Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) Review: Blending Beauty and Brains

Nest’s sensible thermostats have been an icon of the sensible house since they hit the market in late 2011. Nothing mentioned sensible like a tool that would be taught your habits and make your house function extra effectively with out having to fiddle with settings and automations. Within the 13 years since, Nest Studying Thermostats have been simple to establish, with the identical thick silver bezel and compact round display. This design was radical at a time when most sensible thermostats regarded like boring, rectangular, beige packing containers.

Google’s fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat has a completely new look, remodeling what now appears like a primary tech gadget into one thing of an artwork piece in your wall. It is acquired new smarts too, and features a temperature sensor to position elsewhere within the house. It is a refreshing improve to a longtime staple, and feels sensible with out being intrusive or overly advanced—an essential center line not all sensible gadgets discover.

Slim Setup

{Photograph}: Nena Farrell

In case you’re hoping to pop the fourth-generation Nest Studying Thermostat onto the backing of a earlier Nest thermostat, you are out of luck. The thermostat base for the brand new mannequin is a special measurement, so you may have to change out the outdated base for the brand new one.

Whereas the third-generation thermostat itself is smaller, its base is a bit of bigger with bigger connectors; the brand new thermostat base is smaller with positively tiny connector buttons. You’d suppose with the bigger 3.9-inch display that the bottom could be bigger, but it surely has a smaller footprint in your wall, which is good. It comes with an non-obligatory plate as with earlier generations, however the brand new model is an oval quite than a rectangle. A 3.9-inch display may not sound that large, but it surely appears surprisingly giant on the wall in case you’re used to the smaller Nest thermostats, and even one thing like my earlier thermostat, the sq. Honeywell T6.

{Photograph}: Nena Farrell

Putting in the Nest is simple; make sure your system is compatible and that you have flipped off the related breaker to chop energy. The Nest app is now not at play with this mannequin. Google has been regularly transitioning a lot of its options and capabilities to the Google Dwelling app, and that is what you may use for this new mannequin. Google Dwelling walks you thru the steps of eradicating your outdated thermostat, labeling the wires, and putting in the brand new thermostat over it.