I can't believe it's been a month already.
After things were going so we'll we've had a few days this week of not communicating, at least that is not communicating by phone.
Yes, for some reason we were unable to log into Evohome via the app for 3 consecutive days. The app would stall whilst trying to connect and do nothing. A check of all the usual things showed the main Evohome controller was on the Wifi, internet was up (amazing for BT! (that's another story)) and all was well on the mobile. Despite our best efforts, nothing.......
The positive from all of this was the heating kept doing it's thing, Alexa was also interacting with it so without doubt the app was having the issue. We could make any comfort changes we wanted using Alexa or the main controller so it was not a big issue.
Thinking it might be a server issue somewhere at Honeywell I dropped them a quick tweet. As normal they were lighting fast in picking up my tweet and saying they would be back in touch shortly, however also as normal this lead to no further update or response. We've seen this before and it's getting a little annoying as it seems to be the normal course of events.
All companies want to be seen to be super responsive on social media platforms, let's be honest the reason I use that route to contact them is it's the fastest. However getting no follow up makes you feel more deflated than if your original request had been ignored. From what I've seen I believe the Honeywell team responding to the tweets are based in the USA, who then pass it to the local team (UK in this instance) and somewhere in the middle of all of the that things get lost or just grind to a halt.
I could be being unkind but if you've been reading this blog you'll know we've asked a number of times if Alexa should be able to report the hot water temperature. Despite the promises made each time I've chased we are still waiting for that answer. Almost four weeks later we still don't know, that does not feel like a business that really wants to answer the question. Being quick to pick up someones question is one thing, being as quick to get back with a real answer is something else.
Speaking of lack of communication we noticed something else this morning.
There appeared to be a difference in what a thermostat was showing to what the app was reporting. Trying to check if this was another app issue a quick check of the main control unit was in order. That showed the app was reporting what the controller was showing, however that was different to the thermostat. We know that Evohome does things in cycles (normally 4 min cycles) so waited to see if it was a refresh thing.
17 mins later the controller / app updated to match the thermostat. That seems a long time for an update given it's controlling the heating and the heating will have been running much longer than needed. Maybe it was a one off but now we've spotted it we will be keeping an eye on it.
It should not be a range issue as the thermostat is about 4M away from the main controller in a direct line of sight. Maybe I should tweet Honeywell.....
All in all things are still very positive and we're still very happy with the system. Yes we are still waiting for Honeywell to answer our questions re the hot water, the longer it goes on the better and more elaborate we are expecting the answer to be. We still have the error showing on the hot water actuator as well, could the two be possibly related ?. Maybe if Honeywell get back to us we will find out!, you'll be the first to know when we do.
We also spotted there appears to be a new radiator valve on the way for the system, it looks like a cut down version of the ones we have, currently waiting for more information from Honeywell. We might get one and see how it compares on motor noise.
As the cold weather is now really starting to be a more regular feature of the longer nights (7 degrees outside as I write this) we're seeing rooms that never normally call for heat ask for a sip of the hot stuff from the boiler which feels like the system is really doing what it should.
If you have any questions about the system or points that you'd like us to cover in future posts please leave a note in the comments.
After things were going so we'll we've had a few days this week of not communicating, at least that is not communicating by phone.
Yes, for some reason we were unable to log into Evohome via the app for 3 consecutive days. The app would stall whilst trying to connect and do nothing. A check of all the usual things showed the main Evohome controller was on the Wifi, internet was up (amazing for BT! (that's another story)) and all was well on the mobile. Despite our best efforts, nothing.......
The positive from all of this was the heating kept doing it's thing, Alexa was also interacting with it so without doubt the app was having the issue. We could make any comfort changes we wanted using Alexa or the main controller so it was not a big issue.
Thinking it might be a server issue somewhere at Honeywell I dropped them a quick tweet. As normal they were lighting fast in picking up my tweet and saying they would be back in touch shortly, however also as normal this lead to no further update or response. We've seen this before and it's getting a little annoying as it seems to be the normal course of events.
All companies want to be seen to be super responsive on social media platforms, let's be honest the reason I use that route to contact them is it's the fastest. However getting no follow up makes you feel more deflated than if your original request had been ignored. From what I've seen I believe the Honeywell team responding to the tweets are based in the USA, who then pass it to the local team (UK in this instance) and somewhere in the middle of all of the that things get lost or just grind to a halt.
I could be being unkind but if you've been reading this blog you'll know we've asked a number of times if Alexa should be able to report the hot water temperature. Despite the promises made each time I've chased we are still waiting for that answer. Almost four weeks later we still don't know, that does not feel like a business that really wants to answer the question. Being quick to pick up someones question is one thing, being as quick to get back with a real answer is something else.
Speaking of lack of communication we noticed something else this morning.
There appeared to be a difference in what a thermostat was showing to what the app was reporting. Trying to check if this was another app issue a quick check of the main control unit was in order. That showed the app was reporting what the controller was showing, however that was different to the thermostat. We know that Evohome does things in cycles (normally 4 min cycles) so waited to see if it was a refresh thing.
17 mins later the controller / app updated to match the thermostat. That seems a long time for an update given it's controlling the heating and the heating will have been running much longer than needed. Maybe it was a one off but now we've spotted it we will be keeping an eye on it.
Above: Room stat showing 18 Degrees.
Above: Controller seeing 17.5 Degrees, as is the app below (room in question is Orangery).
17 mins later the controller / app was showing the correct temperature that matched the Thermostat.
All in all things are still very positive and we're still very happy with the system. Yes we are still waiting for Honeywell to answer our questions re the hot water, the longer it goes on the better and more elaborate we are expecting the answer to be. We still have the error showing on the hot water actuator as well, could the two be possibly related ?. Maybe if Honeywell get back to us we will find out!, you'll be the first to know when we do.
We also spotted there appears to be a new radiator valve on the way for the system, it looks like a cut down version of the ones we have, currently waiting for more information from Honeywell. We might get one and see how it compares on motor noise.
As the cold weather is now really starting to be a more regular feature of the longer nights (7 degrees outside as I write this) we're seeing rooms that never normally call for heat ask for a sip of the hot stuff from the boiler which feels like the system is really doing what it should.
If you have any questions about the system or points that you'd like us to cover in future posts please leave a note in the comments.
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