warning about nest thermostat

H

hopefullyoneday

Recycles dryer sheets
Joined
Dec 2, 2017
Messages
247
I installed a nest 3rd gen thermo a week ago and what a nightmare. I installed it in my vacation home 2 days before I left to come back home which is 6hrs away. Anyways install was kind of easy and everything worked as it should. 2 days after getting home I just looked at the app on my phone to see what the temps were there inside and out. I had it set to cool at 76 degrees but the inside house temp was 95 :confused:. I tried to shut it off thru the mode tab but the safety kept it on and running. Called nest support on how to shut it off and they said you cant. I figured out how to shut the safety to off which in turn shut the nest completely off but by that time my place was at 101 degrees. Nest said they need to trouble shoot the system but someone had to be there.
I thought this thing was smart but apparently not, as nest did not know how to shut it off and there is no safety switch for it to shut off if temps get out of whack. And you cant remotely troubleshoot it. Anyways, I had my neighbor go to my place and he verified it was 101 inside so he opened the windows to cool it down and he called support to troubleshoot it. They verified all wires were correct and my hvac system was not at fault. They had him do a reboot of the nest and cool air was coming out once again. Nest said it was a software glitch and we should be fine. Well the next day it happed again, I caught it when inside temp was 85 but set on cool for 76. I had my neighbor go over to my place again and he verified the thermo was set to 76 and cool but hot air blowing out of vents. I called nest again and they said they will send out a new unit.
So be careful as who knows how hot a house could get and if a fire could start from a heatpump continuously running indefinitely.
 
Wow- thanks for the warning! I have a Nest and I love it but clearly you got a lemon. And you'd think it would be the perfect solution for a seasonal home because it can be controlled remotely but not in your case. They really need an ironclad way to shut the system down remotely.

Maybe I've got the second generation- had it about a year. I won't be upgrading!
 
You can tell if it is a second generation by removing the front face and if the elect conn is rectangle it is 2nd, 3rd is a oval. I am not going to use the new one, I will just sell it and get some of my money back. I went old school round dial as it is a rental when I am not there. I think the concept of the nest is good but just no safety features and not very user friendly for new users like renters.
 
I am reminded that one of my nieces gave me a Nest thermostat for Christmas 2017. Or was it 2016?

I still have not installed it. Perhaps I should open the box and look to see what gen it is. :)
 
Have had a 2nd generation for over 4 years now. Easy to install. Never a problem.
 
My neighbor went through 2 of them that were defective. The third was as well, but Nest wouldn’t send another. He removed it and went back to a regular low tech programmable.
 
Z3Dreamer said:
My Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat has been Flawless for 6 or 7 years
Click to expand...

I had that one before the Nest. My electric company gave it to me for free. They then offered a Nest as a replacement and I took it; this time I got a $25 statement credit. What they get in return is the right to cycle my A/C on and off at 15 minute intervals during periods of peak demand. They let you know beforehand and you can opt out of a particular period but I've never noticed any effect in the house.

I really like the features that show your usage history and the part of the Web site that compares your usage to neighbors'. My usage has gone down a lot- I'm the competitive type and I like saving money.
 
I have a dumb honeywell thermostat. Never had any issues. Never wanted to control my heating/ac from a remote location...and never wanted a thermostat to determine what I want the temp set at.
 
ponyboy said:
I have a dumb honeywell thermostat. Never had any issues. Never wanted to control my heating/ac from a remote location...and never wanted a thermostat to determine what I want the temp set at.
Click to expand...

In our previous house, DH and I had a thermostat (the dumb kind) so darn complicated we couldn't program it. It had just a few tiny buttons and you had to page through a non-intuitive menu. I never touched the darn thing and I consider myself pretty good with technology. I'm wary of all the "smart home" devices- probably will never have Alexa or the equivalent- but this was one area where I really welcomed the improvement. It's particularly nice when coming home from a long trip- I kept the temperature at 55 degrees during most of March because I was gone, and warmed up the house while I was on my final leg of the trip on a flight from DFW!
 
athena53 said:
I had that one before the Nest. My electric company gave it to me for free. They then offered a Nest as a replacement and I took it; this time I got a $25 statement credit. What they get in return is the right to cycle my A/C on and off at 15 minute intervals during periods of peak demand. They let you know beforehand and you can opt out of a particular period but I've never noticed any effect in the house.
Click to expand...

I'm not interested in letting someone else decide when my AC should be cycled.

I have an Emerson Wi-Fi thermostat...it was half the price of a Nest and works perfectly.
 
Z3Dreamer said:
My Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat has been Flawless for 6 or 7 years
Click to expand...

Mom has a thermostat that is 49 years old. Just like yours: Flawless all that time! :LOL:
 
DW and I keep talking about getting a Nest. Our local electric utility offers a 50% rebate up to $50. So that helps. There is no control of the thermostat by the utility. It's just an incentive. We have 4 HVAC units but only two get used regularly. So if we like it, we'll probably get a second one as well.

The old school programmable units worked fine when we were both working. We had programs that worked well for our schedules. Now that we are both retired, we're all over the map, especially with our main unit. I set it to hold at a certain temp (79 summer, 68 winter) and then we manually adjust depending on what we are doing. We are constantly adjusting and readjusting. So I think Nest will work well for this new scenario, especially the linkage to Alexa for voice control.
 
marko said:
Mom has a thermostat that is 49 years old. Just like yours: Flawless all that time! :LOL:
Click to expand...

Until we got the Honeywell version, I really missed the one I'd had in a house in 1978. It had little plastic pegs that you arranged around a clock face and you then specified two temperatures (we didn't have A/C). The face rotated with the time and every time it hit a peg it flipped to the other temperature. So, we kept it at 55 at night and 65 during the day in the winter. Easy-peasy.
 
hopefullyoneday said:
I installed a nest 3rd gen thermo a week ago and what a nightmare. I installed it in my vacation home 2 days before I left to come back home which is 6hrs away. Anyways install was kind of easy and everything worked as it should. 2 days after getting home I just looked at the app on my phone to see what the temps were there inside and out. I had it set to cool at 76 degrees but the inside house temp was 95 :confused:. I tried to shut it off thru the mode tab but the safety kept it on and running. Called nest support on how to shut it off and they said you cant. I figured out how to shut the safety to off which in turn shut the nest completely off but by that time my place was at 101 degrees. Nest said they need to trouble shoot the system but someone had to be there.
I thought this thing was smart but apparently not, as nest did not know how to shut it off and there is no safety switch for it to shut off if temps get out of whack. And you cant remotely troubleshoot it. Anyways, I had my neighbor go to my place and he verified it was 101 inside so he opened the windows to cool it down and he called support to troubleshoot it. They verified all wires were correct and my hvac system was not at fault. They had him do a reboot of the nest and cool air was coming out once again. Nest said it was a software glitch and we should be fine. Well the next day it happed again, I caught it when inside temp was 85 but set on cool for 76. I had my neighbor go over to my place again and he verified the thermo was set to 76 and cool but hot air blowing out of vents. I called nest again and they said they will send out a new unit.
So be careful as who knows how hot a house could get and if a fire could start from a heatpump continuously running indefinitely.
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem with a Honeywell Wifi thermostat (RTH9580 color touch screen). I installed one in our California home on a Lennox AC/Heating system without any issues. I then installed a second thermostat in our Florida condo on a Trane AC/Heating system and set it too cool with a set temperature of 73 degrees. I noticed that the heat went on. I shut it down and then restarted and the same thing happened. I looked through the manual and found that the configuration setting for the changeover needed to be set. This switches between heating and cooling. Once I did that there were no issues. I believe you are having the same issue with your Nest thermostat.
 
For those of us who work in software using the agile CI/CD model, we know how these "glitches" happen.

I really find it distressing how software development has changed and been deployed on what I'd consider "mission critical" projects. It is one reason I'm getting out.

I don't know if Nest/Google does their development that way, although I suspect so since it is the hot thing. Hopefully not. But really, there should not be this kind of "software glitch."
 
We use Nest thermostats. We've had a few issues and agree there is a learning curve that is probably steeper compared with a typical programmable unit. OTOH, if it is needed, the Nest product offers more functionality. If the functionality isn't needed, it probably doesn't make sense to install is.
 
calmloki said:
While Nest tempted I'm pretty old school on/off via manual action.
Click to expand...

I don't use programming on my Wi-Fi thermostat as my schedule is too erratic, but it's nice having the ability to adjust the temperature when not home as quite often I'll be out for an undetermined period of time and like being able to pre-heat or pre-cool the house.
 
There is nothing wrong with Nest or other smart thermostats. The changeover setting configuration for AC/Heating systems vary by manufacturer. The only reason I chose the Honeywell over the Nest was because of the shape. The Nest is round and the diameter was too small to cover the rectangular box where the old thermostats were. I did not want to use a cover plate or patch plaster so I chose the Honeywell. We have smart thermostats installed at all three residences and have been in operation since 2014 without any issues. When we travel to one of our residence and land at the airport, we set the desired temperature using our smart phone and it's at the desired temperature when we arrive. Before we leave, we reset it back to save energy. If you have multiple residences, Wifi thermostats are very practical.
 
Last edited:
joeea said:
Have had a 2nd generation for over 4 years now. Easy to install. Never a problem.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Also have the smoke detectors, home security, and Hello doorbell. Everything works great.
 
Music Lover said:
I don't use programming on my Wi-Fi thermostat as my schedule is too erratic, but it's nice having the ability to adjust the temperature when not home as quite often I'll be out for an undetermined period of time and like being able to pre-heat or pre-cool the house.
Click to expand...

Same here.

I have a Nest in my vacation/weekend home. I don't use the programming.
But the remote access lets me turn on the heat so that the house is nice and warm when we get there.
 
I have an Ecobee for home, dual fuel system, it is flawless. I replaced the Honeywell 9000 series at our business in anticipation of upgrading to dual fuel. My experience with HW is not so great on that model. I had to teach tech support that there is an internal battery that needs to be replaced, else they loose their mind in 5 to 10 years.

I could only find the Nest at Lowes that day so I went with it. Bad decision, very poor control and when my heat pump condenser came in and I went to install it, I quickly learned it was not compatible. I took it back to Lowes and got an Ecobee 3 lite, which despite the low cost, has all the functions needed. Lowes puts their stats in 3 different places in the store, but on-line you can see where they hold them.

Most HVAC folks in this area like the Ecobee far more than Nest. Besides, Alexa is now built in!
 
we have a GEN2 nest and have had no issues. I like it because we travel and i'll set to a temp other then optimal (81 or 55) for season if we're gone, then either when we arrive back at airport or on road back i'll bring temp back to normal for season. So get back home i'm happy !
 
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