Amazon Smart Thermostat – Save money and energy – Works with Alexa and…

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.

Not really that smart – interface is difficult
Latest Edit #3 (upgrade to 3 stars): just FYI… Amazon customer service will contact you if you leave a bad review. lolI didn’t have time to spend with them on the phone, but I kept fiddling with these thermostats until I finally have a reasonable setting. The interface in the Alexa App is somewhat confusing. Imagine that! There are two different “auto” modes. One is a scheduled mode for temp ranges pre-set in 3 categories of home, away, and sleep. That’s your only choices. You must preset the preferred temp ranges and make a control schedule and set it to auto. This differs from the auto control choice which uses hunches to automatically change thermostat to the preferred temp ranges set for home, away, and sleep. If you choose the hunches option, it will not work correctly unless everyone in the house connects their smart phone to the thermostat so Alexa can “track you in the background” (bad idea) to determine through hunches whether anyone is at home or everyone is sleeping. That just does not work for me.Thankfully, I don’t feel like I completely wasted my money, but these thermostats only get 3 stars because: 1) the Alexa app (always trouble to find/control anything) is particularly cumbersome for these devices and confusing to navigate. 2) the inability to set a true time schedule at a specific temperature which can hold automatically. 3) no option to create a custom temp range other than the 3 offered.PROS: the thermostats are streamlined and look nice and are reasonably easy to install if you have basic electrical knowledge. If you don’t, you’ll probably need assistance from a professional. The auto switch between heat and AC to keep the temp range is nice. You can control it well from your phone with the Alexa app. Having their own app which is easier to navigate might be helpful. Controlling the thermostats by voice through the dot or echo (as with all things) is hit and miss.Edit #2 – After fiddling with these things a bit more, I came back and reduced this review from 2 starts to 1 star. Awful! Can’t get rid of the darn “hunches” setting even after turning it off. Argh!The auto range to set temps whether in the Auto setting or with a schedule does not allow for heat and cool temp to be set close enough together. You’re constantly either on too high of a setting for cool or too low of a setting for heat. You never have a truly comfortable setting.1st review: You are stuck using temperature ranges for Home, Away, or Sleep functions without the ability to SET a specific temp at a certain time.The old thermostats I had where I had to manually go through and set a schedule at least kept my house reasonably comfortable. With these so-called smart thermostats we are either too hot or too cold because the temperature ranges will not allow us to set it where it’s comfortable.In the end, this thermostat is not really that smart and makes me feel dumb for buying not one, but two, of these things. I will probably just end up reinstalling my old ones again. Ugh! What a waste of money because I can’t send them back since I’ve been trying to learn to use them, and my return window has closed.