Don't Fear the Nest

Published on January 18, 2016

If your home is running on the Nest Thermostat you probably read about the recent problems and may be living in fear of the dreaded technology glitch that is causing many Nest users to lose heat in the dead of winter.

But fear not!

Nest Support has published a page with step by step instructions with the very convenient title “What to do if your Nest Thermostat has become slow, unresponsive, or won’t turn on.” Yes, that’s really the title.

For more detailed information, see their Nest Support page. For a more basic overview, keep on reading:

Nest Thermostats that were recently updated to software version 5.1.3 or later may have some issues, including becoming unresponsive, not effectively charging the battery, or going down completely. Nest recommends recharging and restarting your thermostat to rectify the problem and get it up and going again.

Indications of this problem include the following:

the thermostat being down on the Nest application and disconnected from the Wi-Fi
the thermostat notifies you that the battery is low and it needs to turn off
the thermostat’s animated properties are slower than usual
the thermostat shows a message saying, “Please remove the thermostat from its base, then reattach it;”
the thermostat’s display is black and unresponsive (you may also have a blinking red or green light above the display)
the thermostat can’t control the corresponding HVAC unit(s)

If your Nest Thermostat is turned on but you can’t control it or it’s performing slow, try manually restarting it by turning the thermostat off and then back on again. If your Nest Thermostat is off and won’t turn on, take the thermostat off the base and charge it using a USB cable plugged into a wall charger or a computer.

ATTENTION: Do not try to power on or off your thermostat while it’s still connected to a computer for charging. (They didn’t go into detail why, but if Nest says don’t do it, DON’T.)

After approximately 10 minutes of charging, unplug the Nest Thermostat from the USB cable. If the component has turned on while charging, turn it off and then turn it back on again, manually restarting the thermostat. Once it has fully restarted, plug it back in to finish charging. After an hour of charging, disconnect the Nest Thermostat and reattach it to its base.

You should be ready to rock and this point, but again, for more detailed instructions and information, see Nest Support.

If you have tried both of these processes and the Nest Thermostat is still showing signs of problems, you will need to bring in some experts. Enter us! If Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning set up your Nest Thermostat, please give us a call at 587-404-0790 or schedule an appointment online. If your Nest Thermostat was not set up by Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning, please contact Nest Support here.

Additionally, do not let this matter worry you about your Nest’s reliability. By owning and properly using Nest, your thermostat is actually saving money for you daily. When set it up appropriately, Nest intelligently learns your lifestyle, then adjusts your heating and cooling use to optimize energy savings daily, which typically results in payback within the first year. And, Nest is still one of the only thermostats under $300 on the market that does this. So don’t let one complication get you down. You were smart to invest in a Nest, because a smart thermostat is still one of the prime investments in your home that you can make.

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