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by JimA 1131 days ago
After using a 3rd gen for 8 years, I just replaced my Nest 3rd gens with Ecobee Premiums. Used to be a proud Nest user, they even shaped my choice of a new home HVAC system to be something compatible. However, they (and their software) haven't changed since I bought them, they are stuck in 2015. Meanwhile Ecobee has been producing beautiful hardware and software that has not only caught up but surpassed the 5+ year headstart that Google/Nest squandered.

Also read Build and I'm sure Tony is just sad at seeing the opportunity lost as Nest becomes a shell of itself.
3 comments
pellucidar 1131 days ago
We got Ecobees as part of an HVAC overhaul; they're nice and it's impressive how many situations they handle out of the box, whereas we had to run a new wire to get the (pre-Google) Nest to work correctly when it was already supposed to work with our existing setup. I do have issues with the software, though: we have two zones and it just doesn't handle that situation conveniently. (I don't know how the Nest would have done because we had only one zone with it.)
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Marsymars 1131 days ago
> Meanwhile Ecobee has been producing beautiful hardware and software that has not only caught up but surpassed the 5+ year headstart that Google/Nest squandered.

Ecobee released their first smart thermostat 3 years prior to the first Nest Thermostat. (Not that that's a fault, I've been a happy ecobee user for years.)

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teekert 1130 days ago
I emailed Ecobee years ago if they were available here in the Netherlands and if they were considering it. They said they were looking at it...

It's a shame, Fadell was right to go into the thermostat market. Honeywell still has nothing that looks nice, and, according to the reviews, nothing that functions well. The stuff that comes with HVAC systems are generally expensive but cheap feeling and imho ugly.

In the EU all manufacturers have to support OpenTherm, an open standard, so you'd think this is a big homogeneous market to enter...

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teekert 1131 days ago
Ecobee was one of my first choices indeed, nice stuff. Sadly they don't serve the EU, and they have (consequently) no OpenTherm options.
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