Nest Learning Thermostat (4th-gen) evaluation: well worth the wait

There are solely a handful of good house devices I unequivocally advocate to everybody, and a wise thermostat is considered one of them. They’re extremely helpful, combining the three C’s of the good house: comfort, consolation, and price financial savings.

The Nest Learning Thermostat, which debuted in 2011, was one of many unique good thermostats. But it hasn’t seen an replace in nearly a decade. Today, there are dozens of cheaper linked thermostats, together with Amazon’s glorious price range thermostat and Google’s personal stripped-down Nest Thermostat. So, why must you think about spending $280 on the brand new fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat?

For two causes. First, it’s the neatest good thermostat. The studying Nest is the one thermostat with an algorithm that mechanically adjusts your heating and cooling schedule based mostly on how you employ it, and the fourth-gen is smarter than ever. Second, it seems to be beautiful. If your thermostat is in a outstanding spot like mine, seems to be matter, and no different thermostat seems to be this good.

I cherished the third-gen Nest, with its smooth model and tactile dial, and the fourth-gen Nest takes that iconic design to the subsequent degree. Adding a bigger display, thinner physique, and extra built-in dial, the fourth-gen Nest additionally has a smaller base, making it appear to be it’s floating on the wall. The all-gold colour I examined is beautiful, and the crystal LCD display displays gentle superbly. As my colleague Victoria Song put it, “The Nest is so fairly, it makes the remainder of my home look drab as compared.”

The larger display makes it simpler to regulate and navigate settings, and the Farsight dynamic show has new choices that reap the benefits of the area. Farsight makes use of the gadget’s Soli radar sensor to modify the Nest’s show based mostly on how shut you’re to the thermostat.

From a distance, it reveals a simplified view with simply the time, climate, or temperature settings; up shut, it transitions to point out extra detailed data, together with a brand new row of three customizable “issues.” These can show numerous knowledge, akin to temperature, humidity, time, date, and even an out of doors air high quality index rating. (There’s no indoor air high quality monitoring, which is one thing Ecobee, Nest’s most important competitor at this worth level, does provide.)

I selected to make use of the climate face on my upstairs unit, which reveals animations of the climate over the present out of doors temperature and the day’s forecast. I added issues for the feels-like temp, date, and time, which have been useful after I’m dashing between my youngsters’ bedrooms within the morning. For the downstairs unit, I went with the trendy analog clock that appears tremendous trendy on my entryway wall and is beneficial to look at from the lounge. 

I’m additionally thrilled to lastly be capable of management the Nest natively in Apple Home — my household’s most well-liked technique of good house management. The fourth-gen Nest is the primary Learning mannequin from Google with Matter help. This means it may work with any good house platform that helps Matter. (There’s a Nest thermostat with Matter help, however no studying algorithm.)

However, you’ll be able to’t set it up with Matter initially, as there is no such thing as a Matter code on the thermostat itself; solely as soon as it’s arrange utilizing the Google Home app are you able to generate a code and share the thermostat with one other Matter platform. (Note: this mannequin doesn’t work with the Nest app in any respect.)

I linked the thermostat to Apple Home and Amazon Alexa through Matter, and the method was surprisingly easy. Response instances have been instantaneous on all platforms, whether or not utilizing voice or app management; with Matter, the instructions are routed domestically.

Sadly, Google has ditched Thread right here. Thread is considered one of Matter’s most important wi-fi protocols, but it surely was initially developed for the Nest Learning Thermostat. A model of Thread has been on each earlier Learning mannequin, so its exclusion right here, on the primary Learning thermostat with Matter help, is baffling.

The Nest Learning Thermostat (4th-gen) is Nest’s strongest thermostat to this point. It works with extra programs than the third-gen, together with as much as three heating and two cooling levels. Plus, it’s appropriate with humidifier, dehumidifier, and air flow gear. It additionally has extra software program options designed to cut back power use whereas retaining you snug. At $280, it’ll take some time to offset the thermostat’s price with power financial savings, however you could be eligible for a good rebate out of your power supplier.

I’ve put in dozens of good thermostats over time, and the Nest remains to be one of many easiest to put in, because of clear steps, good steerage from the app, and click-in connectors. (Pro tip: insert the wires earlier than you screw the backplate to the wall.)

It’s additionally one of many solely good thermostats that doesn’t require a C wire, however I like to recommend putting in one in the event you can — or utilizing the Nest Power Connector. Without devoted energy, the Nest Learning Thermostat makes use of a power-sharing trick to trickle cost its inside battery, however that will not at all times work persistently. When my C wire went dangerous on my previous system, the non-learning Nest Thermostat I used to be testing saved disconnecting from Wi-Fi and finally stopped working when its AA batteries died.

This time round, nonetheless, I had a brand new HVAC system. My previous single-stage system had given out after 12 years of sweating by way of South Carolina summers, and we’d determined to put in a extra energy-efficient Trane warmth pump system with a multistage high-efficiency compressor and a TEM6 variable-stage air handler. 

Connecting the Nest required me to contact Google. According to their techs, the fourth-gen Nest is appropriate with my system since it may run the air handler in two levels, permitting the unit to determine what proportion to make use of at every stage. However, my HVAC installer advised me I had to make use of Trane’s personal thermostats to get the compressor’s full effectivity.

This isn’t distinctive to Nest; variable-speed programs almost at all times work finest with the producer’s thermostats. But this makes me unhappy as a result of the Trane XL824 thermostats that got here with my system appear to be mini Windows computer systems on my wall and never like pretty items of bijou. They are additionally fiddly to program, and the app is indecipherable. 

Even with out entry to the total vary of compressor settings, I used to be nonetheless capable of take a look at the Nest Learning Thermostat, together with its signature operate: Smart Schedules. This function is why I’ve at all times favored and beneficial Nest thermostats — it’s a way more hands-off expertise than most good thermostats. 

Smart Schedules makes use of three modes: eco, sleep, and luxury. During setup, you select preset heating and cooling temperatures for every mode. The thermostat is programmed with a starter schedule that units your property to consolation mode at 6:15AM and sleep mode at 10PM. From there, I simply wanted to regulate the temperature (within the app, with voice management, or on the gadget) for per week or so, and the thermostat mechanically tailored the schedule to my preferences. 

I’ve been testing the Nest for 2 months now, and in that point, it has repeatedly tweaked the time and temperature of the schedule as my family’s habits and the seasons have modified, with little to no enter from me. The home has persistently felt snug regardless of the wild temperature swings of the South Carolina fall and winter. 

On earlier fashions of the Nest Learning Thermostat, I’ve run into points with good scheduling, particularly throughout seasonal modifications. Thankfully, Google has largely addressed these with the fourth-gen mannequin by making the gadget’s decision-making extra clear. It now sends notifications within the app when it adjusts your schedule and tells you what it’s doing on the thermostat. This allows you to repair any inaccurate modifications earlier than you are feeling them and is a welcome change from the typically inscrutable actions of the sooner variations. (You can inform it to not make changes with out your approval if you’re actually involved about shedding management.)

Along with Smart Schedules, you’ll be able to add the thermostat to Google Home’s house and away routines. These use presence sensing to know when nobody is house and put the system into eco mode to assist save power. You may also tie different good house actions into these routines, akin to having your lights flip off once you depart and switch again on once you arrive house. 

The away mode was impressively correct in my testing, switching on as quickly as I obtained within the automotive in my driveway. This is extra environment friendly than the 2 hours it may take the Ecobee to determine if the home is empty. Google makes use of a number of indicators right here, together with the Soli radar sensor within the thermostat, movement sensors in any wired Nest Protect smoke alarms you’ve, interactions with any Nest audio system, plus your cellphone’s location, in the event you allow that setting within the Google Home app. While you’ll need to have relations obtain the Google Home app so it may embrace them, the opposite indicators ought to assist forestall anybody left at house and not using a registered cellphone from getting frozen out.

On the third-gen thermostat, away mode usually let the temperature drop an excessive amount of, struggling to return to a snug degree after I obtained house. A brand new adaptive eco mode on the fourth-gen addresses this, considering the climate and staying shut sufficient to the consolation temperature in order that it may get again to it inside an hour. Last week, it was within the excessive 20s right here in South Carolina, and as a substitute of dropping all the way in which all the way down to 62 levels Fahrenheit (my heating threshold in eco mode) after I left the home, it solely went all the way down to 66F and was again to a snug 68F inside a couple of minutes of my return.

Another new function on the fourth-gen is pure heating and cooling. This equally leverages its information of out of doors temps and can pause the system if Mother Nature can naturally warmth or cool your property. I haven’t seen this occur but, however in concept, if it’s a sunny, heat day, the thermostat can pause heating and use passive warmth to complete heating your own home. There’s additionally an choice to get an alert telling you to open the home windows to assist with this. Google additionally added a wise air flow function that mechanically prompts your air flow system to usher in recent air if out of doors air high quality is nice and temperatures are appropriate. I couldn’t take a look at this as a result of I don’t have a air flow system.

The Nest’s distant temperature sensors have a brand new design to match the thermostat, and one now comes within the field (which helps offset the worth bump from the third-gen). These let your thermostat goal the temperature within the rooms you’re really in, and never simply the place the thermostat is. With the fourth-gen thermostat, now you can choose a number of sensors and intention for a mean temperature throughout them, which is extra environment friendly than focusing on only one room. This is a function rivals like Ecobee and Honeywell Home have had for years, so Nest is taking part in catch-up right here, but it surely’s nonetheless enchancment. 

I’ve a two-zone system, and I positioned the sensor for the upstairs thermostat in my workplace and the one for the downstairs thermostat within the kitchen. I tied the daytime consolation schedule to the workplace sensor to maintain me cozy after I’m working and the night consolation schedule to the kitchen sensor so I keep snug when cooking. This is extra intuitive than the third-gen mannequin, which has you create separate mounted schedules for the sensors.

However, Nest nonetheless hasn’t added occupancy detection to the sensors (once more, one thing Ecobee’s and Honeywell Home’s distant sensors provide). This would let the thermostat modify to the room I’m really in moderately than the place the schedule says. For instance, the consolation schedule that assumes I’m working in my workplace through the day will nonetheless run upstairs, even when I determine to work on my eating room desk downstairs. I’ve to manually modify the Nests if I transfer rooms, whereas the Ecobee may modify mechanically based mostly on my presence. In lieu of presence detection within the sensors, it could be good if the units Google Home makes use of for house and away detection additionally labored for occupancy sensing for the Nest’s heating and cooling modes.

Also, the temperature sensors disappointingly use Bluetooth, not Thread, and subsequently don’t work in Matter. This means they’re solely accessible within the Google Home app, so you’ll be able to’t use them to run temperature-based automations on different platforms. As talked about earlier, Google ditched Thread from the thermostat with this model, and whereas the thermostat itself could not have seen loads of profit from Thread (aside from serving to kind a stronger community in my good house), the battery-powered room sensors would definitely see some profit from the protocol. 

If you want the thought of your heating and cooling adjusting to you as you progress round the home, then the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium will likely be a greater match. Its latest design will look very good in your wall (though it’s extra techy-looking than the Nest), and at $250 with a room sensor, it’s a bit of extra reasonably priced. Compatibility is similar to the Nest, though the Nest provides three levels of heating, whereas the Ecobee Premium is optimized for as much as two. 

I’ve used each Ecobee and Nest thermostats for a few years, and the simplicity of the Nest makes it the higher selection for me. Plus, it is simpler to combine into my good house now that the Nest works natively with Apple Home (one thing Ecobee has completed for years). Overall, the Ecobee is extra sophisticated to arrange and use however has extra options and capabilities. This consists of being a wise speaker, a video doorbell intercom, a house safety system, and monitoring your generator. However, most of those capabilities are proprietary, and Ecobee doesn’t help Matter (but).

In distinction, the Nest has only one job and it does it effectively. It’s straightforward to arrange and straightforward to make use of, and simpler to know, now that it tells you what it’s doing when its smarts kick in. It takes a lot of the work out of your palms and requires much less tinkering than the Ecobee to maintain you snug. I like and advocate each merchandise, however if you need one thing easy, trendy, and actually good, go together with the Nest.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge