Aqara W600: Zigbee Smart Valve and Matter-Over-Thread

Having real-time, automated control of your radiators can generally save up to 30% on your energy bill and if you are looking for a smart valve with the latest advances, the Aqara W600 could be the perfect choice.

Why is the Aqara W600 valve so expensive?

Aqara designs quality products with the latest technological advances, proof of this with the W600 valve that integrates dual technology, Zigbee and Matter-Over-Thread, betting on the present and the future.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Aqara W600

Tutorial on how to use the Aqara W600

Today we are going to discover all the details of this new Aqara success.

General features of the Aqara W600

If we open the packaging, we have an instruction manual.

6 adapters included: RA, RAVL, RAV, Caleffi, Giacomini and M28 × 1.5.

We have the thermostatic valve that comes with a default format M30x1.5 being the most common in European radiators, but these adapters are useful in some contexts, if you have other formats in your house.

And 2 AA batteries, knowing that Aqara indicates a battery life of up to 2 years, an interesting fact given that other brands usually have a 1 year battery life.

Aesthetically, the body is white, with an LED display on the front that shows information clearly, even in low-light environments.

We can turn the valve knob to the left or right, to lower or raise the heating temperature in steps of 0.5 °C from 5 to 30 °C without depending on the application on our phone, which is very practical in everyday life.

After a few seconds without manipulating the button, the display turns off and if we press once, we will have the information of the temperature currently measured by the thermostatic valve in the installed zone of our house.

Also, if we press and hold the thermostatic valve button for 3 seconds, we activate the Child Lock mode, so that nobody can manipulate the temperature and we can deactivate this mode with the same process.

And if we press the button 5 times in a row, then the direction of the LED display changes.

The dimensions of this thermostatic valve are 57×57×90 mm, with a weight of 176 grams and its operating temperature range is from 0 °C to 40 °C.

The great novelty compared to other smart thermostatic valves on the market is that it integrates 2 technologies: Zigbee and Thread.

This hybrid concept is becoming increasingly common, as we have already seen with the new Home Assistant antenna.

Or Smlight’s Ethernet dongles.

And Aqara is also launching different products with this combination.

From the Aqara App, we can select our favourite technology, knowing that Zigbee technology is very popular for smart home projects and I usually recommend using the Zigbee2mqtt platform with Home Assistant or Jeedom and Thread technology is used for Matter, the new home automation standard that allows you to use your devices with different ecosystems, such as Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Home Assistant and more.

We have already seen how to install Zigbee2mqtt.

And also how to use Matter Thread devices.

Another great advantage of this thermostatic valve is that it is very quiet, i.e. it makes a noise of less than 30 dB when adjusting the temperature and this is a criterion to take into account if the noise can be annoying, especially in environments such as rooms where users are sleeping during the night.

It also has an open window detection function, which allows the heating to be temporarily switched off at that moment.

And it has an anti-freeze mode, which prevents pipes from freezing.

Aqara also indicates that it is possible to link this thermostatic valve to Aqara temperature sensors if you want to deport the measured temperature of the valve and thus avoid inaccuracies.

How to install the Aqara thermostatic valve on the radiator

Installing a smart thermostatic valve is usually a straightforward process, just check that you have a valve with numbers (e.g. 1 to 5) at home. You can check if your current thermostatic valve can be replaced by a smart thermostatic valve thanks to compatibility tools such as:
https://check.netatmo.com/es-es/energy/valves/thermo-additional/which-valve

If this is the case, simply replace your traditional thermostatic valve with your Aqara smart thermostatic valve.

You must open the thermostatic valve cover.

And remove the battery protection.

Now, if the display shows “F1”, you must press the button at the top of the valve 3 times.

The display shows “F2”, meaning that it is calibrating to your radiator.

Wait a few seconds and when the thermostatic valve shows the temperature, it means that it is calibrated and you will now be able to link it to a compatible home automation hub.

How to use the Aqara thermostatic valve on Zigbee

In order to link your Aqara thermostatic valve on Zigbee, you must use a compatible Zigbee hub such as one from Aqara’s own brand.

Or universal hubs like Jeedom and Home Assistant with the Zigbee2Mqtt platform.

The first step is to download and open the Aqara App on your phone and have Bluetooth and WIFI enabled.

When we open this App, the Aqara thermostatic valve should automatically appear, so we can click on it.

Two technologies appear, Zigbee and Thread.

We must select Zigbee and now, let’s wait for the firmware to be updated to enjoy this technology.

Ready, now we must access the interface of our Zigbee hub, in my case, I test Home Assistant with the Zigbee2Mqtt platform.

And we can launch the partnership mode.

Our thermostatic valve should automatically appear on this interface. So now, we can control our heating from anywhere in the world from our hub interface.

We have access to different functions. To start with, “local_temperature” is the actual temperature measured by the valve with its internal sensor. It shows the ambient temperature directly from the device.

“local_temperature_calibration” is a temperature correction setting. It allows you to add or subtract degrees to the measured temperature to make it more accurate. The range is from -12.8 to +12.8 degrees, in 0.1 degree increments.

“occupied_heating_setpoint” is the target temperature we want to maintain in the room. We can define this heating temperature from 5 to 30 degrees and the thermostatic valve automatically receives this setting.

“temperature_setpoint_hold” locks the temperature change. If enabled, it prevents changes from being made from the device. true enables the lock and false disables it.

“temperature_setpoint_hold_duration” defines for how many minutes the temperature lock remains active. The maximum value is 65535, which means permanent lockout.

“max_heat_setpoint_limit” defines the maximum allowed temperature, i.e. it limits how high the thermostat can be raised.

“min_heat_setpoint_limit” this time defines the minimum allowed temperature. Prevents the temperature from dropping below a set value.

“Calibrate”, as the name suggests, initiates the valve calibration process. It allows the engine to detect the correct opening and closing positions.

When starting the calibration, we can see the current status of this process with the message “in_progress”.

And when it is finished, we will have the message “ready”.

“State” activates or deactivates the thermostat. ON means active and OFF means off.

“Valve detection” activates the valve fault detection. It allows to detect mechanical problems or blockages in the system.

“Display flip” reverses the orientation of the display to make it easier to read when the device is installed upside down.

“Helper” activates the internal scheduling assistant for schedules and automations.

“Window detection” activates or deactivates the detection of open windows. If it detects a sudden drop in temperature, it automatically switches the heating off to save energy.

“Child lock” enables or disables the physical buttons on the device. LOCK locks the buttons and UNLOCK enables them.

“Away preset temperature” defines the temperature to be used when the device is in away mode. The range is 0 to 30 degrees.

“Identify” activates the identification mode of the device, causing it to light up or display an animation so that you can physically locate the thermostatic valve, for example if you have several installed in your home.

And “Linkquality” is the Zigbee link quality that we have already seen in other content, being 0 a bad quality and 255 an excellent quality of communications between your Aqara thermostatic valve and your hub.

How to use the Aqara thermostatic valve in Matter-Over-Thread

To use this Aqara thermostatic valve with the Matter standard, you should know that like any device that uses Thread technology, like Zigbee, it is necessary to use a hub called a Thread Border Router.

Some already integrate this Thread chipset.

Others, such as the Home Assistant Green hub, need to add a compatible dongle or Thread antenna and in my example, I will use the new Home Assistant Zigbee/Thread antenna called ZBT-2.

If we already have this ZBT-2 antenna configured for use with Matter Thread devices, what we need to do is go to the Aqara App and select our thermostatic valve that appears.

We must choose Thread technology.

Once the Thread firmware is downloaded on this thermostatic valve, from the Home Assistant App on our phone, we must go to the settings and go to “Settings”.

“Devices and services”.

“Add integration”.

“Add Matter device”.

Choose the option “No. It’s new”.

And we must scan the QR Matter code that comes on the device or on the label that comes on the packaging.

After a few seconds, our thermostatic valve appears in Home Assistant.

With Matter, being a standard that has yet to evolve, we only have access to main functions such as viewing the temperature measured by the thermostatic valve.

We can also adjust the temperature we want on our thermostatic valve.

We can see if new updates are available.

We can identify the thermostatic valve by making it light up or showing an animation so that we can physically locate the thermostatic valve.

We can change the temperature value from Celsius to Fahrenheit.

And we can see the battery status.

As you can see, these are more limited functions than one use of this Zigbee thermostatic valve, but Matter continues to evolve and you may be interested in this option to mix different ecosystems together.

In order to use this thermostatic valve with other ecosystems, from Home Assistant, you must access your device and click on “Share device”.

This allows you to generate a new QR code and digits and when you are going to add a Matter device from another platform as in my example, on Amazon Alexa, then you must scan this new code and not the one included in the device.

That’s it, now I can control this thermostatic valve also on the Amazon Alexa App, and of course, control it by voice.

And we can repeat the process for each ecosystem and thus, have control of the thermostatic valve from any Matter compatible App.

In short, this new thermostatic valve from Aqara is sure to be a success as it integrates essential functions to control your heating from your phone and is one of the first to integrate dual technology to bet on the present and the future.

Generally purchased together

Buy now Aqara W600