Introducing Amazon Smart Thermostat
[{'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'My wife and I installed the Smart Thermostat in less than 90 minutes. Part of that time was the careful removal of the existing thermostat. Amazon thinks of everything, including labels to mark the existing wiring. This alone is says the installation was designed for the non-tradesperson. The step-by-step instructions on Alexa are excellent. Please be careful to follow wire placement instructions as they may differ from the original positions. Alexa does most of the set up after installation in just a few minutes.\n\nThus far, the thermostat has held a stable temperature and we notice the fan run less. All good. It is especially useful to be able to issue instructions to the thermostat from anywhere in the house we have Alexa.\n\nAll in all, this product is a gem.\n\nUpdate: We bought a second Amazon Thermostat and found the answer to zoning. First, as the instructions note, if you have a wireless thermostat it must be powered down before doing the Alexa assisted setup. Once that’s done, all thermostats can be powered on. Next we renamed the thermostats to something making them easily identifiable to us. Then I set the first thermostat we installed to one temperature and the second to a different temperature. Success! They can be zoned and addressed via echo by their new names.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I have an existing non-wifi Honeywell thermostat. I was happy to see that the wiring block and pins are identical between that and the Amazon thermostat. No wiring needed. Just popped off the old one and pushed on the new one! The set-up on the app took longer than the physical installation!'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-4 review-rating', 'review_body': 'tldr; a great start for Amazon getting into the thermostat business but needs improvement all the way around.\n\nBACKGROUND\n~~~~~~~~~~~\nI\'m coming from an original Nest Thermostat which I\'ve been using for over 6 years -- yes, it still works. So, why did I decided to switch? Well, I like new tech and I decided about 8 months that I really hate having multiple eco-systems of smart products. So, I selected Amazon a while back. I\'ve been replacing my cams from Wyze and Ring to Ring. We\'ve got about 10 Echo devices. You can say we are almost fully vested.\n\nCOST\n~~~~\nThis was a great deal. For about $50, you get a fully functioning smart thermostat. I didn\'t have a proper C-wire (supplies constant power to thermostat) so I had to get the Honeywell C-Wire kit. This is the kit that costs about $20 more which is auto selected if you choose the "no c-wire" model at the product page.\n\nINSTALLATION\n~~~~~~~~~~~\nThe easiest part of the installation was opening the box. Overall, it took one hour to install including the c-wire adapter. 30 minutes of that was trying to put back on the furnace covers (@#$@!). Again, you don\'t have to worry about the c-wire adapter and opening the furnace if you already have a c-wire ran. You can check for the c-wire by popping open your current thermostat and seeing if there\'s a connection to "c-wire" or looking for an extra unused wire if you currently have a "dumb" thermostat.\n\nAmazon says there are stickers to label your wires but there was not! I checked, double-checked, and triple-checked. I\'m so glad that my 6 year Nest came with some because I had already taken the time to label the wires. This was a bummer. It may make hooking up the wires to the new thermostat a real pain in the butt for some. Oh, and the honeywell kit also said it had labels. Guess what? Nope. :(\n\nOnly if you don\'t have a c-wire run....They have you install the c-wire adapter first so you can have constant power running to the thermostat. That part was pretty easy but you have to be comfortable taking apart the furnace doors and rewiring to an adapter. ALWAYS TAKE PICTURES OF WIRES BEFORE DOING ANY SORT OF OF THIS TYPE OF WORK. You always want a reference.\n\nLet me complain about the alexa app a bit. Amazon tried. They really tried but damn. I can see this a deal breaker for many. So, check this out, you use your Alexa app to setup the thermostat. You crack open this app FIRST before doing anything else so it can guide you through the entire process. Before you do anything you want to also make sure you have the latest app version installed as well. Go to your app store and make sure to download the latest version.\n\nThat being said, the Alexa app itself guides the user through the process. No videos. It\'s just text and picture. While it is laid out nicely, it can get confusing for some people. There needs to be more clarification on some of the steps. Perhaps a video?\n\nOne of the most annoying parts of the app is that while you put your phone down to do some steps, you come back and the app quits the process. You are at the main screen! No joke. You have to literally go through all the steps again to get back to where you left off. I had to do this about 7 times. It was super annoying. Amazon, you must do something to correct this. It is super annoying.\n\nAs far as the rest of the installation, it was pretty straightforward. If you wired a thermostat before, you\'ll get through this. Again, super annoying with the app reverting to the begining due to timing out.\n\nI noticed that the wires in the closure were a super tight fit. At one point I closed the latch and the small closure bulched out. I had to re-open and re-position cables. That took a bit to re-adjust.\n\nThe optional decorative plate (presumably to hide wall holes or imperfections), I could not get flat. It seemed thin and flimsy. When looking from an angle, you can tell a bit. :(\n\nThe thermostat itself snapped real easily to the connection plate. No issues there. Pretty solid.\n\nSETUP\n~~~~~\nThe thermostat fired up once I turned the power back on to the hvac. The alexa app took about 2 minutes to talk to the thermostat to connect and configure it. This part was automatic.\n\nPHYSICAL FUNCTIONALITY\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\nIf you look at the thermostat itself it can be confusing even though it\'s simple. The arrows dissapear. The arrows I think need to be there so that anyone can understand where to press the buttons to turn up or down temp.\n\nDIGITAL/GUI FUNCTIONALITY\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\nThe thermostat function seems buried in the alexa app. I know you can set favorites, but there should be a way to have it up as soon as you open alexa app. I know the entire purpose is to use alexa via voice but still.\n\nHow about some dedicated widgets for the thermostat? Something we can throw on the phone home screen so we can easily adjust temperature?\n\nAnother note. My wife also has the alexa app with her own account. She is part of the household. She cannot see the thermostat to adjust in the app. :( I\'ll have to investigate this more.\n\nCONCLUSION\n~~~~~~~~~~~\nGreat start. Would I buy it again? Sure. Why? Because it\'s nice and simple. There really isn\'t anything that can\'t be solved with a software update on this one.\nBe sure to check with your local utility company as you can essentially get a rebate for it making it \'free.\''}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-2 review-rating', 'review_body': "So I decided to set this up when its freezing outside huh and now my house is cold. I figured this would be the perfect time to set up the newly awaited Amazon Stat. Mind you I been using all the latest Stats with all the same terminal wiring for years now and they all have worked perfectly fine once its adjust the room calibration your pretty much ready to go. I use Ecobee currently and have no issues with them at all. But recently being bought out by Generac Corp... I dont know what the future is going to be for them. Ecobee stated on there site they just couldnt compete with Nest and now the Newly cheaper option the Amazon Smart Thermostat pretty much cutting down all previous companies pricing.\n\nI couldnt get this POS working correctly at all, calling Amazon was a waste for tech support... finally I was told I had to call Resideo Honeywell for Support since they manufactured the unit. After being on hold for more than 3 hours and still freezing in my home, I couldnt get through tried some more trouble shooting myself,, the Stat would not get to the appropiate Setpoint and wasnt calling for Heat at all. Maybe this one unit I received was faulty im giving it the benefit of the doubt. Put back on my old reliable Ecobee everything came up and within 1 hr my home is now warm and comfortable.\n\nI will update a posting once I can reach out to Resideo Tech Support, ,,to find out why the unit is not heating when the terminal W is connected. As a first impression of this first model im really not impressed.\n\nUpdate 11/7/21\nFinally today got a chance to talk to Honeywell Resideo Home,, and they got the Stat working I find that it is very stupid that the system doesnt recognize the RC so I have to plug it into the R Terminal and then flip the jumpers up to Wire 1,, blocking off the RC Terminal completely to trick the system to power on... finally worked but very very cumbersome. Once I set up my smart home completely i usually dont go back into the Alexa App for much except to change a routine or a skill.... The app is very very slow to nagivate and for me to have to go into this to change the Stat... I dont know.. as of now the Alexa commands are not working properly.\n\n11/7/21 Evening time.. I got up in the middle of the night and was burning up and could barely breathe.. My Stat went up to 86 degrees for whatever reason or another the house was burning 🔥 up hot.. I had to turn off the Red emergency switch and open up all my windows to remove the hot 🔥 air from the home 🏡.\n\n11/8/21\nMy HVAC Tech stopped by and told me when I installed the Amazon Stat for some weird reason it started to make my board on my furnace work harder than it needed to and created more heat 🔥 in the house and that was the reason for the sudden Spike in my house.\n🤷🏾\u200d♂️ 🤷🏾\u200d♂️ 🤷🏾\u200d♂️ I had to have my furnace board repaired and since then I installed my Ecobees back into my home 🏡 with no problems or issues at all..\n.. The lack of features and smart capabilities.. That's are better Stats out there... Like the Ecobee and for all that Nest.. Or if you even have to go with Honeywell then the T9.. It's superb thas compared to the much cheaper Amazon Stat\n\n11/13/21\nI received a email from Amazon stating that this Stat was not really made for Multiple Zones or floors and that there was a bug with Alexa app for the scheduling,, so since I have Zones in my home this is pretty much useless for me."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I bought several of these to replace multiple thermostats in my house. Installation was easy and everything seemed great until I started trying to set up schedules for each of my thermostats. Each time I would set a schedule on one thermostat in the Alexa app, that schedule would get applied to every thermostat. I spent over an hour discussing with support and was transferred to seven different Amazon product support representatives before one confirmed that this was the intended behavior and there were no plans to introduce the ability to have a unique schedule on each thermostat. If you have an upstairs and downstairs thermostat for example, they must run on the exact same schedule for home, away, and sleep. This doesn\'t really make sense in many cases, and makes these pretty much useless for me.\n\nUPDATE 11/18/2021\nAmazon has sent out a mass email stating that the scheduling issue I described above is a "temporary app display issue" that will be fixed in a future release of the Alexa app. Given that this directly contradicts the information a device support representative told me, and the fact that the support process was so painful, I am leaving my review at 1 star, but maybe at some point you will be able to set and see separate schedules per thermostat. I won\'t know as I have already returned mine.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-3 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Thermostat itself works flawlessly, but the guided setup in the Alexa app needs a little work. My heat pump uses the wires R,C,G,B,Y,and W1. At the point where I put in what wires I had, it seemed straightforward ,until it told me what wires it hook up and where. It left out the W1 wire completely, this is the auxiliary heat. Good thing for me the wire hook up plate had auxiliary heat clearly marked. After hook up and install I tried firing up the system and it ran backwards(heat was cool and cool was heat). I went in the configuration and it still had selected "O" Even though I clearly told it it was a "B" mode heat pump. Took a few tries to convince the app to change the configuration to "B". Once all this was done the thermostat worked flawlessly. Alexa actually had a hunch that my wife had gotten up early and turned the heat up this morning, cool beans. We really love the fact that the thermostat actually will dim when inactive, you can set that up in the app. The display is easy to use and see. All in all a great product, just the guided setup needs a little work.....\nUpdate 12/07/2021: I checked my energy usage after about a month of use. It was using my Aux/Emergency electric heat more than I was used to seeing. I started watching as closely as I could. This thermostat was turning it on with just a two degree increase with it 45 degrees outside. I called support and found out that the setting for this is not configurable. I was also told that it was my system, nope.. the thermostat was calling for it. I replaced a Sensi with this thing. The Sensi would not call for Aux heat unless you really cranked to heat on a 35 degree day or more than fives minutes with no temp increase. So with the setup flaws and increase in my energy usage, I say forget the bells and whistles with Alexa...this thermostat is a fail.\nUpdate 03/26/2022: So I gave this thermostat another try about Jan 10th 2022. I reconfigured the controls back to having no W1, which is the Aux heat. So now the system(my heat pump) controls the AUX heat and calls for it when needed. Cutting out the thermostat from controlling Aux heat with a few mods to the heat pump has lowered my electric bill and it is working as it should. So, we are at three stars....the install should have been easier or just as easy as my former Sensi or another "Smart" thermostat choices.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I pre-ordered this thermostat coming from using an Ecobee in my last home. I was waiting for a cheaper alternative that would still provide a sleek design. Honeywell has other options but their U/I looks clunky. Sure enough Amazon came through with this thermostat in a partnership with Honeywell. We had a T6 Pro but the device wasn’t smart and the buttons were terrible. Got this in the mail about 5 minutes ago and already got it installed. It uses the same wiring as my previous device so it was literally plug and play. Already set the comfort temperatures and I’m glad it’s already completed. I can’t wait to use this for future vacations. Won’t have to know I left the A/C on during future summer trips.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I have two separate heat pumps with two thermostats. I have had a Nest thermostat connected to each since Nest came out in 2011. I originally had a first generation Nest. I changed third generation Nest thermostats in 2013 when when I had to replaced both heat pumps.\n\nI am shocked that Amazon put out such a poor product. The thermostat itself as well as the app.\nNothing is intuitive about the app or the interface on the thermostat. This product is a mess.\n\nBut reflecting upon it it’s not surprising as this is a Honeywell product branded as an Amazon product. I don\'t think Honeywell has ever made a device that is "cutting-edge". They are old-school and don\'t put anything fancy in their consumer products.\n\nWhen I ask Alexa to change the temperature or turn on the air she says it doesn’t support that.\n\nYou can’t do a simple thing as turning on the air for a length you specify. Your choices are either on until you turn it off or on for random length of time that is unknown.\n\nThe interface on a thermostat is horrible.\n\nThe app does not accept Wi-Fi passwords above a certain length. I had to end up using my guest Wi-Fi password which is not as long as my regular Wi-Fi password.\n\nI’ve only installed one of the two I purchased and I previously typed that I was going to give it until November 22nd before returning if I don\'t see a drastic improvement of the mobile app and thermostat interface as the deadline for me to return is December 8. After reading from another reviewer that you cannot have separate schedules if you have two thermostats, I am removing the Amazon thermostat, reinstalling my Nest and packing up both Amazon thermostats and shipping back.\n\nI only bought these because I wanted the advantage of yelling at Alexa to control the thermostats. Picking up your phone and using the app to change the temperature or standing up and walking to the thermostat to change the temperature requires effort 😏.\n\nDid Amazon get any user feedback before releasing this???'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-3 review-rating', 'review_body': "I just got two installed. Installing with the help of instructions from Alexa app was a breeze. I am a novice when it comes to doing any DIY projects and was scared to do anything with a thermostat!\nBut it all went with no problems. I replaced 2 thermostats ( Honeywell) and can't wait to see how this Amazon thermostat works out. I got these because recently on a hot summer week, I forgot to turn the a/c off when we left town for a week. And that is when I wondered about having a wifi enabled smart thermostat. And when Amazon came out with their product, I got two of these.\nThe units beautiful and much more affordable than others on the market. Plus made by Honeywell!\nI wish all other smart home products are easy affordable and good as this Amazon Smart Thermostat.\nUPDATE 11/13/2021. For last many days, I noticed that only one thermostat was able to control the furnace. The HVAC was not being triggered by the second one. I chatted with Amazon device support and reset the thermostats (as per their recommendations) multiple times with no resolution. They then advised me to call Resideo Smart Thermostat support line. The gentleman there tried to problem solve same way with no resolution. He then told me that a technician will need to come to check voltage etc from the thermostat wiring to HVAC ( and that will cost me money). Then I did online search myself re Honeywell HZ311 and found others had similar problem with other Honeywell Smart Thermostats. I then removed one Amazon smart thermostat and put back the manual. So now I have one Amazon Smart Thermostat and one manual one and all is working great.\nI wish this was known to me before I purchased 2 of these and spent hours trying to fix the problem. Also I hope Amazon and Honeywell can have better product support especially when new products are introduced."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "Been holding off on smart thermostats until I couldn't say no anymore, and at $60, I couldn't say no anymore.\n\nTitle says it all - they are simple, elegant, low profile, and easy to hook up. They are Amazon branded Honeywell's so they are definitely quality built.\n\nInstall took me about 30 min each (none of my thermostats/furnaces had the c-wire hooked up so I had to do it myself - thank goodness the wires were there though). The app has step by step instructions, but really you just need to take a pic of your current thermostat's wiring.\n\nPros:\n-Amazing value for what you get ($60 compared to $250 Nest)\n-Save money on utility bills (Smart thermostat)\n-Control with Alexa voice or Alexa app (works flawlessly and already integrated - no skill required for the app)\n-Control house temp remotely (very useful for vacations or when you're out)\n-Easy install (minus the c-wire)\n-Wife loves them!\n\nCons:\n-None yet, but will update if I run across\n\nMake sure you don't sign up for the eco utility bill discount, unless you want your local power company adjusting your temp whenever they feel like it."}]