It is time to replace my 10+ year old Nest and since I have moved from Android to iOS I am looking for something that will work with Apple home. I see the ecobee listed in the Apple Store but is that the only thing? Or just the one that Apple recommends/has a partnership? I would like one that can use temperature sensors as the bedrooms on either end of the house can vary quite a bit from the thermostat.
I also have a single nest smoke detector and several dumb ones that I need to replace. Are there any that work with Apple home?
Dislike my ecobee pro in my current house. Liked my first gen ecobee in my last house. The new one has a poor quality air quality sensor and I’ve had to calibrate the temp for it to feel proper. Also had to replace a unit that lost its connection with HomeKit and wouldn’t rejoin the home.
For me, my next solution will be based on what works best in Home Assistant.
To be fair, Ecobee isn’t the worst thing in the world, just not a brand I’d buy from a third time.
+1 for ecobee
For smoke alarms, I recently picked up one of these Z-Wave smoke alarm relays. It attaches to your existing smoke alarm interconnect circuit, and pairs with a Z-Wave hub such as this one. Add that to Home Assistant with Z-Wave JS, and pair it to HomeKit with the HomeKit Bridge integration, and you’ve got smart smoke alarms!
I’ve installed multiple smart thermostats over the years. I find that Eccobee is the new stand out (for that price). It bests nest in many categories and offers all the bells and whistles you mentioned (including multiple room sensors). It has some features that i find unnecessary (Siri, etc), but you may find those useful.
As for smart smoke detectors…i still think nest has the best and easiest option. It doesn’t play nicely with Apple HomeKit —— but it can. I’ve tried HOOBS and various other options to support Nest, but none have been easy, intuitive, or worked particularly well. Then i bit the bullet and tried the Starling Home Hub. It’s about $100 and works flawlessly with all nest products (even the old nest thermostats). It’s easy to setup and one of the most reliable HomeKit hubs I’ve used. Truly “set it and forget it.” It’s given new life to first gen nest cams, a thermostat from 2013, and various older smoke detectors.
If i were in your shoes I’d add that first and see how well it performs with your existing nest hardware (assuming it is still working). The Eccobee is a nice upgrade if needed and can easily operate alongside starling/nest smoke detectors.
The issue I am having with the nest is software, when it is on heat it ignores my schedule and uses its own. Every day at midnight it sets the thermostat to 72, instead of 67. I have disabled smart schedule, I have deleted the schedule and remade it, I even just deleted everything and used it on manual and it still insists I need my bedroom to rival Mount Doom to usher in the new day. I have two newer nests in my business and do not have this issue with them.
But ultimately it comes down to moving away from all Google products as much as possible.
You have to turn off the learning features of Nest if you’re going to rely on HomeKit “I’m home geofence” or other commands. Use HomeKit to schedule times and temps — not the Nest app’s scheduling software. The schedule in your Nest app should be blank/empty.
I use tado and am very happy
Ecobee works, but I’m not a fan of dealing with the thermostat’s built-in UI. It also doesn’t have an “eco” range setting like Nest does. If you’re inputting everything through the home app, you’ll probably be fine. Ecobee also sells occupancy+temperature sensors that you can use to tune the thermostat further.
