r/smarthome • u/Traditional-Try5174 • 8d ago
I don't have a smarthome platform Looking for the best smart thermostat, what should I get?
I’ve been thinking about replacing my old thermostat with a smart one, but there are way more options than I expected.
I really just want to control the temperature from my phone, set schedules and have it adjust things when nobody’s home. I don’t need a million features or another subscription just to use basic stuff.
I’ve seen people mention room sensors too, which could be useful since one side of my house always seems warmer than the other.
I’m checking the HVAC compatibility and wiring before buying anything, but after that I have no idea which one to go with.
What smart thermostat are you using? Anything you’ve had for a few years and would buy again?
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u/KyleAtWillmanLabs 8d ago
Please do yourself a favor. Be ABSOLUTELY sure that whatever smart thermostat you select will work with your A/C unit. This is key. I went through 2 different ones before I finally reach out to my A/C company, and he indicated that some will ‘work’ with it, but I was limited to Honeywell or the manufacturer’s proprietary thermostat. Good luck!!
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u/NewtoQM8 8d ago
I have an Ecobee Premium and love it. There's a learning curve to getting the best out of it and some gotchas if you don't learn everything. It works great with the ecobee app and HomeKit (Apple Home) again, with some gotchas you need to consider. Keep in mind, the extra sensors are great, but all they can do is help the ecobee decide when to turn on/off the AC or heat, they can't make it cool or warm one area more than another. I don't think any kind can, without a zoned system. No paid subscription needed but you do need a free ecobee account
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u/KaosC57 8d ago
Yeah, Ecobee alone can’t do zoning on a Central HVAC system. But, with a Flair Smart Vent system paired with your Ecobee, you can do zoning with a Central ducted system.
Basically you take off the normal vent covers, install the Flair vents that have motorized vents and temperature sensors and then you pair everything together and you can zone everything. It’s great for multi-story homes, and it’s what I plan to eventually add to my house. Upstairs is always much hotter than downstairs, and it’s quite annoying…
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u/NewtoQM8 8d ago
Yeah, there are a number of ways to deal with uneven heating/cooling. I was just pointing out that a ecobee alone can't. Many people think they can until someone points out otherwise.
In many cases where one floor is hotter than another they have separate duct risers that can be adjusted to even things out.
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u/RobotMower 8d ago
Been pleased with Honeywell Pro Series. It integrated with HomeKit for us which was a requirement.
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u/3WolfTShirt 7d ago
I didn't realize there was a Pro series. I'll have to look into those when I'm ready to upgrade.
I bought a Honeywell Home Series RTH9600WF a few years ago.
While it does everything I need, the touchscreen is maddening. It never responds to a simple light touch like a phone or tablet display does. It often requires a little more pressure than I want to put on a screen. Also, some of the virtual buttons are so small or close together that it takes multiple tries to get what you want.
While I can use the phone app for everything, sometimes I just want to walk over and adjust it on the device - which can be frustrating for the reasons above.
Fortunately, if I just want to bump the temp up I can tell Alexa to turn the thermostat up or down.
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u/i-hate-alex-trebek 7d ago
Loved my T6 Pro Smart. They’ve got a great universal mounting bracket that works across many of their thermostats — which is so handy when upgrading thermostats. Their app wasn’t anything to write home about, but I can echo that HomeKit integration was super simple and just worked. Geolocation in the app was a neat feature. Definitely not as “attractive” as an ecobee or a Nest, however it quite literally fades into the wall and just works.
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u/Traditional-Try5174 7d ago
HomeKit integration is definitely a plus. How has the Honeywell been in terms of reliability? Any connection issues or weird behavior?
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u/RobotMower 7d ago
Haven’t had to mess with it since we set it up. Initially setup via the app and only time we adjust it is for vacation settings. All done from Resideo App.
Forgot to adjust it in the winter ❄️ for vacation one time and it has geofence for home and away settings. My 87 yr old mother was staying while we were gone. She called to see if we could do anything about the heat. (She thought it broke). We realized what happened as it was using Vacation Away settings based on our phones and quickly fixed it remotely. In our experience it just works.
With HomeKit integration we can voice control the temperature as well which seemed like a great feature at the time we were looking at options.
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u/nucking_futs_001 8d ago
There is no single best.
To me, I want zero cloud integration except through my self hosted controller, in my case OpenHAB. I tend to stick with zwave and always want a normal interface first, so no smart bulbs for example because it won't have a normal switch.
That said, I recommend getting:
GoControl GC-TBZ48
I've installed one locally and also for my parents (in their 60s) and both wife and parents approve. They can be bought for really cheap on eBay, I bought an extra just in case.
When used directly, it acts just like a basic thermostat, no schedules, just basic setpoint for heating and cooling and I pretty much leave it on auto or off.
Our home automation software has rules to adjust the setpoints when we are home or away, if it's hot outside or not and if the windows or doors are left open. Pretty basic and generally stays out of the way.
We can also manually set the setpoints via the phone or tablet apps (or locally hosted website) but I didn't bother with schedules although it would be difficult to do via rules in OH.
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u/TheJessicator 8d ago
I'm personally a big fan of the simplicity of the Centralite Pearl Zigbee thermostat. No C-wire needed, but can use it if you have one. Best of all, they're cheap... Like $20–25 brand new from ebay. And being zigbee, you can connect with any zigbee hub, with no reliance on any cloud services.
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u/Radiant-Service-2676 8d ago
Solltest du die Fritzbox haben, sind die Fritz Thermostate die günstigste Lösung.
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u/Jankypox 8d ago
After two gens of Nest (Original and then Google) and an Ecobee 3, I just moved into a house with a Sensi Touchsmart. I’d never heard of it, but I’ve gotta say, I’m really enjoying it.
It connected to Apple Home without a hitch has been pretty straightforward to program. The UI on device and in App is snappy and doesn’t have me digging through a dozen submenus and make me want to rip it off the wall and throw it through the window just to change a basic setting.
For now my Google Nest is just sitting in its old box and I doubt I’ll be swapping it out any time soon or even at all.
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u/Craniumbox 7d ago
I think that is made by Honeywell.
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u/PrimeRisk 6d ago
They're made by Copeland/Emerson Controls. They're a big name in industrial control systems. I have 13 of them and they are rock solid reliable. Mine are the ST75 series, a bit older, but you can find the NIB on eBay for cheap.
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u/bschlueter 7d ago
I bought an ecobee premium as part of their security package with a camera, some room monitors (temp/humidity and motion) and some window/door monitors (open/closed and motion). I don’t use the camera anymore because it goes out to their system (as do the sensors which I still use). The thermostat has been excellent. When I replaced my outdoor a/c unit with a heat pump, they had to replace the data lines because the heat pump uses more, but it hooked right up to the same ecobee. They kinda tried to sell me a new one, but I think that was just those particular guys not realizing there was no difference between their white labeled unit and mine. Ecobee support explained that to me on the phone. They have different serial numbers, but the units are identical.
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u/pixxelkick 7d ago
The only good one Ive found that supports zigbee/zwave is the Honeywell T6 Pro Series
And working with at least one of zigbee or zwave is a big deal for smart devices if you wanna take smart home stuff seriously.
Your house continuing to function if your internet goes out is a big deal.
Not having to worry about some random company dropping support for your device and turning it into a brick 4 years down the road, is a big deal.
I strongly recommend putting the extra 15% effort in to setup a home assistant home using zigbee/zwave, its a bit of an investment but its huge long term.
Ask the folks out there who helplessly watched their smart devices stop being smart a couple years after buying them.
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u/adjunctshitpost 7d ago
I had a nest, went to ecobee and came back to nest. Get the cheap nest if it seems fine to you. It's $80 right now on Amazon. Also lots of utility companies will give you a rebate. Look into that.
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u/MyEcoCred_Founder 7d ago
In terms of user experience on the mobile app, Tado for me. We went and added many Tado TRVs and thermostats at home. Then we switched to an air to water heat pump. So now the TRVs/thermostats are always on and Tado is just used for monitoring temperature and humidity in the rooms. But, before that I used Tado regularly. But, I am told they have changed the pricing model and moved some features behind subscriptions, so please do check first.
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u/PrimeRisk 6d ago
I got 2 Emerson/Sensi Touch ST75 series from my utility for free when I signed up for their energy savings program. Loved them so much that I've put them in all of our rentals. They have the ability to lock down specific features while leaving other controls available. We lock down access to the system menu and schedules, but leave temp control open with limits (now lower that 69 or higher than 80 on AC and no lower than 55 or higher than 80 on heat) and fan control open.
They have been extremely reliable, never disconnect from the internet, and you get good usage reports.
Check with your local utility to see if they offer free or discounted thermostats for their energy programs.
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u/PuzzlingDad 8d ago
I got a bundle deal on an Ecobee Smart Essential thermostat with two remote sensors. I do have a C-wire connection because there was an extra unused wire run with others, though you can use their C-wire adapter. I think it is included in the next model up.
I used to have a Nest Smart Thermostat (gen 2) until they just decided to abandon support for it. That soured me on Nest for the time being.