Meross Debuts $70 Matter-Enabled Smart Thermostat

[MacRumors]

Smart home company Meross today announced the launch of the Meross Matter Smart Home Thermostat, which can connect to a HomeKit setup using the Matter protocol. At $70 for a limited time, the device is an affordable HomeKit thermostat option.

The Smart Thermostat features a minimalist design with a white glass panel that has LEDs that show the temperature and other settings. It requires a C wire for power, and Meross says that it should work with 95 percent of heating and cooling systems in North America, including single and multi-stage furnaces, boilers, air conditioners, heat pumps, and fan coil units.

Because the thermostat integrates with HomeKit, temperature can be controlled through Siri voice commands, in the Apple Home app, or in the Meross app. There are also touch controls on the device itself.

Heating and cooling usage are tracked in the Meross app, and there is an option to save energy costs with a smart schedule that changes the temperature when people are away from home. It can also be used in automations with other HomeKit products.

Because the thermostat is Matter-enabled, it can also be controlled by Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings provided an appropriate Matter hub is available. Matter devices are able to be controlled by multiple ecosystems, which is useful in households where not everyone has an Apple device.

Meross plans to charge $99.99 for the Smart Thermostat, but it is currently available at a discounted $70 price.

Article Link: Meross Debuts $70 Matter-Enabled Smart Thermostat

 

[KENESS]

Matter-over-Wifi or Matter-over-Thread? This is a pretty significant missing detail...

Matter is just the language the device speaks. Wifi or Thread or Bluetooth or Zigbee or ethernet or yada yada is how it actually makes the connection. (For this device I'm sure it is one of the first two.)

 

[bradman83]

I'm sure it looks better in person (or at least I hope) but the display being white LEDs on a white background just doesn't seem very user-friendly, and I don't see a black or otherwise dark background option.

I have a bunch of Meross smart home items, including several plugs and a garage door opener receiver and they all work flawlessly (using WiFi). If I didn't already have the excellent Ecobee smart thermostat I'd be tempted by this despite my reservations about the color.

 

[KENESS]

I'm sure it looks better in person (or at least I hope) but the display being white LEDs on a white background just doesn't seem very user-friendly, and I don't see a black or otherwise dark background option.

I have a bunch of Meross smart home items, including several plugs and a garage door opener receiver and they all work flawlessly (using WiFi). If I didn't already have the excellent Ecobee smart thermostat I'd be tempted by this despite my reservations about the color.

There seem to be several designed that way. The Zen thermostat is another. I think it is really terrible. I had a Zen. It doesn't look better in person.

It seems sometimes companies are in such a hurry to copy each other quickly they don't take a second to realize that what they're copying sucks.

 

[MTShipp]

No thanks. I’ve had bad luck with their other hardware. I’m down to my last 1 of 6 thermometers in less than 2 years.

 

[MonkeyT]

I'm sure it looks better in person (or at least I hope) but the display being white LEDs on a white background just doesn't seem very user-friendly, and I don't see a black or otherwise dark background option.

'It's the wild colour scheme that freaks me out,' said Zaphod... 'Every time you try and operate these weird black controls that are labeled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up in black to let you know you've done it.'
--Douglas Adams

 

[marstan]

Are there some special glasses you need to read the display? Mindbogglingly stupid.

 

[DenniSundaY]

MacRumors should really stop referring to ‘HomeKit’ when talking about Matter devices. I don’t want to be that guy that gets mad over a technicality (the Home app is just ‘HomeKit’ for most long tkme users), but people are generally still confused about what Matter is and this isn’t helping either.

Matter devices don’t really ‘integrate with HomeKit’, rather they can be added to (or integrate with if you will) Apple Home through Matter. To TL;DR the whole technical side of it you could say the Home app supports both Matter and HomeKit devices. Apple themselves is also phasing out the word HomeKit for quite some time now.

 

[RMo]

Matter-over-Wifi or Matter-over-Thread? This is a pretty significant missing detail...

FYI: it took more digging than it should to find that information on their website, but it is apparently Wi-Fi. (Not too surprising since it's probably not Thread unless they also advertise that and it's unlikely to be anything else unless it is a Matter Bridge or works through one, but...yeah.)

 

[QuarterSwede]

I’ve got an Amazon thermostat that has a similar white LED on white face look and honestly it’s probably my favorite thermostat so far, and I’ve had an ecobee. Once we programmed it using the Alexa app (ugh) it just does what it’s supposed to all the time and it blends in with my wall. I just don’t have to mess with it at all. Can’t say that about any other thermostat I’ve owned. I’m shocked that it’s been so cheap (I know why) and so reliable. I think I’d even be happy with just a sensor and controller on the wall and app only interface.

 

[BeefCake 15]

Good luck with that if you have Lennox iComfort that's required for their devices to be serviced etc. I h8 their thermostat with all its bugginess but can't change it....

 

[WarmWinterHat]

There seem to be several designed that way. The Zen thermostat is another. I think it is really terrible. I had a Zen. It doesn't look better in person.

It seems sometimes companies are in such a hurry to copy each other quickly they don't take a second to realize that what they're copying sucks.

I have three Mysa mini-split thermostats that look like that, too. I don't care for the design, but they are the only good Google Home/Homekit compatible option for a mini-split.

 

[whsbuss]

I’ll stay with my ecobee

 

[jakebrosy]

Ordered. I have NO IDEA if this will work with my system but I really…really…want to tell a robot to adjust the temperature in my house. And then have Rosie get me a cocktail before Astro and Elroy come in to tell me about their adventure.

And, they have a 45-day return policy.

 

[T-Bob]

Have the non Matter thread versions of these, it is more readable in person than that pic. Also we don’t have them in a sunlight filled room to boot, YMMV.

 

[RMo]

I’ll stay with my ecobee

I wish Ecobee had a local API that exposed all features, but AFAIK it's either local with HomeKit (and not all features) or you at the mercy of their cloud API. I try to avoid devices where the latter is the only or primary method of integration – and these days I really prefer to avoid both since Apple Home is pretty limited in its automation capabilities, and I can use something like Matter to get it usable with a more featured hub/controller and Home at the same time if I want (or HomeBridge if I want a less "official" alternative).

the non thread versions of these

As far as I can tell from their website, this is Matter over Wi-Fi, not Thread.

 

[philstubbington]

No thanks. I’ve had bad luck with their other hardware. I’m down to my last 1 of 6 thermometers in less than 2 years.

We had a Nest which was rubbish (and not HomeKit compatible). We have a Resideo which has been great so far (over probably a year).

 

[hoorayforhollywood]

According to Which? magazine, which is a pretty comprehensive consumer guide in the UK and fully independent, the Google Nest thermostat is still the best - although old tech. I do want a smart thermometer but the market seems a little congested and confusing. Any tips?

 

[Makosuke]

The Meross garage door opener I've got has been extremely reliable, so I would have some optimism that their thermostat would also work well, and at least from the picture it doesn't seem to be going overboard with extra features like Ecobee's.

...but my Ecobee is otherwise fine, and I really don't like the white-on-white look. Maybe the "blend in with your white wall" style would be okay in reality, but it seems like it'd be too bright at night in particular, and at least in the photo seems really washed out in brighter light.

The thing that bugs me about all these smart thermostats is that they don't have a quick on/off button. Yes, all the fancy integration and automation is great, but my luddite wife just wants to push a button to turn the heater on in the morning whenever she gets out of bed, and with Ecobee there's now like three or for taps required to get to that from the screen.

 

[DELLsFan]

Oh great. Another smart thermostat released to remind me I shouldn't have replaced my landlord's non-smart Honeywell with the Ecobee.

 

[ian6969]

I’ve had the previous HomeKit version for a couple of years and it’s been great - very reliable, occasional firmware updates, and Siri controlled. I use HomeKit automations to set up heating schedules throughout the day. This looks like they’ve simply made it Matter compatible, which is a bonus.

 

[Belisama]

I purchased 2 Meross "smart" products before and both died within a few months. The customer service was inexistant.
Never again!
In my home, 3 Google Nest thermostats have been working flawlessly since 2018. They are not compatible with HomeKit but I couldn't care less.

 

[csalm87]

I'm sure it looks better in person (or at least I hope) but the display being white LEDs on a white background just doesn't seem very user-friendly, and I don't see a black or otherwise dark background option.

I have a bunch of Meross smart home items, including several plugs and a garage door opener receiver and they all work flawlessly (using WiFi). If I didn't already have the excellent Ecobee smart thermostat I'd be tempted by this despite my reservations about the color.

I agree, I don't like the display. It is almost TOO minimalist.

But I do love my ecobee thermostat. When I had a new furnace installed, the HVAC techs said the ecobees are the best out there.

 

[bigboy29]

FWIW - while I did not see this particular product in real life, another thermostat that uses the same color palette is Vivint, which I have, and it has never been a problem for us. As previously mentioned - unless it is mounted in direct sunshine (that'll be a problem for other reasons) I do not think you'll have an issue. I'd much rather have a white box on the wall vs. a black one, but if you are rocking a Cyberpunk color palette in your rooms, black might work better. (this is a joke)

 

[philstubbington]

According to Which? magazine, which is a pretty comprehensive consumer guide in the UK and fully independent, the Google Nest thermostat is still the best - although old tech. I do want a smart thermometer but the market seems a little congested and confusing. Any tips?

Avoid the Google Nest! It’s rubbish. We had one for years and it failed to connect to the heating system on a regular basis. Getting it to reconnect was incredibly convoluted.

We have a Resideo now which has worked perfectly for probably a year and is HomeKit compatible.