Can I use re-chargeable batteries in my Wiser Radiator Thermostats and Wiser Room Thermostats? Follow
We advise against the use of re-chargeable batteries in the Wiser system, and recommend only the use of standard AA batteries - non-rechargeable. This is due to the nature of re-chargeable batteries not being optimised for Wiser device system use.
Most standard rechargeable batteries have a lower starting voltage than conventional disposable batteries, which means the Wiser Radiator Thermostat will not get the voltage required to drive the motor as designed, leading to a system potentially behaving at sub-optimal levels.
Comments
15 comments
I'm looking to buy this system but only if I can use rechargeable batteries. Is the cut-off voltage really around 1.2v? If this is the case then they are going to be pretty wasteful on standard alkaline batteries too.
They do work but I find the standard rechargable NiMH batteries don’t last long. I’m thinking of either buying some non rechargeable lithium AA or rechargeable LI-ion AA (but these ones require a different charger).
The only way (I suppose) is to find and use rechargeable batteries that are 1.5V - that's the voltage per AA batteries.
Not good Tado have addressed this issue to some degree a long time ago
I'm trying them as an experiment - I'd rather recharge every month than keep buying disposable. When fully charged they register as low, but as a low reading battery can last for months anyway I'm going to try it out.
Same here, I'm still using rechargeable batteries but they won't last long, I would say 2 weeks at max during winter/heavy use.
So my brand new, fully charged Philips batteries managed 2 hours....
I ended up buying the non rechargable lithium AA’s 5 months ago and still showing fully charged on each thermostat.
Wiser thermostats are very bad at eating up Duracells, let alone rechargeable ones. Not very good for the environment. Drayton also do not help when you have a faulty thermostat going through pricey Duracells every few weeks! I'm sure there's much better systems out there, with better after sales support.
So I have bought some 1.5V rechargeable batteries from Chinese website and they seems to be brilliant so far. It been over a month now on single charge and still going strong.
They do deliver constant voltage of 1.5
This is my first use of a Wiser system having used Honeywell's Evohome for going on 20 years now. AA batteries typically last well over a year in the Honeywell thermostats. It has therefore come as a bit of a shock to have had to swap out batteries for two of the thermostats as they have lasted hardly more than a day, even when permanently off (a currently unused room). I suspect that the voltage sensitivity means that running at lower temperatures e.g. down to 10C when no heating, means that the voltage drops with temperature? The Honeywells continue to be fine at well below 10C too.
But otherwise, reading NigelCole99's comment above, might I have a couple of faulty thermostats? Maybe I will have to try some non-rechargeable lithiums to see if they are any better?
Agree you must have faulty devices even before I ended up buying lithium AA batteries that last well over a year both normal AA and even rechargeable batteries would last months not days or hours. Especially the room thermostat I’ve only changed standard rechargeable once and I’ve had the system over a couple of years now. For the radiator thermostats in my experience it’s AA lithium up to two years, AA standard up to a year and AA rechargeable 2 - 3 months (less in winter). Hope that helps.
Thank you Mark that is really helpful and reassuring as I have bought two 12 thermostat systems recently, with this being the first of them to be installed.
I have one spare thermostat from the combined sets, so I could replace one of the two dodgy ones and see if that is any better. I have another seven running in the same building and they are all fine, so far, but it has only been two weeks since I installed the whole system. Either way, I expect I will be looking for the Smart Thermostat Shop (formerly the Evohome shop) to swap them out.
On the positive side, the app seems pretty good, although it throws the odd wobbly, needing restarting, and when setting the schedule it keeps jumping back to the current day if you don't hit edit quickly enough. My schedules can change quite frequently, so that matters. And the setup is pretty slick too.
Hope it all gets sorted for you David it’s clearly faulty device and not fit for purpose. Yes the app is not too bad and yes changing the schedule on a different day is difficult as it wants to return to the current day quickly. Clearly an easy bug to fix maybe they outsourced their app development or have enough developers and ux designers. Hopefully the company reads these messages and will address and push out a new version of the app.
@DavidS We are sorry to learn that your thermostats may be defective. Please let us know when you have more information.
@DavidS and @mark.hattersley Thank you for your messages. I will pass on the information to the team concerned. I will get back to you as soon as I have the answers.
Please sign in to leave a comment.