Amazon Smart Thermostat – ENERGY STAR certified, DIY install, Works with Alexa – C-wire required

Good for a first try but could be better. tldr; a great start for Amazon getting into the thermostat business but needs improvement all the way around.BACKGROUND~~~~~~~~~~~I’m coming from an original Nest Thermostat which I’ve been using for over 6 years — yes, it still works. So, why did I decided to switch? Well, I like new tech and I decided about 8 months that I really hate having multiple eco-systems of smart products. So, I selected Amazon a while back. I’ve been replacing my cams from Wyze and Ring to Ring. We’ve got about 10 Echo devices. You can say we are almost fully vested.COST~~~~This was a great deal. For about $50, you get a fully functioning smart thermostat. I didn’t have a proper C-wire (supplies constant power to thermostat) so I had to get the Honeywell C-Wire kit. This is the kit that costs about $20 more which is auto selected if you choose the “no c-wire” model at the product page.INSTALLATION~~~~~~~~~~~The easiest part of the installation was opening the box. Overall, it took one hour to install including the c-wire adapter. 30 minutes of that was trying to put back on the furnace covers (@#$@!). Again, you don’t have to worry about the c-wire adapter and opening the furnace if you already have a c-wire ran. You can check for the c-wire by popping open your current thermostat and seeing if there’s a connection to “c-wire” or looking for an extra unused wire if you currently have a “dumb” thermostat.Amazon says there are stickers to label your wires but there was not! I checked, double-checked, and triple-checked. I’m so glad that my 6 year Nest came with some because I had already taken the time to label the wires. This was a bummer. It may make hooking up the wires to the new thermostat a real pain in the butt for some. Oh, and the honeywell kit also said it had labels. Guess what? Nope. :(Only if you don’t have a c-wire run….They have you install the c-wire adapter first so you can have constant power running to the thermostat. That part was pretty easy but you have to be comfortable taking apart the furnace doors and rewiring to an adapter. ALWAYS TAKE PICTURES OF WIRES BEFORE DOING ANY SORT OF OF THIS TYPE OF WORK. You always want a reference.Let me complain about the alexa app a bit. Amazon tried. They really tried but damn. I can see this a deal breaker for many. So, check this out, you use your Alexa app to setup the thermostat. You crack open this app FIRST before doing anything else so it can guide you through the entire process. Before you do anything you want to also make sure you have the latest app version installed as well. Go to your app store and make sure to download the latest version.That being said, the Alexa app itself guides the user through the process. No videos. It’s just text and picture. While it is laid out nicely, it can get confusing for some people. There needs to be more clarification on some of the steps. Perhaps a video?One of the most annoying parts of the app is that while you put your phone down to do some steps, you come back and the app quits the process. You are at the main screen! No joke. You have to literally go through all the steps again to get back to where you left off. I had to do this about 7 times. It was super annoying. Amazon, you must do something to correct this. It is super annoying.As far as the rest of the installation, it was pretty straightforward. If you wired a thermostat before, you’ll get through this. Again, super annoying with the app reverting to the begining due to timing out.I noticed that the wires in the closure were a super tight fit. At one point I closed the latch and the small closure bulched out. I had to re-open and re-position cables. That took a bit to re-adjust.The optional decorative plate (presumably to hide wall holes or imperfections), I could not get flat. It seemed thin and flimsy. When looking from an angle, you can tell a bit. :(The thermostat itself snapped real easily to the connection plate. No issues there. Pretty solid.SETUP~~~~~The thermostat fired up once I turned the power back on to the hvac. The alexa app took about 2 minutes to talk to the thermostat to connect and configure it. This part was automatic.PHYSICAL FUNCTIONALITY~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~If you look at the thermostat itself it can be confusing even though it’s simple. The arrows dissapear. The arrows I think need to be there so that anyone can understand where to press the buttons to turn up or down temp.DIGITAL/GUI FUNCTIONALITY~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The thermostat function seems buried in the alexa app. I know you can set favorites, but there should be a way to have it up as soon as you open alexa app. I know the entire purpose is to use alexa via voice but still.How about some dedicated widgets for the thermostat? Something we can throw on the phone home screen so we can easily adjust temperature?Another note. My wife also has the alexa app with her own account. She is part of the household. She cannot see the thermostat to adjust in the app. 🙁 I’ll have to investigate this more.CONCLUSION~~~~~~~~~~~Great start. Would I buy it again? Sure. Why? Because it’s nice and simple. There really isn’t anything that can’t be solved with a software update on this one.Be sure to check with your local utility company as you can essentially get a rebate for it making it ‘free.’

Amazon Smart t-stat honest review. I’m a big Nest fan had it on my old house the problem that I have with them it’s the cost, and even with gas company great rebate didn’t justify the cost especially with my new home having a total of 5 thermostats (t-stat). I was excited when I found that Amazon partner with Honeywell to get this t-stat created as Honeywell has been creating t-stat for years which make me feel better when making the purchase.—COST—Now let go over the details for cost it’s good and I got two of them which at the end of the day will be free due to the electric company rebate for a smart t-stat. I didn’t get a C- adapter and I will explain later (INSTALL session) why I purchase a 24-volt transformer for my first-floor unit.—INSTALL—Love the package it reminds me of the NEST when it first starts came with everything that you needed the only additional tools, I need was a harmer, and drill but this is normal for these installations.Now the biggest question that everyone has is the C (common) wire. This is where you need to do your research regardless of what company you go with when upgrading to a smart thermostat, due your homework on what you need. For me I have a spill unit (boiler & A/C) first for my second-floor unit it was super easy I had an extra wire and I use it for Common the t-stat startup and finish within 30 min. Now for my first floor I utilize a 24-volt transformer because I didn’t have spare cables and I didn’t want to run a new cable which drove me to make the purchase again do your homework before and see what option best works for your use case.I connected the transformer to the C wire and the other end to Rc and that works like a champ. This is critical if you have a split unit since Honeywell power their t-stat via Rc only when you have two RED Wire (R (heater) and Rc(cooling)) and the blue tab (internal jumper is down position. If you only have one RED Wire you are fine just keep the blue tab up and your t-stat will turn on without any problems. I did reach out to Honeywell and explain to them they need to explain this on their site and white papers that when you have split units’ power for the t-stat will come from Rc and not from R this is critical because my house previous owner installed a switch to keep the A/C unit down through the winter to avoid accident turning on the unit which is great idea. Please keep in mind this is NOT an Amazon problem that is Honeywell they did acknowledge their mistake and agree to update their site and documentation.Running my transformer cable and installing the unit took me about 60 minutes because I wanted to look perfect with the transformer cable going through the wall this make the installation look cleaner.—-SETUP—-Once all wire were connected the setup of the t-stat was simply and when I say simple it was super didn’t have input the WiFi password or anything else since it automatic joined my account that was amazing and simply just like setting a fire table that was a great experience. Amazon did an amazing job doing this some users this my not be as good, but I look automation the less click I must do the less chances of mistake A+—LOOK—The t-stat looks great after the final install the wall panel (included but optional for install) made it easier for me since I didn’t have to paint (if you had a different color paint I would recommend adjusting before completing the install but that is just me)—Interface (GUI)—-For me the GUI is great for some it my but I’m one of those people that like to have one application on my phone or tablet rather than 2 and this is where Amazon did another amazing job. Please keep in mind that Google who purchase NEST is doing the same thing I see the NEST application going away in the future all new NEST is configure from Google Home and they also did a great job The GUI it’s simple and allows you to setup multiple schedules and copy them to different days or week. Huge plus on my book because for the NEST I had to do manually per day I can setup one day and copy to another. You can setup away and home schedule or utilize your current Amazon device to tell the t-stat that you are home or away. Another item that I love from the Amazon you can setup MAX cooling or heating this allows for mistake not to happen and getting your house too hot or cool really go option to have and you can set filter replacements without your assistance (optional) for me this is great no more remembering air filter as they will show up at my footsteps.Energy saving incentives can also be done via the application. The dashboard its great too it tells you how much energy you utilize each day and where you can save.Now the only downside for that I experience is only scheduling session on Android because it forces close my Alexa application all the time, I don’t have this problem with anything else on the application just the scheduling session. This option works perfect on my wife new iPhone and iPad pro and new Android phone. My old Android is the one with this problem, but I experience this kind of thing on and off since it’s an older device.——-Final judgment —-The device is good option for a smart t-stat and would recommend for anyone some of the problems that were reported it was on day one which is expected with any new launch overall I see this t-stat giving Google (NEST) and others a run for their money as now you have a great option for smart t-stat and you don’t require to break your budget to acquire one. In addition, love the one application for everything as previously mentioned all big companies are doing this model to stop the install of some many other applications. In a scale from 0 -10 this t-stat gets a 9 please note that the NEST 3rd gen got a 9 from me. Hope this helps everyone make the correct decision and I will update this review in a few weeks to report back.

Amazon Smart t-stat honest review. I’m a big Nest fan had it on my old house the problem that I have with them it’s the cost, and even with gas company great rebate didn’t justify the cost especially with my new home having a total of 5 thermostats (t-stat). I was excited when I found that Amazon partner with Honeywell to get this t-stat created as Honeywell has been creating t-stat for years which make me feel better when making the purchase.—COST—Now let go over the details for cost it’s good and I got two of them which at the end of the day will be free due to the electric company rebate for a smart t-stat. I didn’t get a C- adapter and I will explain later (INSTALL session) why I purchase a 24-volt transformer for my first-floor unit.—INSTALL—Love the package it reminds me of the NEST when it first starts came with everything that you needed the only additional tools, I need was a harmer, and drill but this is normal for these installations.Now the biggest question that everyone has is the C (common) wire. This is where you need to do your research regardless of what company you go with when upgrading to a smart thermostat, due your homework on what you need. For me I have a spill unit (boiler & A/C) first for my second-floor unit it was super easy I had an extra wire and I use it for Common the t-stat startup and finish within 30 min. Now for my first floor I utilize a 24-volt transformer because I didn’t have spare cables and I didn’t want to run a new cable which drove me to make the purchase again do your homework before and see what option best works for your use case.I connected the transformer to the C wire and the other end to Rc and that works like a champ. This is critical if you have a split unit since Honeywell power their t-stat via Rc only when you have two RED Wire (R (heater) and Rc(cooling)) and the blue tab (internal jumper is down position. If you only have one RED Wire you are fine just keep the blue tab up and your t-stat will turn on without any problems. I did reach out to Honeywell and explain to them they need to explain this on their site and white papers that when you have split units’ power for the t-stat will come from Rc and not from R this is critical because my house previous owner installed a switch to keep the A/C unit down through the winter to avoid accident turning on the unit which is great idea. Please keep in mind this is NOT an Amazon problem that is Honeywell they did acknowledge their mistake and agree to update their site and documentation.Running my transformer cable and installing the unit took me about 60 minutes because I wanted to look perfect with the transformer cable going through the wall this make the installation look cleaner.—-SETUP—-Once all wire were connected the setup of the t-stat was simply and when I say simple it was super didn’t have input the WiFi password or anything else since it automatic joined my account that was amazing and simply just like setting a fire table that was a great experience. Amazon did an amazing job doing this some users this my not be as good, but I look automation the less click I must do the less chances of mistake A+—LOOK—The t-stat looks great after the final install the wall panel (included but optional for install) made it easier for me since I didn’t have to paint (if you had a different color paint I would recommend adjusting before completing the install but that is just me)—Interface (GUI)—-For me the GUI is great for some it my but I’m one of those people that like to have one application on my phone or tablet rather than 2 and this is where Amazon did another amazing job. Please keep in mind that Google who purchase NEST is doing the same thing I see the NEST application going away in the future all new NEST is configure from Google Home and they also did a great job The GUI it’s simple and allows you to setup multiple schedules and copy them to different days or week. Huge plus on my book because for the NEST I had to do manually per day I can setup one day and copy to another. You can setup away and home schedule or utilize your current Amazon device to tell the t-stat that you are home or away. Another item that I love from the Amazon you can setup MAX cooling or heating this allows for mistake not to happen and getting your house too hot or cool really go option to have and you can set filter replacements without your assistance (optional) for me this is great no more remembering air filter as they will show up at my footsteps.Energy saving incentives can also be done via the application. The dashboard its great too it tells you how much energy you utilize each day and where you can save.Now the only downside for that I experience is only scheduling session on Android because it forces close my Alexa application all the time, I don’t have this problem with anything else on the application just the scheduling session. This option works perfect on my wife new iPhone and iPad pro and new Android phone. My old Android is the one with this problem, but I experience this kind of thing on and off since it’s an older device.——-Final judgment —-The device is good option for a smart t-stat and would recommend for anyone some of the problems that were reported it was on day one which is expected with any new launch overall I see this t-stat giving Google (NEST) and others a run for their money as now you have a great option for smart t-stat and you don’t require to break your budget to acquire one. In addition, love the one application for everything as previously mentioned all big companies are doing this model to stop the install of some many other applications. In a scale from 0 -10 this t-stat gets a 9 please note that the NEST 3rd gen got a 9 from me. Hope this helps everyone make the correct decision and I will update this review in a few weeks to report back.

It just works. This is a cheap and effective way to add some smart home functionality, and it is nice to be able to set the temperature to a schedule. Installation is very easy, and it has been running great for over a year. It is nice to be able to control the temperature from anywhere in the world.