First Impressions Really Are Everything!

I know it sounds cliche, but it's true a first impression can make or break a relationship whether it's a person, a car or a thermostat. As you may know, tonight was my opportunity at a first impression with the Nest Learning Thermostat.

The packaging:

 did I just open "Hal 9000"? It's a tad creepy, or maybe not. clearly the packaging is meant to support a pleasent first impression. They could have just thrown it in the box and wrapped it up, but they took the time plan your opening of the box, and how you'd see it. Is it looking at me?

Below the nest you'll find the baseplate and the tools to install.  Yes, folks that's a nest screwdriver kit included in the package. The cool part about this is that litterally I didn't have to walk to my garage for any tools to install this, everything needed was included inside the convinient packaged product. This is genius if you ask me, who wants to fumble around for tools. Oh did I mention they also included 2 different back plates, in the event your old thermostat left a giant hole or was in a box? Yes, again they are thinking ahead, though I chose the Hal style mount directly to the wall.

Here's the base plate installed and wired up, oh yeah, notice the little bubble level? Another genius addon. No need to level it yourself just use the device. Brilliant!

It's really pretty simple to install, I mean it's like 4 or 5 wires depending on your HVAC setup.

So, you've seen the packaging the attention to detail and the physcial product. That's fine and dandy, but what if you need help or have a problem? How is the support from the company you may wonder...

You're in luck, I just happen to know! It turns out that I may have jumped in a little too fast and forgot to power down the HVAC system prior to disconnecting the old thermostat. I was sad when I plugged in the Nest and it didn't power up. I fumbled around for a bit and thought about testing a few things, then I decided to call Nest. I'm extremly happy that I did, not only because I got above exceptional customer support, but that I also get to share this with you.

I got connected to a guy named Craig at Nest Support, first off he was friendly and easy to communicate with. We ran through a couple tests with the connections, then he suggested that I power on the device via the mini-usb connection on the back. Essentially I just plugged it into my laptop to get it powering on, after that we connected the  Nest back to the base and it told us what the problem was, well sorta. The device wasn't getting power from my HVAC. After a couple more tests; he even waited while I reconnected and tested the old thermostat, Craig stated that he was going to check with his next tier support team and run the situation by them.When he came back he had already approved a service call from a technician from my area. WHAT!? I was thinking oh man, what's this going to cost me... No, he said Nest would be paying for this.... After I regained myself from surprise of a company offering real technical support... I was like wow! Ok?

In the mean time, Craig mentioned that usually there is a fuse that gets blown on the board, which I immediately began looking for. Viola! there it was, a small 3 amp fuse, and yes it was blown. I said to Craig let me replace this before we send someone out, it'd be a shame to send out people and waste time for a silly fuse (which btw, was the result of my not turning off the power first)... I couldn't immediately find a fuse so I suggested to Craig that I hang up and work on this so as not to take his time. I'm convinced he would have waited but that would have been silly. I scavenged my tool box and finally found one. I installed it, and powered things on and BINGO, I was in business. The moral of the story is disconnect the power to the HVAC before you disconnect the old thermostat! For my friends in Support, I called him back to let him know I was up and running without any further problems.


So this time, we power up and get things going, excellent. I follow the onscreen display and setup the WiFi connection to the internet, when the Nest immediately checks for an update and installs it. I walk through the simple setup and away we go.

I'd previously downloaded the "Nest" iPhone app so I kicked that up to see what it looked like. As soon as I fired it up on the iPhone the app recognized that there was a Nest on my network and since I was already logged in on the app, it simply asked me on the base if I wanted to assign it to my account. How simple was that!

Next I set the temp and let the learning begin, I didn't leave it at 73 :)

iPhone App Screenshot:


So you're wondering how would I rate the  Nest Learning Thermostat  on a 1-5 scale?
Appearance and Presentation: 5
Installation: 4 (because the "flip power wasn't big RED letters" even though this was an error on my part)
Support: 5+ Amazing and knowledgeable Support Personnel. Saved me time and money.
Setup/Configuration: 5
iOS App: 4.5 (I'm probably being a bit hard here, it is after all just a thermostat) though the setup was very simple.

OVERALL: 4.7 out of 5


So there you have it, my first impression of the  Nest Learning Thermostat . I'd have to say it's been pretty good so far... Let's see what the next week or so brings, I'll share some of the and other info presented from the device. I'm really curious to see how it plays out when it determines a schedule. Hopefully this review helps you a bit.