Hive Smart Heating Thermostatic Radiator Valve (TRV) with Smartphone Compatibility, White

— Additional Update — Nope. Useless. Radiator throws itself off the wall despite the TRV being set to 7° Have now removed it and gone back to the manual valve. — Update — This is why I buy products on Amazon. Simply marked the item as defective when delivered and a returns label and generous due date follow very quickly. I’m glad to say the replacement worked and has helped keep the temperature in my study under control. One star knocked off for first time experience. — Original Review Below — I don’t know where Hive products are made, but wherever it is every day is a Friday. This is the second bit of Hive kit that’s been delivered non-working. The first was the receiver that connects to the boiler - that was down to me to trace to a faulty internal relay because Hive couldn’t work it out. I bought one of these TRV’s as a test before going all-in on the rest of the house. Not only is that no longer happening but I’m also seriously considering ripping the whole Hive system out and going with something else. On the positive side, their app contains very clear and detailed instructions for installing the TRV. Shame the hardware guys don’t hold themselves to the same high standards.

I bought 10 of these valves. Installation was fairly simple to start with although one failed to pair. Finally managed to pair it after many attempts. The rest of them paired fine but I got into more issues when it came to calibrating them. One of them failed to calibrate at all. I tried everything, checked the pin, used WD40 to loosen it, removed, reset, re-paired, re-calibrated. But nothing worked. Another valve kept getting an E6 error. Tried many times to remove, reset etc but the same kept happening. Another radiator seemed to calibrate fine and was working for a while but then started heating up when it was set to off (if other radiators were set to on). Spending so much time every day trying to calibrate the radiators meant that my heating was on pretty much constantly for days which has cost me a FORTUNE in energy (at a time when energy bills are high enough as it is - and defeats the object of buying them as my main reason was to try to save energy a little bit as well as having a bit more control over how I heat my home - neither of which I was able to achieve with them). I also have issues with the app when it comes to the radiator valves. I enabled Heat on Demand but the app is very buggy and sometimes it shows that HOD is enabled and other times it didn’t disappeared. The app is very clunky and not very customisable. No grouping of valves so you have to have a separate schedule for each individual radiator. There is also a bug with Actions in that if you set up an action to boost a radiator or a couple of radiators, it boosts them but sets the temperature really low so they don’t heat up. Overall the app is in dire need of a revamp (or rather being rewritten from the ground up). I’m not sure if the majority of the issues I experienced are due to the products or the app itself but either way, they need to do some serious work if they want to remain competitive with other brands. When it came to customer support, I spoke to one person on the phone who was rather dismissive and seemed like she couldn’t wait to get me off the phone. She said she’d done something to fix my issue (something about connecting my valves to the server) and told me to try calibrating again. Which I did. I then asked for more help after the calibration didn’t work (again) via the email she sent me, I got no response (still no response a week after I originally contacted them - I doubt I’ll ever hear back). Hive’s online chat never seems to be available and I ended up resorting to twitter to get help. This worked but it still took them 2 days to get back to me after my first reply. By which time I decided that I was sending the whole lot back so that I can use the money to buy another brand. Hive really need to sort out their customer services. Awaiting a refund before I can buy a replacement.

Absolutely useless product. After many failed attempts to calibrate it finally did, but the radiator still always just heats up even when the temperature on the valve is reached. Tonight it’s climbed to 20 in there when all day it’s been set to protect/7. Raised the issue with Hive, which apparently has been escalated to ‘second line support’..I’ve now waited 6 weeks for a response, despite many many calls from me to chase, where I’m told that I’ll definitely hear back today/tomorrow/within 72 hours/next week. Unacceptable customer service. No surprise they are busy with calls when their products clearly don’t work. Should have listened to the other reviews and avoided this.

Buyer Beware - A Waste of Money These are easy to install if they work, and a nightmare if they don’t. If they do install first time, be prepared to roll the dice again every time the batteries need changing. Changing batteries is a horrible job. They are hyper sensitive to the batteries you use (no rechargeable or lithium and even has to be the right type of alkaline). When you do change the batteries mine have failed to reconnect, needed to be factory reset multiple times and have lost all configuration. One has now failed after less than 18 months (after a battery change) and will not even go into pairing mode to link to the hub. The response from support is that it is over a year old so you need to buy another one. Investing more in this system is the very last thing I will be doing based on that level of support. Also be aware that Hive hold very detailed information about your setup centrally and can reset and reconfigure your system from their side so consider your privacy/security settings carefully.

In short these trv's take far to long to open up causing you to waste having the boiling on for hours (not consistent but also not an exaggeration), if I'm being generous this is probably to avoid overheating the room although if the temperature is way below target it's a pretty safe bet you want heat now not in 2 hours time. The heat on demand function doesn't work properly and the boost is not configurable by you as it will constantly boost the temperature while the valve is closed and by the time it open the rest of the house will be up to temperature so the boost will have no effect, you can ask support to increase the boost temperature but it's a band aid fix for a bigger issue. Another indication of them being poorly implemented it's not configurable from the hive website only the app, if you try to select the trv from the site you'll see a JavaScript error in the console and a blank page with no indication of what the problem is (nice user experience that). One final thing that did annoy me slightly these are actually a rebranded valve hive has bought and simply slapped their name on and made work with their kit and the original valves had POOR REVIEWS TOO!!! wtf were they thinking. If you particularly hate yourself or like buying overpriced sh*t the best way to use these is to use temperature extreme to fully open and close the valve at set times (i.e. set to 32 at night in bedrooms for the first 2-3 hours before going to bed,etc).

It seemed simple, I already had the app on my smartphone and the Hive network installed, so all I had to do was simply unscrew the existing TRV (Thermostatic Radiator Valve) and screw on the new Hive TRV. Ha Ha! The screw sizes of the new and that of the old were incompatible, but there were 2 plastic adapters in the kit, but again neither of them were compatible with the existing fixture. Hive customer service is virtually non-existent. First I started with their chat line via the app on my phone. That is a good way to waste 2 hours of your life waiting for a reply. The agents clearly haven't a clue. I gave up and waited a day before trying again. I then got someone who took long breaks between each question. I had reached this chat line via the app when I identified that I might need a M28 adapter. The app said that BG would supply this on on request and hence the reason for being on this chat line.The agent wanted lots of details from me, my address, my name email address, despite me being registered on the Hive site, and when I had supplied all that told me that I should ring 0333 2020 96614. This is a call centre in South Africa. I had to abort my first two calls because the background noise within the centre was so loud. Eventually an agent answered and "yes" they could send me a M28 adapter, but I had to pay for the postage and they would need me to supply my credit card details. Would you to an unknown destination in South Africa? No I would not. So the TRV is going back to Amazon.

The Hive advert: "Our Hive radiator valves let you manage your heating room by room from your smartphone, meaning you never have to waste money again by heating an empty room. Simply turn down the radiator on your Hive app and save energy. The only thing a Hive radiator valve can’t do is keep a room warmer than your main thermostat" The reality: " Our Hive radiator valves allows you to constantly guess what temperature a room is as we guarantee it will be at least 3 degrees wrong one way or another and will need constant calibration,near enough ever day.Meaning you will need your heating on every day for a minimum of 4 hours, just to let the radiator valve capture an accurate temperature (still 3 degrees wrong), meaning you will always be wasting money. The only thing a Hive radiator valve can do is cause you no end of stress and loss of money" I have owned these radiator valves since launch near enough and I was happy to bide my time knowing the initial 6 months or so would be hit and miss given the fact it was a new product. Fast forward 18 months and these valves have got worse and worse to the point they are no longer viable: ●You will NEVER be able to fully relax having these on. My daughters woke up at night on a number of occasions cold becuase the TRVs just stop working. Soon as they let you down once (they will within 24 hours) you will constantly be checking your phone to see what the next issue is. ● The valves require calibration every day or so. This is a and issue with the 41B firmware. Which I have been advised "will be fixed in 2 weeks" this is what they advise when ever you call. ● I have had a plumber in to change every part of the radiator heads the radiators themselves are 18 months old but these valves give off a CONSTANT rushing water noise as they do not fully open the valve. Its nothing to do with my heating as I have not had the sound with a standard TRV. Its honestly a form of water torture. ● The valve have adapter bodies which get stuck on the radiator head and are a nightmare to get off. Once they are stuck you can kiss goodbye to getting them off without damaging them. ● The temperature is NEVER correct. The TRV sits too close to the radiator to be accurate. Unlike Drayton Wiser or Tado you cannot buy a room sensor to rectify this problem. ● The service desk is worse than BT or Sky and that's saying something. If you mention how unhappy you are they put the phone down. I managed to get an email address to complain and this was just ignored. You can tell they are just reading scripts out and I feel for them becuase they are facing an impossible job. They are having to firefight angry customers becuase this sub standard product. I honestly find it staggering that this product has not been pulled by trading standards. Hive know how bad it is (just look on the forums) and yet they continue to advertise these as fully functioning TRVs and take £53 of your money for every one you buy. I could go on and on about how bad this product but just do me a favour research, Drayton Wiser or Tado first before you buy anything as I honestly wouldn't wish these on my worst enemy.

Fitted and set up easily, but had precisely zero effect on the radiators I tried them on. Checked that the radiator pins weren't stuck (they weren't), that the correct fittings were used (M30x1.5 - correct), that they were correctly setup software wise (yes again). Despite all of the above, the radiators heated up as if there was no trv attached. So I switched back to the traditional trv I had and even tried a new traditional one in case it was something about the existing radiators themselves, and traditional valves both worked and worked perfectly. Meaning these Hive trvs are clearly not engineered well enough to work with pretty standard radiators. Clearly they must work on *some* radiators out there otherwise other reviews would be scathing, but they are useless in my experience. Much like the Support experience I received when I contacted Hive directly. I was told they were 'smart and in a learning phase' that would last 'a couple of days'. Unfortunately, this was over a week after installation so that claim was just false, or moot. A promising idea, unfortunately not engineered well enough to be deliverable, unless you are lucky they work on your radiators. Sent them back. Waste of time, and home heating fuel.