Tado Smart Air Conditioning, control your air conditioning with your iPhone

The range of devices to control the heating of your home is huge, but when we want to keep our house very cool and we do not have a central air conditioning system, things get a bit complicated. Air conditioner manufacturers at the moment do not seem to be very interested in platforms like HomeKit or similar, and we are doomed to use your conventional remote controls, or not.

Tado and its Intelligent Air Conditioning system offers us a perfect solution for those of us who want to control the temperature of the house even when it is hot. With a simple device and an application for our iPhone we can establish automations and schedules that will make us enjoy a good temperature at home and save some money on top by making smarter use of our air conditioning.

A "conventional" control knob

Tado Smart air conditioning it is really a control knob that differs little from a conventional one, or almost nothing. It has physical controls by pressing the front, an LED screen that informs you of the temperature and the menus you navigate through, and an infrared emitter to communicate with your indoor air conditioning unit.

Well, there is a small difference and that is that it incorporates its own temperature sensor, something that few models on the market have in the remote control. But the big difference of Tado is that it connects to your WiFi network and therefore to the internet, and thanks to its application for iPhone (and Android) you can control it from anywhere with your smartphone, and therein lies all its power: programming, automation, geolocation ... all the potential we are used to with other HomeKit accessories we have at our fingertips with Tado, although in this case it is not compatible with the Apple platform, its only negative point , but it is compatible with IFTTT and Amazon Alexa, which for many may be a perfect alternative. Anyway, and although HomeKit is always a plus, I have not missed being able to use the Apple platform, except that I have to use a separate app.

Compatibility and initial configuration

It is not easy to build a device that is compatible with all air conditioners on the market. The list of brands and models is endless, but Tado promises that it will be compatible with any of them as long as it has a remote control, of course. This obviously comes at a price: the setup process. It is a longer procedure than is usually the case with accessories of this type, but not complicated at all. Practically everything is done automatically and we just have to accept and confirm some menus.

By answering some very simple initial questions and confirming that the air conditioner responds with a sound to the commands that Tado sends to it, in a few minutes we will be able to control our device from this advanced remote control. I insist, it is a long procedure, but one that anyone can perform, even if it is your first accessory of this type that you want to place at home. Of course, you should place the Tado control in a place with direct vision of the indoor unit of the air conditioner, since it works by infrared. This, which is something obvious, can be complicated because it needs to be connected to the electricity grid, because it does not have batteries or batteries, a point that can be improved.

Simple or advanced, as you prefer

Once configured, you can continue to control your air conditioning as always, from the Tado remote control itself, thanks to the fact that its front responds when you press it. You can control temperature, fan power, on, off ... like a conventional control knob, but obviously this is not what one is looking for when purchasing one of these products. Even so, it is appreciated that they offer this alternative for specific moments in which that manual control works for you.

We can carry out the same conventional controls from the iPhone app, having something on the screen that looks a lot like the usual remote control, but smart programming is what makes the difference. We can establish schedules that change depending on the day, or for the whole week. The application will be able to skip the program if it detects that we are not at home, or do the opposite and if we are at home, make everything start working. This includes a temperature record to see the history at any time, and of course the possibility that other people can use their iPhone to control the air conditioning in the same way and that it does not depend solely on us. After a couple of weeks testing the application with different programs and using different settings depending on my location, the truth is that everything has worked quite well, without failures.

Buy or rent, choose what you prefer

Tado offers us something very interesting in the case that we do not want to make the payment of automating our entire house, and that is that in addition to being able to buy this remote control on the website of Tado or in Amazon, We can purchase it by renting for € 4,99 per month, with annual billing and a minimum rental period of one year which of course can be renewed at the end. There is no option of an initial trial period, as we say the minimum rental period is 12 months, but its price is much lower since for less than € 60 you can use the remote control for a full year.

Editor's opinion

Tado offers us a universal solution to control our air conditioning and offer us advanced configurations that allow us to automate its entire operation, with the possibility of even using our location to know what to do depending on it. With manual controls that allow us to resume a conventional air control at any time, it can only be put as a negative point that it is not compatible with HomeKit so that it could be integrated with other demotic devices in our home, but the truth is that so far, I have not missed it.

Tado Smart Air Conditioning
  • Editor's rating
  • 4 star rating
148
  • 80%

  • Integrated
    Publisher: 80%
  • Automation options
    Publisher: 90%
  • Configuration
    Publisher: 80%
  • Price quality
    Publisher: 70%

Pros

  • Advanced control with programs and automations according to location
  • Compatibility with all air conditioners
  • Simple but long setup
  • Ability to add more users to a single remote control
  • Compatible with IFTTT and Amazon Alexa

Cons

  • Not compatible with HomeKit
  • One remote control for each air conditioning unit
  • It does not have a battery, it needs to be connected to the network


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  1.   Benedict said

    Hello, I think you have not informed yourself well. Tado SI is compatible with Homekit. Your bridge version 3 is fully compatible. Maybe you bought an old one in stock that wasn't. In this case, get in touch with them and they will send you the new bridge totally free. I did it last week.
    A greeting.

    1.    Luis Padilla said

      I report directly to them, asking precisely about that bridge you are commenting on, but the answer they gave me is that it is not compatible with Tado Smart Air Conditioning, only with the other devices.

    2.    Diegus forever said

      You are confusing the Tado smart thermostat (v3), which comes with a bridge and is compatible thanks to the bridge with HomeKit, but it is for heating and is worth € 249 with the Tado smart climate control, which is only for air conditioners (cold or heat ) and is not compatible with HomeKit (and is worth € 148)

  2.   Diegus forever said

    You should also do a review (or comparison) of the «Efergy AirControl», since it seems the same as the Tado brand, the same system and the same options, however it costs half that of the Tado (now it is in amazon at € 79,6 )

  3.   Miguel Angel said

    The V3 thermostat for heating is compatible but the one for air conditioning is not.

  4.   Js said

    When I bought it I was told that it would be compatible but they have not kept the promise. I have it with Homebridge so that it works with HomeKit. If I find out that they were lying, I will not buy it.

  5.   scl said

    It is only compatible with remote remote control split type units. You have talked about remote controls but the ducts are usually also remote controls but connected to the unit by cable. It does not work with air conditioned by ducts that have the remote control connected by cable.