Wasted $200 on a fancy smart thermostat that barely worked

Picked up one of those wifi thermostats last spring because I thought it would save me money on heating. Spent half a Saturday reading the manual just to get it installed, then another hour dealing with an app that kept crashing. Turns out my old house from the 60s has a dumb wiring setup that the thing couldn't handle right. Ended up tossing it in a drawer and going back to my plain 30 dollar twist dial. Has anyone else dealt with a smart home upgrade that just wasn't worth the headache?

2 comments

2 Comments

scott.alex8d ago

$200 is crazy for a thermostat that couldn't handle a simple wiring setup from the 60s. I almost bought one of those fancy Nest ones last year for like $150 but then I saw all the reviews about compatibility issues with old houses. My buddy actually did the same thing with a smart switch and ended up having to call an electrician to fix the mess it made, cost him more than the damn switch itself. It's wild that something that's supposed to make life easier just turns into a whole weekend project and a headache.

andrew_baker97d ago

My buddy spent the better part of a Saturday last month trying to wire up a Wyze thermostat in his 1950s bungalow and ended up just duct-taping the old mercury switch back to the wall so the furnace would stop running nonstop. He said the instruction manual was like 40 pages and the app just kept saying "no common wire detected" in a cheerful voice. I mean at that point you're basically doing a science project just to set the temp to 68 degrees. Idk maybe just stick to turning a dial and calling it a day.