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Nest or Ecobee

Tyler23

Tyler23

macrumors 603
Original poster
Dec 2, 2010
5,664
159
Atlanta, GA
My wife and I are buying a house.

I currently have one Nest (2nd gen). We need to replace two thermostats in the new house.

The current debate is, should I buy one more Nest and be done with it? Or should I switch to Ecobee where I'd have to buy 2 new thermostats?

I'm interested in having HomeKit enabled devices which would only be the Ecobee. Is HomeKit comparability worth it?

Has anyone here used both and have a recommendation for one over the other?

Appreciate any advice.
 
I've had both and liked both but currently on the Nest v3. If you don't need remote sensors and need 2 thermostats I'd recommend the ecobee3 lite which comes out end of this month. Nest currently doesn't have HomeKit availability so ecobee is the way to go in that regard.

https://www.ecobee.com/ecobee3-lite/
 
Google/Nest has thumbed their nose at supporting future Apple technology. They are phasing Apple out.

Consider that if you use many Apple devices.
 
We use only Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch).

I guess the big thing here is I already own one Nest. I'm trying to weigh the benefits of HomeKit compatibility, if it's worth buying 2 Ecobee's instead of buying one Nest just for the HomeKit integration.

Is there any reason to suspect that Nest would drop support for Apple and iOS?

I could potentially buy one Ecobee3 and one Ecobee Lite to reduce costs if switching from Nest..Really just trying to determine if it's worth it or not since I own one Nest already.
 
Tyler23 said:
We use only Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch).

I guess the big thing here is I already own one Nest. I'm trying to weigh the benefits of HomeKit compatibility, if it's worth buying 2 Ecobee's instead of buying one Nest just for the HomeKit integration.

Is there any reason to suspect that Nest would drop support for Apple and iOS?

I could potentially buy one Ecobee3 and one Ecobee Lite to reduce costs if switching from Nest..Really just trying to determine if it's worth it or not since I own one Nest already.
Click to expand...

I've been tempted to sell my Nest to get an Ecobee, but haven't decided if it's worth the trouble just to get a homekit thermostat.
 
brianbunge said:
I've been tempted to sell my Nest to get an Ecobee, but haven't decided if it's worth the trouble just to get a homekit thermostat.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I don't have any other HomeKit devices and am not a big user of Siri..given that, I'm not sure if there's much benefit of the Ecobee over the Nest for me.

I think the Nest has better build quality, from what I've seen I like the Nest app better, and we're also planning to buy a few Nest Protect's.

Still, I feel like I should consider the Ecobee. Is there any way these could tie in deeper with Apple in the future, beyond current integration?
 
Ecobees have two advantages over Nest for me:

1) HomeKit support (you need an AppleTV to remotely control yourmecobee, but we already had one)
2) Remote room sensors - the ecobee can use the temperature from other locations and then use the average temperature, rather than just the temperature where the thermostat is installed. And you can tell it to ignore w room sensor if no one is in the room, and you can have different settings based on your schedule - so during the day, ignore the master bedroom temperature unless someone is detected by the sensor, but at night, only use the temperature in the bedroom and ignore any other temperatures (including on the ecobee itself).
 
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brianbunge said:
The room sensors are the main reason I've considered buying an Ecobee.
Click to expand...
Same here. I don't use HomeKit a lot, but it has been nice to roll over and "Hey Siri" to change the temp in the middle of the night without touching the phone (and burning my eyes out with the bright screen at 3AM).
 
"Hey Siri" has not been great for me so I bought two of the new Echo Dots. So far (received them on Thursday and left town on Friday for a few days) it definitely is more responsive.
 
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Tyler23 said:
We use only Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch).

I guess the big thing here is I already own one Nest. I'm trying to weigh the benefits of HomeKit compatibility, if it's worth buying 2 Ecobee's instead of buying one Nest just for the HomeKit integration.

Is there any reason to suspect that Nest would drop support for Apple and iOS?

I could potentially buy one Ecobee3 and one Ecobee Lite to reduce costs if switching from Nest..Really just trying to determine if it's worth it or not since I own one Nest already.
Click to expand...

Nest will not drop support for Apple and iOS. Neither will they support Homekit. However, if you have Mac around (or a Raspberry Pi), you can set up Homebridge, which will let you control your Nest thermostats via Siri or the Home app.
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BrettStah said:
Ecobees have two advantages over Nest for me:

1) HomeKit support (you need an AppleTV to remotely control yourmecobee, but we already had one)
2) Remote room sensors - the ecobee can use the temperature from other locations and then use the average temperature, rather than just the temperature where the thermostat is installed. And you can tell it to ignore w room sensor if no one is in the room, and you can have different settings based on your schedule - so during the day, ignore the master bedroom temperature unless someone is detected by the sensor, but at night, only use the temperature in the bedroom and ignore any other temperatures (including on the ecobee itself).
Click to expand...

If I were starting from scratch, I'd definitely do Ecobee, but I bought my Nest thermostats three years ago.

The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from...
 
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Tyler23 said:
Agreed. I don't have any other HomeKit devices and am not a big user of Siri..given that, I'm not sure if there's much benefit of the Ecobee over the Nest for me.

I think the Nest has better build quality, from what I've seen I like the Nest app better, and we're also planning to buy a few Nest Protect's.

Still, I feel like I should consider the Ecobee. Is there any way these could tie in deeper with Apple in the future, beyond current integration?
Click to expand...
I would personally stick with the Nest if it has been good for you. Unless you plan on using Siri a lot i guess. A while back, we went from an older Nest to the Ecobee for the sensors. Not so much the temp reporting, but for motion detecting and auto-away. The Nest would sometimes go into away if we hadn't walked down the hallway for a while, which was annoying.
Used the Ecobee and never used Siri other than to test or to show friends. We tried using the sensors in the living room and bedrooms. The problem was the way our house is, if it's bedtime and the thermostat used the bedroom sensors to make the kids comfortable, and I happened to stay up late in the living room.. it was too hot for me. Or if it were comfortable for me, it'd be too cold for the kids.
Then Nest's app got updated to include location tracking to help determine if my wife or I were at home for auto-away. That pretty much solved our main issue with it back then. We recently got a 3rd gen Nest for an even exchange for our Ecobee so we have a Nest again. We just like how it looks better, the build quality, and that it's just simpler for anyone to walk up and turn the dial. We also already have a couple Protects and cameras.
 
I like using the Ecobee room sensors as triggers to turn off lights and appliances when nobody is in the room.
 
As others have said, the sensors are a huge plus for the Ecobee. My house no longer feels over heated when the old thermostat would just crank to the temperature of the room it was in. Also homekit is a nice addition as well.
 
The Ecobee is an eye sore for where my thermostat is. I have 2 AC units and the Nest has significantly cut my cost in me being more mindful and utilizing the ECO modes and adjusting on the fly on my phone.

I am extremely happy with the Nest and it looks fantastic.
 
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Cnasty said:
The Ecobee is an eye sore for where my thermostat is.
Click to expand...
Is your thermostat actually mounted in a conspicuous place? In my area, it's rare to see a house setup like that.

The biggest challenge I had with Nest (in a previous house) was that the thermostat wasn't located in a conspicuous place, so the Nest did a poor job of determining if people were home or not. Looks like Nest can use your phone's location to help figure that out now, but I still prefer the additional sensor method that Ecobee uses.

Never put much thought into the "look" difference between Nest and Ecobee. They both look leaps and bounds better than most traditional thermostats, IMO.
 
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Just installed a whole house Ecobee 3 setup. LOVE IT! We used the savings on the initial kit to get extra sensors to have throughout our home and they work like a charm. The look? Like Aristobrat said, it's a million times better than a traditional setup. Round vs Square... Still tiny and digital. Wakes automatically as you pass in front of it. Works with Homekit and Alexa. It also has a follow me mode with the sensors to sense which rooms are occupied vs not to adjust the heat accordingly. For example, when we're watching movies in our lower level, the temp is naturally warmer for whatever reason in that room so the heat turns off since we're down there. When we go up to bed, it adjusts to our comfort settings as we move from one room to the next.
 
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We've had our Ecobee 3 for over a year now, and it has performed flawlessly.
m
 
The room sensors are the reason to get ecoBee, IMO. If you have a house big enough to need two thermostats, chances are you have enough rooms to want sensors.

For me, HomeKit is next to worthless on the thermostat because changes are "permanent". I can't tell it to warm up the house for a few hours and then return to its program.

The only use is for monitoring.
 
My Nest broke a few weeks ago. Since Google owns them now, I didn't even consider replacing it with another Nest. The EcoBee is awesome for every reason already mentioned.
 
We have had our Ecobee now for the past four months. Have had zero issues with and we are using the Lutron app to also control it. I just purchased three more sensors, for a total of four, so that I pretty much have all the rooms covered now.
 
I'm going to add a 'ditto' to all the ecobee positive statements here. Installed the Ecobee along with 4 additional sensors (6 total) in our home so it can accurately manage the averaging of temperatures throughout the home. Plus, we have a 'pet room' that we like to monitor too to make sure it doesn't get either too cold or too hot depending on the season. We just did the install ourselves this past Thanksgiving.
 
I've kind of bought into the whole HomeKit thing with several Phillips Hue bulbs, ihome switches and the EcoBee 3. So far the Ecobee has worked flawlessly with homekit. I use geofencing to adjust the house temperature as i near my neighborhood. I have no regrets.
 
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