In December, I reviewed the Habi Smart Home Heating solution and had a lot of connectivity issues. After returning it due to these problems, I’ve been using it for around 3 months solid now, so I’m here to provide an updated review.
My Initial Experience with Habi
I picked up the Habi Smart Home myself back towards the end of October and got straight into setting it up. I wired in the boiler control, paired the wireless thermostat, added three radiator valves, and set up a series of complicated Apple Home Automations with Siri Shortcuts for geofencing as part of my heating schedule.
However, within a couple of weeks, devices started losing connection to the boiler, which was frustrating, especially in November when you want reliable heating. I contacted Habi customer support, and we tried a few things together, but ultimately, I returned it in the 30-day window because I needed heating that worked consistently.
Switching to Aqara Devices
I then switched to using Aqara devices, which I reviewed on this channel as well. This setup worked pretty reliably and well, so I was impressed with the performance of these devices.
Habi’s Response and Follow-up Testing
In the meantime, Habi got one of their engineers to email me. He actually worked for their parent company Salus, who are really well established in the heating space. I explained that I’d returned the equipment and offered to come and set up everything as I had it set up before so they could monitor and debug.
As a developer, I know how frustrating it is when you can’t replicate an issue, and I also knew from other reviews that others had signal issues too. I agreed to let them come over, but only if they didn’t wire everything back in because I wanted my heating to work.
Rob came along, hooked up a plug to the wireless receiver, some valves to the radiator thermostats, and we put everything back in the same places as before. Then, over the next few weeks, I continued to monitor it all in the Habi app and in Apple Home. The team told me they’d updated the firmware, and nothing disconnected.
At the start of March, I wired it all back up to my boiler, set up some schedules using Home Assistant (I’ll do a video about that soon), and let it run my heating complete with geofencing. And I have had absolutely no issues.
About Habi
This is a Matter over Thread compatible smart heating solution. The base pack containing the boiler control, which creates the thread network, has physical controls on and can work with condensing boilers and those with separate hot water controls. Those physical buttons give you easy ways to turn the heating on and off if the smart controls fail.
The base pack also comes with the wireless thermostat, which has nice white designs and I do like the design, especially the big twist knob on the control. This pack will cost you around £70, making it pretty affordable.
Compatibility and Features
That Matter compatibility does mean it works with SmartThings, Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, and Home Assistant. The radiator valves are also Matter over Thread compatible and pair well with the Habi Hub first and then secondary matter controllers like Apple Home. This allows those TRVs to call for heat, which is great.
However, if you want the deep dive into the spec, I’ll put my original review below. The Habi app as a whole is also something I dive more into in my original review, but if you don’t mind about having geofencing, then you can easily set up schedules and boost from that.
Temperature Accuracy Issues
Whilst the TRVs do let you adjust the temperature offset, I do find that their temperature is not very accurate when the radiator is on. This is pretty common for TRVs, but these do seem to be worse than others, and it’s for this reason I probably wouldn’t recommend just using them with the Habi app.
My setup is a bit more complicated though, and if you’re willing to have a similar set up to me, then it works well and accurately. Basically, I’m using a Home Assistant integration called Better Thermostat, which allows me to select a different temperature source to the TRV and does all the complicated temperature offsetting to ensure the TRV still works as it should.
Should You Buy Habi?
As it stands, it is one of the most affordable Matter over Thread heating solutions out there with no subscriptions. However, not everyone should buy it. If you just need the one wireless thermostat and heating control, then it’s great – a bit of fiddling in Apple Home (with my video linked below) can achieve geofencing so your heating isn’t heating if you’re away from home and kicks back in when you arrive.
If you don’t care about geofencing, the Habi app is great. But, if you want the smart TRVs, then whilst it’s great that they can call for heat unless you want an advanced setup, then they’re probably not quite right because the on-board temperature sensors are too sensitive.
It’s also worth noting that they can be a bit fiddly to pair to start with and do time out occasionally. Out of the three I’ve got, two were fine, and one took several resets – I know others have had the same issue.
If you want a simpler out-the-box solution, then I’d go with the Tado X range (I’ll link below along with my review). I’ll also link the Habi products below too.
Conclusion
Overall, Habi is an affordable Matter over Thread heating solution that works well for basic setups. However, if you’re looking for a more advanced setup or want accurate temperature readings from your TRVs, then it might not be the best choice. I’ll continue to monitor my setup and provide updates as necessary.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
