat from the boiler, so everything is off unless a TRV reaches a trigger temperature; the system provides opentherm boiler control, so your opentherm boiler runs more efficiently and accesses online weather data for weather compensation; TRV valve adjustments are quick and much less noisy than my experience with previous motorised TRVs. Pure genius.
After a huge amount of research into different systems, really impressed with our new Wiser set up.
Easy to fit, high quality controls, and unlike other systems, the affordable TRVs mean we can much better control our house room by room.
The app works exactly as expected, and although fine tuning the remote side has been a challenge, it’s now well worth it and the support has been exceptional. I’d imagine most people wouldn’t have the router issues I did, so I’m more than happy to recommend.
I purchased the Wiser thermostat kit3 as although my house is on the small side the builders have seen fit to provide a heating system with 2 zones. The Danfoss controls were not the most user friendly and I wanted have more control over the system. Having read the manuals, seen some general hints and tips on various forums and with the electrician on the way I disabled the 5Mhz channel on my router. The install went to plan with the exception of one thermostat not joining the heat hub wifi first time and needed a factory reset after which it worked correctly. The app worked well and I had no difficulty setting up an account, monitoring and changing settings, also renaming my thermostats. I think the app could be better, I like the heat report but I cannot zoom in to examine any anomalies, perhaps the data could be exportable in a .csv file. I would also like to see what the hub is doing, particularly if it is carrying out a firmware update and signal strengths of connected devices . Web access to data in the cloud would also be nice and could solve the previous comments. Early days, the system has only been up and running 21hours.
Easy to install - but could be easie
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.
I bought it to be a relay for my wiser TRVs. It does the job, I can see the signals are improved significantly, and the whole system is much more stable.
Considering what it does, it is just far too expensive. From any aspect, it is impossible to justify the price.
The biggest problem is I cannot understand from Drayton wiser why they do not design the whole wiser system based on WIFI, rather than RF signal. In most modern families, the Wifi signal is much more available through the rooms. The reason I can imagine is that they want to create monopoly. RF is not completely closed, but compared to the more open Wifi market, it is much less accessible for others.
so near yet so fa
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.
Very flexible smart heating with zones
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.
Smartthings compatible sort of
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.
This is really good system and installed in a 1930s bungalow with 13 radiators. Mistakes I made on the first install:
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.
This is really good system and installed in a 1930s bungalow with 13 radiators. Mistakes I made on the first install:
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.
Good smart heating system, took an hour to set up including wiring
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! 😉
Very Impressive
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.
Got this up and running quickly, well I thought I had…
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)
Good value and a direct plug and play if you have the existing backplate
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.
Got this up and running quickly, well I thought I had…
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)
Good low cost multi-zone system, seems pretty reliable vs the Nest it replaced
Originally had a 2nd Gen Nest thermostat, but it became problematic and was always losing connectivity to the Heat Link box by the boiler despite being installed practically right below it. Problem was when the thermostat lost connectivity, you had no heating which occured a few times. Also disliked the fact that despite the thermostat being wireless, it needed to be constantly plugged into the mains meaning portability was lacking (wasn’t like you could easily carry it from room to room for e.g.).
Being that the product cost alot of money and also wasnt that old, was very disappointed. Rather felt as though it was all show and no go.
In the end decided to rip and replace for the Wiser Heat system and on the whole couldnt be happier with it. Had some initial niggles with the control box losing connectivity with the WiFi but it transpired it was a WiFi problem (or not enough of it!). Once that was sorted its been pretty rock solid.
The system is pretty easy to set up (though the control box really needs professional installation), easy enough to configure and by and large does what it says on the tin.
We bought the pack with the single TRV included and used it in our main bedroom. To begin with I was disappointed as it didnt seem to fit the valve properly and subsequently failed to control the rad properly……several months later after trying it again have found that I hadnt installed it correctly and now seems to control the radiator OK. They arent the quietest things (if you are a light sleeper the opening and closing process could wake you) but do the job. Only issue I have encountered is that the TRV set temperature has a few times dropped down from what it was set to (was 18, falling back to 15 degrees) meaning we’ve woken cold a few times but having disabled Eco mode now seems OK.
I will probably eventually install the TRV’s in all the bedrooms, but at 40 quid a pop it’s not really a cheap exercise (though far cheaper than Honeywell’s offering) but it’ll be nice to have temperature control in the bedrooms in order to run the house a bit warmer and the rooms cooler for comfortable sleeping in the colder months. Test will be whether a range extender will be required as our house is fairly large….time will tell I suppose.
In summary, I imagine the Honeywell system is probably better but at the cost it ought to be. For the money this seems very good value for money as whilst arguably not quite as polished as the likes of the Honeywell offering it offers nice, reliable functionality at a relatively low price. Certainly knocks a single Nest thermostat into the weeds in terms of reliability and overall functionality, from my own experience anyway.
I searched all the different smart heating systems and decided on this, mainly due to the cost.
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.
Been using Drayton wiser smart thermostat for just over a week now and had no issues. It was very easy to set up although I did have to change the backplate for the main controller. I already was using a couple of TP link A4220 Wi-fi range extenders so had good Wi-fi coverage. Thinking of adding some radiator thermostats next to have more flexible control in all rooms. The phone app seems to work good and have had no problem connecting at home or away from home. Would recommend this product from my experience so far.
What should be a straightforward install, took ages as the instructions are woeful. They miss out key steps and details. i.e. switching from the hub to your own wifi at the point you want to create an account. Password appears to require upper and lower case and special characters (!”$%^&*) in order to work (when you get it wrong and it fails, it just says error and not whats wrong!). Wifi hub has a rubbish range and you will probably need the range extender plug which is more money!
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.
Great product once you get it set up and stable.
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.
Our house was always incredibly difficult to heat properly despite having conventional thermostaic valves on all rads. To get the living room hot enough the rest of the house was too hot. But then in the morning if the bedroom was warm enough the living room was too hot. I am sure this could have been sorted by splitting the house into zones but with the Drayton Wiser system I have a smart thermostat on almost all of the radiators. If one of the kids wants their bedroom heating when the rest of the house is empty that can be done. we now have a warm living room and do not waste energy heating the whole house to heat one part.
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 !
Our house was always incredibly difficult to heat properly despite having conventional thermostaic valves on all rads. To get the living room hot enough the rest of the house was too hot. But then in the morning if the bedroom was warm enough the living room was too hot. I am sure this could have been sorted by splitting the house into zones but with the Drayton Wiser system I have a smart thermostat on almost all of the radiators. If one of the kids wants their bedroom heating when the rest of the house is empty that can be done. we now have a warm living room and do not waste energy heating the whole house to heat one part.
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 !
This is a very good system that has already saved me heating costs even after a few months. I estimate it will pay for itself in my house in about 3 years but I would still use it just for the features it provides even without the cost saving.
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 bought the wiser 2 channel system and yes, it does what you would expect it to do. My one surprise was that the heating is totally controlled by the Smart Thermostats – obvious you might think – but in the past using my Honeywell timer I have been able to schedule both hot water (which the Wiser system allows) and heating (which the Wiser system does not do. I fully get that the stats are there to do all the thinking for you but it would be nice to have the over-arching scheduling that the Honeywell control system gave me on both hot water and heating scheduling. That all said, I really like what Wiser provides and can comfortably recommend the system I bought – but just remember you won’t get heating scheduling control directly …..
I used an installer to fit the hub, as recommended by Drayton. It was worth it since while the hub simply plugged into the existing bracket, having somebody check that was useful. Also I had to disable the existing house thermostat, which I didn’t know how to do. Cost was 90 and well spent.
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.
I used an installer to fit the hub, as recommended by Drayton. It was worth it since while the hub simply plugged into the existing bracket, having somebody check that was useful. Also I had to disable the existing house thermostat, which I didn’t know how to do. Cost was 90 and well spent.
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.
I purchased the Wiser Hub and Room Thermostat all kit with a couple of TRV’s. Swapping out the existing Timer and replacing it with the Hub is simple if you have the standard connection described in the information on the internet. Setting up each device is easy peasy once the Hub is connected to your Wi-Fi. Adding TRV’s is also straightforward – I now have seven on my system. Creating schedules and setting individual room temperatures is a doddle too. Once done, you can do everything you need to from your mobile phone – inside the house or while away from home. If you have an Amazon Elexa, you can even use voice commands. I am delighted with this system and pleased I decided to invest in it.
Took quite a few months to choose out of Honeywell Evo Home and Tado. Tado range was in the basket and purchased. During order I found out that Tado are charging an annual fee for the latest v3+ products, so cancelled the order. I’ve had the Drayton wiser now for over a month and can say it meets my requirements and more. The designers have recently updated their app which you can now trend the temperature daily or weekly. It comes with all the bells and whistles like the others, but at a much cheaper price. Also, if WiFi goes down you can still operate it by pressing the heating button on the hub. I’ve read this is not the case for Tado. Hence another one of the reasons why I went for the Drayton instead.
Took quite a few months to choose out of Honeywell Evo Home and Tado. Tado range was in the basket and purchased. During order I found out that Tado are charging an annual fee for the latest v3+ products, so cancelled the order. I’ve had the Drayton wiser now for over a month and can say it meets my requirements and more. The designers have recently updated their app which you can now trend the temperature daily or weekly. It comes with all the bells and whistles like the others, but at a much cheaper price. Also, if WiFi goes down you can still operate it by pressing the heating button on the hub. I’ve read this is not the case for Tado. Hence another one of the reasons why I went for the Drayton instead.
I have just had Gas central heating installed and I was looking to make the Gas Central heating smart. It took weeks of looking into it and many different products…In the end I went with Drayton Wiser because of the reviews and the supposed flawless ability to control every radiator individually. Well I am pleased to say i am glad I went with this product.. Friends of mine have different systems and they do not have the control that i have…The plumber fitting the central heating system insisting this system will not pull water from the boiler directly it will have to go to the main thermostat first…I said to him we will agree to disagree…The next day he told me that his fellow tradesmaen had stated the main thermostat will control the radiators..I again said we will agree to disagree…Well it was me that was correct and left the gas engineer Gob smacked. I have eight radiators and the radiator in the hall is the open all the time radiator as a fail safe so if you are pulling water to any other radiator you will get this radiator on as well so fit that one without any smart TRV into the hallway as this is usually the coldest room and the wall thermostat will control that one only….The other seven radiators all have Drayton Smart TRV’s and I have total control….I give you an example…If i want just the kitchen to heat up I can…The smart phone app is brilliant showing a list of all my rooms with the radiators…lets say i changed the temperature for the kitchen radiator from say 18C to 24C and the app will show a flame telling you the radiator is powering up and calling water and around ten to thirty seconds you hear the smart TRV on the selected radiator make a little noise as it opens the valve then the boiler fires up and about ten seconds later the radiator starts to get hot.All the other smart controlled radiators are still off because they are not requiring heat. You can then set the scheduling for any time for each radiator to come on and off and at what temperature….complete control…Example the kitchen may be set to 21C and the Lounge at 23C while the bedrooms are off…that is until later if you so wish…
This is total control and I cannot believe how good it is. I have the room where my cats are on most of the time but the rest of the system is just set to frost protection until i need them on and they fire up on the time I have requested….Lets say the scheduling is due in an hour but its cold instead of changing the scheduling just set a thirty minute one hour or three hour boost to whatever radiator you want. Its total control and it is already saving me money….Two other settings of interest…a COMFORT setting brings whichever radiator you want on earlier than the scheduled time so the comfort temperature is there when you want it…I don’t use this because I think it would use more gas..I do use however the ECO mode, well this setting monitors the weather outside and how quickly your house heats up and cools down and assists in saving you money……This is an excellent product easy to install and operate, eventually your schedule will run the house without you having to do anything…..My cats love it…Highly recommended
Best system on the market when set up correctly
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.
Delighted, great value hardware and logical/effective functions
Recently installed and have been running a couple of weeks. Still working on optimum position and heat setting for thermostats but that is down to my rooms and hotter and colder areas. I only have the 2 zone (plus host water) with the 2 thermostats for now but rad therms and smart plugs ordered as happy with things so far.
Setup was pretty easy, I had a 3 zone digital clock so wiring was a like for like with the new base plate, instructions clear. I had issue, support was v good, available, responsive and knew their stuff. Turned out issue was my initial wiring, my fault, guys walked me through steps to debug and got it sorted. App and device setup a breeze, find app pretty issue to use, not slick but pretty, logical and does what you need.
Delighted with the functions and working a treat. Used the away mode over Christmas when visiting family and was able to turn on heating on drive home, simple but powerful… Wife blown away which is important as now not classed as gadget purchase… Adding value to household 🙂
All round very happy, I looked at many smart systems for ages and landed on wiser due to v competitive pricing for hardware (got my 2 therm and control setup) for a steel black Friday. Now looking forward to scaling out with full rad therm setup. I’ll update in a couple of weeks/months on back of this.
This is a well engineered product with neat functionality.
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 🙁
Smart Plug. Useful piece of kit after intial hiccup.
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.
I have a large granite house and did wonder if the Wiser system would work. As claimed the Hub was a direct swap out of our existing Drayton programmer and it was easy to set up and now that it’s stable is proving a brilliantly simple and effective system via the iPhone App. BUT, and it’s quite a big one, the ranges claimed by Drayton are wildly exaggerated in an actual installation and I have not been able to use it as I originally intended. I am not using any of the radiator thermostats due to the BUT so I am simply controlling the heating via the Smart Thermostat and using the scheduler for the house heating and hot water. However even to do that I have had to add two Wiser Plugs as range extenders to provide adequate range between the Hub and the Thermostat. They claim 30m for the Hub and 100m for the Plug but in practice I have found the range to be 6-8m and that is with timber framed walls. I have tried to get past a 2′ thick granite wall and found the network simply can’t penetrate this barrier even though the house WiFi signal does. So, my set up is the Hub in the boiler room, a Wiser Plug 7m away in the Utility Room, a second Wiser Plug another 7m away in the Kitchen and then the Thermostat at the other side of the Kitchen a further 6m away. I have also found that the Hub is not as good a WiFi receiver as my iPhone as when I hold my iPhone adjacent to the Hub it shows 3 bars signal whereas the Hub hovers between 1-2 bars. It’s enough though and the whole system has been stable for a week. I have also tried to adjust the system while away from the house via 4G and it works very well.
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.
Very Flexible and Versatile but fiddly install
I bought this after getting fed up with going to bed cold and waking up roasting. My thermostat was in the hall so even with thermostatic valves the other rooms were never the proper temperature. The bedroom was especially bad. I could never get it comfortable at bed time, always chilly, and then in the morning too hot as the heating tried to get the ground floor warm. I looked at several other products, HIVE seems good but the basic kit just replaces the thermostat and I wanted more. TADO seemed to fit the bill but seemed expensive.
This system has sorted this. I put the two radiator valves in the living room and bedroom. The bedroom is now comfortable when I go to bed, kept at a constant temperature all night, but doesn’t get too hot as the rest of the house is warmed for the day. The living room is warm when I get up and stays warm till bed time. The bedroom is no longer heated through the day, but If I want a daytime bath I can warm it for changing from my app, or just a quick twist on the radiator cap will again add heat.
I haven’t enabled goe-location, but I have put buttons on my phone that I can use to turn “away mode” on and off as required, so hopefully saving money.
So all in all its doing what I wanted, and I am very pleased. I have only given four stars as I think the Alexa and Google integrations are a bit limited.
I would also say installation can be a pain. If you have a conventional (non-combi) system with a Y-valve or two motorised valves, a programmer on a standard wall plate and fairly modern Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs), or a combi boiler and modern TRVs then you are pretty much good to go.
Saldy I had a single motorized valve, old TRVs that are too small to fit the new Wiser radiator valves and a programmer on a non-standard mounting plate. So the install was a bit of a pain. The existing boiler circuit required a tweak as it was wired so that the system only ran if just the “Hot Water” input was live. The existing timer was not on a standard plate so some drilling was needed to fix the new plaate. Also when it says “by-pass the thermostat” you usually need to add a link to do this. The instructions are not clear at this point.
I ended up replacing several radiator valves. One TRV was stuck and leaked when I operated it a few times. One lockshield (so the trailing valve) developed a dribble, one radiator (the one where the thermostat was) didn’t have a TRV, and one TRV was the wrong size and Drayton didn’t make an adaptor, which is odd as it was a drayton valve. In any case the new radiator valve was cheaper than many of the adaptors, but as draining the system is a pain if one valve needs replacing check them all.
I don’t think this will be typical. My basic heating system is 38 years old, and its a tribute to the Drayton folks this works with it.
Once the physical install was complete the app set up fine and it connected to my router no probem. All working fine.
I bought the Drayton Wiser Multizone Kit 2 — Heating & Hot Water back in October. Six weeks have gone by so thought a review may help others if they are considering purchasing.
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!
I bought the Drayton Wiser Multizone Kit 2 — Heating & Hot Water back in October. Six weeks have gone by so thought a review may help others if they are considering purchasing.
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 easy to install (with some knowledge of CH wiring)
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.
Good Support From Drayto
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
Great but not perfect.
The Wiser Kit – Great price of kit, simple to fit and works great. If you are buying just remember that if a firmware upgrade is required, the thermostat will show a hourglass and it takes a long time i.e. a couple of hours. They should have flashed up a more obvious message or shown a progress bar but they don’t which is a bit poor. Apart from that I’ve had issues with reception from the control unit. I live in a pretty standard semi with the control unit in the back bedroom I had occasional problems. Judging by reviews this is common so bear in mind you’ll probably end up buying a Wiser Plug which will boost the signal. So all in all great for the price despite a couple of niggles.
The Wiser Plug – Works as advertised. I got this mainly as a signal booster for my growing Wiser system. The reception on the standard hub is poor out of the box but this seems to have resolved the intermittent connection issues I was having. The instructions make setting this up as a booster sound more complex than it actually is – just add it to your system, switch off the hub for a couple of minutes and when you switch the hub back on then your devices will connect to the hub directly or the plug depending on which connection is best, job done. If you move the plug then you’ll probably have to do the same again so that devices lock on to the best signal.
Have no words to express how good this product is for its price. Whilst competition is at least 3 times more expensive, Drayton was the perfect fit for our home. Have to be honest and say it helped having a programmer from the same company, therefore the transition to this one was extremely smooth, just had to shut off the energy, remove the old unit, put the new unit in place (it is using the same frame) and turn the power on again. 2 minutes tops! Therefore no money spent on installation. Also having TRV valves helped as I just screwed the Wiser ones in after removing the old ones, 1 minute max.
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!
So I’m not exactly a novice, but was expecting more of a challenge with this setup. In reality though it was very easy. Control unit went in fine, my old unit didn’t have the same rear connection, but re-wiring was easy and wall mounting was a couple of screws. Once the physical install is done the set up of the Thermostats via the app was really easy. App functionality is really good and after two days I woke up this morning to find it had updated itself with more features. The only thing I haven’t done is bypass my existing wall mounted thermostats – this looked complex and I’ll call in an engineer to get this done, for now the work around is to turn them up to maximum so they don’t interfere with the new thermostats.
I fitted my Wiser system some weeks ago, and have been waiting before reviewing it so I could give a honest and experienced view point. I have a conventional vented/pumped heating and hot water system so I have the Multi zone 2 kit and I decided to buy 5 additional remote valves so I have all radiators except bathroom towel rails ‘under Wiser control.
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 fitted my Wiser system some weeks ago, and have been waiting before reviewing it so I could give a honest and experienced view point. I have a conventional vented/pumped heating and hot water system so I have the Multi zone 2 kit and I decided to buy 5 additional remote valves so I have all radiators except bathroom towel rails ‘under Wiser control.
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.
Easy to install and set up. Great value for money
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..
Update 2021-01-18 – I’ve had this system for some years and I’m still satisfied. Otherwise, the app has been improving over the last year or so and has a few more features which are quite nice.
There ARE some issues with individual radiators and it is worth doing some annual maintenance on the valves – they have a “nipple” that controls the valve (you can see this when you remove the TRV top) – use some silicon lubrication on this and work it up and down a few times at the end of the summer when the heating is coming back on. I’ve also had it recommended to replace the valves with Drayton ones if you have to drain your system at any point. Not because they work better with the Drayton Wiser system but because they are the best valves and a lot more reliable long term.
The other occasional issue is that the controller sometimes crashes and it can take some time to restart. I tend to think that it may be because I’m also polling the controller every 60s from a home automation system. Either way, it is only a minor inconvenience given that this system is so much cheaper than its main competitor, the Honeywell EvoHome.
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Excellent. Provides good control, simple to use and very quiet. The Wiser TRV’s are around 1/2 the price of competitors – partly because they have no screen on them. No screen is good! These are really simple to use and easily pass the family test.
Unlike some TRV’s, these are quiet enough not to disturb any but the lightest sleepers.
Initially I thought I was going to have problems with this product (I did) I live in 1930’s 3 bed bungalow with brick internal walls, my heating system was already fitted with a Drayton wireless RF thermostat, so it was simple to remove and replace the base unit with the smart base unit.
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
Initially I thought I was going to have problems with this product (I did) I live in 1930’s 3 bed bungalow with brick internal walls, my heating system was already fitted with a Drayton wireless RF thermostat, so it was simple to remove and replace the base unit with the smart base unit.
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
Wow – what a brilliant system – I’ve looked at all the systems over many months , even wasted money on buying two EVE radiator thermostats, how fiddly were they . Am I so glad I waited for WISER – it was a breeze to install and so intuitive- ok a few headscrating moments but that’s more a case of not reading the instructions carefully – so went onto YouTube and loads of help, not that you’ll need much – I’m so pleased that after installing 4 radiator thermostats and room stat I immediately ordered 4 more to complete the system – the Drayton engineers seem to have thought of everything. – as for noisy radiator valves – load of rubbish – can’t hear a thing – I really can’t believe how easy it was – we’ll done . Security? – can’t see what the problem is – And the price is great – Only one thing as we have a big sprawling house we may need an extender but that’s easily fixed – finally my son is so impressed he’s installing the same – Drayton you’ve pulled a blinder here well done
I have this in my third bedroom which I use as an office, therefore I only want heat in this room during a cold day when I’m working and I don’t need heat elsewhere in the house. It’s extremely easy to fit, simply replacing the existing valve, and I had no trouble in connecting it to work on my overall Wiser system through the app. None of these systems are cheap and it’s worthwhile checking how much you are actually going to end up paying to replace the whole system as to whether you’ll actually get your money back from any heat savings you make. The jury is probably still out. For ease of use and installation however, it’s extremely good – as long as your internet connection is strong enough, but that’s another issue entirely.
Had Wiser for a month now with their TRv’s on most radiators. Fitted it whilst having a new boiler so the electrician fitted the main module but I configured it and fitted the 9 TRvs.
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.
Bought this Drayton Wiser Multizone kit a couple of months ago but have delayed writing a review until I had had some time to see how well it works. I have to say I am very pleased with the system and have just bought two more radiator valves to extend the system. Wiring it in was straight forward and setting it up went well, once I had read the instructions. The full manual that you download is much better at explaining the process.
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.
Really easy to install. I already had a Drayton Programmer, so it was literally a case of remove the old one and the new one went on without any fuss – a five minute job (if that). One thing I have had to do in relation to the old thermostat. It is hard wired in so for now I have left on ‘max temperature’ and the new wiser programmer overrides that, but this is necessary to make the connection enabling the new programmer and thermostats to work. I will have an electrician come and professionally remove the old thermostat and associated wiring in due course.
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 !
This is a well made and well thought through product. Small details all over the products, the documentation, and packaging show me this has been thoughtfully designed. If you have experience of Drayton TR4 radiator valves – the quality is the same.
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).
This is a well made and well thought through product. Small details all over the products, the documentation, and packaging show me this has been thoughtfully designed. If you have experience of Drayton TR4 radiator valves – the quality is the same.
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).