Ecobee vs. Nest

Table of Contents

Ecobee and Nest are arguably the two dominant smart thermostats in the market. So I tested the thermostat models from both brands over several months to find out which one was the better choice based on my requirements. Continue reading to find out which device earned a permanent spot in our home.

The primary focus of this review is to compare the ecobee4 with the 3rd Gen Nest Learning Thermostat. However, I make several references throughout this article to the ecobee3 lite and Nest Thermostat E and also included both in the comparison table below.

Programmable vs. Smart Thermostats

In 2013, my wife and I bought a 3300sqft ranch-style home that had two programmable thermostats. I’m a technologist and Apple fan, and when I heard that two former Apple engineers, Tony Fadell, and Matt Rogers had developed Nest, a slick-looking new thermostat that required little interaction because it could learn our heating and cooling preferences, I immediately bought a pair and replaced the old units.

Product
ecobee4 Smart Thermostat with Built-in Alexa	Find on Amazon
Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd Generation	Find on Amazon
ecobee3 lite Smart Thermostat	Find on Amazon
Nest Learning Thermostat E	Find on Amazon
ecobee Room Sensors	Find on Amazon

Nest Learning Thermostats

The idea behind Nest is that the thermostat learns your heating and cooling preferences over time, thus keeping your interaction with the device to a minimum. Of course, when you first install Nest, you can change the assumptions Nest makes about you, such as when you leave home, go to bed, etc. From there, every time you adjust the temperature, it will learn from that behavior. The ultimate goal is for Nest to understand your preferences well enough so it can make those adjustments automatically for you.

Note that Nest offers two models of its thermostat – the classic Nest Learning Thermostat and the Nest Thermostat E, which is a smaller polycarbonate (plastic) version. This review focuses on the more expensive, metal version.

Nest Pros and Cons

Pros

Excellent build quality, featuring a stainless steel ring and glass display
Integrates and is compatible with other Nest products
Built-in lithium-ion battery to defend against power outages
Supports two or three-speed fans

Cons

Occasional connectivity issues with our WLAN router
Some folks find the user interface counter-intuitive
Remote sensors can measure temperature only but not occupancy
Owned by the company that makes money with information about its users
BMW-like turn and click is a nightmare for entering long and complex WLAN passwords
Limited support for home automation platforms

Compatibility with HVAC Systems

Nest claims that its learning thermostat is compatible with 95% of the 24V heating and cooling systems found in the United States. Its sibling, the Nest Thermostat E is compatible with only 85% of HVAC units. You can learn more about it on Nest’s system compatibility page.

Installation – C Wire

The installation of our Nest units was dead simple and took only a few minutes. All I had to do was take off the old programmable thermostat from the wall, identify the colored wires and clamp them onto the Nest control panel. Like many other houses, we didn’t have a Common or “C” wire to provide a continuous flow of 24 VAC power from the furnace to the thermostat.

To work around that issue, Nest engineers came up with an ingenious method that lets the device steal energy from the red “R” wire to keep its internal battery charged, which in turn provides continuous power to the thermostat. The problem is that doing so might cause your HVAC unit to malfunction. In our case, Nest worked fine and without causing issues, but some people recommend installing a “C” wire for Nest anyway.

Is Nest a good student?

Both my wife and I work from home and never leave the house for an extended period on a fixed schedule. As a result, the only thing Nest had to learn was what temperature settings we preferred. That turned out to be a challenge because we realized that the location where we installed the two Nest units was less than ideal. Both were located on opposite sides of a large living room, which we don’t use often.

Nest A controlled the master bedroom, family room, and an attached kitchen. Nest B controlled my office and the kids’ rooms. The three rooms we controlled with Nest B are relatively small, especially compared to the living room where we installed the thermostat. That resulted in those three rooms getting too hot during the heating season and too cold during the cooling season. During the day that was a massive problem for me, while in the office, and during the night it was an issue for the kids or any guests we had over.

As a result and because Nest didn’t have remote temperature sensors back then, we turned off the learning feature and kept adjusting the temperature manually, using the Nest app.

In 2018, Nest finally released remote temperature sensors in an attempt to catch up to ecobee.

Look & Feel

In my opinion, the Nest is the best-looking thermostat on the market. I like the glass front and stainless steel ring that you can turn to make changes to the temperature or navigate through the configuration settings.

While Nest’s ring makes temperature adjustments a breeze, it’s less convenient to navigate through the device’s settings or to enter long Wi-Fi passwords. In our case, Nest occasionally disconnected from our Wi-Fi network, likely because of weak signal strength, and so I had to re-enter the password a few times. I hated when that happened because I use a long and complex password that took at least a minute to enter using the turn & click approach Nest offers.

Home Automation & Voice Control

Apple HomeKit is the primary home automation platform we use, and Nest doesn’t support it. That’s one of the two reasons why I would never repurchase a Nest thermostat. However, if you use Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant, Nest has you covered. That means you can set up scenes, automation schedules and even use your voice to control the thermostat.

However, for voice control to work, you need a separate device, such as an Amazon Echo because Nest doesn’t have a microphone and speaker built in.

Privacy

When Nest was acquired by Google some months after I had installed the thermostats, I wasn’t thrilled and had privacy concerns. Keep in mind that Google makes money by knowing as much about you as possible. In other words, we are not only Google’s customers but also its products. For a recent example of why I have no Google technology in my home, including their home security cameras, check out this report.

Occupancy Detection

Nest uses a technology called geofencing to detect who is at home. Technically, the Nest app uses the geolocation of your phone to determine if you are in your home. The Nest app can use that capability to switch the thermostat into a money-saving “Away” mode when you or someone who is also part of the geofence leave the house.

When you re-enter the geofence, Nest can resume heating or cooling, and it all works like magic. The Nest app can also use information from compatible devices, such as Nest cameras, to determine if you are home. Additionally, any device that carries the “Works With Nest” label can help your thermostat understand if you are home or not.

Unfortunately, you cannot use the remote temperature sensors Nest announced in 2018 because they don’t have an occupancy or motion sensor built in.

Energy Reporting

Nest’s energy reporting is relatively basic because it only records ten days worth of data. The reason why I think it’s useful is that it gives you an indication about how you fare compared to the average household in your region and how much energy Nest thinks you saved by using its thermostat. I always enjoyed looking at the monthly report and see how many “Leafs” we earned and how much energy we saved.

ecobee4 Smart Thermostat

Ecobee is a Canadian company, and when they introduced the ecobee3 a few years ago, their primary selling point and advantage over Nest was the support for remote sensors. At the time, those sensors were the reason why I sold my Nest units and decided to go with ecobee. Similar to Nest, ecobee offers two product lines, the ecobee4, which I have reviewed in detail here, and the less expensive ecobee3 lite. I had initially purchased two ecobee3 units but upgraded one to the ecobee4 since then.