So I’ve had a Nest thermostat of about 3 years. Today I was doing some rewiring and I had the load the thermostat was supposed to turn on shorted. When I turned on the thermostat – I fried it.
I called Nest tech support asking them if there was some kind of internal fuse I could replace and there wasn’t. My Nest was toast. However even though I told them I fried it and it was out of warranty they said they were interested in looking at the damage. They are going to send me a new one (older model like mine) and if I send them back the old one there’s no charge.
Customer service doesn’t get any better than that!
Did you tell them you’d give them a free plug on DU?
Kidding aside, for me good customer service is just being fair to the consumer (and vice versa).
I did after they said they would replace it for free.
It’s unusual in today’s business ethics, but it does make good business sense!
Unlike cars, customers reasonably expect thermostats, fancy electronic or not to last basically a lifetime (at least the mercury tilt switch ones).
It’s likely they want to do “failure analysis” on a field failure (from unintentional customer abuse) that may result in design changes, for the better I assume.
If only auto makers would do this; instead, designing for planned failure, design obsolescence.
Pretty sure the mercury tilt type thermostats have been banned from manufacture for a number of years because well, mercury.
the thing most people don’t understand about electronic thermostats is that they tend to fry out if you install them under load; ie, the power to the circuit is supposed to be off so the initial arc when the wires touch doesn’t fry out the ‘stat when you’re connecting it.
this is why i hated dealing with Honeywell and their return tags when i sold electrical supplies from ’99-’10.
the simple addition of a diode to one of the lines in would effectively solve this problem, but that’s just not cost-effective to thermostat makers apparently.
Yes you are correct a “snubber diode” would help reduce if not eliminate the potential for damage!
You should know, as you can see, the electric field in E = V/d; will during contact closure, as the gap distance goes to zero, the electric field strength will exceeds 50MV/m, the glow discharge breakdown and arc; regardless of the voltage.
The key is not to install energized things under load, period; unless they are designed for hot swapping!! As you attach your wires (close the distance to zero between wires) you will create an ARC! Obviously nest is not designed for hot swapping or hot plugging, like some computers are!
Bad Marc, you should know better! You better ck the front/back door if Darwin is there to hand you an award!
Did you not read the instructions?
Did the nest installation instructions say to de-energize the circuit before installing, not to install hot? How did you install it the first time without damaging it and why the change of installation methods now?
I am hoping at least you didn’t do the installation while standing in a puddle/pool/bathtub or in the rain or while biting on the cables?
I am all the more impressed with nest customer service and their thermostat now!
“I am hoping at least you didn’t do the installation while standing in a puddle/pool/bathtub or in the rain or while biting on the cables?”
I lol twice, very good imaging.
Gee, to me good customer service is providing equipment that lasts longer than 3 years.
Well, I did destroy it. It didn’t fail.
Good point. I apologize.
Still—“probably” your experience best known would be a vote for analogue “simple” systems?
I avoid digital “anything” as much as possible. Getting harder and harder to do….nice when you can rewire something to totally bypass all the electronics and just get a reliable on/off switch …… THAT WORKS!
Electricity===even a simple circuit is still mostly magic…… logic circuits, “unbelievable!”
Marc, make sure you clean the eye on the center of the replacement thermostat so that Google has the best view possible of your daily activities. And FYI- they can see through tape and post-its.
The only thing Google could see from mine would be the opposite wall 3′ away with where my Nest is located! 😉
To be fair, my neighbor had theirs fail after two and a half years and Nest would not replace it for free… They offered them a discounted “manufactured” one instead for $100 off retail…
Remanufactured, rather…
Mine stopped connecting with the app. I contacted nest support and they shipped me a brand new unit and provided a postage page label to ship old one back.
I think they are doing this not because it’s good customer service, it’s nice and all but I’m guessing the new model under googles control now snoops on us all more probably. I know it doesn’t respond as fast as the old model did.
Man, I think Dvorak is rubbing off on me. #cranky
While they look nice I don’t want a wireless anything controlling my heat or cold because they think it is wrong for me to be comfortable. When I go on welfare then yes, they can tell me to set my thermostat back but until they pay my electric they can kiss my shiny metal ass.
On the flip side I have a wireless alarm and cameras so the NSA can watch me.
🙂
Dropcam was bought by Nest however the few times i dealt with Dropcam they were excellent to deal with and even replaced my cam long after it was out of warranty