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Honeywell
WiFi Prog Thermostat (Pack of 2) - Honeywell
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Nest Learning Thermostat, 2nd Generation - Nest

Side by Side Comparison of: Honeywell vs Nest

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Honeywell http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Vw0Qc9KEL._SL160_.jpg
WiFi Prog Thermostat (Pack of 2) - Honeywell
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Nest http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/319N9SzWOeL._SL160_.jpg
Nest Learning Thermostat, 2nd Generation - Nest
Rating info
eComparisons Score
eComparisons ScoreThe "Comparison Score" Is calculated based on the average number of times this item was compared with other items in this category by our users
8.2
8.4
User Rating (Amazon)
User Rating (Amazon)

Five Star Reviews:

70%
Do yourself a favor and buy this thermostat!
July 30, 2017
Normal price for this thermostat is 179 shipped. I got it in "like new" condition for 91.48 shipped. I love the fact you control everything remotely from a PC, tablet, or smartphone. These are so much easier to program on a computer rather than fuddling around with it on a tiny screen. Custom colors on the unit are also an option. The install was super easy too and it comes with wire labels so you can install a wire label as you remove each wire from your existing thermostat. Easy peasy!

I love this thermostat!
Had Nests, switched to Honeywell and couldn't be happier.
January 19, 2016
Very happy with these thermostats. We like everything about them more than the Nest. It looks better, the app is better, they work better.

We had problems with the Nest from the start. It kept turning on our Central Air for several minutes at a time...when it was 50 degrees outside and the AC was turned off. We had to turn the AC off from the circuit breaker to make it stop turning on. The Customer Support from Nest was OUTSTANDING, they really tried to figure out why it wasn't working at our home (over the course of a few months). They sent us replacement units and even paid for an electrician to try and get them to work properly; no luck. We finally gave up and returned the Nest and bought the Honeywell; we're very happy we did.

The Honeywell's look great, they are wider than the Nest but aren't as deep as the Nest. We like the look of them more than the Nests. We like that it's very easy to see what the current temp is in the room as well as what it's set to (something that isn't as easy on the Nest).

The Honeywell's app is MUCH better than Nest's. Very easy to use, easy to see what the temp is set to as well as what it is in the home. Like that you can see the current outside temperature at the home as well as get a 5 day weather forecast right inside the app.

One HUGE (for us) advantage Honeywell has over Nest is the ability to "Hold" a temperature. Let's say you're having people over and your Nest has "learned' to automatically sets the temperature to 65 degrees from 70 degrees at 9:30 PM. You can't tell the Nest to "Hold" the temperature at 70 (overriding the learned program). With the Honeywell there is a "Hold" button that you can use to keep the temperature set until you decide to change it. With the Nest you have to remember to turn the heat back to 70 at 9:31 or you and your guests will get chilly :-).

I'm so glad we had all the problems with the Nest because we like the Honeywell much, much better. It was easy to install, and has worked great for us. Because there's more "real estate" on the display (compared to the Nest) it's easier to read, program, and use. Changing the color of the display is easy (our upstairs unit has a different color than our downstairs unit, great you can change it to match the room). The back-light can be dimmed when not in use, and we like the thermostats displays the outdoor temperature.

For us the Honeywell is better than the Nest in every way...it's not even close. Even if the Nest had worked at our house, now that we've been using the Honeywell unit I'd buy it over the Nest.
Great connected thermostats for a reasonable price
November 30, 2015
I've been using these for about six months now and am very happy with them (I bought the 2-pack for upstairs/downstairs). Features I like:
- The display is easy to read at night and it's easy to adjust the temperature and temporarily override the schedule.
- My wife was able to set the screen to colors that she liked.
- I like being able to adjust the temps using my phone, and also seeing what the temp is in the house while I'm away.
- The scheduling is flexible enough to meet our needs for days of the week, etc.
- I like getting notified when they lose network connection.

A couple things I don't like:
- The display isn't very touch sensitive so you sometimes have to press more than once (sort of like GPS screens for me)
- Sporadically, usually in the wee hours, one or both will lose their connection "to the network." Since my network is okay I assume it's a server glitch. It has gotten better lately, though.

Overall, I'm glad I installed them and wish they'd been available years ago.
Best purchase possibly ever made!!
October 20, 2015
The Honeywell wifi smart thermostat is quite possibly my favorite product I have ever purchased! We have been dealing with our old, unreliable thermostat for years. Finally I decided to invest in these beauties! Am I ever glad we did! Where we live we have time of use electric meters. I love being able to program our thermostats to be colder when it is cheaper to use electricity and let them not run when it is more expensive. After 2 months I have already paid for the thermostats from the amount saved on my electric bill! They were easy to install too! Plus, finding a two pack was an awesome savings too. I needed 2 so a 2 pack made me happy!
Highly recommended.
June 19, 2015
Wanted to wait a little while until I posted this review. After being installed for a couple of months definitely worth the money. I have two units in my home and was having problems with constant running and building that electric bill. After installation and setting a schedule a drastic change in the electric bill was noticed. Installation was really simple and straight forward (this will all depend on the unit that you have and its control leads). It is easy to use and easy to setup. All I did was go through the easy installation wizard on the thermostat, connected it to my WiFi and did most of the configuration from the website after registering it. The app is great if you are in need of changing the temperature when you are not home. In my case I run the thermostats on a schedule and don't use the app. Keep in mind this is a small thermostat so when you install it you may find the paint on the walls is a different color than under your old thermostat. It is a great product and recommend it to anyone that is looking for a new thermostat.
62%
Very highly recommended
September 21, 2016
I bought this initially for a vacation property I manage so I could, from 1500 miles away, constantly monitor and adjust the temperature, humidity, energy usage and keep tabs whether the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment was functioning properly. Was so impressed with its initial operation that I installed a second unit in my own home soon afterward.Installation was incredibly easy in both cases, and the units look great. They really do self-program and learn in response to local weather data (from internet feeds) and the motion of people coming and going, And save energy and $, which have more than offset the initial cost of these thermostats. But what really impressed me the most about Nest is its record-keeping and analysis of HVAC use. I receive the data (in chart form) in regular email updates from Nest, and I can also find detailed data if I log in to the Nest website.After two glitch-free years using Nest Thermostat, I am so enthralled with Nest products that I recently bought and installed at home 3 units of Nest Protect, the smoke/carbon monoxide detector.Can't wait to see what they'll introduce next.
Don't believe all the Nest Hate. This thing works if you know how your HVAC works. If you don't, then hire a guy.
July 15, 2015
I was very skeptical to buy 2 of these after reading the top rated reviews stating that the Nest had failed or doesn't work on some peoples systems. Bottom line is this: The nest is awesome and it works wonderfully if you know what you're doing. If you don't, just hire someone to install it. The problems people are seeing with the nest are due 100% because of user installation error. HVAC systems in general are confusing things to the lay person. Save yourself a tone of time and frustration and have a professional install the Nest. The first Nest I installed on my downstairs unit was a breeze. In full disclosure, I spent an entire day trying to get my second Nest working with my heat pump. This is by no fault of Nest. In fact, Nest has the ABSOLUTE BEST customer service I have ever dealt with. They spent as long as it took to trouble shoot the problem (user install confusion due to old house wiring) Nest had me send them photos of my setup and we had the problem fixed in no time.
Awesomeness defined!
June 19, 2015
Love this thermostat. It replaces the one in a new home construction. It is easy enough to install without the help of an electrician. It is very helpful to use the Nest video tutorials though. I had to view it several times. In the end if you follow the illustrations in the packaging you will be fine. I had to change configurations several times to get it up and running, but that was operator error. Once it is installed, it is an amazing instrument. I really love the feature that recognizes when the house is not occupied and adjusts the temperature accordingly. You never have to program as edible, it does that from how you adjust it from time to time. I like being able to make adjustments from my iPad and also pull up a history of how long it has run over several days. My old thermostat only gave history for about 2 days. Also a green leaf comes up to shows up on the control when you set a temperature that is energy efficient. Another feature I love is that it tells you how long it will take to get the house to a temperature you have set. It saves energy also in that the display only activates if you walk by it. Otherwise it is dark. Includes a back panel for folk like me who do not want to paint the wall space that is exposed from a rectangular thermostat. Don't be lazy like me. If you have matching wall paint, when you take the old thermostat down, just paint the space that was under the thermostat. It will look so much nicer. One day I might do this. But for now, I am just loving it!
Great though not perfect
May 30, 2015
I have had this installed for about 5 months now and here are my big observations:1. It is a piece of digital equipment so it needs a little more care than the average thermostat. For example, it is connected to the internet. As such, if the power goes out and you don't have an UPS on your router (I don't) then your ability to read the thermostat remotely (via the phone or internet) won't work. Another example is that I have had a few (like 1 or 2) times where I have had to completely reprogram the thermostat because of a random reset. Fortunately this is very easy to do and only slightly inconvenient.2. It does save you money. I have seen about a 20% improvement in efficiency in heating and noticeable decrease in electricity usage for AC in the short time that I have had it. It's not barn burning savings but it is noticeable and should pay for itself in the first year.3. The auto away is better than the learning. We haven't had the learning turned on for that long while we have owned the nest mostly because any adjustments that we made were applied to every other day of the week - which is completely inappropriate for week day versus weekends and vice versa. In fairness we probably didn't give the learning a big enough shot. We have been able to get most of what we need for automatic adjustments by relying on auto away (which usually senses us leaving within 15-20 minutes - not bad if you're forgetful).4. The people who say that you can get just as much out of a programmable thermostat just don't get it or haven't spent enough time with nest. I'd rather take a hammer to the face than program a standard programmable thermostat. They're not intuitive. They require you to stand in front of the thermostat. Nest is a breeze. The web interface and overall intuitive entry meant that I could switch from my winter program to my summer program in under 5 minutes and I could do it from my phone/computer/tablet anywhere.Bottom line is that the nest is great but it is not perfect. It is so different from other thermostats out there that comparing it to the others really isn't relevant. The drawbacks are minimal and should be expected considering that it is something that is digital and connects to the internet. You actually do save money. Some have saved dramatic amounts. Ours were less dramatic but noticeable. The monthly feedback helps you monitor your usage and think of ways to cut back. Highly recommended.
Nest is Awesome and Controls the Humidity Very Well
December 4, 2014
I installed my Nest right after Thanksgiving and had done quite a bit of research before purchasing. One thing that should be mentioned is that the common wire is often labeled B/C or just B so when they say do you have a C wire you may be thinking no I don't but you actually do. I was able to confirm this by looking on the circuit board inside the furnace which is labeled B/C.I also needed my furnace to control the humidifier which for me is a powered humidifier which required me to do a bit of extra wiring and I had to purchase a relay switch 6AZU2. (can be purchased here on Amazon for $12 bucks) This took an extra half an hour but once I finished I popped on my Nest and off to the races I went. I should also note there are lots of wiring diagrams on the internet which will help with your installation.So far all seems to be working well. It is doing a great job with the humidity so far and I don't have dripping wet window like I did in the past. I look forward to it learning our schedule and hopefully saving me some money.
Nest A+
December 2, 2014
Hello!I've seen some good and bad reviews about this thermostat. I've been using this thermostat for the past 2 years and it works great. The only thing you have to know is the configuration and what runs in your house. All this information will be prompt at time of setup with the Nest itself. It will tell you where to put the wires, and it shows a diagram of your current setup. If there is a ERROR then it will actually tell you whats going on. Nest did a mayor update and even upgraded the interface which is a lot better now. This thermostat device has cut my electricity bill in half by saving and controlling temperature while I'm at home and away. Keep in mind that it has to be in a area where there is motion. It has a sensor and it detect movement. That is one of the ways that it learn your everyday routine and patterns. You can always control the device from your smart phone and see all type of changes. I highly suggest this device, it pays back on its own.

Four Star Reviews:

16%
You might want to check your AccuWeather.com accuracy
March 20, 2016
Overall I am pleased with this thermostat. When I was researching thermostats I was told by heating contractors that all thermostats kicked in the auxiliary heating when you programmed a temperature change of 2 degrees or more in the heat mode. I have heat strips and it is very costly compared with using the heat pump. I did not find this covered in the Honeywell documentation but I'm happy to report that it looks at the outside temperature and calculates a time to ramp up to the new temperature to arrive at that set point by that time and does not kick in the auxiliary heat unless it can't keep up with the programmed ramp. I would have given them five stars except that they are using the local temperature as reported by accuweather.com which is often off here by up to 10 degrees (there is no close weather station here). If they are 10 degrees hotter than the actual temperature, then the unit will not recover in time and kick on the heat strips. If 10 degrees cooler then the system will begin the heating cycle too early and negate some of the cost savings. The cost impact would not be as bad in the cooling mode but would still have a cost impact. It would not reach the set point by the time if it started too late and might try to cool in the hotter part of the day (less efficient) if the set time is after the hottest time of the day and it started too early.
Great product, even with the odd behavior
February 4, 2016
Easy install since our old thermostat had the C-wire already connected. Looks great, works great, and has some great features. Connecting it to wifi and going online allows you to have the thermostat email you should the temperature drop out of a range you select. With our furnace being on the fritz a bit, this is a great feature to have (especially with our dog at home alone). A previous comment said that it was bright and acted as a nightlight. This is true at the default setting, but you can dim it pretty low so that its no longer an issue. As-is, our digital alarm clock puts off more light than the thermostat.
One odd thing though: every night at ~ 0230, the background color on the thermostat changes from the blue color we have it set on, to this bright yellow color (one of the presets) and the brightness returns to default. It has changed back to blue by time I get up in the morning (0430), but no idea why this happens. I've changed to different color backgrounds, but it still keeps happening. I'd say it was poltergeist, but they know better than to touch the thermostat.
Works great - needs more thermostat related features though
January 7, 2016
Purchased one for upstairs and main floor. I wanted an alternative to Nest that had more control. So far they work great. I can connect from anywhere and adjust settings.

Be aware that these thermostats have a smaller footprint than most and may not cover holes in wall if you had a large thermostat before. I like that it is smaller and less noticeable.

The ability to change the screen color to match your wall paint is neat but if you have the screen dim after a while then it is not as noticeable.

Cons: I wish the thermostat had more options such as setting the temp and letting it use heat or ac depending on the temp in the house. The thermostat features are rather basic compared to its visual and internet features. I'll take a star off for that. Perhaps they will add more with firmware updates.
Hasn't crashed yet
October 18, 2015
Was weary of going to wifi\online controllable but these have been really solid (using 2). I actually found it more intuitive than other units when it came the setting up the schedule. Looking\Controlling the temp remotely is neat but the alerts are where the payoff is. You'll get an email or txt if the temperature or humidity gets passed a certain threshold. Hard to say anything bad, a little pricey but so far worth the premium.

Additionally, if your an interior designer type, the background can be set to about 10 different patterns\color. Meh for my purposes.
Very good, but could be better
January 22, 2015
Works pretty well. Good: Nice to know heat is on when u are away. iPhone app is pretty good but not robust. You can turn heat up or down and check status, Can only do limited setup things from phone. Full set up requires computer log in. Gripes: led light can't be shut off so don't put it in your bedroom. But it does replace nightlight in hall. requires a C wire if you don't have one on your current thermostat then get professional to install. Housing is different size than most thermostats so expect to have to patch and paint area behind the thermostat. They should really provide a mounting plate to cover this over.
10%
Works great, but does not provide enough data analytics
May 31, 2017
I really like my Nest Thermostat. I got it to replace my very basic Honeywell thermostat, which needed to be adjusted manually, and also gave stats shocks while adjusting it. The Nest thermostat was very easy to install, and I love that it can be controlled via Cell phone app as well as website login. This is very helpful in my 2-story home, so I don't have to go up and down the stairs to change the settings. It can also be set on a schedule, and it is great for winters when the house can be warmed up around the time my morning alarm goes off, so I can get out of bed easily.I took one star off because it's "learning" is not perfect. If the schedule is set and I am not home, it will still turn the heating on. The other problem is I cannot see real-time records of when the heating came on during the day. I can only see previous day, up to last 10 days. There also doesn't seem to be a way to see or download the history of usage. I would love to be able to see the records of usage over the last one year at least, so it can help me figure out which energy plans are better, should I switch to solar etc.
So much missed potential...
August 2, 2016
Like the title says, so much missed potential...but first, the pros.Pros: Solid, I'm not sure what odd occurrences the negative reviews have run into, but we did a DIY install and have been running for almost 3 years with no issues.The industrial design is also beautiful, this is probably the best looking thermostat on the market.Cons: This thing is like the Apple of thermostats. Solid hardware/software, beautiful design, but almost no configuration options. It's like having a high-performance sports car limited to 55mph or a high end gaming computer limited to playing solitaire. And all of the current software features don't work that well, so I gave in and just programmed it myself. (It's possible that they do work, but there's so little feedback given that I couldn't tell if it was doing anything productive or not.) And now that my utility has "peak" hours, I definitely have to manually program because I can't afford to trust the Nest to understand that I really do want to do counter-intuitive cooling schemes. (I'm sure Nest is taking away my leaves as we speak!)Also, we have had one software bug, the pre-heating/cooling option broke in a software update last winter. Called them up and they had a fix in a few weeks. Since there was an easy work-around, adjusting the programming, it wasn't too bad. Their tech support was a little disappointing at first and blew us off, but once we reached level 2 tech support they acknowledged the issue and confirmed that they were aware of it.Why did I buy it? My old thermostat wasn't programmable and I wanted wifi capabilities. At the time, getting both of those was quite difficult and I finally went for the Nest because of the knowledge that it would have a solid app. I've seen some of the competitors apps at friends/family house and they're pretty bad.Am I happy with it? For what I bought it for, definitely. For what it could do? Quite disappointed how much they have limited the capabilities. For instance, the only information the Nest gives you is when it was on the previous day. Want graphs of indoor or outdoor temperature? No luck. What about programming? You can only program in setpoints an hour apart. No bad usually unless your utility has peaking hours and you want fine control over how you pre-cool in preparation for the peak period.What if that one room in your house gets really hot and you want the Nest to circulate air or turn the AC on to help out with it? People have been begging Nest for years for a little wifi temperature sensor to put in different rooms, but nothing has materialized yet. The app makes it easy to turn the fan on, but it's a poor solution unless you're always sitting in the room, finger on the button. If pets or children live in that bedroom, sucks to be them.What if you want to change your cooling schedule based on the weather that day? No luck, the program is set in stone and can't be set based on any outside variables. Many new sprinkler systems are doing this, why not a wifi connected device like the Nest?Really, I don't need a Nest. It's not very good at telling when I'm away, even with the new app tracking features. If you want careful control to limit heating/cooling costs, you'll program it yourself anyway which many other thermostats can do. As technology has improved, viable competitors have appeared and Nest will need to add new features or lower their cost to compete with these other products that are willing to innovate more and actually put some useful features into their apps.
New to Me!!
April 25, 2015
Update-June 3, 2015-I have now been using this thermostat for 2 months.My gas bill is down by 50% over the previous year, and previous month.I love that you can set it to a minimum temperature (or max if you have the A/C connected to it.) and regardless of which day of the week, it keeps that temperature, combine that with the "AWAY" function, and you are so unlikely to waste energy!I do a lot of running around, and the "AWAY" function prevents me from heating my house when I am not at home to need it! [AWAY is controlled via your smart phone, when your smart phones have left the house, it sets the thermostat to "AWAY" mode, and skips your at home comfort temperature, and defaults to your away temperature, which you select, in the set up process]I have dogs at home, and so, I leave a reasonable temperature set for "AWAY".I am pleased with it overal, I have had to play with the settings to have it keep my house comfortable, I did not use the "learning mode" - which is the Nest, figures out when you are home, and sets the heater or cooler to your preferences, automatically for you. I didn't opt for that learning mode, because I have a weird location and heating situation- my nest is in my hallway, next to my vaulted ceilings family room, so the temperatures are wildly different within two feet of the hall and the family room, so we just adjusted the heating desired... And selected the times we wanted the entire house to be warm!!( We do not have zone heating set up, in our home!- we were advised it wouldn't be worth the time, money or effort for that kind of efficiency! So we aren't going to pursue it!!)Overall, I LOVE seeing the weekly usage on the app.I love seeing the actual times we use energy- on the app.I love seeing that we decreased over 50% of gas usage - on our bill.(Which also means our electric bill has been reduced!!)I love that I can change the temperature from anywhere ... While at home or while away!!April 2015- Just had this installed. Learned that I could have installed it myself, and that you only need a professional installer, when you have an air conditioner and heater connected to it. I did some research and got two apps for my phone, skylark and the nest app. Skylark senses when you are more than 700 feet away from your home, and will set the Nest as "AWAY" so your house doesn't heat up while you are gone. I liked getting a notice that when I went to get my daughter, it set the temperature to "AWAY" ... Which when I go out for long periods of time, that is awesome. You also get to set the temperature you want your house to stay when you are away. I need to search the setting for late at night, it came on a bit too many times during the evening... (But as it was set to do!!) we had our old setting so it stayed off from 1:30 am to 6:00 am. Going to set up something similar... Don't like the heater waking us up, or disrupting our sleep patterns.So far I like it, and am looking forward to when I have the A/C installed... So it can do,exactly as it was designed for!!
Nice Nest
December 29, 2014
So far no issues which I thought I'd have after reading some reviews. This 2nd generation is different from the 1st--it works fine. I got two of them, one for my mother's home and one for my home. I can control both from my iPad and mom enjoys the little messages they post on the device indicating what's going on.A great tip is the following:When replacing your existing thermostat with a NEST, after removing the old thermostat cover, take a photo with you phone or whatever, of the current wire attachments. Then use that on the NEST site to have it build an image of how to reconnect those same wires to the NEST. The website works great for this purpose.
Not for the inexperienced. Still learning. I had to go back and reconfigure the wires on my two Trane high efficiency units. I
July 4, 2014
Once the units are set up and running they are great. They will definitely pay for themselves. I have three units now. One is on a simple heat and cool system. It works fine. I am able to adjust it remotely while out of the house or traveling. The second system was tied into two Trane high efficiency systems. The units were not able to connect properly in the beginning. The original installations were not done properly in 2011 after finally moving back into my house after Katrina. Thank goodness my professional was able to correct the mistakes made 4 years prior. Now the units are exceeding my expectationsUpdated March 2015Recently I have noticed that the schedules I have set for the thermostats are changing on their own. First I thought it was something I have set up improperly but recently I have been checking both of my systems and this little bug is present in both instances.
Not easy to control humidity
November 8, 2013
You need a relay to use the Nest thermostat and Aprilaire Whole-House Humidifier with the simple 24VAC water supply solenoid/valve. Nest will not provide any information on connecting the two systems, and will only direct you to a $$$ professional HVAC company. The Aprilaire representative was sympathetic and directed me to search the internet for a relay, and online HVAC or DYI forums. I found a relay on Amazon, it's the Industrial Grade 6AZU2 Enclosed Fan Relay, SPNO, 24V. You can get more information regarding the wiring from the link in the comments section of my Amazon review of this relay.The Nest does not replace the Aprilaire Humidistat with outdoor temperature monitoring and automatic turn down for temperatures below 30 degrees, like the Aprilaire RP-58 Automatic Digital Humidifier Controls. These automatic humidistats are far superior to the Nest at controlling winter humidity levels. To control humidity on the Nest requires you to monitor the outside temperature, house humidity, understand what adjustments are needed, and then use the Nest app to change the humidifier setting.Using the wiring diagram as shown with the "H" or humidifier power tap on my Carrier furnace only turns on when the heat cycle is running. So when the Nest sees a demand for humidity, it closes the new relay, starts the fan, but there's no power to the water solenoid until the heat kicks in. Consequently, the fan may continually run without providing humidification.Thanks Aprilaire for making reliable systems, and having great customer service. After researching this problem, I wish I would have bought a less expensive WIFI thermostat and the Aprilaire RP-58.

Three Star Reviews:

0%

There are no reviews yet

6%
Lost Confidence in my Nest
July 7, 2016
At first I loved my Nest! It mounted cleanly and looked very nice on the wall. However, after using it for several months, I began to notice some quirks and then lost all confidence in it.It was summertime and I had the Nest set to cool to 72 degrees but noticed that the house was much cooler than usual. I checked on the Nest and it did indicate that the AC was running and the house was 70 degrees... I was not able to stop it using the standard dial controls or my cellphone app. I had to dig around in the menus and do a hard reset to get the AC to stop running. After that it was fine again but made me wonder when it would happen again...When I sold that house, I left the Nest there...
I like the design and I like how my wife is ...
July 6, 2016
I like the design and I like how my wife is easily able to figure out how to use it. It is also nice to be able to change the temperature from another room or when on vacation to have a nicely cooled or warmed house. It is also nice how it controls the humidity, though that requires some work.I am not a fan of the "Smart" functions, they really overstate the savings that this thermostat provides and it's "smart" functions are very flawed. If you are all electric heat, then it feels like this can cost you more as the logic for this device is flawed. We basically had to change a lot of the default settings as it was costing us more money and making us less uncomfortable. If the nest really wanted to be "smart", see what type of HVAC your programmed into it and adapt to it. It should use that and the weather data to know if it should try to warm the house up early to take advantage of the lower cost heat pump vs aux heating coils. It would also be nice if they had sensors that connected to this device to control whether or not the fan should circulate as the basement is colder and the upstairs is warmer than where the thermostat is located.
Would have been happier with a $29.00 low cost programmable thermostat
August 5, 2015
As background, I am an early adapter of products. Have been using programmable thermostats since they were first introduced many many years ago. Nest is very good looking on the wall but that is about the extent of my appreciation of this device. There are many deficiencies of this device:1. It has poor temperature control, it overshoots the set point and then drifts far past the set point before turning on again. Blah Blah Blah regarding the energy savings of not reacting too quickly. $29.00 programmable controllers have a control accuracy of +/- .5 degree, Nest's control spec of +/- 1.5 degree is a joke.2. Learning the control settings did not work over the first 6 weeks, this is primarily due to its understanding of home/away and poor temp control. For many valid reasons I subscribe to residential time of use plan for electricity, due to this plan I specifically over-cool my home at night so that my house stays very comfortable throughout the day without the use of AC. Nest learning does not get this concept at all therefore after weeks of patient waiting, I ended up manually programming my desired control profile which ended up being quite different from its learned profile.3. Occupants in our home at any point in time vary dramatically, normally it is just 2 adults and 2 small dogs. 1 to 3 nights a week and every Sunday the occupants of the house grow up to 10 adults and 6 dogs for dinner during the week and weekend evenings. During these occasions the nest propensity to over and undershoot the set-point make the home feel poorly controlled and often when all are in kitchen and typically making a large meal the kitchen gets hot. With a low cost programmable controller I could press "hold temp" which would normally be a cooler temp than typical and then leave it like that for the duration of the event and then a single button press goes back to program control. Cannot do this with Nest as the next programmed set point overrides any temp setting the user selected outside of the program control. IT IS STUPID TO NOT HAVE A "HOLD TEMP" FEATURE!!!!4. Programming user interface on the device to create a control profile is poor, programming a control profile on a phone is not that much better as the cut and paste feature only works in landscape mode and I did not know this at the time. Programming on a Pad was easy.5. There really should be a better display of the "actual" home temp and not just a few bars above or below the set-point. Yes, it is good to know set-point but normally want to know the actual temp of the home!!I could go on but this is enough time spent on this review. FYI, I really could care less about changing temp when away or knowing the set point when away so the whole app feature is a non-issue for me. Cool but pointless for me!
Disappointed At Missed Potential
August 1, 2015
I bought this unit as my first foray into a home internet of things wiring up my furnace and a recently purchased smoke detector from nest. Originally I thought I'd get more integration between the two but other than accessing them from within the same application I see no added value of the two units networked together. Well other than the iOS app telling me I have to re-pair them, despite it being clear they can see each other.The nest itself has seen little to no revision since we purchased it. There was one major software update where I was excited (I know weird for a thermostat) to try it but was disappointed with what was added/changed. I don't know what I expected but since it has a lot of potential to detect who's home or near it I guess I hoped for more integration within and with third party applications.As a thermostats it's fine though the UI on the device isn't as easy as I'd hope. Still better than competitors but far from intuitive. Simple things take time to figure out the iconography and the iOS app is the most non-intuitive & painful UI I've ever used. As a UI/UX person I would have changed so many things to make it easier. Something as a simple overlay tour could make this app a million times more useful. The device itself just lacks quick access to common features like turning on / off. Since most people aren't using their thermostats that much having to decode the meaning of icons shouldn't be so painful.I think Google is going to ignore and kill this device like most of their devices but I still hold hope for it. If anything it cased a reset in the industry and maybe Homekit enabled devices will catch up or leapfrog this one.NOTE: The one nice thing I'll say that nest has done is team up with local utilities to get discounts & credits for days of the year where they can control your thermostats to save energy during tight power times. This saved us like $200 last year, enough to almost cover the cost of the unit.
Not all features work...
July 18, 2015
My husband and I bought this last year because our existing thermostat didn't work correctly.We loved the sleek design and the fact that it worked great at heating the house, and the fact that we could raise and lower the temperature setting (something we couldn't do with our prior thermostat). All the modes were easy to access, use, and program. Honestly, we loved this thermostat all winter!The problem came with summertime...We don't have air-conditioning. We live in an area that is usually in the 90s to 100s, during the day, all summer long. Thankfully, at night the area drops down into the 40s to 50s. Since our house is well insulated, we are able to open the windows during the nights and close them during the days, so we are able to keep the house cool enough most days. However, to cool the house off during the night it helps to have airflow... This is where the Nest Thermostat failed us. You see, although there are wires and settings for a house fan mode, they do not work... Oh, the TEST mode does the correct thing and turns on the house fan for 3 seconds, but the house fan mode doesn't work.We called Nest (which had GREAT customer service) and spent HOURS on the phone testing and debugging the problem with them. Then they sent us a second Nest Thermostat when 4 hours on the phone proved that there was nothing they could do to make the thermostat work. (They ran tests on it through the internet, had us run tests, had us check out all sorts of modes of the thermostat as well as the furnace, but nothing convinced the thermostat to run the fan except for the test mode!) Once we got the second Nest Thermostat installed we ran into the exact same problem. Another 4 hours on the phone showed that the programming for the house fan didn't work, and they admitted that it was unlikely that they would be working on the programming any time soon...On the plus side, Nest returned our money for each unit (when they received them back), even though we had purchased the first unit almost a year prior to discovering that the house fan setting didn't work.So, overall, if you don't use a whole house fan, then this is a great unit! Especially if you tend toward the geeky end! It is simple to use for us non geeks, too!
Looks good and solves key problem, but overall design and features are seriously lacking
December 15, 2014
I own three of these and bought the first one over 2 years ago. I bought it because I wanted to be able to adjust the temperature in my house from a few floors away. Mission accomplished. However, Nest tries to be so much more but has failed miserably.Let me give you the three GLARING holes in the Nest world. At least, these are the three things that annoy me the most -- which could be easily fixed if Nest spent 2 minutes on them (and these are things many users would use).1. There's no way to lock it. WTF. Why not? I have kids, they like to fiddle with the termostat. Why can't I lock it or make all adjustments app-only? You can limit the manual range to 5 degrees but that's a HUGE range. Effectively, there's no real lock.2. There's no notifications. Want to be notified if someone adjusts the temperature? How about a notification if your heat or AC isn't working? How about a notification if your house is too cold or hot? Nope, none of that is available! Someone left my door open in my house in winter and the temp dropped 10+ degrees and the Nest ran non-stop with no effect. My Nest didn't know or care that the house was getting freezing (not to mention the danger). How hard would it be to build in some notifications?3. Stupid design of features like auto away. Great in concept. You're across the country on vacation, the thing shuts off. Great. Now it's time to come home so I want to turn the heat on so the house is warm when I get back. You click "end auto away" and hop on the plane. When you get there, your house is freezing? Why? Because 15 minutes after you told the Nest to end auto away, it detected that you were away! There's no option to say "have the house at my temperature in 4 hours, or at 6 PM or whatever." There's home and away, that's it. You can go through 12 menus and end auto away permanently, I guess. Huge pain.All in all, it looks good but lacks a robust feature set. Great integration with IFTTT might help (as of now, there's basically none -- just a few simple options). The "learning" feature is overrated, it doesn't really learn very well and it is easier to just program your schedule. Hopefully, one day they will fix all this and this could really be a killer product.

Two Star Reviews:

4%
Vacation mode ruins remote control feature
April 8, 2016
I like the thermostat. Looks good and generally functions well. But I specifically bought this for the ability to remotely adjust the temperature at my vacation home while driving to it. I don't want the AC cranking when I'm gone for 3 weeks, and I don't want to come in to a hot house. I was shocked to learn that when the system is on vacation mode (which I use when I leave) you are unable to remotely switch the system back on. That seems that exactly what you would want to do remotely. How can they have missed this primary function? Of less significance, turning on vacation mode requires a bunch of steps.
Disappointed
March 29, 2016
There are less expensive WiFi thermostats on the market. So when I decided to pay more for this model, I expected a top-of-the-line thermostat that would install easily. That is where the disappointment begins.

First, if you buy a WiFi thermostat to replace a battery operated thermostat, set aside a few hours. Your battery operated thermostat probably has 4 wires connecting it to the cooling system. But WiFi thermostats need to be hard-wired with a C-wire (24 V line). That's just a reality you have to face with any WiFi thermostats. The Honeywell website and manual are misleading with their "alternative wiring" options. There is no alternative writing option. Your options are 1) get the C-wire connected from your furnace or 2) return the thermostat and go back to battery operated one.

After figuring out how to tap into the C connection terminal in the guts of the furnace, I was up and running with the power to operate the thermostat. So I got to work installing it. Once I had the mounting plate on the wall, I connected the thermostat to the mounting plate, and turned on the power at the circuit box, and it powered up! But the problem is that once you screw the mounting plate to the wall, if there is ANY curvature or irregularity to the wall, the plastic mounting plate flexes, and it prevents the thermostat from snapping completely onto the mounting plate. So there your expensive thermostat sits, incompletely secured, ready to come off the mounting plate with the slightest bump. Not sure how many times this device would survive a 5 foot fall onto a tile floor, but I don't want to find out. The only way I could get the device mounted securely was to use 3m adhesive strips on the back of the mounting plate AFTER I had already secured the device to the mounting plate.

If this is the first touch screen you have ever seen in your life, you will probably be impressed. However, if you have a smart phone, tablet, or any other modern touch screen device, you will quickly realize that this touch screen is very primitive. It's inaccurate and you have to hold your finger onto the screen for an abnormally long period of time for it to register your input. When entering your WiFi code, I hope your passcode does not have capital letters, because the shift key is right above the cancel key. With the inaccuracy of the touch screen, expect to make 7-8 attempts to enter your WiFi code before you finally complete it without inadvertently pressing cancel.

Lastly, for a device that connects to the internet, I am surprised that I have to enter the date and time on the device, and that I was not able to register the device once connected to the internet.

This device is pleasing to the eye and has a small footprint. However, it is apparent that the costs and development of this product were focused on size and appearance rather than making a solid product. I am returning the units for something less expensive and easier to use.
Unfortunately there does not appear to be any documentation prior ...
September 27, 2015
Unfortunately there does not appear to be any documentation prior to purchasing this unit that states it has no connections for remote sensors.
6%
Don't buy - they fail to support next generation, higher efficiency variable speed blowing
June 28, 2017
Everyone loves these very high priced toys because they look good, are web enabled and are supposed to be high tech.They are however not going to be compatible if you home if you buy newer higher efficiency HVAC systems. Variable speed blowers (that move air through vents at a range of speeds instead of only either just on or off) are much more efficient. Blowing air at full speed actually uses a lot of wasted energy and also can be noisy.Blowers have evolved to have this much better solution for your home unfortunately the Nest does NOT support variable speeds. They only provide either all on or all off. Even more damning about Nest is that they claim that they do support variable speed blowers - what they don't tell you is that they only pass on to them either 100% on or 100% off and so you lose all of the advantage of having just bought a new, more expensive, but more efficient variable speed blower. This seems like a total no brainer and is extremely disappointing - Nest can confirm but they also seem incapable of curing this with a software fix and so you will likely, eventually need to throw these high-priced units away.
Very chic in many ways but as a thermostat, it is not so good.
August 1, 2015
There are a lot of reviews here so I'll just state my main points and be gone.Nest was easy to install since I had a "C" wire. It does jut from the wall more than most thermostats I've seen. I have to be sure to maneuver around it as I walk through the hall where it is installed. The temperature display sometimes reads 5 degrees higher than actual. Then, on next glance, it will have dropped down 3 degrees or so. Eventually it will coast to the right temp over a few hours but you never know when it will go nuts again. That is not helping my power bill at all. I've tried insulating the wall behind it but that did not help. Temperature control for cooling is not good. If I set the A/C for 78 the unit powers on at 79 and turns off at 77. The temperature just never feels right and I feel uncomfortable most of the time. My Honeywell thermostat allowed a tighter band and even had a feature that would randomly kick on the fan to help even out the temp in the house. The difference in the "feel" of the properly conditioned living space is substantial and remarkable. Nest, with all its elegant fine points notwithstanding, is fundamentally a poor thermostat based on my experience living with it.Furthermore, I've decided that I will not trust my system to the Nest. Since installing, I've read too many reports of failures of the solid state switches on the base plate. Many claim their A/C compressors or heaters were run continually or even at the same time. There seems to be a problem with this, but Nest does not address it nor provide encouraging words in support of this design. I have decided I did not need to spend all this money to buy a problem. I'm going back to my Honeywell. It is also Wi-Fi but has actual relays to control the components and not tiny solid state switches. Relays are more reliable, I think, and failures won't necessarily damage my system.
No HomeKit Support, Disappointing Performance.
April 28, 2015
Just returned ours. Was having network issues, plus Nest does NOT support Apple HomeKit. This is a major setback for the Nest products. Will be replacing this Nest with either a Honeywell Lyric, or a Ecobee3. The Lyric does support HomeKit. No word yet from Ecobee on whether their smart thermostat will support it, but most people feel it will.Another big set back for the Nest is it’s scheduling procedure. If you’re on a set schedule which NEVER changes in any way, shape or form, 24/7 every day of the year, then the Nest works fine. You just type in your schedule and it will stick to it. However, if your schedule sometimes changes, then the Nest is a pain in the butt to own. It’s “supposed” to learn your routine, but it never worked correctly for us. It was always coming on when it shouldn’t, or it would turn off when it was supposed to be on. I would have to be constantly be fixing it’s settings. It was very frustrating to have bought a smart thermostat that just wouldn’t learn anything. The Ecobee3 and the Lyric are both much better at knowing when to correctly turn on and off, so they will save you more money on operating cost.Also, if you're not interested in ANY kind of home automation, and you don't mind fussing with your network settings, then the Nest might be fine for you. They have incredibly good customer service, I was very impressed with their level of service, and the unit is well built out of glass and stainless steel. It's just that moving forward for most people the Nest (since they were bought out by google) has taken the product a major step backward, and without HomeKit support this product simply can't compete with the other smart thermostats on the market.This product had so much promise, but in the end it choked. I was very disappointed that I had to return it because it didn’t live up to all the hype. It was a good product when it first came out because back then it was the only player in town, but now there are other smart thermostats on the market, and they offer key features like support for HomeKit, and they actually work as promised. If this product only cost 10.00 then it wouldn’t be a big deal, but it cost 250.00 and at that price level it should be more reliable and offer features similar to the other smart thermostats on the market offer.
Pretty… and….. it's pretty
January 17, 2014
Lets' state the obvious. At $250, you'd better have your act together.They Don't.Google just bought them this week. Let's hope their DNA and engineers fix what should be a flawless experience.Summary: New furnace bought and installed along with new nest in December. Worked well for 2 weeks the infamous 4.0 update. Then the dreaded under volt errors and low battery warnings and functionality limitation began appearing.The 4.0 update did three things:1. added functionality2. made the nest nearly unfunctional3. destroyed nests reputation in one swift stroke.I have rarely seen worse internet chatter about any, ANY, software/hardware combination than the 4.0 update for nest. Unbelievable. Their discussion boards, independent boards, amazon reviews. wow… a blood bath.Anyway, they pushed a new software update out that seems -I THINK!- to have fixed the battery issue. Time will tell.Finally, the way nest handled the software fiasco was incredibly bad. It ruined my opinion of the company and it's designs. I was going to get a protect… not now.It's pretty, but, buyer beware.
Falls short of potential in 2 major areas......
January 17, 2014
I've had the Nest Learning Thermostat 2nd gen. installed now for just over 6 months and have been pleased with most of the functions, but it falls short of promised performance in 2 key areas.The good- beautiful design, easy install in my newer condo unit. Install took around 20 minutes and worked right away. The apps for IPhone and IPad are clean and easy to use, schedule programming is very easy.The shortfalls- AutoAway function- this function is supposed to sense when you've left your dwelling and then let the temperature stay within a pre-selected range. I use 60 degrees as my low point and 80 degrees as my high point. As long as you pass by the Nest unit on a regular basis, it works. When I work at home in a bedroom purposed as an office, the unit doesn't detect that I'm home and will go to Auto-Away status. This is curious to me, as I'm using the same wireless network as the Nest does, but it doesn't detect through that method apparently. Auto-Away also seems to override my programmed temperature settings sometimes. For example, I'm out of my home at work and the temperature is programmed to go to 70 degrees at 5PM, Auto-Away will not allow my programmed temperature setting to happen automatically. I have to use the app to change from Auto-Away to Home from my workplace in order the achieve my desired temperature by the time I arrive home.My other major disappointment is the Early-On function. This function is supposed to learn how long it takes to heat your home from the energy-saving low temperature I program for when I'm sleeping at night and get your heat up to the programmed waking temperature. My unit fails miserably in this regard, missing my programmed temp and time by 60 minutes in some cases. Really disappointing.I find myself having to check and manually make adjustments when I'm out of my home to get the desired temperature effect. It's great that the Nest is internet connected and I can do that, but the company's promise of learning your schedule and getting the temperature reasonably close has not been delivered for me. The premium for internet connectivity vs. Honeywell programmable thermostat for me was $200. If I knew that before, I would not have purchased the Nest 2nd gen. thermostat.
Very Nice, when it works.
December 14, 2013
(Updates Below)I am stuck between giving this 1 or 2 stars. The thermostat works very well, but then it died. A thermostat is not something you want to fail when the temperature outside is around zero degrees. I went through the troubleshooting on the Nest website, which resulted in a trouble case number, and an email telling me to call for further assistance. When I called, there was no option for technical support. The closest option was for people having trouble with installation. the recording told me it would take over 30 minutes before I could be assisted. I did not have 30 minutes at the time, so I bought another thermostat to install temporarily, as I needed heat in the house.The device was nice, and I was willing to accept that I may have gotten a bad unit, as I have heard good things about these. But the fact that on multiple occasions now I have tried to call with an existing case number and been told by a robot that it will be more than thirty minutes before someone can assist me with installation has soured me on any product from Nest. If this were a bargain device, I would understand. However, this is a premium device, from a company that seems to want to be like Apple, and the level or service is simply not there.** Update (December 2013) **I called Amazon to see if they could help me with this. I no longer want the device at this point as I do not feel I can count on Nest to provide support. I recognize I an 20 days past my return window, and I hoped perhaps something could be done with store credit or some other option. Instead, they elected to call Nest on my behalf, and I once again am sitting on hold, and this call has been running for 26 minutes. The hold music just changed from that of Amazon, back the the constantly repeating installation instructions from the Nest phone system. Apparently I was transferred into the Nest system after 26 minutes on hold with Amazon, with no verbal hand-off from the Amazon rep I was talking to.** Update 2 (1/30/2014) **I called Nest again recently, and they seem to have made a substantial improvement to the call center. First, there is now a phone tree option for a device failure resulting in no heat. To see if the wait time problem was corrected, I elected to go the normal route, skipping the no-heat option, and was still routed to a representative in less than two minutes. In troubleshooting the problem, we discovered what has now been documented in other reviews.. My home uses a four wire system. two wires for heating, and two for cooling. The Nest thermostat is powered by the cooling line first, and then by the heating line (if cooling is not present). My cooling line does not provide enough power to run the Nest for any length of time. This leaves me with three options. 1. Disconnect the cooling line (Nest only works for heating). 2. Run a 5th wire to my furnace (common line). 3. Use any other thermostat, which works fine with this wiring configuration.It would be a shame to have a device with the abilities of the Nest, and not be able to use it in the summer, so option one is out. I can run the new wire, but I do not have the time to mess with it right now, so I have instead install a regular thermostat again, and my home is warm.Word of caution: The Nest has a built-in battery that will run it for a few days before it fails. In my case, I installed a replacement Nest, thinking it was the problem. The new unit worked, so I left town for a few days. Two days in, the Nest battery ran out, and the thermostat was dead. I came home to frozen pipes. I was lucky though, none of the pipes broke, but it was a bear thawing everything out.

One Star Reviews:

10%
Wrong Description
August 23, 2017
Product did not match the description, this has no support for WiFi.
I would give this 5 stars as far as operation ...
August 2, 2016
I would give this 5 stars as far as operation. However if you sell your house, I would give customer service a -5. You cannot remove it online, you must call. When you do call, you must be present where the thermostat is located even if you have the model number and MAC address to be able to get them off your account so the buyer can set them up in their name. TOTALLY RIDICULOUS.
Lost Internet connection after a week while I was out of town. I'm returning it.
July 18, 2016
Was easy to install and configure. Worked great for a week. Then I left on a long vacation, relying on it to monitor my home. I received an email that it had lost contact with the Internet. I have several other smart home gadgets (IP Cam, Slingbox), and they are working fine, so I know my internet is working. I have my ISP reboot my modem, but that didn't help. I called Honeywell and they said I would need to re-enable my thermostat. But I would have to be home to do that. Since I can't relay on the remote access, I will return when I get back from my vacation. (Than you Amazon for extending the return period until after I get back home).
No Humidity Control
May 15, 2016
Originally it was 3 stars. Item works fine and looks great. The reason for the 3 stars is that you cant control Humidity from this stat. Now I have an additional ugly humidity stat under both of my stats. Never would have purchased and will be selling on ebay soon once I find a replacement.

1 star - Turns out it never worked from the beginning the fan was just blowing. We have a brand new system. Our HVAC guy uninstalled these and used a regular stat and the AC came pouring out. Too bad I bought them so early now I am stuck with them.
What to do??
November 17, 2015
Bought the 2 pack....1 works and 1 doesn't, return it! Bought in September for a rehab project now it's NOV and just installed..... Guess what? NOT ELIGIBLE for return! HEEEELLLPPPP!
16%
Don't buy the nest thermostat
March 2, 2016
I bought a nest 2nd generation thermostat about 3 months ago and have had constant issues with it. I didn't have a C common wire connected since my house was made in the 70s, so I got the Nest since it's advertised as a smart thermostat that can work without the C wire. I later learned that this is only half true.Although it's able to power on and work somewhat, I had constant issues where it would say it's heating, but the furnace wouldn't be on. I read that there's a bug where the Nest would suck up all the power that should be going to the furnace to recharge it's batteries and thus it thinks the furnace is on, but really it's not giving the furnace enough power to turn on. I could get the nest to turn the furnace on if I turn the temp way down and then back up again which restarts the Nest's process for thinking it needs to turn the furnace on. I obviously can't be doing this all day, however, so I wound up waking up to a freezing house almost every night this winter.Now, the next issue I had...I couldn't test A/C because of how cold it was when I first installed the Nest and it doesn't let you test it when it's that cold. So, lately it's been getting warmer and I wanted to try out the Heat+Cold setting. The other night, I wake up to the furnace blaring heat and it's 90 degrees F in my house. The wiring somehow thought A/C meant furnace.I had an HVAC guy come over yesterday and we determined the wiring was okay (it worked fine for the previous thermostat). He rewired a bit to get the C wire powered and we tried that. The Nest couldn't recognize that any power was being given to it. We tried two other thermostats and they both worked perfectly fine.And of course since I wasn't able to test my A/C before, its gone past the return date, so I'm stuck with this broken Nest. I guess I'll gut it and see what I can do with the electronic innards..TLDR summary: Don't buy a nest. I drove out to Lowes and bought a Honeywell Wifi thermostat last night. Works perfectly
Do not purchase until Nest fixes their flawed updated software
February 17, 2015
Nest thermostats used to be great, but they "upgraded" the software in November to version 4.3.3 and ended up disabling remote operations for many users (check the forums at Nest.com and see for yourself before buying). The thermostat will go to sleep (to preserve battery, even if you have it connected to a 24v common wire for power), and it will show as offline on Nest's web site and iPhone app. Walking up to the Nest "wakes it up" and it re-connects, but that is of little help if you aren't home.At first they tried to blame it on people's routers and networks and denied the update broke anything, even though it worked fine before the update; now a few support people admit there is an issue (although some people still don't), but there is no ETA for a fix. To me, that says they either don't know how to fix it, or it isn't a priority.This was an upgrade that I didn't ask for, nor could I have refused it (not that I was even given the option). Requests to be rolled back to the previous version have been denied. I guess my thermostats are really owned by Nest instead of me.Nest corporate has yet to admit there is a problem; they're probably still smarting from the recall of the Protect and all the negative publicity they received from that.When it works, the Nest is great and until this botched update I was a satisfied customer. If they would publicly admit their error and tell me when it will be fixed, I'd be OK with it (nobody is perfect), but the lack of support and accountability makes me wish I had nothing to do with them.UPDATE 10/16/15: Almost a year later, and they still haven't fixed the problem. It's better than it was, but most of the time I look at the app on my phone, one out of four thermostats is offline. I'll be switching to the Ecobee3.
Fan runs continually! Don't bother.
February 27, 2014
After installing the thermostat it worked properly for 1 hour. After that, it went through heat cycles but the fan ran continually between cycles. The end result was cool air circulating in the house for 90% of the time (when the heat wasn't actually being called for). I called Nest and they sent me a replacement. This unit did the same thing. After spending an hour on the phone with a very polite but ignorant CSR she bumped the question up to advanced tech support promising that they would contact me in 10-15 days. So, bottom line, I have a $250 paperweight on my desk and currently have the heat properly running using my old tried and true Honeywell thermostat. Money down the drain.(On a side note, there are tons of websites [just do a quick Google search for "fan running continuously with Nest"], including Nest's support discussion boards, that report this fan running continuously issue but when I mentioned that to the CSR she said they had no reports of an issue. They seem to ignore or gloss over the issues that people may have.)
Nest software updates kill the battery and the company doesn't care
December 27, 2013
I don't recommend this thermostat. A software upgrade resulted in our battery constantly dying and the thermostat going offline. Since it is in a mountain cabin we were unsure if the device was working or not. The Nest webpage said the affected devices would be fixed in a "few days". Mine is still not working after a month. Customer support is relatively friendly but worthless. They told me that the upgrade knocked out 5% of the units, but the company did not wish to make everybody go back to the old version just for those 5%. Well, 5% failure is disastrous upgrade, specially given that failure of a thermostat can cause massive damage. The professional approach would be to take all units back to the old operating system. It seems like the engineering time was spent on making the device look cool, but engineering of the product function was left to amateurs. This product is not ready yet and probably won't ever be given the poor response of the company to a massive upgrade failure.The upgrade causes the battery to be drained by constant attempts to connect with the Wi-Fi. This could be fixed by just shutting off the WiFi connection on the Nest, turning it into a regular thermostat until they manage to fix the software issue. However, you can't turn off the Wi-Fi connection with a low battery.Constant draining of a battery will lessen its lifetime. So in addition to being stuck with a nonfunctioning device I now have one that will die an early death. Don't ask customer service to be connected to anyone to discuss this unless you want to say on hold forever.I wish I had never purchased this device. It is a failure of a product from a sub-standard company.
Has a tremendous amount of potential, but can't recommend in current state
December 17, 2013
I'm an HVAC contractor who's installed and troubleshooted this product in customer's homes for the past couple years and experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let's start with the good.Pros:-It looks great. Personally I don't really care what my thermostat looks like but I know that is very important to many people and the Nest is unmatched in this area.-When it works, it is hands down the easiest thermostat to install. The ability to sense wires and automatically configure the thermostat is a cool feature you don't see too often. They have a nifty wizard on their website that where you check the wires you have and it figures out what type of system you have and whether or not it will be compatible. Not that I really care, since this is what I do for a living, but for DIYers who have never done something like this before, it's nice.-In theory, it can control quite a wide range of HVAC systems, including 4 stages of heating, 2 stages of cooling, dual fuel systems, and humidification/dehumidification.-The customer service reps do genuinely seem to want to help, and there have been cases of them giving refunds even outside of the return period, or paying for visits by HVAC contractors to troubleshoot issues or repair damage caused by the thermostat.-The auto away and auto learning seem to work as advertised for the most part and IF, a big IF, you didn't program your previous thermostat, they will save you energy. However your money would be put to much better use by spending 10 minutes reading the manual of your traditional thermostat and programming it (even if its unintuitive, it's not something you have to do often). Then, take that $250 and put it towards something that will REALLY save energy, such as tightening up your house.-It has energy reporting which the Honeywell wifi thermostats lack (although the Honeywells are better thermostats in every other regard)Cons:-Reliability has been less than satisfactory. Instead of using good old reliable relays like most thermostats Nest decided to use what they call FETs (Field Effect Transistors) to control the equipment. They probably did this so they could give the thermostat its small form factor. Unfortunately, they aren't so reliable and tend to fail in the on position. The Y terminal (compressor) seems to fail pretty frequently causing A/C to run in the winter, sometimes at the same time as the heat. Some people do not have this issue, but for those that do, it seems to happen again and again no matter how many new baseplates Nest sends out. IMO it doesn't matter how many people don't have issues, the technology is plain unreliable and they need to stop using it. Besides the FET issue, software updates are pushed to the thermostat and the user has no choice on whether or not to accept them. Sometimes, they have bugs. The most recent one, 4.0, which the only purpose of was to add support for the Nest Protect, caused issues with some thermostats unable to power themselves. Some Nest owners found their thermostats unable to connect to wifi. Others found their pipes frozen as the Nest failed to turn on their equipment. Again, not everyone had an issue. But a thermostat is not an iPod. A buggy update is going to cause a much bigger problem than being without your music if you are part of the group that does have problems. They need to stop forcing updates on people (have a way to apply them at will) and test them extensively on their own systems before release.-It's a power stealing thermostat. One big issue when you upgrade to any wifi thermostat is how to power it. To understand this issue, I will give a brief history of thermostats. Back in the old days, we had simple mercury thermostats. No need to power them at all! But then along came digital programmable thermostats. They needed power for their displays, memory, and possibly a backlight. The most common HVAC system in US consists of a basic single stage gas furnace, matched with a single speed central air conditioner. To control this setup, you need four wires in your wall going to your thermostat. This worked fine for old mercury thermostats. To actually enable the thermostat to power itself, though, you need a 5th "common" wire. But, most people only had 4 wires going to their thermostat location. Programmable thermostat manufacturers came up with two solutions to this. The most common solution was to make the thermostats battery powered. These were simple enough to install and worked fine, the only con was that you had to replace the batteries periodically. Another solution was called a "power stealing" thermostat. This thermostat robbed enough current from the HVAC control wires to power itself, but NOT enough to trigger the HVAC system. On older HVAC systems that just ran off relays, this worked fine. Fast-forward to the age of wifi thermostats. How to power these things? AA Batteries wouldn't work, because the wifi drew too much power. What MOST wifi thermostat manufacturers decided to do was FORCE customers to run a common wire to power the thermostat. Nest was not satisfied with this as they wanted to make their thermostat easy to DIY install, so they decided to implement power stealing. Nowadays, though, most HVAC systems run off control boards, which are often sensitive to attempts by a thermostat to rob power for itself and may not let it at all. So sadly, the Nest actually works better with old standing pilot furnaces than newer efficient ones, even though it is a thermostat that promotes efficiency. Huh? Luckily, Nest gives you the option to connect a common wire if you have one, so you don't need to rely on the power stealing. Unfortunately, this issue has just led to too many problems and too much confusion by consumers who thought that Nest would work with their system and then found they needed a common wire. As you can see, not everyone will experience issues, but enough will that it is not OK to assume it will just work, and also it is possible for problems to occur even if it has been working for a long time due to changes in weather and battery capacity.-"Heat Pump Balance" DOES NOT work as advertised and not only will it not save energy, it will use MORE by running backup aux heat way too much. You can turn that off and set your own lockout temperature for aux heat, but the minimum is only 35 degrees. Most modern heat pump systems can hold their own own down into the 20s. THIS IS A REALLY BAD BUG, IT AFFECTS ALL HEAT PUMP USERS. BE WARNED!-It doesn't run multistage systems properly. If the Nest detects 1st stage is not keeping up, it will kick into 2nd stage. Fine, most thermostats do this. But then, instead of dropping back into 1st stage, it will stay in 2nd until it shuts off, decreasing comfort and efficiency. Finally, when recovering from a setback, it will ONLY use 1st stage, which takes way too long and makes it difficult to recover in time.-Technical support isn't so great. Lately there have been ridiculously long hold times, and they don't seem to know what they're talking about. They are polite and professional, though, and I don't blame this problem on the agents, I blame it on the fact they aren't trained properly, which has to do with the next con...-The overall attitude of the company. They do not communicate with their customers adequately to alert them of updates or problems. There is a community forum on their website that is quite helpful, and I highly recommend you visit it before purchasing. There used to be Nest moderators there, but they have all but abandoned it. There are many Nest users there though who put a lot of time into helping people solve problems and giving advice on how to best use Nest products. There are many complaints there, but they aren't "bashing" the products. Instead they give constructive criticism to Nest on where to improve, and ask for basic updates on what Nest is doing and whether they will fix these numerous issues. Unfortunately, instead of responding to the community members, they decided to make it un-indexable by search engines so prospective customers would NOT see this information. You can see for yourself. Go to [...] and view the source code of the page. You'll see <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW" >. You can click "recent discussions" to see what people have been posting and feel free to create an account and ask any questions you may have.-No adjustable temp swing or cycles per hour (other than selecting between radiant and forced air heat)-Can't adjust % RH setpoint for humidifier automatically based on outdoor temperature-Their implementation of emergency heat for heat pumps doesn't work well with the majority of systems installed (see the comments thread for more detail).-The energy reporting is kind of lame. It pales in comparison to Ecobee. Not enough cold, hard, data and too many meaningless statistic like "leaves".-No hold mode. Really guys, $20 programmable thermostats have this.Conclusion: Would I recommend this product? Not currently I wouldn't. If you have a heat pump or multistage system, I absolutely would not recommend it. If you have your heart set on this thermostat and have a basic single stage system, be prepared that it may not work without a common wire, and be prepared for the possible reliability issues. Watch it closely after you install and be ready to return it within the 30 day period if necessary. And really, not even considering the reliability issues, is it worth it? I'm not convinced.UPDATE 1/13/14: Nest has released a new version of their software, version 4.0.1, which claims to have all the new features of 4.0 but the performance of 3.5.3. The jury's still out on whether it does what they say it will: some people are reporting different issues they didn't have before, others say it fixed their issues. The good news, though, is that there is now a moderator on the Nest community, Brian, who is answering people's questions and helping them get the updates they need. While they still have a long way to go, it is good to see them moving in the right direction. Also, for those who don't know: Google owns Nest now. Make of that what you will, I won't comment on the privacy since everyone has a different opinion on that, but I am optimistic that the Google acquisition will accelerate the development of the product.
Look Very, Very Carefully before joy Jump Into the Nest!!!!
October 5, 2013
I purchased two 2nd generation Nests to replace two of my five heat/cooling zones in my house. The house is 3 years old and has "state of the art" HVAC. My problem is that the batteries discharge, the Nest loses connectivity to the Internet and can not be controlled from outside the house which is the vary reason that I bought them ie: have the house warm or cool when you arrive back from a trip. Today was my 12th call to Nest. Now they report that a "common" wire is needed to attach the Nest back to the HVAC device that it is controlling. Thus, I will have to hire a HVAC guy to come in and figure this out. Stephanie at Nest told me how sorry she was that I would have to go through all of this but there is no "work around" on their end. I, for one, am disgusted and will probably replace both with MADE FOR PRIME TIME EQUIPMENT.
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Pricing info
Old Price
Old Price
Price
Price
$386.98updated: Mar 18, 2020
$249.00updated: Mar 18, 2020
from 5 sellers
Features
Article Number
Article Number
0085267890762
0854448003037
Binding
Binding
Tools & Home Improvement
Tools & Home Improvement
Brand
Brand
Honeywell
Nest
Currency
Currency
USD
USD
Formatted Price
Formatted Price
$194.46
$249.00
Height
Height
378.0 in
128.0 in
Length
Length
338.6 in
255.9 in
Manufacturer
Manufacturer
Honeywell Home/Bldg Center
Nest Labs
MPN
MPN
RTH9580WF1005
T200577
Number of Items
Number of Items
1
1
Number of Parts
Number of Parts
RTH9580WF1005
T200577
Product Group
Product Group
Home Improvement
Home Improvement
Product Type
Product Type
HOME_LIGHTING_ACCESSORY
HOME_LIGHTING_ACCESSORY
Publisher
Publisher
Honeywell Home/Bldg Center
Nest Labs
Quantity
Quantity
2
1
Reviews
Reviews
Size
Size
2 pack
6.5 x 6.5 x 3.2 inches
Studio
Studio
Honeywell Home/Bldg Center
Nest Labs
Weight
Weight
9.2 oz
5.7 oz
Width
Width
287.4 in
255.9 in
Feature
Feature

Honeywell Home

RTH9580WF

Home Environment

6.5 x 6.5 x 3.2 inches

2nd generation design - Nest is now 20-Percent thinner and works in 95-Percent of homes with low voltage systems

Auto-Schedule - Nest remembers the temperatures you like and programs itself. Easy install - Most homeowners install Nest themselves in 30 minutes or less. After that, it's just a matter of changing the temperature

Auto-Away - Nest saves energy by automatically turning itself down when you're away

Remote control - Connect Nest to Wi-Fi to control it from your smartphone, laptop or tablet

The Nest Learning Thermostat works with 95% of 24V heating and cooling systems, including gas, electric, forced air, heat pump, radiant, oil, hot water, solar and geothermal. Heating: 1,2, and 3 stages (W1, W2, W3) Cooling: 1 and 2 stages (Y1, Y2) Heat pump: with auxiliary and emergency heat (O/B, AUX, E) Humidifier or dehumidifier (HUM, DEHUM) Fan (G) Power (C, RH, RC)

2nd generation design - Nest is now 20-Percent thinner and works in 95-Percent of homes with low voltage systems

Auto-Schedule - Nest remembers the temperatures you like and programs itself. Easy install - Most homeowners install Nest themselves in 30 minutes or less. After that, it's just a matter of changing the temperature

Auto-Away - Nest saves energy by automatically turning itself down when you're away

Remote control - Connect Nest to Wi-Fi to control it from your smartphone, laptop or tablet

The Nest Learning Thermostat works with 95% of 24V heating and cooling systems, including gas, electric, forced air, heat pump, radiant, oil, hot water, solar and geothermal. Heating: 1,2, and 3 stages (W1, W2, W3) Cooling: 1 and 2 stages (Y1, Y2) Heat pump: with auxiliary and emergency heat (O/B, AUX, E) Humidifier or dehumidifier (HUM, DEHUM) Fan (G) Power (C, RH, RC)

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