Hive

[Thingsthatgo]

We have been having some problems with our boiler, and we are considering getting hive installed which would solve the problem.
Is Hive any good? Our electrician recommended it over Nest.
Can both I and DH have the controls on our phones? What happens if the Wi-Fi is down? Can you still have heating?

We have Hive and it's great. You can take the thermostat with you around the house, or just control it from your phone. We use our phones mostly, it's great to be able to turn it on when you're on your way home so the house is warm when you get there.

If you use your heating a lot it has a good function where it learns how long it takes it to get to a certain temperature. We only really use ours on boost every so often to take the edge off.

If the wifi goes down you can't control from your phone, but the thermostat still works, and if you have a schedule set this will still work.

We have a Hive in our house. We have a Nest in our holiday home and while it is more attractive, it's broken and had to be replaced twice in 3 years. There was a recall on the heat link and it was replaced for free but it was still a hassle. The issue may have been fixed for good now though. The Hive on the other hand has been going for 5 or 6 years now with no issues at all. You and your DH can control it from your phones and control it remotely (ie, you can be out of the house and switch the heating on before you get back). I'm pretty sure if wifi is down, you can bypass the thermostat and turn it on manually but I haven't had to do that yet so not 100% sure. I love our Hive.

We are very happy with the Hive main thermostat and the way that works, like PP we haven't had the wifi down to test if it works manually but I was assured it would when it was fitted. I am less satisfied with the Hive individual radiator thermostats which are great when they work, unfortunately they are a bit temperamental and take ages to calibrate but they are easy to change back to the old ones yourself if they get too frustrating, they still work if they need calibration but not as well

We have just moved, had a Nest at our old home and have inherited a Hive here. The Nest was very attractive looking as someone else has said - the thermostat is very pretty! - but it would lose connection with the heatlink regularly and we ended up having to replace the heatlink after 18 months because it just stopped working. Google paid for the replacement but it took ages to get an engineer round.

Have only had the Hive for a week so can't comment on it long term but it was easy to link it to my account and so far no issues with losing connection. The thermostat is definitely less handsome and I don't love that it's battery operated with no charging station (we have had a low battery notification already but no idea when the last time the batteries were replaced were) so that would be my only negative so far.

Very interested to hear from anyone who has the thermostatic valves from Hive as we're considering investing!

IME Hive has been good, but beware adding in the other sensors as they have cancelled them in the past, for example I think they cancelled the cameras.

The app I think is good you can set it up so you can control heating from the homepage on android with one button press. There are some extra pay options but I don't have those. I do get the impression that they want to move more features to subscription services but my guess is that the basic and remote heating controls will be free for some time yet.

Overall it works pretty well and allows you better control of your heating and through that saves people money.

I love mine, had it 2 years. I don't use the schedules, but I'll put the heating on before I leave work, so it will be warm when I get in.

Thank you all for your help. Looks like we are going for it! Quite excited now.

I also like hive, I also don’t use the schedule, although it’s set up. I simply manage it via my phone, I also like the fact if I’m out, I can put the heating on so the house is warm on my return