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3rd Gen Nest Thermostat no longer connects via WiFi? (Low battery issue)

jTeegardin
Community Member

Hi,

 

I have had my thermostat installed for just about 3 years now in my house. It has been fine, but last night (13 hours ago) it appears the WiFi dropped out on my thermostat. The only times I've seen WiFi disconnected is during power outages which makes sense.

Looking through the menus on the thermostat it is showing that I have a low battery. I'm not sure how this is possible since it's been plugged into the wall with consistent power. Our last power outage was over a week ago at this point and that was for a couple of hours.

 

How do I go about getting my Thermostat to reconnect to the WiFi? Can I override the internal battery issue since it's always plugged into the wall?

1 Recommended Answer

jTeegardin
Community Member

Solution (but nothing definitive): After reseating the Nest thermostat and waiting a full day, our battery appears to be charged enough for WiFi to turn on. I'm not sure why reseating the thermostat worked since it is never physically touched (all changes are made via our phones). But hopefully this helps someone else out there.

 

And if that doesn't work - read the comments! @ddg21co suggested charging the internal battery via the USB plug in the back. Hope this helps someone else out there.

View Recommended Answer in original post

7 REPLIES 7

ddg21co
Community Member

My Nest Learning Thermostat sometimes has a similar problem. It sometimes fail to connect to the power lead in the wall jack. What I do: pull the thermostat out from the wall (plug in the back of the thermostat disconnects from the jack in the base) and plug the thermostat into a standard USB charging cable using the port on the back of the thermostat. Then realign the thermostat plug with the wall jack and plug the thermostat back into the wall plate. 

I do not have mine plugged into a wall jack (sounds like a separate device?) - just running on the power from my AC/furnace. I went ahead and reseated it to see if that will help, but I'm not sure why it would randomly have "unseated" from the power connector in the back. Time will tell I guess, but hoping to hear back from a Nest person. I imagined there would be a notification that informs me the Nest is running purely off battery to let us know there's a power outage or the main power has disconnected.

Sorry, I was unclear. The thermostat usually connects to the wall (whether that's a structural wall, furnace wall, or something else) with a multi-pronged plug which includes the thermostat power supply. If you have power to the thermostat power supply (usually from the furnace, air conditioning or other HVAC source), and yet your thermostat internal battery is low, either you have an internal fault in the thermostat itself (Nest technician needed), or the plug in the back of the thermostat is not firmly connected. It's a small plug and minor jostling can affect it. You might first try pushing on the thermostat firmly to make sure the plug is fully seated. If that does not work, my Nest Learning Thermostat can be disconnected by simply pulling it straight out from the wall. On the back of the thermostat is a micro-USB connection, like a charging plug on a cell phone. You can charge the internal battery that way to see whether it will accept a charge (takes several hours). I've had to do this three times with my thermostat over the past few years because the connection was bad. If you have a custom installation, or are uncomfortable pulling the thermostat out from the wall, then you're right to wait for contact from an expert (which I am definitely not).

Thanks for the input! While I agree most installations probably have these issues because the connector isn't super strong or has a lot of mating force, we never touch the physical Nest ever so it shouldn't have been jostled recently.

 

On the good side though, reseating the Nest into the backplate/connector definitely did something. The battery voltage is rising per the UI and I'm able to reconnect it to WiFi. So maybe it did get jostled somehow and the power pin wasn't making a clean connection?

jTeegardin
Community Member

Solution (but nothing definitive): After reseating the Nest thermostat and waiting a full day, our battery appears to be charged enough for WiFi to turn on. I'm not sure why reseating the thermostat worked since it is never physically touched (all changes are made via our phones). But hopefully this helps someone else out there.

 

And if that doesn't work - read the comments! @ddg21co suggested charging the internal battery via the USB plug in the back. Hope this helps someone else out there.

MelbaDT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks, 

 

Sorry  for the delayed response but thanks for keeping the thread updated. 

 

ddg21co, appreciate your chiming in and giving out the suggestion to charge the thermostat display using a USB cable. 

 

jTeegardin, glad to hear that you've found a fix and now your thermostat is back up and working as it should. I also understand how you feel about having to reseat the display as it was working before and nothing has changed. I suggest to observe it for a few more days just to ensure that the device still continues to work as it should. Keep us posted when something comes up. 

 

Best, 

Melba

MelbaDT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks, 

 

We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update within the day. If you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the Community.

 

Best, 

Melba