I'm about a month into using the ecobee Smart Thermostat. This thermostat does everything I wish my Nest had done, with a surprise. Read until the end!

You can skip this paragraph if you want to just read about the ecobee thermostat. I'm not new to smart thermostats. My first smart thermostat was a 3M Filtrete. Not a lot of features, but it worked well. I had a Nest several years ago and left it with my previous house when I sold it. Had a Honeywell thermostat for a couple of years, and it was OK, but had some quirks. I thought maybe I'd like the new Nest better and tried one for about 6 months, but hated incompatibilities and a super poor user interface. Plus I wasted over an hour before I searched online and found out that the GOOGLE Nest wasn't compatible with Google Workspace accounts. Go figure. So I'm done with the Nest permanently, thankfully. Rant over. ;)

The ecobee has some features that I didn't know I wanted. The remote unit is cool (or warm), and when I'm in the bedroom, it adjusts temperature there to my set program. I'm thinking I'll probably get a couple more occupancy sensors to make this even better as I move around the house.

The ecobee app interface is really good, especially compared to the Google/Nest interface. It's very good about respecting settings I put in place, unlike the Nest.

The Amazon Echo/Alexa support surprised me. I was expecting a connection to my existing echo devices, which is there, but the ecobee thermostat has a speaker in it and actually functions as an Echo device. I wasn't expecting that, and it works well. I wouldn't recommend it if you were thinking about it for music, but it's nice to have since it's in an area where I didn't have an Echo device.

The installation and setup was really easy, though this is my 5th or 6th smart thermostat. One takeaway from my first thermostat installation - cut the power to your furnace/AC before you start installation. I know the instructions say to do that, but on my first installation, I had a really cold night!

The big surprise for me was when I went to see what the vacation mode looked like. I was really excited because it had a feature I hadn't expected. On occasion, I'll forget to turn my thermostat to vacation hold right when I leave, but when I went to that section, I found I could actually *schedule* vacation holds! Now, as soon as I book my flights, I can set up a vacation schedule so I don't have to think about it when I'm getting ready to travel. I can set efficiency to happen automatically when I'm going to leave, and set to be comfortable just before I plan to be back. Great feature, and something that I'll definitely use.

I highly recommend this thermostat, and even though I've gone through several over the past 10 years, this one feels like the best fit for me so far, and I'm likely to stick with this one for a significant amount of time.

This is the third one of these that I've installed for someone, including my own, and I'm very pleased with it. These are very versatile in what unit types they are able to control and honestly offer more than what most people will use. I prefer them for their reliability and ease of use. It is also one of the best looking thermostats in my opinion. As stated in the instructions, 18awg wire is a must to prevent issues. That is pretty standard for any modern hvac equipment now anyway so plan for it if necessary.

I just installed this thing and what do you know, my old, antiquated thermostat was reading TEN DEGREES lower than the actual temp, prompting the heater to run all day and night just to maintain 60 degrees (meanwhile it was actually 70 in the house). Instantly saw this when I installed the Ecobee and used an external thermometer to measure it's accuracy.

The installation was easy enough, the only pain in the asphalt that I experienced was having to crawl up into my attic to connect one single wire to the furnace (the wire was already there, just needed to be connected to the C contact). The install directions via the downloaded up couldn't have been clearer and easier to understand. Bottom line, if you know where your furnace is and you can access it, you'll be able to install the Ecobee (even if you know nothing about furnaces as I don't).

Once installed, the app is sleek and gorgeous, as is the thermostat itself. The only confusion I had using the app for the first time, is it's not really like my old, manual, 20 year old thermostat. You CAN set the temp manually and it will hold that temp, but only until the set "schedule" starts whenever your "sleep" time starts. Simply put, there are three modes you can fully program with start/end times, and set temps. "Home" (when you're home but not sleeping) "Away" (when you're not home, like at work every day) and "Sleep" (when you're home but sleeping). I'm not usually a fan of this type of schedule automation, but it actually makes perfect sense. You can change anything about your weekly schedule at any time, setting when each "mode" (home, away, and sleep) starts, ends, and what temp it should hold. The schedule allows customization for each of the 7 days in a week, or you can set 1 days worth and copy it to the other 6 days of the week. That's what I did because I work from home, so I'll really only be using the "Away" mode when we're on vacation, etc. Right now only use the Home and Sleep modes 7 days a week (no more adjusting the heater before bedtime, the app does it for me via my set schedule).

I got one sensor with my thermostat and paid for 2 more. So worth it. You can place those sensors in other rooms, so I have a total of 4 rooms sending temp readings to my app (because the Ecobee thermostat itself acts as a sensor of course). I can choose to use all, some, or just one of the sensprs for any part of my schedule. So I have it set to read all 4 sensors during the day (aka, in "Home" mode). Then at night ("Sleep" mode), I have it only reading the sensors in our room, and the baby's room. That way only the temps in those rooms will trigger the heater if those rooms drop below my target temp, what's happening downstairs in the middle of the night doesn't matter so I don't have it consider those sensors until 7am (when my day/"home' schedule starts).

There are a ton of different ways to schedule it if you have more than one sensor, but how to use all of it is simple, and easy to understand (no tech-y chops required). There are a bunch more features I've omitted such as local weather forecasting on the app, local rebate programs coordinated and participated in through the app, and even TOU (Time Of Use) rate plan entry so you can really get efficient with your energy use. We also have solar, so this thermostat is the perfect companion, but that would still be the case if we weren't solar customers.

If you buy this, the only thing you'll regret is not buying it sooner (especially if you have an old thermostat like I did, lesson learned - NEVER trust an old thermostat)! Five stars Ecobee, you got this one right!

Easy to install and operate. The remote sensor is very accurate and saved me from needing to move a poorly placed original thermostat. You can set the thermostat to use only the remote sensor or average the temp of both. Good product!

I'm really disappointed in this device. IF YOU HAVE A HEAT PUMP WITH AUX HEAT AND LIVE IN A RURAL AREA BEWARE!! I love everything about the ecobee premium smart thermostat - except that it can not control my HVAC. I live in a mountainous valley in North Central Washington. We see temps down to -20 in the winter. A typical winter day may be -5F at 8:00 AM and 30F by 1400.

Because I have a heat pump, I need my system to change between heat pump operation and aux strip heat at the right times. Below 20F I need aux heat. Above 20 I want to save money and energy (one of Ecobee's stated purposes) and run my heat pump.

I was drawn to ecobee because it has many parameters to control the crossover temperature between compressor operation and aux heat. Ecobee uses information from the internet (apple weather specifically) to determine the outdoor temperature at your location. They tout special algorithms to determine accurate weather information specific to the address of your residence.

Unfortunately, this is false advertising. After I set up my device and noticed my outdoor temperature was inaccurate by more than 15 degrees I contacted ecobee support. I learned that my closest weather station was 30 miles away, on the other side of a mountain range in a completely different climate than where I live.

Despite there being multiple accurate NOAA weather stations nearby as well as two airports, after at least 8 hours of my time with ecobee support I was never able to get outdoor temperature information that was even close to the actual temperatures at my house.

While ecobee can try to push a closer station to the device, for some reason which was never explained to me the closer stations only update on average 2-3 times a day. So it could be 14:00 and 30F outside but the device still thinks it is 3AM and it is -1 outside.

The end result is while I'm at work and trying to keep my house at 62, the expensive and energy intensive aux heat is running for several hours when it does not need to be.

Ecobee could provide me with no solution. A google search on this topic reveals this has been a known issue for at least 5 years. Ecobee has not adressed this issue and it doesn't seem like they plan to any time soon.

I'm really bummed because after all this effort and time, I still can't control my system and there is no hope for a fix according to support.

Support was very friendly and tried to be helpful to the best of their ability. But unfortunately this is a critical design flaw in Ecobee's system. This is not that complex of a problem and I know it could be fixed. I assume ecobee does not want to spend the money to accommodate rural customers by engineering the flaws out of their system, or simply paying for access to more weather stations that update more regularly.

Or Ecobee could create an wireless outdoor temp sensor that could communicate with the thermostat like their indoor area sensors do. I believe if they did this they'd have one of the best products on the market.

But as it stands, this device is no better than me manually switching between heat pump and aux heat when I happen to be home.

I'm returning the device and going back to the drawing board to try to figure out the solution for what should be a fairly simple problem.

Short and sweet overview:

I installed this in an old house. I had to use the PEK kit to get this working. The instructions were relatively clear and easy to follow. Setup was easy with the app and got it working quickly. Pay extra attention to the wiring instructions as I plugged one of the wires in the wrong port and was scratching my head for a bit trying to figure out where I goofed up. It's a pretty good thermostat and I really love the homekit integration.

Here's a more detailed review of the things that stuck out to me:

The Good:

1. "Condition alerts". The thermostat alerts you to specific conditions. It actually told me that my humidity in my house was too high and it is a potential health risk. I had zero idea. It also gave me suggestions on how IT could attempt to fix it as well as other options. (consider an HVAC upgrade, buy a dehumidifier etc.) I do like the fact it can monitor and watch for health issues.

The Bad/Improvements:

1. The PEK (power extender kit) needs to have better terminals to plug your HVAC wiring in. In most homes that I've seen the cables are twisted copper wires not solid copper cables. This was a huge pain to put into the terminals in the PEK as they're just little holes (see picture). I had a very tough time getting them fully inserted and connected well. Initially I tried to wind the cables with a pair of pliers but it was really hard to get it perfect enough to insert into the terminal without dislodging one of the cables on the end, and therefore getting it stuck in the PEK. Because of this I couldn't get the cables fully seated. I ended up running to home depot and buying some crimp connectors and it was easy enough then, but a little better design could've prevented that hassle.

I'm not an electrician, but I do worry a little about putting the PEK in the electrical cabinet for my HVAC system. Good news is that It is well insulated and made out of plastic so shorts aren't really going to be an issue. It also has a magnet to attach it somewhere in the cabinet.

2. One thing I really miss from my old nest smart thermostat was an easy button to press to put it in eco mode. To clarify, the echobee has an eco mode but it doesn't quite work the same. I do travel alot and I like to be able (on the nest) to put it in eco mode and it keeps the house between a specific temperature range I set. This isn't easily accessible on the echobee or I just haven't found it yet.

3. It does come with some sticker paper cable markers. I would've liked these to be a little more heavy duty. I found they got damaged or ripped off if I touched them. I ended up switching to painters tape and labeling them that way.

4. This does come with a smart sensor, and I would've liked the sensor to be visible in homekit. To the best of my knowledge you have to go through a bunch of menus to see it.

5. I also purchased this thermostat because it gives me a rebate with my electrical service provider. However it "says" I only have Excel Energy and they actually don't service my area. There's no way to change it or search for another service provider. That was a little frustrating

I plan on updating this in 30 days. It’s not totally functional yet and I have not called the company yet and they do publish their number in several places to contact them. The things I didn’t know so far. When the heating and air-conditioning company arrived. I needed a extra heavy duty power line from the unit to the thermostat. The thermostat I had worked off two AA batteries, and did not have enough power to operate the unit so an extra Higher level line had to be placed from the heater air conditioner to the thermostat so when the guy arrived he did not have this part with him. So you need to let them know upfront that you may need a more heavy duty cord to install this. It was installed by the person in probably 90 minutes Even though he worked in the business and had worked with us before they seem to do a few problems and they may not have done with the unit but with the way he installed it into my air-conditioning and heating and finally it works. After it works it works fine. I downloaded the program to my iPad and I can operate it from my iPad. My question is now do I install it to my Alexa or to my home on Siri. If I Install it on Siri it looks like I may need to buy a hub for about $100 to get the signal from the thermostat to my Siri, but I also just purchased an iPhone 14, which indicates that I may not need this. So I’m not answering a lot of your questions here other than the fact, this is not as simple as slapping it into the wall. It does come with two parts that I’m not quite sure yet to do it one looks like a huge lollipop, which I believe is some kind of remote sensor and another one maybe looks like the small pyramid which I believe is the sensor that you put in the fireplace like your bedroom, so that the thermostat has another location in the house . I’ve been working with this on and off now for about 30 days and not having 100% vision or extremely low vision has added to my frustration however, I am planning on calling the company this week and will follow up with hopefully more good news on the bottom. However, I would strongly recommend this to anyone because you can look at it on your iPad and see the exact temperature. You can turn the air conditioning on and off reset the variable which switches from heat the air conditioning with an algorithm so that you’re not going hot, cold, hot cold all the time, but it knows based on outside conditions what things are going on. Sorry this was so long and so many unanswered questions however, I would buy this again in a second without a problem . I hope this review helps you and again it was written with Siri so sorry for any strange words and I do hope to update us in the next week month or so I guess thank you for reading my review. Have a great day and as they say stay cool, I don’t get hot under the collar :-) OK this is my update so far, I paired the unit with my iPad Pro you could not do this if you cannot see, there’s too many touchy things with the screen that you have to move your hand around I was on the phone with Apple assistance for an hour and a half and finally my neighbor stopped over and help me install it in about three minutes, so please don’t try to do this by yourself. I’m continuing down the process and will add on to this again in the future, but to excellent I am happy to have it. I can use it on my phone my iPads, or at the hub unit itself if you buy this you’re simply going to need a little help Have a good day. Thank you for reading my review. I plan on updating this again one more time. OK this will be my last entry. Let me tell you what happened when I called the company as I told you I ended up with two parts one is a sensor. It’s very small and the other piece looked like a lollipop with five wires coming out of it it was very intense after a pretty lengthy phone call I found out the sensor has a tag that you pull out to activate the battery when you do that you will need someone standing at the thermostat to type in where you’re putting that sensor in your house. The most significant thing is the thing that looks like the lollipop with five wires coming out of the bottom of it is something that you attached to your HVAC unit your heating and air-conditioning unit if you have the older wire going to an older style thermostat. The technician should know how to install this and then it transmits the data electronically to your new thermostat. Unfortunately the person who installed my thermostat had no idea what that thing was so where I said earlier in this review that you may need to have them install a more heavy duty wire from the unit to the thermostat that would not be necessary if they use this thing properly however, I would still tell them when you call up the HVAC people that they may need to bring a more heavy duty cable because you have an older style thermostat in case the information I received was incorrect and you have to pay a fortune for them to go back to the shop etc. and get things. Overall, I’m very satisfied with this. There’s a Lotta other things you can hook into it like sensors and cameras and it seems to be an excellent device. I do have as I believe I said earlier the Siri HomePod mini mixed in with it however, when you use the HomePod mini, the wall unit does not talk to you. it only talks to you if you’re using an Alexa-based item I hope this has been an awful lot of information. Hopefully you can use it. I wish I had read this before I started. Thank you be well take care if I should have any problems in the future I will come back in here and edit them and have a great day. Thank you for reading my review . OK this is an additional update. I was not planning for but when you go to install the room sensor, nothing about the directions seem to work from them. Trying to have you figure out which sensor you have instead of giving you a picture of each type of sensor so when you figure out the sensor and you think you have it, it tells you that it has a clear bottom when the bottom looks like a Hershey kiss, but then, when you go to parrot the screen that it says where the location is for the menu, screen is not where the menu screen is located on your screen and you look at the directions and it still doesn’t work then you take the battery out if you can figure out how to do that let it sit outside for two minutes and then put it back in and it still doesn’t work after pulling the tub out of the battery so I’m going to have to wait a month until my niece comes in from out of state because my local person I was trying to use to do the simple task can’t figure it out because it’s not so simple and the directions do not match up with the directions they give you to the device on the wall so now I’m extremely frustrated . I may call the company back next week and talk to them but so far I am not overwhelmed by the people at the company at their support desk at least one person I’ve talk to so far it seems like he’s never done this before or he’s read the manual :-) I’m sure he’s better than that and I’m being critical right now because I’m angry but that’s OK I’ll get this figured out I’m blind and I ever come over. Come out on a daily basis so I should be able to overcome this . OK I’m adding more onto this after I could not install the thermostat. I sent a quasi-obnoxious email to the company and they responded on the next business day which was Monday. They gave me a lot of support and gave me new directions on how to do things and said they would be handling the corrections and told me I could arrange an appointment with them to install the new thermostat thermometer in the house in the litter in the bedroom. So this will still be in the future the other thing that’s funny is this morning when I was walking by the unit all of a sudden started talking to me. I guess it’s been talking to me all the time, but since I have so many other devices around the house, the talk to me it’s been overwhelmed by some other devices, but the thermostat thermometer does talk and answer my questions and it is have Siri inside it, so that’s another positive that offsets a prior complaint I had overall I’m still very happy with it. I just want to get this last sensor put into the house and then I’ll be done and good to go. If you’ve read this far, then you deserve a medal :-) OK first I apologize that this is so long. I had ADT at the house today working on an alarm system and I gave them the directions for installing the room sensor. They said and they are professional and they had a hard time using the most recent set of directions that was sent out on installing the sensor. It seems easy enough but you really have to stop and think and do not throw away that little plastic strip that you pull out of the thing I’ve lost mine in the house and I have no idea where it is. Overall final thought I love this unit. I can lay in bed and turn air-conditioning on and off. I’m sure I’m saving money so that the outside temperature when it drops down but it’s still a little bit warm in the house I can shut off the air conditioner and I have to pay for the cool stuff that the outside is already cool overall most things about this thing are perfect especially as a blind person you don’t have to try to read things you can use your phone or your tablet to control everything and it works great. Overall, I would give this a five out of five. I realize they complained a lot here but I simply think the service people there have never use the product or use it as a blind person or sometimes when you already know the answer, you can use the product and not have an issue but if you’re beta testing head and you’re an analog person in the digital world, sometimes things don’t go so smooth and you get a special reward if you’ve read this far, thank you so much you need to get a life because this has not been the most interesting thing but hopefully my issues will make your issues last and you’ll have a terrific product at the end overall I’d like to thank ecobee for making such a great product but they could work better on their directions to installation stuff. Thank you so much. Have a great day .

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat is very well designed and works as intended. It has very nice features that are user-friendly and controls the entire system efficiently. The voice control through Alexa and ability to change and operate the system from your phone through the Ecobee app is great. Additionally, I had an issue where the Google Nest and Ecobee would not power on even though I had all wires connected. I returned the Google and tried with Ecobee and Ecobee instructed me to call their Support because of my wiring issue. Their representative, Olusegun, stayed on the phone with me for an hour and a half while talking me through fixing it. I shared photos and he told me exactly what do to troubleshoot the wiring and then fix the wiring. He was very nice, patient, and extremely helpful. Thanks to him and Ecobee's great Support System, we identified the problem and got it working, finally. I would highly recommend this product, especially for their customer service if you experience any issues.

I really wanted this product to work in Australia, purchased it, got an electrician to help with installation, but unfortunately had no success. However, the seller was very accomodating and helped with offering a full refund. Would highly recommend. Thank you

It’s good, but not sure if the sensor that came wi the it works properly

لكن عيب وحيد ليمكن لسكان الشرق الاوسط اعدادات موقع المنزل لان خاصية الموقع خاصه ب الولايات المتحده وكندا فقط لكن لديهم خدمة عملاء يضبطون الاعدادات لتتوافق مع مكانك 👍👍👍👍👍👍

باقي الاعدادات تعمل بشكل ممتاز

After using both the Nest and Ecobee Premium thermostats, I’ve found that while the Ecobee wins in terms of screen size and overall appearance, the Nest is significantly smarter and more user-friendly in terms of ease of use and navigation.

After 2 weeks since purchased, I still have no idea how to install?!