[bastawhiz]

> Google is at least the devil we know, here.

Google has left these devices essentially completely unusable. You're not trading up Google because Google already abandoned these devices by shutting off the lights. Even if you don't agree with how robust their service is, they're offering you the ability to turn what's effectively e-waste into an operable device.

[skybrian]

Why do you say it's unusable? Our Nest thermostat seems to be working fine as a normal (offline) thermostat. I don't see a reason to replace it.

I'm not even sure when I would want a network-enabled thermostat. We inherited it from the previous owners.

[Aurornis]

Google disabled cloud services, and therefore the app. The remote control features were a key reason many bought these.

Can you edit schedules directly on the thermostat? From what I recall, much of the functionality required the app. That can’t be used now.

If you’re only using it as an analog dial to set the temperature, you won’t miss anything. However the majority of functionality is now gone from the devices.

[mattmaroon]

You can edit the schedule on the device but it isn’t fun. The UI is just basically a dial that can click. And there’s no copy paste.

[yummypaint]

Yep I have this and it's total garbage. The scheduling options feel designed to troll, serious MacBook wheel vibes. No way to temporarily disable the schedule if you're going out of town. Either turn your HVAC off entirely, or delete the entire schedule and manually reenter the whole thing when you get back (who doesn't love life-wasting menu diving after a long trip?).

[mattmaroon]

Yeah. It’s awful. And there’s no reason they couldn’t have given us one last firmware update that just at bare minimum allows us to use it with HomeKit or Alexa or whatever else.

[sm5rt]

There is an Eco mode you can configure and enable with click-rotate-click-click.

[phatskat]

I liked mine because my home/away schedule isn’t “routine”. It was much easier to have it known when we left the house and it would automatically turn down, and I could warm the place up when we were headed home which is great when it’s below freezing out.

Edit to mention that I was out of town one winter and my thermostat gave me an alert that my apartment had reached 40F! With my cats in there and a blizzard happening while I was four states away, I was able to ask a friend to walk over and check it out. Turns out my balcony doors had blown open during the storm, thankfully my cats wanted nothing to do with the snowy outside but I can’t imagine if they had been in that situation for the 3-4 days it would be before I got home.

[bastawhiz]

It's an Internet connected device that will never receive updates and has none of the features that justify its existence above a $20 dumb thermostat. If you inherited it and don't care about the features and never used it anyway, I'm not sure why you'd care either way.

If you'd bought it for hundreds of dollars for the things it promised to do, you'd probably be much more excited to learn that you at least aren't stuck with a device that was made intentionally dumb by the manufacturer. They're perfectly capable of doing what they were designed to do!

[emodendroket]

Mostly I can fiddle with it from my bed rather than going downstairs.