nest vs ecobee vs ?

[jeffmoss26]

hello all...long time member, never posted in this forum before!
we have a 1 year old furnace and a 1 week old central AC unit. As a self-proclaimed tech/gadget junkie, I am strongly considering a smart thermostat. My security suppliers have nest and ecobee and the pricing is decent. Our HVAC guy of ~25 years assures me it's an easy install and we have enough wires at the current digital thermostat. We all have iPhones, good wifi throughout the house.
Looking for advice from GJ on which to pick.

 

[Terry D]

I have installed them both for customers, and never had any complaints. The Ecobee and Nest can be wired to thermostat wiring with no 24v common. But if you have at least 5 wires there now, you have both sides of the 24 volt. I think it is better to do it this way, but if you only have 4 wires, they will work too. The Ecobee has a converter that you wire at the furnace if you only have 4 wires. And I do believe they both are compatible with Alexa and Google

 

[Jking24]

I have ecobee and like it very user friendly. The only issue i have noticed and a freind said is common amongst all the smart thermostats is it runs a little warm so the panel tends to think its a degree or two warmer than it actually is.

 

[majerus]

My suggestion is to stay away from nest, google has really screwed that product line. If you have any aspirations for a smart home at some point it will be a pia to work with. I currently have a Nest, Curb Energy Monitor, Smartthings with every light, door sensor, locks, and camera security automated. The hoops I had to jump though to get something half way ok with Nest was not worth it. When it dies ill replace with ecobee or something supported by more 3rd party products.

Installing either is super simple if you have a basic understanding of anything mechanical, or electrical.

https://www.smartthings.com/products/-/filter/categories/thermostats

 

[coleman10]

I have a couple, inexpensive Honeywells I got at HD. On the WiFi, able to access remotely from anywhere and change any setting, and they have alerts on them if the they lose connection or the temp goes too high or low per your configuration. Easy to install, even with having to hook up the common wire. Have had them for over three years. They don’t have all the fancy bells and whistles like voice control, but I haven’t had any issues them and they’ve been reliable.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Ecobee, hands down. I can't count how many nests I've replaced with ecobees because the nest is just too confusing and they just don't work as well. The ecobee has a wider range of application, better "zoning", better energy usage info, built in voice commands... Need I go on?

Tommy

 

[polexican23]

I also went ecobee. We have pets and our HVAC tech said the Nest would be useless with its "learning" function as it will pick up their movement.

I mean, what do you really need.
On
Off
Cool
Heat
Up
Down

And the ecobee has that. I actually used the google home app to adjust the ecobee instead of the ecobee app since I have multiple items already using the google home app.

 

[allinon72]

Ecobee + temp sensors for older houses/HVAC units, Nest for more efficient homes with newer HVAC units.

 

[jeffmoss26]

so...older house with new HVAC...cut a Nest and an ecobee in half?

 

[MJK]

Not Nest.

 

[HDtalk]

I've been looking as well, but the main function I'm looking for is one you can program to cycle the fan.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[htmdude57]

Honeywell T87. Have one in my house, it does what it is supposed to, and I'm happy with it. And no way in hell will I spend $250 to replace it.

 

[ramsdell_]

I have the Nest. If you have a normal schedule then it works well with the “learning”. I’m never home on a regular schedule so it will randomly turn on. Yesterday the AC came in because last Friday we set it to 68 but we are 300 miles away. It drives me nuts. I have to go to the schedule every week and delete all the learned settings...

Make sure to check to see if you have a Energy Trust in your state. Here in Oregon ours has $100 off coupons all the time for Nest and Ecobee. I combined mine with Christmas sales and got it for about $75.


Sent from my iPhone using Garage Journal

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Honeywell T87. Have one in my house, it does what it is supposed to, and I'm happy with it. And no way in hell will I spend $250 to replace it.

I like yo-yos, too.

Tommy

 

[Modern Jess]

I burned out three nests over a 1-2 year period. They replaced them, but eventually I gave up. My furnace model has a well-known "problem" with nest which fries the mosfets. In one of the failures, I was awoken at 3AM in January to the AC running full blast. Not fun.

I now have an Ecobee 3. It has worked flawlessly for quite a few years now. HomeKit integration too, if iOS compatibility matters to you. Quite happy with it.

 

[Bert_]

Honeywell T87. Have one in my house, it does what it is supposed to, and I'm happy with it. And no way in hell will I spend $250 to replace it.

Same here. I had a programmable one but I switched it out for a old square T88 thermostat that I replaced for a customer.

Actually lowered my gas bill. Digital stat would be off and on constantly trying to maintain temp to less than a degree it seemed. The old mercury stat allows a nice long run time.

 

[finn]

We bought a house near Tucson and it had a nest. The house was empty for a couple of months before we migrated, so the internet wasn’t hooked up. When we finally moved in, the Nest wouldn’t connect to the Internet, although it functioned as a normal dumb thermostat.

After spending an hour on the tech line troubleshooting the technician determined that the processor had failed.

Fortunately, there was one week left on the transferable warranty, so they replaced it promptly with a refurbished unit. Unfortunately, the warranty isn’t extended beyond the original period, so now I have a refurbished Nest with no warranty.

Buy a competitor.

 

[akpingel]

I've been looking as well, but the main function I'm looking for is one you can program to cycle the fan.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

You can do this with the ecobee. I have only owned the ecobee but I am happy with it. My reason for chosing it was price, and after futzing with Nest's in AirBNBs it seemed it couldnt be worse than those. If I had to get a new thermostat today it would be the ecobee no question.

Word of caution. RTFM and kill the breaker to the unit when installing. I shorted a 24v wire (naturally) and had to replace the fuse on the circuit board... could have been worse for sure.

 

[GeeTeeOhh]

I just happened to be looking at a clearance ecobee4 at HD for $149. then saw same at Costco yesterday for $100 and picked one up. Install and setup was a breeze, even with the 4-wire cable and power extender kit (included). So far I like it. it has the Alexa voice control (which freaks my wife out).

 

[b-boy]

I have a NEST in my garage. I wanted to be able to control the thermostat from inside the house about 300 ft away. It works well for that. It's the only smart home item I have, so I can't talk about how compatible it is with other devices.

I turned off the learning function. It drove me nuts.

 

[jd_1138]

I installed the cheaper version of the Nest 2 years ago (Nest E), and it's awesome. It's great being able to control it from your phone, tablet, laptop, etc.. Also, it's easy to use for older non-technical people who may come over to your house like parents, grandparents, etc.. Just tell them to turn the unit left or right to lower/raise the temperature like the old school thermostats.

It was easy to install. Just remove the old unit, install the base/holder, and attach the various colors to corresponding colors on back of Nest. Takes like 10 minutes. It even has a built in bubble level.

Our furnace/AC is like 20 years old, and it still controls it just fine. Also, we have Google Home Mini personal assistants (2 of them, one in bedroom, one in kitchen), and they can be used to set the temperature. "Hey Google set Nest to 70."

Whatever wires you have, just connect those, and it should work. We don't have a "common carrier" wire I think, and it still works fine.

 

[99LeCouch]

I have an Ecobee 3. Really like it in our split-level house. Gets the upstairs nice and cool during the summer once we diddle with the vents, and keeps us comfy in the winter. I love the remote sensor, occupancy sensing, and the fan runtime setting. I turned off the auto home/away since our dog kept tripping it. For older single-stage equipment, it's a great upgrade over a regular programmable stat.

 

[danski0224]

Nest does not allow "fan on" operation like a regular thermostat.

 

[Jdsmith]

I had a nest at my last house and installed an ecobee at my current house. I prefer the ecobee over near for many of the reasons previously mentioned, including the learning part of nest not working well or being useful. The ecobee schedule is easy to set up and the home/away settings work well. I have a few wireless temperature/occupancy sensors which I recommend if you have some rooms that's don't get the same amount of airflow as others due to improperly sized ductwork.



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[jlv03]

Nest does not allow "fan on" operation like a regular thermostat.

Are you sure about that?

 

[danski0224]

Yes.

Fan runs based on a timer setting, up to 12 hours. Or you set up a fan schedule.

No way to turn the fan on and leave it on.

 

[chinboys]

Purchased 9 Nests version 2's from OEM and eBay in the past 7 years and many of the used ones had problems with their backplanes especially if you install them live with 24V.

The old Nest company and Google paid for L3 tech support who confirmed backplane replacements as there was no rule about installing them live. They learned my habits to control my hydronic in-floor PEX and radiator installations as well as integration to Alexa. Now I have replaced 3 of them with Ecobee version 2 and 3's with remote sensors.
I don't recommend Nest anymore unless it is free. The new company isn't as nice as before and does have a record as to what the serial numbers of the backplane and main unit are for warranty repairs.

my 2 red pennies opinion.

 

[jeffmoss26]

I can get the ECOBEE3 LITE PRO for 139.99

 

[jd_1138]

I can get the ECOBEE3 LITE PRO for 139.99

That's a good price. I think you'll be happy with either Nest or Ecobee. They both are a lot better than regular thermostats.

 

[samss]

Call me a curmudgeon.
Someone is almost always at my house, so, non-programmable tstat. Set it and forget it. Fewer bells and whistles to break.
How much energy are you saving when your HVAC system has to cool the house down after being off all day?

 

[peterlawl84]

I was going to switch our thermostats out for Ecobees after talking with my buddy, but we have 4 thermostats in our house and it was going to get pricy.

We have Honeywells currently, house is 4 years old. I was about ready to buy 4 ecobees plus some sensors as we still had a couple hot/cold area even with 4 different zones. Last week, I got an alert on my thermostat to switch battery in the outdoor sensor. I had no idea what this was as I had not seen any sensor on the outside, so I looked in the manual to find it, then saw it mentioned I could add indoor sensors as well, purchased some and installed this past week. It doesn't learn if you are in the room or not (like Ecobee can), but it averages the temps for the zone I added it to, for under $40 per sensor, way cheaper than switching out the whole system. Also if you have a Honeywell can add redline gateway so I can control and monitor all 4 zones on my phone at anytime.

Told my buddy about it, he was kinda frustrated he spent all the money switching his out to Ecobee. sure it has some extra features, but I do not think we would benefit from it as much as there are always kids at our house.