Smarter Aircon Revisited

It's been a couple of years since I first tried the tado° Smart AC Control V3+ but I thought it might be a good time to check back in for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it's always good to see if a product that impressed straight out of the box is continuing to do so a year or two down the track.

Secondly, it hasn't been replaced or upgraded - it's still the same tado° Smart AC Control V3+ from 2020.

And lastly, I don't know if you've noticed but it's been hot lately. The worst kind of hot. Extra moist. The kind of heat that keeps you up all night and makes it impossible to breathe during the day. Question-the-meaning-of-life-on-this-planet kind of heat. You know what I'm talking about.

So I've been using my tado° a lot.

Let me give you quick refresher on exactly what we're dealing with here - and it will be quick because it's still one of the most elegantly simple devices it's ever been my pleasure to use.

The tado° Smart AC Control V3+ is a white plastic panel about the size of drinks coaster (100mm square). You stick it to the wall somewhere within sight of your heat pump, connect it to your Wi-Fi and boom, your aircon is now Wi-Fi enabled.

This means you can now control it via the tado° app, from anywhere. 

It gets better; tado° also integrates with Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit and Alexa, so if you have a smart speaker, your aircon is now voice-activated too.

All for under NZ$200.00. Not bad.

I set my tado° Smart AC Control V3+ up in our bedroom where we're fortunate enough to have a small Toshiba heat pump we don't often use except when it gets very, very cold or yuck, horrible hot like it has been lately.

The main reason we didn't use to use it more was it was just too damn tricky to get right. I'm not criticising the heat pump itself - it's very full-featured. You can adjust temperature, fan speed, the angle of the air-flow and there's a timer so you can pre-program how you want.

In theory.

Trouble is, the remote sucks. Unless you're prepared to study the manual from cover to cover, memorise it and what all the stupid little symbols are supposed to mean you're usually left with a freezing cold gale blowing at full volume on you or your partner or both in the middle of the night. Not ideal.

My initial experience with tado° Smart AC Control V3+ made all this go away. 

The tado° app is so clearly laid out and easy to use, I've never picked up the original Toshiba remote again. Of course, the tado° Smart AC Control V3+ isn't just a Toshiba thing; it's compatible with dozens of other brands and models.

Which is probably why setting it up is a bit of a mission and really the only dreary thing about the whole tado° experience.

You see, I've found my tado° Smart AC Control V3+ so useful, I now have a second one in my living room to control our larger heat pump which is the primary source of heat (and cool) for our whole home. I'd forgotten it takes a bit more than just plugging in the device and powering it up to get it to work. Sure, the app walks you through each step but there are a few of them - including connecting to your Wi-Fi and training the little box to recognise your particular heat pump so you can get the most out of all its features. That last part even involves using the app to take a picture of your remote to cross-reference it with the tado° database. This all takes a bit of time so you'll need to be prepared to not use your phone much while you're doing it.

On the bright side, once I had my new tado° up and running, I realised I had more access to extra fan settings and airflow controls than I did on my original unit. I deduced this must mean the tado° database is now probably a lot more comprehensive than it used to be so I decided to reset my original device and set it up again from scratch. Sure enough, I now have extra fan speeds and tilt-control in the bedroom too. Yay for upgrades!

The app seems to offer more insights than ever before too - giving you a full rundown of current air conditions in every room you have a tado° device installed (you can have up to 25 in one home) not to mention guidance on how to use your tado° Smart AC Control V3+ to make your aircon work more efficiently.

This is best utilised in conjunction with an Auto Assist subscription - for NZ$39.99 a year, you can set your aircon to respond automatically to things like windows opening, members of the household coming and going and changing weather conditions. Even without subscribing, you'll still get notifications about open windows and obviously you can set up various schedules and timers for different rooms.

So basically, I still love it. In fact, if anything it seems to offer more than ever before. Don't feel the need to modify this device, tado°. It definitely ain't broke, please don't fix it.

    

Click here for more information on the tado° Smart AC Control V3+.