“A software bug that caused Nest’s smart thermostat to stop working has left many users both cold and angry,” Jane Wakefield reports for BBC News. “Some of those affected took to Nest’s own forum and social media to vent their anger about the problem. [Nest] recommended that, for those still experiencing problems “performing a manual reset should help”. It also published a nine-step fix. ‘We are aware of a software bug impacting some Nest Thermostat owners. In some cases, this may cause the device to respond slowly or become unresponsive. We are working on a solution that we expect to roll out in the coming weeks,’ it said in a statement.”
“The issue appears to have been traced to a software update in December – with problems not emerging until early January. The bug drained the battery life of thermostats and deactivated the system,” Wakefield reports. “‘Product stopped working, cold house, cold feet,’ wrote one customer on Twitter. Others reported that the thermostat was unexpectedly heating up their house.”
“Martin Usborne, a photographer from London, told the BBC he had experienced problems with his Nest thermostat earlier this month,” Wakefield reports. “‘It broke down twice. I got an error message saying it was not connected. The house was very cold and I had to reboot it,’ he said. ‘I have a love/hate relationship with Nest. Since it was installed, the house is warmer but my heating bill has gone up by 60% so it doesn’t seem to be doing its job in saving money,’ he added.”
MacDailyNews Take: Which part describes the “love” potion of that relationship? To make you house warmer, even a dumb thermostat would do. Simply turn it up.
Whatever “love” Mr. Usborne is experiencing might be coming from a case of Stockholm Syndrome.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t settle for inferior wares.
A Nest is the last smoke alarm you want. You want a quality HomeKit-compatible smoke alarm. — MacDailyNews, July 23, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Honeywell announces ‘Lyric Round’ smart thermostat with Apple HomeKit integration – January 5, 2016
Apple HomeKit-compatible thermostat Ecobee closes in on Google’s Nest – September 28, 2015
Apple pulls Google’s Nest thermostat from stores with launch of HomeKit-compatible Ecobee 3 – July 23, 2015
First Apple-certified HomeKit-compliant devices launch – June 2, 2015
Google engineer trashes Tony Fadell’s precious Nest smoke alarm – February 19, 2015
With HomeKit and Honeywell’s Lyric, a Nest acquisition by Apple would have been foolish – June 18, 2014
Will Apple’s Internet of Things vision hurt a beautiful idea? With HomeKit, Apple promises easy home automation – June 6, 2014
Smart thermostat war heats up as Apple-partner Honeywell takes aim at Google’s Nest – June 13, 2014
Honeywell takes dead aim at Google’s Nest with new iPhone-compatible Lyric smart thermostat – June 10, 2014
Google to SEC: We could serve ads on thermostats, refrigerators, car dashboards, and more – May 21, 2014
Dead to me: Apple’s Schiller ‘unfollows’ Tony Fadell and Nest after Google acquisition – January 18, 2014
I purchased the Original NEST back when they first came out from NEST and installed it myself and it worked, and is still working, Now that I have moved I refuse to purchase a new NEST for my new home, instead I purchased a wifi model that Trane is pushing and it works great, but does not have the external networking that NEST has. In other words, I will not buy a Google product.
Get a smart HomeKit-compatible thermostat instead
Check out the ecobee3 thermostat (HomeKit enabled).
I too owned the NEST thermostat before Google screwed it up. I only use it for the central air now. Google upgraded the fan “Always On” to 12 hours. Idiots. I use the air filtering system all year long all the time. I may give it away now. I have 3 heating zones and 1 central air. Google will be evicted before years end. Any other Apple approved system will be installed now that Google is the soul behind Nest!
They had a similar problem a couple of years ago. In that case, the unit killed the battery and stopped working. I had two friends that had this happen and ended up hot-wiring the furnace since it was cold. And the thing was that it supposedly took a couple of weeks to get there, so it really made me question their QA process.
My two Nest thermostats have a separate power wire feed directly from my HVAC unit, no hacking required. It keeps the Nest’s battery charged nicely.
That said, when I move I’m leaving them behind and switching to another HomeKit enabled thermostat. I too don’t trust Google.
We are digging our own graves with technology.
At the stage of a thermostat, it should be rock solid. Any technology related to infrastructure should be rock solid.
Certainly things short circuit or break. Heck I have had to replace Lutron light switches, stuff simply wear out.
A software update that breaks a system leaving it’s owners extra hot or cold… I guess they had too many 27b/6 forms to fill out.
My Lutron switches have a critical flaw, which is a skinny piece of plastic used as its spring to turn the switch on/off. Over a few years the plastic grows brittle and breaks. For this reason I won’t be purchasing any more Lutron switches, HomeKit enabled or not. I’ve had their switches break multiple times over the past few years. I use Insteon switches now, which are controlled by an Insteon Hub Pro (HomeKit enabled), and am slowly replacing all my switches. Insteon’s switches aren’t perfect either, but their central connectivity provides a lot of user control.
I’ve had Lutron dimmers (about a dozen of them) in my house for over 10 years now. I have not had a single problem with any of them.
That’s one way to save on energy costs. 😉
I have a NEST. for the life of me I can’t figure out how to manually put it into away mode (and I work with computers all day).
I went to their support site, and it said “Simply select ‘Manual away mode!'”, but apparently they felt it was SO OBVIOUS that they didn’t need to give specific, step-by-step instruction.
Come to think of it, in that way it remind me of iMovie.
ANYWAY, I went to their support site to send support an email. After submitting my question, I was sent to a blank page. Never heard back from them.
“yay”
Open the Nest app, click on the Home icon, click on the Away button.
So why couldn’t Nest technical support have told Dmitri what you said?
It is obvious and I hope you are not working on computers on a nuclear plant. 🙂
http://www.suberic.net/~dmm/27B-6.pdf
I was going to buy a Nest, until Google bought them and now you couldn’t pay me to put one of them in. Just got a new Wood Pellet Boiler and will likely install an Ecobee3
There is a place for technology and I don’t believe that is place reserved for a thermostat. I replaced my boiler a few years back and bought the dumbest, simplest thermostats you can buy. Downtime = 0.
The LOVE part come from it being an elegantly designed device that acts as a nightlight when I walk by it. The HATE part comes from it being the crappiest thermostat ever!! It already won’t control my AC anymore and now when I turn on the heat it tells me to wait 54 minutes!? If Honeywell offered a trade-in or free install program for the Lyric I would be all over it.
IOW: Nest qualifies as ‘Gee Whiz’ tech, or what I personally describe as ‘squinky’ tech. Looks GREAT! Is NOT.
Hopefully this is just a minor bug Nest can quash in a hurry.
I bought a Honeywell MagiStat close to 15 years ago, and aside from having to change the batteries every other year, it’s worked fine and saved me money with it’s home/away/wake/sleep settings. Aside from the ultimate geek status, I never could figure how Nest could save any more money – now I have – “disable your furnace” mode!!
did f’ Googly acquisition 2014-01-23 screw Nest quality or what?!
2nd big Nest screwup: not heating in cold winter 2015-12/2016-01 – who knows when they’ll handle the truth & G Damn fix the software issue – how impractical digital world can be, if Google handles it like Msft
1st big Nest screwup: remember when the Nest Protects used to go off without solution to shut the alarms off in entire house?! see Goo employee’s admission 2015-02 https://youtu.be/BpsMkLaEiOY