Thermostat query

[MolliciousIntent]

We've got a piece of shit Salus thermostat which is broken and stupid and can you tell that I'm really cross about it? Freezing Victorian house, tiny baby, etc etc etc.

So we need to replace it. We've got a Worcester Bosch Greenstar boiler and we don't need a smart thermostat like Hive or anything, but I don't know where to start choosing a replacement. We've been recommended Drayton, but which one??

we have Hive and I love it, it’s much more useful than our old traditional wall mounted one (eats batteries though).

Strange. We have had a Hive for six years. It’s on its second set of batteries.

@Yarrawonga
We've had ours 5 years (in fact it’s its birthday next week)
Batteries (generally from Lidl) now only last 2 months - Hive send me an email to say they’re going, and 2-3 days later they’ve gone!
I’m pretty sure though I have used Duracell too and they were the same. What kind are yours?

We have this too. Works well with the Worcester Bosch boiler

Ignore message one. Meant to say we have the Worcester Comfort II which works well with the Worcester Bosch boiler

Landlord here. Have Nest wired in every house. Works very well, reliable, durable, first nest installed 8yr ago, DH and tenants love being able to control it from their bed and the motion sensor smart function is great.
Heard Hive is another good option.

I’m pretty sure though I have used Duracell too and they were the same. What kind are yours?

Wilko! Own brand.

I’ve just checked on the Hive app and they are half used.

Just a thought, how far is your thermostat from the Hive hub?

Oh - I never considered distance!
The hub is upstairs back, next to the router.
The thermostat is downstairs front, probably 20’ feet away, but there is an RSJ in between which has always caused problems with wifi signal to Sky box (also downstairs front, but further).
We have a booster thing now plugged in upstairs front which does help with Sky (& with signal downstairs front in general), but the poor Hive must be straining to communicate and wearing its batteries out all the time.
It doesn’t have to be there of course, it could go downstairs back; but the back door is there so temp fluctuates much more, esp when certain people forget to close it behind them 🤔
On balance, keeping it in fresh batteries is probably cheaper!

Next to the router might be a problem. On wireless burglar alarms the wifi can swamp signals from the weaker detectors.

I once had a problem with scaffolding erected in a stairwell, but I haven't heard of RSJs being troublesome. You could try moving it around a bit.

Thanks for advice, @PigletJohn 🙂
I say RSJ, I don’t know what it actually is. The middle wall downstairs was knocked through some time in the 60s/70s; we bricked it up again in the 80s.
The wifi signal travels fine the same distance upstairs, it’s just the diagonal line down through that wall that has issues.
Hive hub is connected to router, so has to be quite close to it, & it’s where B Gas engineer put it, but could be moved a short distance away.

We have single thickness cinder block wall in our house that is all but impervious to wifi signals. We have to have have a second wifi access point on the other side of it. The Hive thermostat is on the other side of a two foot thick stone wall from the hub and it’s no problem at all.

Interesting about the block wall. Are the blocks black? Was there an ironworks or steelworks anywhere near?

I just looked and mine is actually a CM907, but they're very similar. I'd probably get another Honeywell if it went wrong, it suits me.

Interesting about the block wall. Are the blocks black? Was there an ironworks or steelworks anywhere near?

Yes and yes. But the funny thing is the that the stone wall is ironstone and that doesn’t have anywhere near the same resistance to radio waves.

@PigletJohn thank you - I can't actually find a UK stockist, do I just eBay?

The CM range are discontinued now.

I thought the T3R was the replacement
But Screwfix have a T4R which looks similar
www.screwfix.com/p/honeywell-home-t4r-1-channel-wireless-programmable-thermostat/9543v

And a cheaper T3-1 which looks like it only has 5-2 (weekday and weekend) programming rather than any day of the week, which I prefer
www.screwfix.com/p/honeywell-home-t3-1-channel-wireless-programmable-thermostat/543kt

Some of the others you will see are not wireless

I'm afraid I have not used any of this range so cannot comment further, but I have found Honeywell controls to be very good.

I had a Salus and loved it but it did die suddenly.

It was replaced by this which seems OK:

I just did a Speedtest:

1. direct from router with query RSJ between it and me
2. via booster - similar distance, but only bricks between (In the same room as router it tests at 150) Something is interfering!