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Nest Thermostat Won't Turn On Heat

disappointed
Community Member

Thermostat has been working well until today. Now the heat won't come on. Did a reset, that did not help. 

When I adjust the temperature a green leaf shows up and says in 1.5 hours, then says until 21:00. It's -4C outside, by 21:00H my pipes will be frozen. Support web site says they are open but all channels of communication are greyed out and unavailable. 

Can anyone help?

1 Recommended Answer

disappointed
Community Member

We resolved this problem by pulling off the Nest facelate and plugging it into a USB charger. About an hour later we put it back on the wall and it recommenced communicating with the furnace. 

View Recommended Answer in original post

170 REPLIES 170

pulled it off the faceplate after running around the house to the breakers, none had flipped, but we do have rolling blackouts at night, which probably affected it. We've had the NEST 2nd gen for ten years and never had a problem like this before today.  Found a cable that fits in the adapter slot. Plugged it in and less than 10 mins later it, a message appeared to return the faceplate to the base, and it started working immediately.  It's a quick fix, but one that Google does not explain and that is very very very disappointing. A reminder of how insignificant we are too big business.   Any suggestions on a good NEST replacement,  if this happened once, I can imagine how reoccurring this will get. 

how do you plug it in to a USB? with what cable?

BenClarke
Community Member

I think it’s a mini USB port - it’s inside the thermostat once you pull the faceplate off the front 

Yeah for me it’s the act of putting the faceplate back on - each of the pins need to be aligned for it to connect to the furnace.

And what does that mean?

Hey OP, it's been more than a year now since your post. Did the battery drain back to zero and the heating problem returned? Or is everything still good? Thanks!

That worked for me too! Only one hour of charging and as soon as I snapped it back onto the faceplate the furnace started up. We were getting very chilly! Shouldn't the unit be getting power from the wires? Why should it need to be removed and charged via usb cable??

I did this and it worked again for about four days and now I am freezing again

Needhelp
Community Member

Ours is has done the same thing

ours is the same. 

GT_Settle
Community Member

Here for same reason

GT_Settle
Community Member

Had to do factory reset, and then reinstall as if all brand new. Here’s hoping it holds….seems to me like this is a software issue…..

Revil
Community Member

My heat quit working. Seems like it happens when the outside temp reaches auxiliary temperatures. I go to equipment and run a test in my heat pump and it starts working. However, a day or so later heat doesn’t work again. 

Pzhere
Community Member

I too am one of the many unhappy customers of nest.  Doesn't turn on. I have 1 furnace and 2 nests in house I bought 2 yrs ago. Starting today one of nest stopped

swEng11
Community Member

Having the same problem where only cold air is coming out of the register even though heat is displayed on the Nest thermostat. This is the 2nd time this happened; I called/chat with Google last month. What they had me do is reset the schedule. I just tried now and it did not work. The last month episode, I replaced Nest with the original thermostat and Nest was off power for almost a day so it ran out of battery power and it shutdown...right now waiting for someone to respond in the chat...Obviously there's a software screw up here evident that a lot of customers are experiencing this same problem...when I put back the original thermostat (Trane) the heat turns on so it's obviously the Nest thermostat and its software is the problem here...

swEng11
Community Member

Update: they had me remove the Y1/cool wiring and that did work and getting hot air now...problem according to them is the Base unit need replacing...$50 coz warrantee expired. I'm looking at similar thermostat with same if not better functionality...anybody tried ecobee or the Honewell smart thermo?

Hug3kids
Community Member

They replaced my base unit after telling me the same thing.  Did not solve my problem.

Futhermore, after returning the old one (which was still under warranty), they still charged my credit card and had to put a dispute it to get that refunded.

I have multiple of the same thermostat and they all had the same update put on them at the same time which broke them all.

Moblasko
Community Member

My nest is still under warranty.  How to get in touch with a live person?

I had an ecobee at my last house. I loved it. I regret buying a nest. Air worked fine now it's heating season and my furnace won't light the pilot.

pvheming
Community Member

I just reset the schedule using the wall mounted Nest, and the furnace turned on for 2 minutes, then turned off again for a minute, then turned back on (as is running now)   I am hoping it continues to work as the night temperatures the next 7 days are forecast for the teens.

EMM
Community Member

I’m here for the same issue. After 3 years of working fine, my Nest thermostat settings stopped turning on the furnace … although the safety temp feature still works, but I can’t adjust the safety temp to more than 45 degrees F. I’ve  had the furnace repair guy out.  He confirmed furnace is working fine. He detached the Nest wires and reattached them and problem was solved …. until now. It’s doing the same thing again. 

We have the exact same problem. 
Furnace works fine to heat up to the safety temperature which we’ve set at 7 C. Once it hits that temp, the heat turns off even though it is set to 21 C. 

I have shut off the furnace and the nest thermostat but it has not helped. This definitely seems to be a software issue. 
The outside temperature where we live is -18 C. 
We need this fixed ASAP!!!

Wonder if they updated the firmware to fix this issue.  There are some people in this forum claiming that their thermostat mysteriously started to work again.  Someone recommended a factory reset.  I did try that to no avail.  However, if they've updated firmware to fix the issue, this may kick the sleeping dog to start working again 🙂  I'll have to take one of my other zones and try adding the NEST back and see if it updates the FW.  For those that claim it started to work again, can you please post the FW revisions ?

Otherwise, I think I'm going to hire an attorney and start a class action suit against Google.  Not thinking I would ever purchase another product from them or advise anyone else.  It's one thing to have a problem. I'm a technologist and understand these things happen.  Just acknowledge the issue and fix it.

My app says it is Software: 6.2-22

EMM
Community Member

That’s what mine says, too. 

jasr
Community Member

Our cabin has a dual fuel HVAC with 3 vertically stacked zones and a Gen 3 Nest that has run trouble free controlling our main floor zone for almost 2 years. The basement and loft zones are controlled by non-smart thermostats. Today the Nest stopped turning on the heat, although it displayed orange. It has been running 6.2-22 since Oct 26, 2021.  I was able to activate the heat using the thermostat for the basement zone and the dampers are open so we won't be uncomfortable tonight when the temp dips well below freezing. There have been no wiring or other configuration changes. Tomorrow I'll check the alt heat connection to the Nest and if it's good I'll probably replace the Nest with the stupid but reliable legacy thermostat. I am a retired technologist but I have a lot of banjos I would rather play than waste time visiting with the Google call center folks that don't have access or insight to source code.

Fnoton
Community Member

I am having same issue with my nest thermostat. cooling is working fine, but heating is not. it's like the nest thermostat has a mind of it's own. will work whenever it feel like, but just not my time frame when I need to turn it on. I spent the last 3 years, days and hours with nest technical support, even got a new unit (base and face) replacement. Nest Thermostatic was working constantly at the end of last winter season, and now I am having the same issue. turning to heat mode. The device is indicating in heat mode, but no hot air coming out. if I tried at different time of the day. this nest thermostat might working again, but not in my time frame. I am very disappointed with this device. luckily I am in southern CA. even without heat in winter is not going to be life matter. I do see this a common issue on the forum. but there no clear answer how to fix it. I will be contact technical support once again.

Hug3kids
Community Member

 

I went out and purchased a smart wifi Honeywell thermostat.  Same wiring, no changes and my system works fine.
Google/Nest support is the worst as they apparently are not knowledgeable enough on their own products.
In addition, simple trouble shooting skills is all that was need to prove this issue to them, but they wouldn't listen and eventually hung up.
I wasn't nasty, I was polite and just explained how technology works.
The fact that many people have been complaining of the exact issue beginning this heating season that seemed to correspond to a firmware update should have been evidence enough for them to address the problem.
 
I'm pretty frustrated with them and the almost $1000 in Nest Thermostats that are currently useless of mine.
I have 3 along with 6 wireless remote temperature sensors.
 
Rob

That sucks Rob!!

I think we may be in the same boat. 

Wonder if they updated the firmware to fix this issue.  There are some people in this forum claiming that their thermostat mysteriously started to work again.  Someone recommended a factory reset.  I did try that to no avail.  However, if they've updated firmware to fix the issue, this may kick the sleeping dog to start working again 🙂  I'll have to take one of my other zones and try adding the NEST back and see if it updates the FW.  For those that claim it started to work again, can you please post the FW revisions ?

Otherwise, I think I'm going to hire an attorney and start a class action suit against Google.  Not thinking I would ever purchase another product from them or advise anyone else.  It's one thing to have a problem. I'm a technologist and understand these things happen.  Just acknowledge the issue and fix it.

I think starting a lawsuit is a good idea.  

@Hug3kids Yes my fix was them rolling back the firm ware off 6.2-22 to the previous release. I didn't request this it was just done to the thermostat and then it started working correctly again.  They clearly have pushed some serious bugs into 6.2-22.  As I understand it you don't have a way to forcibly rollback the firmware either, your at the mercy of Google/Nest doing this for you at some point.  It's a sh*t show as far as I'm concerned and yes I think a lawsuit is in order as they are NOT being transparent about any of this to the end-user.  Tons of folks on this forum have had HVAC folks come out and payed even more money out of their pockets for a stupid software bug.  Not to mention the other issues that folks are having with trying to keep their homes from freezing.  It's pretty crappy all around.

Kg911
Community Member

Please count me in.  Had to spend $100 for AC company to tell me it’s the thermostat that worked fine until I needed heat last week and this week.

SanNGA
Community Member

Was this ever resolved? I am having the same issue…

EMM
Community Member

With Nest customer service on the line, I did a factory reset. This involves setting the thermostat up as though it was brand new. Unfortunately, I don’t think it can be done remotely via the app.  For now, the issue seems to be resolved.

SanNGA
Community Member

Thanks for the reply. I will give that a try however I’m afraid it may just be a temporary fix.

EMM
Community Member

Could be. I’m a 4-hour drive from my thermostat, so I hope it’s not a temporary fix. I’m checking my app multiple times a day to keep an eye on it. 

EMM
Community Member

Try a complete re-set. You’ll have to re-program as if you’re installing a new thermostat. It’s a hassle, but it has worked for some of us. 

SanNGA
Community Member

Was this ever resolved? I am having the same issue…