Nest - Learning Thermostat - 3rd Generation - Stainless Steel

I give this product one star for the first item, which was ultimately resolved by a second unit. If I could give negative stars for Nest as a company, I would give them a -10. If you keep reading, you may not want to purchase this item in the first place. **Warning: It is long, but trust me... you want to read it!** I bought two of these for both zones in my home. One worked flawlessly and calibrated itself within minutes. The other one, however took more than an hour to calibrate, which after calling Nest Support, they claimed was normal since they verified it was wired properly. Something, however told me that it wasn't normal, but I accepted the word of the expert on the phone. Eventually it calibrated and started blowing warm air like it was supposed to since it was winter. It seemed to take a little longer than normal to reach a warm temperature and we noticed it would turn on for what seemed like no reason, but thought it just must be a super sensitive product that would keep the air temp. precisely where it should be, so we ignored that as well. As the seasons changed and we got hit with a particularly warm spell early in the Mid-Atlantic, the A/C never turned on. In fact it was still blowing warm air even though it said it was "cooling". I tried trouble shooting and eventually went through the entire set-up procedure again to no avail. I called Nest Support and the woman on the phone was very pleasant, but told me to disconnect a wire that the previous agent had told me was installed properly. She also told me to leave this wire disconnected since it caused the unit to begin to blow cold air as it should. Okay, I will once again accept the advice of the "expert" and do as I'm instructed even though it goes against that gut feeling that it was wrong. I was just thankful to have cold air again. The next day I go to work and get a call from my neighbor telling me that my A/C unit is making strange loud noises. When I get home, I hear the crazy sounds coming from my unit and the upstairs is hot. Really hot! Immediately shut it off and don't bother calling Nest at this point. I get a real A/C tech over to check my system. He tells me that my Nest was sending too much voltage to the unit and fried my "contactor" which switches between hot and cold. He replaced that part, put the Nest back on line and wouldn't you know....same issue occurs. He removes the Nest, puts a different thermostat on (also a learning system) and it worked perfectly. Then to show he wasn't trying to sell me anything, he took that down and put my ORIGINAL thermostat back up and again it worked perfectly. He told me I was lucky because a few more hours of use could have completely destroyed my A/C unit, then I would be looking at several thousand dollars to replace it. I explained all of this to Nest Support and finally they agreed to send me a replacement Nest since I still wanted to use their product. A few days later I received it, installed it and it calibrated itself in less than 10 minutes. Surprise, surprise. AND it worked right the first time. So what would you do if you had this happen to you and your gut, your technician and the experiences all pointed to Nest damaging your A/C unit? Right! You would call them and request that they pay for the replacement part. You might even demand that they pay for the labor and appointment fee as well. I didn't though. I only asked them to pay for the part! A $165 part. That's it. Here is where the trouble really gets stupid and frustrating. This whole thing started in April. I was put on hold, promised call backs, transferred to multiple "specialists", ignored, insulted by argumentative language and then ultimately dropped from their radar all the while thinking I was getting somewhere. Two days ago on June 22, I could take no more and called and demanded to have the issue resolved immediately. I was not going to be promised a call back or to leave a message. After being transferred and hung up on, eventually I reach another "specialist". ONE HOUR LATER.... I was told my request was denied. Then she argued with me for requesting them to take another look and gave her the WHOLE story again. She said and I quote, "Ma'am, if you want me to submit this to our senior management again, it will be denied". Enough. I give up. The Nest was defective and damaged my unit. That is 100% clear, honest and factual and even Nest knows this because they gave me a new unit. Nest support is garbage and will NOT support you when they are at fault. Buyer beware for sure! Do yourself a favor and ask technicians first if they have any issues with them before you trust your very expensive A/C unit to this thermostat. You will be surprised. What they don't tell you is it is NOT always compatible with your unit. You will NOT know this unless you ask them. Then they will reluctantly tell you. Good luck and you have been warned!

This is the "apple" of digital thermostats and it's made by google (Nest's parent company). It looks great on the wall. Has a solid feel to it and comes across as very well crafted. It would've been nice to have been able to compare out old thermostat to this one to see exactly how much we're saving on our oil bill but we're definitely going through less oil than we used to. Installation was a breeze. I actually opened a chat with one of their reps to ask them a quick question about the unit and they pretty much insisted that they would stay connected with me until I completed the setup and tested everything out. The configuration is a breeze too - at least it was for our heat-only system. The major shortcoming is the software. There are some things that are just not intuitive like the eco settings and some things that just leave you scratching your head wondering what they were thinking when they wrote the code, like displaying what the target temp is more prominently than the current temp - there's a feature called farsight that will show you the current temp for a moment but then it goes back to the normal display. The usage history is capped to ten days. Seriously. Like how much memory would it take to give us a month or even a year, it's just some raw data that shouldn't take up much space at all on the device. The home/away feature works when it wants to. There have been times I've been like, "why is it freezing in here?" and opened the app to find the nest thinks I'm away from home and times when I've been out for hours and opened the app just for the heck of it to see if the furnace is running and it thinks I'm home and the heat's cranking. We've had two of these installed for a little over a month and it still hasn't learned our schedule. It might have something to do with not knowing whether we're home or away, lollll, but either of these features should be pretty easy to make work any number of ways and have them work well but they just don't. The app and web interface are nicely laid out and easy to use for the most part and from my experience with them, they seem to give you access to most of the controls and features that you'd have using the wheel on the thermostat itself, without having to stand there and scroll through everything with the notable exception of the farsight setting. From what I can tell, you can't link two nests in different zones and get them to act smarter together, for instance to say hey the furnace is running for zone two, why not heat up zone one for a little bit too while you're at it. Maybe I'm missing something and by all means tell me if I am, but that seems like it'd be a nice feature to have. It just feels really limited with what you can do with it and they've been out now for long enough where you think they'd have this thing feature packed with the ability to customize it a little more than what you get out of the box with this 3rd gen model. I feel like the ecobee is probably a more robust option but just barely. That being said we did get two of these and I'm pretty happy with them ..... I'm just not satisfied if that makes sense. There's just a lot more I'd like to see these things be able to do that hopefully will be added via firmware or software updates as more people install them and clamor for more features.

Everything on the Nest from the install to the scheduling is easy to do and most of the features are pretty nice. There are two issues I have with the Nest. The first is you can't change the frequency in which the fan cycles on. It only gives you the option to come on every hour. You can select run time for 15,30,45 minutes up to 1 hour but that's it. It would be nice to be able to select every 1,2,3, or 4 hours just so the fan isn't coming on all the time. I'm sure this can be fixed with a software update. The second issue and this is a big problem is that the current room temperature is inaccurate. The Nest reads 2-3°F above actual room temp. I am currently on my 3rd Nest (Generation 3) in a 20 day period. The 1st read 75°F for over 24 hours even though there was no way it was 75° so I exchanged it. I installed the 2nd Nest and after having it for a day I noticed that it felt a little chilly in my house. I looked at the screen and it read 71° but it seemed cooler. So I put two of my previous thermostats (a Honeywell VisionPRO 8000, and a Comcast digital) and a digital food thermometer next to the Nest to compare the readings and all 3 read 68°F. (I'm no pro but I think if 3 thermometers read the same then I would say they are accurate) I called Nest and the technician said it can take up to 14 days to "learn" the temp so I waited to see if it would correctly calibrate. It didn't, and I exchanged it for my 3rd Nest hoping the other two were defective. It's been 2 days and no luck. This one is reading 2-3°F high as well. The tech also told me that the Nest's are programmed to have a 2° range. I understand this when heating and cooling so you're furnace or A/C isn't tuning on and off every 5 minutes however there should be no range on the accuracy of the actual room temp. It's either accurate or it's not. I'll give this a few more days and call Nest and see if they have a software update to accurately calibrate it. They say this has 12 sensors. How is it that 12 sensors are less accurate then a cheap $50 thermostat with 1? I don't understand.. I've included some pictures showing the temp differences. My Nest reads "current temp" 71°F and the other 3 thermometers read current room temp as 68°F. That is unacceptable.

Bought the Nest about two weeks ago. Installation was easy. It all went well for about a week, then it started throwing the "E74" code - no power to Rh. I called technical support and we went through an extended (60 minutes) trouble shooting process, swapping almost every connection, to isolate the issue determine if something was wrong with my (3 month old) HVAC system... Off course everything was fine with my AC/Heating system. During troubleshooting, the Nest magically started working again. We were puzzled why it stopped working, and equally puzzled why it started working. Anyway, technical support (very nice but puzzled guy) claimed it must have been a loose connection. A day later, my wife called to say the issue had resurfaced with the Nest. So while heading back home from work, I called ahead to Nest technical support, because is does take some time to get them. Upon reaching home, with Nest now on the phone, the system began working (without us starting the troubleshooting). The tech support lady claimed there might be a small break in one of my wires, which i didn't necessarily agree with because why then would it work intermittently? The next day, while out, the dreaded E74 issue came back again and showed on my wife's phone. When we got home i got my multimeter to test the power to the wires, and everything was fine with the wires. Put the Nest back on, and it showed no power. Obviously something was wrong on the Nest end. We called Nest again and another technical support staff (sounded like he was half asleep) wanted to walk me through the same 45 minute procedure we went through the first time to try and check to see if my heating system was working or my house had a wiring issue. I asked him if he read the history; he went back, started reading, then came back wanting to do the same thing - play musical chair with the wires. I got frustrated, my two year old was getting cold, so I went back for my old thermostat (Nest tech support, did tell me not to toss it just yet)...and I reinstalled it. My heat worked immediately - and no issue with power to wires. I have had continuous heat since then. I am guessing the Nest unit was messing up - but it didnt seem as if Nest wanted to accept that this is the case; they ....OR nest has compatibility issues with heating systems that uses high efficiency variable blower speeds or staged heating (although they say it accommodate up to three stage systems. Again...its good when it worked. Maybe it needs a bit more work.

I've been reading about the Nest thermostat for many years and believed it was overpriced for what I thought it could do. I didn't realize that it has algorithms built in to use the outside temperature (obtained from Weather Channel) and the indoor temperature to "learn" how long the heat will have to run to get the house to the desired temperature. We also love how the device lights up and shows us the outside temperature (configurable between time, outdoor temperature, indoor temperature and other options). We use this constantly and no longer depend on our outside thermostat. After a few days of owning this, we started realizing that it was predicting where we set the thermostat. Our old electronic thermostat had our own schedule defined but I've been lazy between winter and summer to adjust the schedule, so would resort to using the 'hold' button. With this Nest, I don't have to do that...it seems to know our desired temperature patterns, just as advertised. It has done a better job predicting it than I would have expected. We installed without the common wire for a few days. There was an unused blue wire in my wall, and I found that it wasn't connected in the furnace, either. After a few days of pondering it, I decided to hook the blue wire up to the 'C' on the control panel and then tested and confirmed about 25 volts coming from the panel. I then made use of the extra blue wire in my wall to give it a common power source. I know having a common wire is rare in most households, but my house is less than 10 years old and we were lucky that 5 wires (for AC and heater) were sent up - and it was simple for me to add it. I know the Nest guide says it isn't necessary, but I wasn't sure what the affect of 'pulsing' the heater would be, so I wanted to take full advantage of a constant power source. My 8 and 10 year old kids have found the device really nice to see the outside temperature, and find that moving the temperatures to be easy (though they haven't had a need). We have not yet hooked the Nest up to our Amazon Alexa device, but intend to. I've only had it for two weeks during the winter season, so we have yet to know how well this works during the summer. I must also say that the 'unboxing' process was also impressive, and was surprised that a screwdriver came in the box (both flat and philips reversible). It is now my favorite "kitchen screwdriver" for opening up small toys - it's heavy and too good to throw away. I was surprised that it was included in the box. I didn't need the back plastic plate to cover the previous screw holes because I was willing to repair the holes left behind by my old thermostat, though I thought it was a nice touch to have it included.

After moving to a new home and watching my FPL bills rise for a while I vowed to change all of that in 2018. After comparing it to other competitors I was hooked on this one due to the ease of installation and the good reviews. Also it was 50$ off the regular price and it came with a free Google Home Mini. Do not be intimidated to install this on your own it's not hard. The instructions it comes with and YouTube to be on the safe side did it for me. Before installing please make sure to shut your homes power panel breaker prior to uninstalling the old thermostat and installing the Nest (be safe). Take a picture of the way the wires were installed on your old thermostat prior to uninstalling. In doing so this will ensure that your connections are connected correctly. Test your wires one more time prior to uninstalling to make sure no power is running (avoid being shocked or damaging anything). I did not use/install the base-plate because I wanted a modern, sleek, and clean look. The stainless steel dial is very smooth and allows you to navigate through the settings with ease. It takes the Nest a couple of days to remember what temperatures you like when you are home and at what times you are home. After a couple of days Nest will ask you if you want it to automatically go into "Away Mode" when it senses you are not home (you decide opt in or opt out - I opted in). I recommend opting in to "Away Mode" for better energy savings. You can control when you are home and when you are away during those few days or if you opt out of "Away Mode" then you control it all. Smartphone application is free and easy to use. The new "Far-Sight" feature is awesome and can catch me at approximately 10 feet away even in the dark. When Nest detects any motion it will illuminate with what the current temperature is. This is how it can tell if you are home or not and can automatically place itself in "Away Mode" for energy savings. Being able to control everything from the application on my smartphone itself is so awesome (fan, cooling/heating mode, humidity level, away/home mode, set a schedule, history, etc.). Nest will remind you when you should change your air filters on your furnace because it can base it upon how many times it turns on and off. Significant drop in energy consumption can be seen on my gas bill after month 1. Due to this my father purchased the item as well and has no complaints thus far.

Look, let's just cut to the chase: the Nest thermostat is not the BEST smart thermostat on the market, but it is a really good one and it is the best looking one on the market. Honestly, as long a smart thermostat is pretty good at what it does, I want it to look attractive, what with being a wall-wart and all. If it's going to be there hanging on my wall, it needs to look good as well as function well. The Nest does that. It has most of the standard smart-thermostat stuff: You can set up a programmed schedule of when you want the temperature to change; it is easy to manually change the temperature through the innovative spinning case; it pays attention to your manual adjustments and will learn and adjust your scheduled program based on what you actually do; it tries to tell when you're not at home and reduce energy usage at those times; the Nest app allows you to access and adjust your Nest thermostat remotely on your phone. If that were it, I'd give it five stars and call it excellent. But, there are a few minor quibbles that prevent me from doing that. Quibble 1: The Nest thermostat doesn't integrate with Apple's HomeKit (I have no idea about other smart-stuff systems). I've heard rumors that Nest is working on adding HomeKit support, but seeing as how Nest is owned by Google, I'm not going to hold my breath for this. Quibble 2: The function that can tell if you're home or not isn't perfect. The thermostat is in a fixed location. It can only monitor the immediate area around the thermostat. If you aren't in the room in your house or business with the Nest thermostat, it may not think you are home, even though you are, and switch into away mode. I wish that Nest had some sort of remote sensor product that could be connected to the Thermostat that could be placed in other strategic locations in the home to handle this (and potentially read temperatures in other locations as well). 3. Nest is owned by Google and all the data-collection concerns that may come with that. Take that for what it's worth and make your own decision if that is important to you or not (for me, it's not—I don't care if Google knows when my thermostat changes temperature—but for others this may be a concern). Don't take this review the wrong way. I really like the Nest. It's good. It hits most of the expectations I have of a smart thermostat. I just wish it could be great.

I first purchased an Ecobee 3 and after setting a weekly schedule it did a superb job and also worked really well using Siri via Apple HomeKit but since I prefer Android and it didn't integrate with Google Now, I though I would give the Nest a try instead. The build quality of the Nest feels superior since it is heavy and has some heft to it but the user experience is awful. I thought that using the dial for adjusting temperates was more convenient, but that is about all it has going for it, and besides isn't the point to not have to constantly adjust it? More on that later. Using the dial as the only way to navigate the interface is annoying and slow compared to the Ecobee3's touchscreen. To get into the menu section on the Nest you have to press down on the dial and hold it. Once there, you have to navigate everything via the dial and pressing down, very similar to something like BMW's iDrive control knob. Unfortunately it takes way too long to navigate when all you want to do is change a few things. This would perhaps not be so much of a problem if you didn't have to constantly adjust it. Learning? What learning? It's heating all the time when I don't want it to or when I am not home, and then not heating when I am freezing. And yes, it is installed correctly, just in case you were wondering. I even reset it to start the learning process from scratch and still it doesn't seem to every figure out my habits. I did not set up a schedule and one could blame me for that, but honestly the whole device is marketed as being so smart that you shouldn't ever have to manual program a weekly schedule. I have a very regular work schedule as well, so it should have figured out most of my habits after weeks of giving it a shot. As for Google Now integration, it is useless. You give your phone Google Now commands and it rarely ever reaches the Nest. Perhaps that's a problem on Google's side and not the Nest's fault, but it is the same issue with different Android devices. Ultimately though it means that I like very little about this product. I was interested in installing the custom firmware to the Nest which allows you to connect directly to the thermostat via your wifi network without having to have a cloud service as a middle-man, but seeing as though I so strongly prefer having a larger informative touchscreen to the physical knob and a tiny screen that only shows you the temperature when you walk by, I don't really want to keep it. It looks elegant and feels nice to the touch, but the technology is inferior and feels outdated.