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3rd Gen Learning Thermostat Repeatedly Low Battery

HollyK
Community Member

My 3rd Gen Learning Thermostat began having low battery and loss of connectivity several weeks ago.  After charging for several hours using the USB cord, it works normally until a few days later when the battery is again low, the system won't connect to the internet and I must repeat the charging process.  With this last experience, I have before and after ~1 hour charge time:

Before: battery 3.64V, Win 37.29V, and lin 20mA.

After:  battery 3.768V, Vin36.39, and lin40mA

My wire connections:  Y1 cool, G fan, W1 heat, and RH power.

Any thoughts besides having to charge every other day?  When disconnected, the house temp drops quite quickly in this bad weather.  repeated charging can't be the only solution, right?

14 REPLIES 14

Caru501
Community Member

Started to have the same problem as of two days ago. 

Any advice will be appreciated 

Ps.

Had the unit working for 2 months before the problem started,  I have 5 in the house and switching the unit to a different location have not effect 

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,

 

@HollyK, thanks for sharing the steps that worked for you. Please observe it for now and let us know if anything comes up.

 

@Caru501, I'm sorry to hear that you're having an issue with your Nest Thermostat. I'd love to know more about this and I have a few questions:

 

  • What type of Nest Thermostat do you have?
  • How is your Nest Thermostat wired?
  • What is the power reading of your Nest Thermostat? You can find this information by going to Settings > Technical Info > Power.

Looking forward to your response.

 

Thanks,

Edward

Caru501
Community Member

Hi, thanks for following up on my post, my unit is  gen 3 learning thermostat and I'm only using 2 wires. 

Call customer service and a replacement is on the way.

I actually have 5 thermostat and  after trying to figure out what was the problem I decided to replace the unit with the problem with one on the room next to it and see if the problem persist. 

Hold and behold the unit that was working just fine in the other room was just fine in the location that was given the battery drain issue and the one that had the problem still had the power drain no matter where in the house it was installed. 

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi Caru501,

 

Thanks for the update. I'm glad to hear that you were able to get a replacement. Let us know once you receive it. Keep us posted.

 

Thanks,

Edward

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi Caru501,

 

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

 

Thanks,

Edward

HollyK
Community Member

Well, after lots of internet detective work, I learned that you can purchase a~$30 nest power adapter (from google or amazon for same price/faster delivery) and quickly install so that the system behaves as though there's a C wire.  It was simple to install - took about 10 minutes. Will see if that does truly fix the problem, but I am optimistic.

Jake
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey there,

 

I wanted to check in, and let you know that I will be locking the thread in 24 hours.

 

Best regards,

Jake

HollyK
Community Member

Please don't lock the thread.  I'm not convinced this is resolved.  I've had to charge the unit 2 more times. The first was immediately after the installation of the power adaptor, so I was giving it time and being patient but I had to charge again about 72 hours ago.  I am tracking it now to see how long before it is again depleted.  Regardless, it seems as though there's a problem and this is a defective unit.  I'd like to hear your thoughts.....

 

Holly

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi HollyK,

 

Thanks for the update. Could you share the power readings of your Nest Thermostat? You can find this by going to your Nest Thermostat's Settings > Technical Info > Power.

 

Thanks,

Edward

HollyK
Community Member

Thanks for your patience - I was traveling.  Just under a week since last charging with the USB, it is again low battery.  Current readings are:

Battery:  3.650V

Voc:  33/53

Vin:  32.51

lin: 20mA

 

Surely this signals that my thermostat is faulty.  I think I've done my part to ensure that there's nothing on my end.  What are the next steps?

 

Thanks

Holly

Markjosephp
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello folks,

 

I wanted to stop by and see how I could help.

 

Thanks for helping here, Edward.

 

@HollyK, Thanks for letting us know the status. I'm sorry to hear the issue still persists, and we appreciate you trying to have it manually charged just to have a heater at home. We'd be happy to take a look into this for you.

 

Please fill out this form with the needed information and let us know once you're done.

 

Regards,

Mark

Hi HollyK,

 

I'm checking back in — how's it going? Have you had a chance to fill out the form? Let us know so we can assist you right away.

 

Thanks,
Mark

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi HollyK,

 

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

 

Thanks,

Edward

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi HollyK,

 

I'm just checking in to make sure that you've seen our response. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours.

 

Thanks,

Edward