Nest Studying Thermostat (4th-gen) assessment: definitely worth the wait

There are solely a handful of good residence devices I unequivocally suggest to everybody, and a wise thermostat is one in every of them. They’re extremely helpful, combining the three C’s of the good residence: comfort, consolation, and value financial savings.

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

For 2 causes. First, it’s the neatest good thermostat. The educational Nest is the one thermostat with an algorithm that robotically adjusts your heating and cooling schedule based mostly on how you utilize it, and the fourth-gen is smarter than ever. Second, it seems to be attractive. In case your thermostat is in a outstanding spot like mine, seems to be matter, and no different thermostat seems to be this good.

I beloved the third-gen Nest, with its modern type and tactile dial, and the fourth-gen Nest takes that iconic design to the following degree. Including 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 Tune put it, “The Nest is so fairly, it makes the remainder of my home look drab compared.”

The larger display makes it simpler to regulate and navigate settings, and the Farsight dynamic show has new choices that make the most of the house. Farsight makes use of the machine’s Soli radar sensor to change the Nest’s show based mostly on how shut you might be to the thermostat.

From a distance, it exhibits a simplified view with simply the time, climate, or temperature settings; up shut, it transitions to indicate extra detailed info, together with a brand new row of three customizable “issues.” These can show varied information, 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 important competitor at this value level, does supply.)

I selected to make use of the climate face on my upstairs unit, which exhibits 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 children’ bedrooms within the morning. For the downstairs unit, I went with the trendy analog clock that appears tremendous fashionable on my entryway wall and is beneficial to look at from the lounge. 

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

Nevertheless, you possibly can’t set it up with Matter initially, as there isn’t a Matter code on the thermostat itself; solely as soon as it’s arrange utilizing the Google Residence app are you able to generate a code and share the thermostat with one other Matter platform. (Notice: this mannequin doesn’t work with the Nest app in any respect.)

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

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

The Nest Studying Thermostat (4th-gen) is Nest’s strongest thermostat to this point. It really works with extra methods than the third-gen, together with as much as three heating and two cooling phases. Plus, it’s suitable with humidifier, dehumidifier, and air flow gear. It additionally has extra software program options designed to scale back vitality use whereas preserving you comfy. At $280, it is going to take some time to offset the thermostat’s price with vitality financial savings, however you could be eligible for a good rebate out of your vitality 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 steering from the app, and click-in connectors. (Professional 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 should you can — or utilizing the Nest Energy Connector. With out devoted energy, the Nest Studying 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 unhealthy on my previous system, the non-learning Nest Thermostat I used to be testing saved disconnecting from Wi-Fi and ultimately stopped working when its AA batteries died.

This time round, nevertheless, I had a brand new HVAC system. My previous single-stage system had given out after 12 years of sweating by means 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. In line with their techs, the fourth-gen Nest is suitable with my system since it will possibly run the air handler in two phases, permitting the unit to determine what share to make use of at every stage. Nevertheless, my HVAC installer informed 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 methods almost at all times work finest with the producer’s thermostats. However this makes me unhappy as a result of the Trane XL824 thermostats that got here with my system appear to be mini Home windows computer systems on my wall and never like pretty items of jewellery. They’re 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 in a position to check the Nest Studying Thermostat, together with its signature operate: Sensible Schedules. This function is why I’ve at all times favored and really helpful Nest thermostats — it’s a way more hands-off expertise than most good thermostats. 

Sensible Schedules makes use of three modes: eco, sleep, and luxury. Throughout setup, you select preset heating and cooling temperatures for every mode. The thermostat is programmed with a starter schedule that units your house 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 machine) for every week or so, and the thermostat robotically 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 comfy regardless of the wild temperature swings of the South Carolina fall and winter. 

On earlier fashions of the Nest Studying Thermostat, I’ve run into points with good scheduling, particularly throughout seasonal adjustments. Fortunately, Google has largely addressed these with the fourth-gen mannequin by making the machine’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 adjustments earlier than you’re feeling them and is a welcome change from the generally inscrutable actions of the sooner variations. (You’ll be able to inform it to not make changes with out your approval if you’re actually involved about dropping management.)

Together with Sensible Schedules, you possibly can add the thermostat to Google Residence’s residence and away routines. These use presence sensing to know when nobody is residence and put the system into eco mode to assist save vitality. You can even tie different good residence actions into these routines, akin to having your lights flip off if you depart and switch again on if you arrive residence. 

The away mode was impressively correct in my testing, switching on as quickly as I bought within the automotive in my driveway. That is extra environment friendly than the 2 hours it will possibly take the Ecobee to determine if the home is empty. Google makes use of a number of alerts right here, together with the Soli radar sensor within the thermostat, movement sensors in any wired Nest Shield smoke alarms you may have, interactions with any Nest audio system, plus your cellphone’s location, should you allow that setting within the Google Residence app. When you’ll need to have relations obtain the Google Residence app so it will possibly embrace them, the opposite alerts ought to assist forestall anybody left at residence with out 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 cushty degree after I bought residence. 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 will possibly get again to it inside an hour. Final week, it was within the excessive 20s right here in South Carolina, and as a substitute of dropping all the best way right down to 62 levels Fahrenheit (my heating threshold in eco mode) after I left the home, it solely went right down to 66F and was again to a cushty 68F inside a couple of minutes of my return.

One other 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 Mom Nature can naturally warmth or cool your house. I haven’t seen this occur but, however in principle, if it’s a sunny, heat day, the thermostat can pause heating and use passive warmth to complete heating your 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 robotically prompts your air flow system to herald recent air if out of doors air high quality is sweet and temperatures are suitable. I couldn’t check 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 value 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. It is a function opponents like Ecobee and Honeywell Residence have had for years, so Nest is taking part in catch-up right here, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an excellent 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 comfy when cooking. That is extra intuitive than the third-gen mannequin, which has you create separate mounted schedules for the sensors.

Nevertheless, Nest nonetheless hasn’t added occupancy detection to the sensors (once more, one thing Ecobee’s and Honeywell Residence’s distant sensors supply). This could let the thermostat alter to the room I’m really in relatively 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 alter the Nests if I transfer rooms, whereas the Ecobee may alter robotically based mostly on my presence. In lieu of presence detection within the sensors, it might be good if the units Google Residence makes use of for residence and away detection additionally labored for occupancy sensing for the Nest’s heating and cooling modes.

Additionally, the temperature sensors disappointingly use Bluetooth, not Thread, and subsequently don’t work in Matter. This implies they’re solely accessible within the Google Residence app, so you possibly can’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 lots of profit from Thread (aside from serving to type a stronger community in my good residence), the battery-powered room sensors would definitely see some profit from the protocol. 

In the event you like the concept of your heating and cooling adjusting to you as you progress round the home, then the Ecobee Sensible Thermostat Premium shall 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 slightly extra reasonably priced. Compatibility is corresponding to the Nest, though the Nest gives three phases 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 residence now that the Nest works natively with Apple Residence (one thing Ecobee has executed for years). General, the Ecobee is extra difficult to arrange and use however has extra options and capabilities. This contains being a wise speaker, a video doorbell intercom, a house safety system, and monitoring your generator. Nevertheless, 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 properly. It’s straightforward to arrange and simple to make use of, and simpler to grasp, 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 comfy. I like and suggest each merchandise, however in order for you one thing easy, fashionable, and actually good, go along with the Nest.

Pictures by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge