Wiser 2nd Gen smart home heating review: pretty much plug and play

Smart heating is one of those projects that every single one of us knows we should be considering in our homes, but which can sometimes feel like climbing a mountain – if you've never invested in part of a system before, then it's a little "all or nothing". Having only recently graduated into home ownership, I've recently been able to test out Wiser's second-generation smart home platform, launched in the middle of 2025.

In my case, that meant a replacement hub for my boiler, alongside a couple of additional accessories, plus radiator thermostats around my flat – basically a way to go from 0 to 100 in terms of room-by-room control. On the evidence I've seen so far, it's an impressively robust and easy-to-use system, albeit not a massively cheap one.

Price and availability

Wiser rolled out its second-generation hub and accessories in the middle of last year, which means that availability is a non-issue now. You can pick up whatever parts you need directly through its store, and there are questionnaires there to help you figure out the right setup.

In my case that meant a quick look at my boiler to work out how many channels the system would need (just one, unsurprisingly), but you will likely need someone to install the hub as a starting point.

The smallest bundle you can get (just a hub and one smart thermostat) starts from £195, with a radiator thermostat coming in at £56.50, which means extra radiator controls can quickly add up.

Features and design

I won't dwell too much on the design of the Wiser HubR, since it's something that's likely to be tucked away in a boiler cupboard for 90% of us. It's a simple and clean white box, and there's really not too much more to say about it.

The more important bits and pieces are the add-ons, since these are what you'll be affixing to walls and radiators. The smart thermostat is impressively tiny and refined, with a simple screen giving you the information you need at a glance. It has power-saving smarts to keep that screen off much of the time, but it wakes quickly when needed and is easy to control.

Those radiator thermostats can't be spun as being tiny, that's for sure, but they're also an impressive bit of design and functionality. Each one has a twisting interface at the top, which lets you manually adjust your radiator's flow up or down, and which can also be used to initiate pairing and hide status lights if you don't want them. They're modern and functional, although they do make for a chunky bit of white plastic on your radiator, as do most of the competition.

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I also got hold of a smart smoke detector, which is an order of magnitude smaller than any old dumb one I've used before, and which can easily be affixed to a wall or ceiling with the included mount. It's easy to hush, and its alarm is smartly designed – completely impossible to miss, but also not quite so droningly painful as old-fashioned equivalents.

Finally, I also have a leak detector, which is impressively tiny and therefore easy to place in a suspect corner to watch for water pooling. It's the sort of sensor that you'll forget about until it saves your savings, but is designed nicely for what it is.

All of this integrates in one place in Wiser's app, and that's really where the core functionality of your system is controlled, so I'll talk about that in detail in the next section. From a features point of view, though, it caters to a lot.

There are, of course, sophisticated options for scheduling a day-by-day heating plan that can also be zoned by room if you have radiator controls. This also includes frost protection modes and holiday settings that can be toggled on easily, and the interface is all nice and clear.

Installation, performance and useability

Installation is a funny thing to assess in some ways, since I had a Drayton engineer fit my Hub to my boiler and therefore can't comment on how you do that part of the job, although I can confirm it took less than an hour for that stage.

From there, though, I did get to play around with the pairing functionality of the Hub, which is incredibly easy to connect to your home Wi-Fi network, and indeed adding all the extras.

Each thermostat or sensor is added easily by using the app to scan a QR code printed on it in some cases, or by putting the device into a pairing mode in others. Either way, I never had an issue with the app immediately discovering what I was hoping to pair, and each add-on generally took no more than a couple of minutes to add to my system.

One further wrinkle to know about when it comes to the radiator thermostats is that you will need thermostatic radiator valves on your existing radiators for the smart thermostats to work – TRVs are a non-negotiable. If they're present, though, then you don't need to be a plumber to fit Wiser's add-ons, which just need to be clamped to the valve that's in place.

In terms of how the heating system has performed, I've had basically no issues at all in a fortnight of constant use, with the UK's variable weather giving it plenty of different conditions to account for. Schedules are stuck to without fail, the system is quick to react to manual changes, and I've had no complaints, which is a great thing in the world of utilities.

There have been some tiny hiccups – and one is that I've found that the Wiser app does benefit from being force-closed quite regularly. Sometimes, opening it up for the first time in a few days, I'd see my system looking completely empty, or the hub struggling to connect, but an app restart generally solved those grumbles.

I've also had to reconnect my hub to my Wi-Fi once when it couldn't be found in my app, but I think that was due to a router restart fouling the system, and either way reconnecting it took less than 60 seconds so I don't have any big gripes there.

Verdict

Wiser's second-generation heating offering is a comprehensive one, and it's been a slick and straightforward system to use in the few weeks I've had it. The hub itself is a straightforward graft onto your boiler, and the expandability of the system is one of its real strengths, since you can add extras at any time.

That said, if you're heating more than a few rooms and want individual control over each (which is arguably the point of upgrading), then you will need to spend a decent amount of cash to achieve that end. In a world where smart radiator thermostats can come a good chunk cheaper, it's worth remember that more affordable options are out there.

For reliability, serviceability and consistency, though, getting a system like Wiser's, backed by a name like Drayton, is a surefire way to make your life easier in the long run, and it's clearly a great option for UK homeowners looking to get more control over their heating bills and home ambiance.

Alternative to consider

If you're after something a little simpler, the Hive Thermostat system is a strong choice. It has a huge focus on accessibility, and is widely supported in the UK, making it a convenient option for anyone wanting smart heating without a more complex multi-zone system.