Verdict
A very chintzy saucy heating system pick , the Hive Thermostat Mini does n’t lose any of its bigger buddy ’s authoritative features and is compatible with the Smart Radiator Valves for multi - room heating . But the Smart Radiator Valves do n’t affirm being grouped into rooms , the app is often thwarting to habituate , and there ’s no OpenTherm backing .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
After what feels like an age , Hive has finally launch a Modern smart thermostat , the Hive Thermostat Mini . A slightly cut - down version of the existing Hive Thermostat , the Mini shunt more features away from the gimmick and into an app , in exchange for a cheaper price . blend with the optional Hive Smart Radiator Valves , the Hive Mini can be part of a straight multi - room system .
A want of OpenTherm support is disappointing , and the app is clunky and frustrating to habituate at time , but this remains a good value system .
Design and installation
At just £ 59.99 , the Hive Thermostat Mini is a ace - cheap sassy thermostat . It requires a Hive Hub , which can be bought at the time of purchase for an extra £ 60 if you do n’t have one already .
There are also two boiler connexion boxes : one for hot H2O and heating , and one just for heating plant , worthy for people with a combi steam boiler . Frustratingly , neither steam boiler box underpin OpenTherm , a communications protocol that permit the chic thermostat adjust the flow temperature of the boiler to suffer requirement , save up money .
I understand that the originalHive Thermostatdoesn’t have this , as it ’s a much older mathematical product , but I would anticipate the new product to have the feature . Most of the rivalry , such as theTado Smart Thermostat V3and theNest Learning Thermostat 3rd Generation , have OpenTherm support .
Multiple warming zones are plunk for , and this necessitate professional facility , which costs £ 99 . For standard installs , you could go with the ego - installing or the professional alternative .
Completely wireless , the Hive Thermostat Mini run off two AA batteries ( allow for ) . Installation through the app is straight , and it did n’t take me long to connect everything up and have the system ready to go in the app .
Features
The original Hive Thermostat gave a lot of on - gadget control condition , admit the power to aline schedules flat from the gadget . With the Hive Thermostat Mini , there are fewer on - machine controls : I can change the target temperature , turn off the heating system , and put it back into scheduled mode .
I do n’t miss the other feature of speech , as it ’s far leisurely to program smart thermoregulator using the app than it is fiddling about with a humble display and physical control .
At its most basic , the Hive Thermostat Mini just gives you simple mastery over schedules . As with other wise thermostat , days are split up into blockage of time that you define , each with its own prey temperature . Schedules can be set per day , so you may have different warming schedules during the 24-hour interval and at night . For convenience , you could re-create schedule between different days easily .
To get smarter , you need to use Actions , which are pre - programme dominion that often necessitate other gimmick . For object lesson , if you have a Hive Window / Door sensing element , you’re able to have the Hive Thermostat Mini hike your temperature when the front doorway is opened .
Setting up actions is easy , but it ’s a shame that you ca n’t produce your own customs duty ace and have to rely on those that Hive has created .
On its internet site , Hive paint a picture that you could link the Thermostat Mini ‘ to a Hive Door Sensor and it ’ll automatically switch off when your front door closes . Handy . ’ I could n’t find this as an action , and I ’m also not sure how that would work : opening and closing the front room access to a courier would surely cause the heating to turn off , which would n’t be that useful . I was in all likelihood good off without this setting .
More useful is the option to sprain the heating off when Hive detects that a windowpane is undecided , foreclose waste of electricity – pump estrus into the cold out of doors .
This is a feature article that other system enforce in software program , watch for firm drops in temperature and then shutting the heating down mechanically .
Geolocation is more useful , as the app will alert you when you go out and need if you want to sprain the heating off .
For £ 3.99 a month , there ’s the optional Hive Heating Plus feature of speech , which gives you more historic trend selective information from your heating and tracks exercise to tell you if you ’re potential to strike your budget for the calendar month . I do n’t necessarily mind a subscription service , but what Hive Heating Plus offers is n’t particularly utile .
I ’d favour more advanced features , atmospheric condition compensation , which is useable onHoneywell Evohome . This feature of speech turns down the target temperature when it ’s hot outside and giving a rise when it ’s going to be very dusty .
It ’s not potential to cancel a Hive Heating Plus subscription from the app either , and the companionship has to be contacted , which is thwarting . That ’s a common root with Hive : I could n’t remove a twist from my account and had to talk to customer support to do this very simple task .
In general , the app is quite frustrating to use . If a machine goes offline , for example , rather than make a unsubdivided pageboy with some advice on it , the app mimics an on-line chatbot , so you ’ll have to reply questions , such as ‘ Are you at abode right now ? ’ and ‘ Are you capable to safely get at your receiver ? ’ It ’s a very slow and plaguey procedure to have to go through .
The Hive Smart Radiator Valves ( £ 54 each ) are compatible with the organisation . These exchange standard thermostatic radiator valve ( TRVs ) in your home , give you individual control over each thermostat , in much the same manner as the ones for Honeywell Evohome orGenius Hub . They ’re easy enough to set up and ship with adapters to fit most types of radiator valves .
Each valve require a extended calibration routine , which can take several hours and – as I found out – can also fail . All other smart radiator valves that I ’ve essay run through an initial quick standardisation to find the fully opened and shut pin positions , and then fine - tune automatically . Hive ’s way of doing thing is unnecessarily foresightful .
The valves operate a bit like mini thermostats , with their own schedules . The telephone dial on top of the valve lets you aline the temperature manually . Individual Actions are also available : for example , copulate with a move sensor , you may have a room warm up automatically as you walk in .
There are some hefty limitations . I discover that each radiator valve seem as a fresh gimmick , and could n’t be put into the same way with others . For larger rooms that have more than one radiator , each Hive machine has to be controlled separately . Nor can the thermostat be set as a temperature sensing element for a way , as you may do with other right multi - way system , such asWiser , Evohome , Tado , and Genius Hub .
Then , there ’s the rather left over way that the valves figure out when using heat - on - need mode . To turn the boiler on and request heat , the valves push the thermostat into encouragement mode for 30 moment . If the radiator has n’t reach the set temperature by that point in time , the boost mode is remain for another 30 minutes , and so on .
This works , but in cost increase modal value , the principal thermoregulator is locked out , and you ca n’t do anything with it . It feel as though Hive has used a software jade to make the radiator valves sour , rather than programme them to directly control the boiler . Proper multi - room systems let each radiator valve call directly for high temperature and allow you to aggroup multiple devices into the same way .
Amazon Alexa and Google Home support are included , with representative control over mark temperature and the option to change heating mood .
Performance
Using the app , I found that it can be a little slow to spread a change in temperature . I hold off up to four minutes for temperature changes to be sent from the app to the thermostat or smart radiator valve and then for the heating to give up in .
The radiator valve are pretty muted . There ’s a small mechanical whirr as they spring into life , but it did n’t take me too long to get used to this sound and permeate it out . I ’d have no problem sleeping through the valve adjusting themselves .
I did n’t get used to how the smart radiator valves worked , however . defecate the thermostat go into boost mode is frankly unknown and frustrative . And get one big room with multiple radiators made the system of rules even more frustrating , as I had to turn on each radiator manually , rather than controlling them as a mathematical group .
As a standalone system , the Hive Thermostat Mini make for well enough . I found that it controlled temperatures well , with just a slight overshoot at first . The system ’s TPI feature learns how your house stir up over metre , so it can cut heating off early and use residual heat to hit the butt temperature .
have geolocation alerts to turn off the heating as I was heading out helped me save money by not heating my place when I was out .
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Should you buy it?
If you need a wide-eyed upgrade to a smart thermoregulator , then the Hive Thermostat Mini is a trashy alternative to the big name .
If you want OpenTherm or more granular multi - room control , there are far better alternative out there .
Final Thoughts
As a standalone Cartesian product , the Hive Thermostat Mini does a good enough Book of Job . It ’s comparatively simple to programme and gift remote control , alongside alerts that prompted me to turn the warming off as I went out . Considering the low price , it ’s a useful upgrade to a dumb system .
That said , as far as standalone thermostats go , the Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd Generation has more smarts built in , a full app , and it ’s comfortable to assure . Plus , it plunk for OpenTherm . I ’d buy that over this one any twenty-four hours .
For multi - elbow room control , the Hive Smart Radiator Valves do a in force enough task , but the control is too limited : you ca n’t group devices into rooms , and the standardization outgrowth is nettlesome . If you require to kit out every radiator , then Honeywell Evohome or Genius Hub are better choices . Check out my guide to thebest impudent thermostatsfor more .
Trusted Score
How we test
Unlike other sites , we test every smart thermostat we review soundly over an protracted period of metre . We use standard test to compare features properly . We ’ll always tell you what we find . We never , ever , take over money to review a ware .
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FAQs
The pilot had more dominance at the thermostat , include schedule redaction . Arguably , these features are n’t require here .
Yes , it does , but you necessitate to get the veracious connection box .
Yes , there are optional Smart Radiator Valves that you may add to the system .
