German smart Home product manufacturer Eve, today released the long-awaited update to the newer version of the Eve Thermo, which adds Thread functionality. This was announced as a forthcoming update by the company at the tail end of 2020, which follows on from other Eve products that now have either seen newer products with Thread released to market, or have had Thread activated in current products.
To date, this also includes products like the Eve Energy Smart plug (EU & US, 4th gen), Eve Aqua (2nd Gen), Eve Weather, and Eve Door & Window (3rd gen).
Bluetooth, which is what Eve has relied on for most of their devices up until the release of the power strip and light strip, will remain in use, as it’s required for ‘HomeKit over Thread’, but will also allow the aforementioned devices to automatically connect to the HomePod Mini without any need for configuration. Eve state the benefits of Thread with the following statement;
Thread is based on the universally deployed Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) standard, making it extremely robust. A Thread network does not rely on a central hub, such as a bridge, so there’s no single point of failure. And Thread has the ability to self-heal – if one node (or accessory in your Thread network) becomes unavailable, the data packets will select an alternate route automatically and the network simply continues to work. And while Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks tend to become somewhat unreliable and challenging to manage with a large number of accessories connected, a Thread network will scale up easily and actually become more robust with every new accessory.
You can buy the Eve Thermo in various single or multipacks from Amazon.de or Amazon.co.uk although it’s advisable to ensure that the model you buy is the 4th gen version released in 2020 (product No. 10EBP1701 / part No. 20EBP1701), as previous models are not Thread compatible.