Bosch Launches Matter over Thread Radiator Thermostat

Following on from a slew of product announcements at IFA 2024, Germany-based Bosch is now selling its latest Matter over Thread device, in the form of the Radiator Thermostat II [+M].

This is great news for a company that only just a couple of year prior weren’t really a brand on the HomeKit radar. What takes this thermostat to another level, however, with the option to utilise either Thread or Zigbee. This is a tactic also coming to products from Aqara later this year, but essentially this gives the consumer a couple of very decent options.

Bosch already has its own zigbee hub that can also be exposed to Apple Home via Matter, as it acts as a Matter Bridge to expose any connected devices to Matter platforms that also include Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings. If you don’t have or want the company’s own hub, you can simply connect the thermostat directly to Apple Home, as long as you have a Home Hub with a Thread Border Router inside. This would include the latest 128GB Apple TV4K, the previous gen. Apple TV4K, the 2nd gen HomePod, or a HomePod mini.

If you don’t need their Matter Bridge, you’d think why does it matter (no pun intended)? Well, even though the radiator thermostat works with Matter, like many devices, it has a lot more functionality than the four main platforms can offer. In this case, connecting the thermostat to their hub affords a lot more granular control over many more settings.

This would induced a ‘Boost’ function, control over display brightness, orientation, and display on duration, as well as things like a child lock feature and push notifications related to specific faults. So, despite these features not being exposed to the Matter platforms previously mentioned, if you want to use them, you still have the option.

The new Radiator Thermostat II [+M]and the Smart Home Controller II are both available to purchase from the company’s own online store that serves many countries in the EU and also the UK.