Define 'friendly' :stuck_out_tongue:

Don't do Hive, go for Nest - much better support and integration with other smart home devices.

You know Hive was made in China? Lol

Hive fails. Comments #158 and #160

What are you banging on about now?

Oh 1 minute intervals. What i wouldn't give for that.
It's up to 14 minutes wasted energy with Hive. Con job lol

£10:00 + £270:00 for Nest installation = £280:00

Hive is still cheaper and not a Chinese server in sight.

:-)

Cheap and from China
No earth connection?
Max power handling 2200 watts so no good for anything above this and do you have to link your wi-fi password to a Chinese server?
Can multiple schedules be set a week in advance?
probably cheap for a reason[/quote]



multiple timings can be set up to to 2 years ahead down to 1 min intevals unlike hive 15 min
timings are stored in Sonoff memory so loss off network timings still operate ok
Can be connected to temperature and humidity sensor so you can set and
monitor it on phone app all for less than tenner
also compatible with Nest

British Gas engineer just finished here right now at 4:40pm having put back my system as it was before, he’s been here since midday. He installed Hive then, oh, it doesn’t work with my central heating. He was going to leave it so I could have both hot water and heating on or nothing, I said No, please put it back, I don’t want to waste money heating the very little hot water I use! What a waste of time. Now to get a refund!

Got my £4.83 switches working now took less than 5 min to set up about 10 min to work out and wire into to system
Can now read back and set temperature on my phone
Friend you has Hive was well impressed with it asked me were hub is lol dose not need one
Can even set up timers for next year (dont know why need to though)

Apart from the fact that the deal has now expired, just want to give an update to buying the refurbished model, mine arrived and I tried to arrange installation with British Gas but they said they couldn't arrange it because the code voucher had already been used and I should contact the seller and ask for new code from them, so I called Amazon and they started giving me the run around and told me to contact Hive. I didn;t sign up for all this hassle and asked for a refund, my advice is to wait for the price to come down again and get the new one.

Best advice is to download the app for your smartphone and go to https://my.hivehome.com and link your account through a laptop?

You can alter everything through the thermostat but I find it easier and more convenient through my phone and laptop

Also, make sure you phone them during office hours when you initially link you set up to your account

Hive support
0800 980 8614

Ok thanks for that.

Currently £182:73 on a wharehouse deal

if you need any advice, feel free as I'm quite used to it now

and Maplin have put it back to full price as well

Got this yesterday for £173.91 from the amazon warehouse,just repackaged but contents inside unopened and perfect,well happy with installation in 6 days,just hopes it lives up to expectations.

now back up to £249

lol good one

Well it is valentines day after all

:-)

There's a lot of willy waving in this thread.

This deal is for Hive fitted for £210.

So you 40 year old programmer is dual channel lol ,so what have presumed wrong ???
Unlike you ie its just simple switch lol tell me something hive can do but my sonoff can not
ie it can remotely switch heating/hot water with programs set weeks/months ahead
remotely read and set temperature https://www.itead.cc/sonoff-th.html for £5 not £179
I know its not all set up for heating system like Hive but just shows how cheap the hardware is
So why do hive sell theirs for £179 ??

<#125

Links, emails, reviews and facts have been provided.
All I'm hearing is excitement from a new toy.

You presume wrong. a bit like most all the presumptions previously made.

So what your saying is if you have 40 year old mechanical programmer this can save you money
But not if you have up to date dual channel programmer
Presume if you have old programmer it will be single channel system ie
ie unable to run heating without hot water on as well . If so would benefit more
from reconfig to dual channel Hive wont do this though

Peace out bro :sunglasses:
Gonna miss our fun times together

that was a rhetorical question.

Laters.

Does Hive? Maybe on a good day and you're feeling lucky.

You get what you pay for.

Has that cheap thermostat the ability to switch the lights off/sockets on, interact with motion sensors/Alexa?

Yes/No?

Lol

Not a like for like deal and dearer than the £30 you stated so try again.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/center-programmable-room-thermostat-honeywell-51-40-80-with-code-firstshop20-plumb-2578579

Installation is said to be easy enough to do it yourself

Where?

Because someone else would say:

"Already posted " :wink:

Someone said
"It could have been replaced with a £30 thermostat"

Why not post a deal on here for a £30 Thermostat fully installed that does everything the Hive does and then we can comment and vote on that deal?

:-)

It could have been replaced with a £30 thermostat

I'm quite interested in this product as I have it.
But i think you mean because it's not such a positive experience that I shouldn't contribute.

Rapid - you obviously are not interested in this product so maybe it is time for you to step away from this thread and let those who are interested in it just discuss it.

I disagree, as I said earlier, my old timer was 40 years old, had A.B.C.D. on a 24 hour dial so even if I squeezed A, B and C.D. together, then that was 3 hours minimum if left on timed.

The amount of times I left the water and heating on timed over the years was unbelievable.

With this system I can sync it down to 15 minutes if need be plus as you say, turn it on/off remotely.

Can also set the heating to half a degree more than "Actual" so there's got to be a saving there.

I reckon i'll only save about £80 a year as I have good insulation because I no longer have to fire up the boiler as long to maintain the desired effect.

Keep doing what you're doing. It's nothing short of a miracle. :smiley:

Unlikely to save money which is what they try to make you believe. For example the fact you can pre warm your house before you get there is an added energy consumption.
Old systems had schedules too. So this is more of a remote convenience.

RE: Hive v Nest

It ain't rocket science, if you think Nest is worth paying £70 more, then have that installed.

If you think neither are good value, then don't have any of them.

Personally, I reckon my Hive install will easily pay for itself well inside 30 months then it's all profit

Funny, I've had Hive for over 2 years, use it daily, and haven't experienced one of the problems stated. Isn't that remarkable.

iOS is worse:

Just simply avoid

by I9jzPq8
Before Hive installed - walk a few yards to thermostat; adjust thermostat. Takes a few seconds and works every time.

After Hive - fire up laptop & start Hive program. Find you can't log in. Update App. Doesn't work. Switch off Hive and restart. Wait a while. Stil doesn't work. Phone Hive. Wait while they reprogram your unit. Still doesn't work. Phone Hive again to be told that the first guy didn't know what he was doing. Wait while they send some network repeaters in the post, which make no difference. Eventually get Hive back in action.

Try again tomorrow. Fire up iPad etc and find they've 'improved' the app i.e. made it worse and it now takes ages to reprogram. Resolve to go back to old, manual, thermostat.

There are many more, similar, annoyances. These are not isolated occurrences but quite common. Even if Hive worked faultlessly every time, it would still be far easier to just use a manual system.

Jusy say No to Hive.

Slow and wrong resolution

by renrufus
Works ok for heating and hot water but the way it takes so long to 'sync' a temperature change is odd, sometimes it stops me from scrolling the temperature so it can sync a new temperature mid scroll which is annoying..
Also the resolution of the app is not native from iPhone 6 and above making the interface awfully ugly. Seems a bit lazy from the development team to not acknowledge that a new display size has been out for the last couple of years.

That's all people whinging about the Android app. Looks like your problems will be solved if only you were to upgrade to an iPhone.

yeah true, my main issue is with their app and dev team. I'm on an app 3 versions ago because their current updated app is so bad. It's just not useable.

Here are examples:

Neal Sarangdhar
Works ok But could still be a lot better with further development. There need to be more widgets to control other smart home devices as well as the heating and water. It would be nice to have more schedule slots and perhaps 5 minutes intervals rather than 15. The Android app doesn't have temperature history like the web version and the app itself could be a bit more user friendly.

Rachel Trew
Refresh banner problem I only have hive for heating. Latest update locks the "Refreshing" banner over the schedule-manual-off controls. Very annoying and makes it totally useless. Only way to overcome it seems to be to uninstall and reinstall app. Till it happens again. And repeat, repeat, repeat. Needs fixing urgently.

Rich Beach
Widget worthless Down grading my review as the widgets are never synced with the data, just a quick link to the app. And please tell me why you still have no widgets for all your other products?!! Why no smart plug widget so I can switch my light on or off without a dozen menu clicks?! Come on, get with it if you want to compete with Nest!

To be fair you cant blame this if someone turns it on manually and then forgets to turn it off - it isn't sentient and so wouldn't know you had forgotten, however because it will only heat it to the temperature you set, if it reaches that temperature it will turn off anyway (until the temperature drops below that). But then if you set up Geolocation and turn it on manually then leave the house as long as your away temp is lower than the temp you turned it on to it will alert you and you can then turn it off.

For basics like on/off it's ok. It's when you want something a little more smart that it fails miserably :wink:
It won't pick up on accidental hot water being on for a long time.
if they use boost then it auto shuts off after 30min/1hr/2hr depending on what's selected
if they use on/off then it'll stay on until it has been shut off manually.
or you can use schedule which will auto on and off.

Ok, i've taken the plunge and gone for the refurbished ones

Yep, it's what I did and what i recommended on the first page.

Is it worth getting the used (i.e refurbished) at £173? £35 cheaper

[quote=InTheKnow444]Had Hive for weeks, it's great.
This thread is for the benefit of other people considering not paying £280 to have Nest fitted who need more than a simple on/off switch that does little else.
Some people are too easy............. :-)[/quote

Yes agree with you this is good deal for Hive .Most people only require it to switch heating or water on remotely
so they come home to warm house or hot water .Also you can program events week ahead with this switch
This does all that but if you feel the need to adjust your thermostat whilst out and about then you need Hive
Was thinking of getting Hive when it was about £100 diy couple months ago but missed deal
But do think its over priced for what its used for, why not ditch WiFi thermostat and make cheap version
I think the Sonoff WiFi Wireless Smart Switch is amazing for price there is loads of custom firmware online
for this .Also loads of different ways of controlling online
I was really just showing that the technology for remote internet control is so cheap now why charge £179 for it
The Hive will be made in china for about £10/15 rest is profit
Apart from the WiFi thermostat the Hive and nest is nothing more than a simple on/off switch that does nothing else
If you want temp control and much more there is the Xiaomi multifunctional gateway £26 does all what hive/nest do
and much more.As it is not locked into Hive/Nest software there is loads of independent apps and software
As for the sonoff simple on/off switch that does little else think again . You will find it does much more than Hive
for less than £5. With little ingenuity http://www.superhouse.tv/21-six-sonoff-secrets/ making the hive look well over price

Had Hive for weeks, it's great.

This thread is for the benefit of other people considering not paying £280 to have Nest fitted who need more than a simple on/off switch that does little else.

Some people are too easy............. :-)

Cheap and from China
No earth connection?
Max power handling 2200 watts so no good for anything above this and do you have to link your wi-fi password to a Chinese server?
Can multiple schedules be set a week in advance?
probably cheap for a reason[/quote]


Why does it need earth connection its plastic were would you connect it ?????
earth for your appliance does not need go through this
2200 watts switching boiler control side would think its about 1 watt
2200 watts what you looking at switching ?
WiFi password how the hell is it going to connect without it ??
I will carry on using this £4.85 device
You should stick to your £210 hive and for gods sake get it fitted
because obviously you would be unable to fit it
multiple schedules be set a week in advance yes use my programmer
while i am at home . Why would i need to do that remotely
I can switch my heat on and come home to warm house or
tank of hot water thats all most people require .They can set
timer settings and thermostat settings while at home

So is this good or gash.

What happens when some numpty sticks the hot water on via app and forgets to switch it off, does it pick up on this or can be programmed to auto shut after a certain time

Obviously only the thermostat - sheesh! This is almost as bad as a Ps4 vs Xbone thread. Different strokes dudes!

someone said -
Item number 272339883189 forgot there is £1 postage to add but still cheap[/quote]
Cheap and from China

No earth connection?

Max power handling 2200 watts so no good for anything above this and do you have to link your wi-fi password to a Chinese server?

Can multiple schedules be set a week in advance?

probably cheap for a reason

Item number 272339883189 forgot there is £1 postage to add but still cheap

Have you got an item number for the WiFi switch from ebay for £3.83?

Cheers

Yep.

I have a combi boiler but they don't offer installation with the heating only system, do I need to order the heating and water system?

Have taken mine off the back plate it quite lot different to hive no way it would fit
There are about 3 types of back plate maybe im unlucky but its still current programmer
But if back plates compatible its not worth paying about £50 to fit Hive
Even with mine plates different but wires in same order so only 5/10 min job
Decided its over priced and gone with WiFi switch of ebay £3.83 and free app
as all i really need is to switch heat on from phone

All the ones I've ever seen have been as per the picture I've posted. If yours looks similar to this, then it will fit.
As regards the batteries, I had assumed (without reading the blurb) the batteries were for backup but apparently not. My mistake

Danfoss dual channel programmer is different and still a very common current model
Yes it does fit some but far from fitting all I have the Danfoss FP715 and can assure
you it wont fit .Also like to know why you need 240 vac to hive thermostat that runs on 2 AA battery's
Also on your pic its wired incorrect for hive should be common 1 heating off 2 , heating on 3 , 4 NC

Its good deal for Hive but its well overpriced
All most people want is to turn on heating or hot water from there phone
You can get WiFi switch of Ebay for less than fiver that will do than
and the apps free

If your backplate looks similar to this (I've never seen a newer one which wasn't), then it will fit

Don't worry kiddo, I think everyone else knows what you're talking about. :smiley:

Think you misunderstood bro. Sure if you set the temp target it'll cut off, talking about something else.

Now I think I understand why you keep getting upset, do you install these for a living? Explains why you keep taking it personally...and your bias

Hive thermostat is battery powered and wireless
Cant see any reason why dual channel hive wont work with oil system
The receiver does not fit all newer back plates though

Also, you're completely incorrect (again), I'd love to see your installation. Like any other modern heating system it will heat to the target temperature, if that temperature is reached in 3 minutes, 17 minutes or 3 hours it will turn off accordingly, unless the timer for your schedule or boost comes first.

You need to practice your trolling, not doing well in this thread. 3/10.

I think if you are looking at installing a Nest or Hive where you have a wired stat, or where there used to be one and the wiring remains as did in our case (who would go to the trouble to remove?), the convenience and reliability of wired power and a wired link to the boiler means that Nest is the winner.

On the software, there are terrible reviews for Hive on Google Play if you search by most recent review. From what I gather, Hive grew out of British Gas's purchase of AlertMe which started out making self-install burglar alarms with very ropey hardware and software. Even though I'd like to support a British company, I wouldn't let them run my boiler.

Nest has been flawless for me.

Officially you can run any USB-powered device using any device which conforms to the USB power standards.

Please remember the rules, no name calling or trolling. We have a code of conduct.

From what I can tell you can cancel within the first 2 years as well, would they come and take it out? It's 150 cancellation charge

No idea if my boiler is compatable or not, it's pretty old

Thanks for sharing this with everyone, although it's a bit of a mystery why you entered this thread at all being uninterested?

Out of interest do you take items to the checkout in the supermarket just to tell everyone you don't need them?

One that gives you greater flexibility, especially as my old timer cost more to run.

I just don't see the need. It's another gadget.

Can be set down to 15 minutes using the schedule, boost can be turned off manually at say 7 or indeed 17 minutes if you chose too.

In some ways it does! Can only choose between a minimum of 30 minutes or 1 hour boost increments.
Won't let you choose 17 mins or even 1hr and 10 minutes for example.

Same goes with the schedule. 1 minute increments aren't available. Minimum is 15 min increments.
So really they force you to leave the heating or hot water on for a minimum amount of time unless you shut it off manually. Not really energy efficient.
Good marketing ploy though.


... Ok boys, come get some lol

read #64, #66 or my original post (above #1)

Yep still here :sunglasses:

You still here banging on about Nest? you got shares??? No one cares mate

You don't understand the product, that much is plain to see. If you've had Hive for 3 years (I doubt) it's V1 and things have moved on.

Surely this fad make you use more energy, this just clutters people lives or join the sheep.

It's a good thing there's an app to control it wirelessly from any device :wink:

Strange, you seem to take it personally.
Have had this product for 3 years. It is my opinion and sorry it's not equal to yours.
You have a British Gas engineer on here who has also experienced problems. Just like others who have experienced no problems.
It's called a discussion.

Which is made abundantly clear by way of design choice. Unlike Tado and Nest, Give leaves you in full control, it will SMS/Email and notify via the app that your home has passed your temp threshold, or that it can see you may be on the way home. It's the most energy efficient way of doing things.

If for example I was on my way home but decided to go to a shop/supermarket 100m away for 30 minutes before I walked through my door then an automated approach would have been wasteful.

A scheduled approach with additional functionality and notifications is more than adequate but for trolls like yourself who let's be honest have no interest in the product.

TLDR, go find a nest forum where you'll all enjoy your own little echo chamber.

Just as I thought then, it isn't wireless and it isn't a supported or elegant workaround using any other method.

https://nest.com/uk/support/article/If-the-Nest-Thermostat-is-a-wireless-thermostat-why-does-it-need-cables

Nest thermostat is not wireless so you can't mount it on the wall unless you have wiring. That pretty much ruled the Nest out for me right off the bat.

Settled on the Hive and was much better than I expected. Not a single problem anywhere.

No, there's no requirement to have British Gas as your supplier.

i'm assuming we don't need to be with British Gas as our suppliers to get this too?

What happens if you order it and then they can't fit it? I've got a Megaflo Tank with a Baxi System boiler and Honeywell controller with Smartfit valves etc Any ideas if this will work as the controller is hardwired and the battery (soldered in) has failed so if there is ever a power cut i have to mess about entering all the times etc again :disappointed:

I just asked if there were any deals on when my service was being done in January. He checked his laptop and said yup, £149. So far I'm really happy with it, although it's taken the focus off the battle for the TV remote in our house as we all switch the heating on and off from our phones, moaning about it being 'too hot' or 'too cold'. Should never have let those pesky rug rats put the app on their phones

I had the original Hive, had loads of problems with wireless connection. I've had Hive 2 for over a year now, absolutely brilliant. I have now purchased several Hive active plugs and LED light bulbs, they all work flawlessly.

Interesting. Just checked IOS user reviews for Hive and its even lower at 2.7 average review ratings.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/hive/id712829172?mt=8

Can agree for very basic functions it works OK. But anything slightly advanced and I find they have difficulty reproducing in their app.

Funny little thing it does when you use Geo location. It just sends you a reminder. It doesn't activate or deactivate heating like one would expect. You have to go back into the app to change it.

Two heating zones and hot water?
I currently have a 3 steering control... 2 stats...The rads and the underfloor on separate and then the hot water......So I would need this kit too?

Amazon should give you a full refund if for any reason the engineer cannot fit it.

You can set Geo Location down to a few meters or more to avoid this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NyXOi50nlU

Or, contact Amazon prior to ordering and make sure they will offer a full refund if the engineer cannot fit it.

This is what I did in December

So if you work close to your home will it turn the heating on thinking your close to home and be heating an empty home for 8 hours?

No you do not need a different one if you have a combi, this one is fine it can work as just a central heating unit.

Bought mine off Amazon just after Christmas and had it installed yesterday. Amazon sends you the Thermostat and a card to enter on the website to arrange the installation. When the BG guy turned up it took him about an hour and abit to get the receiver installed into my vallaint boiler, then about 5 minutes to link the themostat to the hub.

Funny thing was he bought a thermostat with him because he said they always do, so you may find yourself with a spare thermostat if buying this offer. I am planning on just keeping it for a spare as I doubt Amazon would accept it for a return now (especially with the install card used :smiley:)

Hive website has a list of incompatible boilers. Read that before ordering.

I've had Hive for about 2 1/2 years now. Works great. Schedule is set, but as I'm often in and out and different times on different days, I find it great being able to remotely turn the heating on / off using the app.

Example, I'm normally in on Tuesdays. Heating normally set to heat to 20 degrees from 08:00 to 22:00. Last Tuesday, however, I left the house at 07:00 to go on a course. On the train at 08:30, I remembered I should turn the heating off. Used the app to do this and my house temp stayed at 13 degrees for the whole day.

On the way home, the app detected I was near and turned the heating on for me automatically, so it was warm when I got back.

Really a good way to save money by having the heating on when you need it and off when you don't. Total control.

Agreed. No issues for me. Also, you can turn on/off by SMS or via the web page.

Whoops just noticed including installation

Installed Hive at Xmas, great product would recommend it based on ease of use and convenience; waiting eagerly for a camera add on.
Too early to tell if it has saved any money yet....

This was only £125 at Xmas

Nest is terrible, kept going wrong for me. Hive has been flawless

No you don't

Officially?

I have had the V2 Hive for 8 months. I really like it and have had no issues, including using it with Alexa. I run the software on my iPad and my Android phone. I installed it myself in 30 mins, with the longest lag being the 10 minutes it took to sync to the BG server, but that is a one-off event. I reckon I will save around £100 per annum, as I am away frequently and the ability to alter the schedule remotely is a real boon for me.

You'll need the zoned Hive kit, it's different to just the basic one. I have the Hive v1 as I used to work for British Gas as an engineer and we were given them to field test and help us to sell them to customers. I've had loads of issues with the receiver losing sync with the thermostat. I'm on my third receiver, and second thermostat and hub.
It's been faultless the past 6 months though.
I left just as the v2 came out but I've heard really positive things about them.
Just a shame I can't say the same about British Gas.

Can't speak for android but the iOS software is great with no active bugs at all. Myself and friends have used Hive for years without any issues.

The software is simple and intuitive. Remote boosting is only for one hour at a time and this is the reason that Alexa can only boost for one hour. Do that many people really want to integrate it with Alexa?

Great piece of kit, recommended.

It should be easy. It consists of three parts. With this 'deal', you only get sent the thermostat. The receiver and and hub are brought by the engineer. If you have a standard backplate programmer (for the last 30 years or more they have all been the same), the receiver just slots in place of the standard programmer. The thermostat is simply wired in place of the old thermostat. If you have a very old thermostat (no power!), you'll need to bring a mains supply to the new hive thermostat. The final part is the hub, which presumably is a wireless bridge to your network. There seems to be no reason why it shouldn't work with an oil system. Whether or not a gas engineer would actually do the work, who knows? Particularly if he was 'jobsworth' or an idiot. It seems an easy job for a do it yourselfer but you would only be saving about £30 (if they send you the other two parts)

I took out home care with British Gas and when the engineer came out to do my 2nd year service I inquired about Hive. He said they do it for 199 for existing customers at the moment, I cheekily asked if that's the lowest he could do it for....he fitted one for 149 as part of an upgrade if my timer clock is "broken", they are allowed to offer 149 hive as an alternative to sourcing a replacement.

But you have to stick with British Gas as your energy supplier so will probably be overpaying for energy.

Yes, that's a dual zone set up like mine. You can buy a dual zone kit from Hive here. Mine works great. Named them Upstairs and Downstairs with separate schedules and both work great with Alexa. The kit has one hub, two receivers and two thermostats.

You can run the Nest Thermostat off a USB power pack if you've got the stand.

So what's the big deal about this item? Why is it so expensive?

am I right in thinking this model is for if you have a water tank? Need a different model for if have a combi boiler by the looks of it?

The only one I can find for combi boilers is this one? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hive-Active-Heating-no-installation/dp/B00NAWL14O/ but that is the v1?

edit - I'm an idiot...it's on the same page as the link "Heating" button, £179. No option for installation however

Honestly, you've said your piece, move on and quit being pedantic. The user facing aspects of Hive are battery powered, Nest as an example is not.

I've had Hive for 9 months now and can thoroughly recommend it. I have 2 stats and decided to also invest in a dozen or so Active lights. They integrate in with my Echo just fine, and have a number of IFTTT recipes which utilise my door sensors and turn the light on as the door opens (after dark).

It's a decent system.

Hive doesn't run on batteries only either

There are 3 parts to Hive
1- the attachment to the boiler
2- the wireless transmitter which is plugged into an electric plug and also into the router by ethernet cable
3- the thermostat which runs on batteries

V2 is superb, customer support excellent I.M.H.O.

Can this be set up on an oil boiler?

Horrible customer support from British Gas - our unit stopped responding to the app so rung them (ages on hold) to be told we needed to buy a new hub for £80, no other solution offered; this was only after they took over a week to send a canned response to an email. Also not sure if they ever fixed it but the hub and control unit send unencrypted commands/data so it's possible to work out when you're likely to be in or out making you a perfect burglary opportunity. We unplugged the hub and use it full manual now. It's a nasty gimmick with poor support, maybe the v2 is better but the customer support will still be the same.

I managed to get one installed for £32.50. Can't say how.

Friend works for British gas fitted this for me on the cheap. Great bit of kit and used many times putting the heating on whilst on the way home.

British gas customers:

You may be able to get this installed for as little as £159 if you can be bothered with all the hassle that goes with this (Link)
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hive-heating-installed-for-150-2616281

Service from British Gas was crap trying to get this fitted. When I complained that twice they did not turn up after I had waited in all day their twitter response was " would I have preferred vulnerable customers to have no heating so I could have my installation?" I honestly could not believe their response.

I understand they prioritise calls but if is their busiest time do not book in installations. No apology so I requested a refund, cancelled my gas/elec with them and also my homecare plan.

I went with Nest and its fab! I love how it switches off my heating when I go out and then has the house toasty for when I return by using the location on our phones. The customer service and tech team are fab too.

I got a mini service on my combination boiler thrown in as well. All for being friendly and a couple of cups of tea

So it is never noticed thought finished with the !st gen by now
This seems good deal for installed Hive but think £179 is a lot for basically 2 WiFi switches and a thermostat

Nest can't run on batteries - needs a fixed power supply to charge/run.

Works great for me - preferable ti Nest as it can work wirelessly from batteries and therefore doesn't need to be installed near a plug/wired in like Nest.

Never had any app problems btw.

wouldn't have thought so

I've got a thermostat upstairs and downstairs, does that mean 2 of these are needed?

How much is Nest installed?

I just use my laptop to alter settings a week in advance

Don't do Hive, go for Nest - much better support and integration with other smart home devices.

Here is just one example of their development team, this was in regards to Alexa and Hive

Hive Help [email protected] via
16/09/2016
Reply
to me
Hiya,

Yup.

"Alexa, boost my hot water for 30 minutes"

Our guy tested this very command yesterday so he was able to confirm this.

Garth



-----So i fired off another email saying, nope it doesn't work. 2 weeks later they get back to me with this:



Hive Help [email protected]
05/10/2016
Reply
to me

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Hi there,

Yes, I see what you mean. At the moment, all you can do is boost the heating for an hour which may not be ideal but I can assure you that we are adding to the command list and we are taking our customers lead on this so, go to https://www.hivehome.com/alexa and pop your idea in there. Hopefully you won't be the only one requesting this and it will can be added sooner rather than later.

Sorry for the inconvenience,

Garth

Mine works spot on with alexa, not had a problem with the app either, can change temp via voice and it'll go back to usual on next schedule. Would be good if you could turn water on / off with voice too, or activate boost.

also integrates with alexa etc and iftt

Nest or Netatmo. There are a lot of others. Anything with a good development team and a better rating than 3.3 on Hive
If you go to their suggestion forum of their app, there are essential features or bugs that still persist and haven't been looked at for years.

Yes I do have the system. So I can give my great opinion. But thanks for checking.

Which alternative would you suggest?

You have obviously got this system then to give your great opinion or yet another that reads too much and never buys. Trust me there's nothing wrong with it...no bugs....no disconnections. ...no failures and a great price. Why even bother commenting troll elsewhere!!!

Hive have a very poor app development team. Every update tries to solve old bugs but brings up twice as many new bugs with it. See their google play reviews of their android app. Rated 3.3
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.centrica.hive&hl=en

Would suggest passing on this and going with an alternative

well i would stick with £9pm with british gas for 2 years. Subscription to hive live and warranty for two years is included.
£9 x 24m = £216, so not far off.
I

Thats for the 1st generation Hive, I was referring to this which is the 2nd gen which without installation is £179

Effectively £30 for the installation is a good price, heated

As the only thing you get delivered with this is wall mount bit (the hub and controller are brought by the fitter), just grab one of the £175 Used Very Good ones which just say they are repackaged and save another £35.

Worth checking if you original heating controls back plate is compatible with Hive receiver
If so its just slide off old controller slide on hive receiver job done no installation needed
Installing quite easy really not much harder than fitting plug

Mine is a 40 year old system, water tank in the loft and a back boiler on a gas fire.

Not a straight forward install but the guy got there in about an hour or so.

The only thing i have to do with my set up is sync the water and heating schedules to match, but there again, I had to put the water and heating on together prior to this install so no change there then.

Gone from having a dial on the wall with 2 settings (a minimum of 90 minutes if I'm out) to now having 6 settings per day, right down to 15 minutes on/off if that was required.