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Ecobee Planning New Smart Thermostat With Built-In Air Quality Sensor

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Canadian smart home accessory maker Ecobee appears to be preparing to release a new version of its SmartThermostat with a built-in indoor air quality sensor.

ecobee-feature-2.jpg

Ecobee released a new version of its iOS app this week that includes a hidden image of a SmartThermostat with an indoor air quality indicator visible on the screen. The updated app also includes descriptions such as "keep your home's air clean with your Smart Thermostat's built-in air quality sensor" and "your sensor is calibrating to your home," according to code changes discovered by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser.

Ecobee has yet to publicly announce the new SmartThermostat, so no additional details or a release date are known at this time, but the sensor will presumably turn on a home's HVAC fans when indoor air quality has fallen below certain thresholds. This would result in air circulating through the HVAC system's filters for improved air quality.

Ecobee thermostats were previously compatible with the third-party Await+ air quality sensor, but this integration was discontinued in 2020.

Ecobee's SmartThermostat supports Apple's smart home platform HomeKit and also gained support for "Hey Siri" voice control last year. The thermostat is regularly priced at $249.99 in the United States, but it is currently on sale for $199.99.

Article Link: Ecobee Planning New Smart Thermostat With Built-In Air Quality Sensor
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/ecobee-smart-thermostat-with-air-quality-sensor/
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This or Nest for Apple users? Who can share their experience?
 
cczhu said:
This or Nest for Apple users? Who can share their experience?
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Nest doesn’t natively support HomeKit. I‘ve not done much research but I believe there are adapters or some other kind of home-network hacks you can do to get it to play nice with HomeKit but it wasn’t worth the trouble for me. I got a Nest for free from my energy company but shelved it and bought my own ecobee so I could have it in HomeKit. But I bought the model (years and years ago by now) that didn’t have a microphone/Alexa. Not sure if you can get ecobees that aren’t Alexa enabled anymore.
 
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Popple said:
Nest doesn’t natively support HomeKit. I‘ve not done much research but I believe there are adapters or some other kind of home-network hacks you can do to get it to play nice with HomeKit but it wasn’t worth the trouble for me. I got a Nest for free from my energy company but shelved it and bought my own ecobee so I could have it in HomeKit.
Click to expand...
Does Ecobee work well with HomeKit? The only thing I don't like about Ecobee is that it seems to have Alexa built in. Possible to switch that off?
 
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cczhu said:
Does Ecobee work well with HomeKit? The only thing I don't like about Ecobee is that it seems to have Alexa built in. Possible to switch that off?
Click to expand...
Ha. I just edited my comment. I bought a model that doesn’t even have Alexa/microphone support. Buy one of those if you still can. Otherwise, I’m sure there’s a way to turn it off.

And, yes, it works great with HomeKit. Shows up on the dashboard and you can set the heat/cool mode and control the temperature. As far as I know, it doesn’t support all the fancy “eco” modes directly in HomeKit but 1) I don’t use those and 2) you can control that via the ecobee app if you really need to.
 
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I much prefer the ecobees to Nest mainly because of Nests parent company.

That said, I’ve been having problems lately with HomeKit setting and reporting different settings than the Ecobee reports. I’ll set the cooling limit to 78F as part of a scene, for example, and see the ac kick on at 75. When I change the temp in HomeKit again, it fixes it. Mostly seems to happen when changing between heat/cool/auto modes.

Anyone else have that issue?
 
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cczhu said:
Does Ecobee work well with HomeKit? The only thing I don't like about Ecobee is that it seems to have Alexa built in. Possible to switch that off?
Click to expand...
Yes, you can switch it off. Ecobee also recently added Siri support, using the thermostat as a mic and speaker for Siri. I have that off too, so don’t know how it works.
 
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I had ecobee and my power bill was so high every month. I replaced it in January with a Nest and my power bill seems to be much better these past few months. Just anecdotal, so take that for what it’s worth - maybe I had a bad one or maybe there is some other factor I’m not aware of, but I’d recommend researching that before buying an ecobee. Or at least save the receipt and keep an eye on your power usage if you buy one.
 
Hey Siri! on the Ecobee requires you to have a HomePod on your network. Kind of strange, right?

Setting up Siri​

Before you start​

  • Make sure you are compatible. Siri requires a SmartThermostat with voice control and a compatible Apple hub device. The Apple HomePod and HomePod mini are the only compatible hub devices.
 
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cczhu said:
Does Ecobee work well with HomeKit? The only thing I don't like about Ecobee is that it seems to have Alexa built in. Possible to switch that off?
Click to expand...
I bought the model with the microphone, but I have it set up for Hey Siri instead of Alexa. As long as you have a HomePod somewhere in the house to process the request, it works great!
 
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Analog Kid said:
are you sure about that? I don’t see any reference to it. Are you confusing ecobee with ring?
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You’re right. I don’t think I was confusing it with Ring but I was 100% sure that it was acquired by Amazon at some point in the past. I’m glad to know it wasn’t and still isn’t! I suppose that when they original came out with the ecobee model that had a microphone it only supported Alexa so I made the assumption that it was an Amazon product. In either case, thanks for the correction.

EDIT: I was confusing it with the “eero” brand routers which is definitely owned by Amazon.
 
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I bought Ecobee 3 in 2016. It died within a year and Ecobee was nice enough to replace it with Ecobee 4. To its credit, Ecobee 4 has been working well.

The current Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control (aka Ecobee 5) was not enough of an upgrade, although it does have a nicer glass panel and support Siri.

I will replace Ecobee 4 when it gets retina display and a nicer looking design. Yes, those are superficial, but my thermostat is installed on a very visible part of the house and I never warmed up to its design.
 
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Just give me an ecobee with a nicer design and charge $50-$100 more. I mean, a nice metal casing, glass front with a laminated display. The current model has a massive air gap, a first generation iPhone level display and cheap plastic housing.

The product itself works great but it is so ugly.
 
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jclardy said:
Just give me an ecobee with a nicer design and charge $50-$100 more. I mean, a nice metal casing, glass front with a laminated display. The current model has a massive air gap, a first generation iPhone level display and cheap plastic housing.

The product itself works great but it is so ugly.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I just moved from a house with a Nest to one with an Ecobee and the Nest has significantly better build quality.
 
Martyimac said:
Google is your friend.
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Nope. That's precisely why I don't use Nest... ?

I think any sort of Amazon investment is irrelevant. A non-Google search indicates that they were one of several investors that contributed to a $61m investment round at Ecobee in 2018. In 2021, Ecobee was bought by a generator company that my brain still reads as Geriatric for $770m.

Amazon doesn't have control of anything at Ecobee. At most Amazon is a minor shareholder at this point. It got Ecobee to include an Alexa option in the device, but that's about it as far as I can tell.
 
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jclardy said:
Just give me an ecobee with a nicer design and charge $50-$100 more. I mean, a nice metal casing, glass front with a laminated display. The current model has a massive air gap, a first generation iPhone level display and cheap plastic housing.

The product itself works great but it is so ugly.
Click to expand...
My sons old place had a nest. I didn’t particularly care for its looks or interface. I guess to each their own as I don’t consider my ecobee to be ugly or have a dated interface. It has a nice, streamlined interface, imo.
 
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