Smartthings compatible smart Thermostat

Guys

What smart thermostats work the best with Smartthings in March 2021?

It looks like Ecobee and Nest are the top 2 but what are the advantages of each? Is there a better smart thermostat device that integrates with Smartthings?

Thanks

There’s no one best because different people have different budgets, different preferences, different set ups, different decor, different furnaces. :sunglasses:

Both ecobee and nest are good. Ecobee also works with HomeKit, which is a plus for some people (including me), others won’t care about that.

If you’re a data geek, ecobee has a huge advantage. The last time I looked ecobee gave you 18 months, including a chart option, and nest gave you 10 days. We run a solar powered system, so being able to compare this year to last year is really helpful. But again, a lot of people won’t care about that.

Both ecobee and nest have a lot of cool features, but provide those cool features through a cloud. So there are community members who prefer to just go with a really simple Z wave thermostat like 2Gig. Or the Zen thermostat if you prefer Zigbee.

Choice is good, and there are definitely some good choices in this category. But no one best, because it depends on what you’re looking for.

1 Like

I forgot to mention that if your furnace does not have a “C“ wire, at first glance it will look like nest is a better choice because it does have an option for that configuration. However, there have been a lot of complaints about the method that it uses for powering the thermostat without a C wire, which is called “power stealing,” interfering with the operation of some furnaces.

So it brings us back to the first rule of home automation: “the model number matters.“

The first step in your research should be to determine what the make and model of your furnace is and what its wiring configuration is. Then you can look for a thermostat that works well with that.

2 Likes

I switched my 4 honeywell lyric thermostats (due to a plethora of issues) to echobee and I couldn’t be happier. Now that I think about it, I haven’t had a single connection outage since I hooked them up. Responsive in app, smarthings, webcore, and Alexa. Would recommend if you have the budget. The extra sensors are cool for averaging the temperature in a zone/floor.

If you try to connect echobee to home assistant, the process is a pain in the buns and 50 times more complicated than it needs to be.

1 Like

My wiring didn’t have the ‘C’ wire as @JDRoberts points out so I got the Zen smart Thermostat since it doesn’t require the ‘C’ wire because it is powered by 4 AA batteries that last over a year or more with my use. The Zen Thermostat is listed in SmartThings so it has a native device handler. The Zen Thermostat device page even shows the battery level. The only thing is, if you like touching your thermostat to change the settings, the Zen ‘dot’ lit touchscreen is a little awkward. So I just use SmartThings Automations to turn either heating or cooling On/Off so I never have to touch it. I also have virtual switches setup, one for Air Conditioning, and one for Heating so that I can use voice commands as well. They have a website that walked me through setting it up for various heating/cooling systems. So, if you don’t have the ‘C’ wire, then the battery powered Zen Thermostat is a good option.

1 Like

Depends on what features you want accessible through Smarthings. For example with Z-Wave thermostats you can get access to remotely locking the controls, setting filter reminders, setting upper/lower limits for heating/cooling, humidity reporting, C-Wire repeaters and so on.

See the first post of this topic as it summarizes the various features available in difference Z-Wave thermostats:

1 Like