I purchased 2 Nest 3rd Thermostats in 2018 to save energy and to protect my home while traveling. I recently arrived back home from a 4 week visit with family in Florida. My two thermostats are used to heat my home and support a two-zone system (Downstairs and Master Bedroom). My heating is from a natural gas furnace and forced hot water system. While I was away my Downstairs Nest Thermostat went offline. A few days later my Master Bedroom Nest Thermostat went offline. I remotely rebooted my XFi router with no luck in getting the 2 Nest Thermostats back online. My other NEST devices which include an internal and external NEST camera all remained online.
I live in a cold climate (Massachusetts) and upon my return to my home my basement and first floor was flooded due to frozen and burst pipes in my baseboard heating system. After some investigation with Nest Support and the Google Home app Energy Dashboard, I learned that the lithium batteries in the Nest Learning Thermostat can reach a state where they no longer can hold a charge. In my case the Nest thermostats went offline to conserve power before failing all together. Once the batteries completely discharge the NEST Thermostat will not and cannot activate your heating system. The result in my case in a destroyed home with extensive water damage to walls, flooring, ceiling and personal items like furniture totally over $100,000. Both NEST Thermostats were flashing red when I arrived home. I took both Nest Thermostat off the back plate, used a micro-USB cable to charge them for 12 hours. When I go to place the Nest Thermostat back on the back plate I immediately get a display message that the thermostat is shutting down and once it does the device becomes non-responsive (as in dead). This is occurring in both Nest Thermostats. It’s a fatal design flaw that the company should be warning consumers about as the consequences of a dead thermostat in a cold weather environment are devastating. To make matters worse the insurance company is asking for my Nest records to confirm that I was not negligent in maintaining heat in the home. I now face the prospect of being denied an insurance payment. There are no NEST solutions for this problem, once the battery can no longer keep a charge you have to purchase a new device at $249 per device. I am planning to file a consumer compliant with the Office of the Attorney General in Massachusetts and with the MassSave state wide efficiency program to ensure that the battery failure in this device will not impact other consumes as it has my family. This product should only be sold in a cold weather state like Massachusetts without a warning label advising consumers of the potential of a catastrophic failure of the device due to a battery discharge. LET THE BUYER BEWARE!
