Nest Thermostat - WiFi chips dying

[richieboy]

Morning,

I've had a Nest Thermostat since last August. In January the WiFi stopped connecting one morning so spoke to Nest and in the end they shipped a replacement and I sent the faulty one back - it seemed like a pretty common fault from looking around so I didn't give it too much thought and just assumed the new one would be all good, and it was, until yesterday! Now this one has the same problem - W5 error and dead WiFi chip, so I've got a replacement coming...again!

I can't really fault Nests support so far as the replacement process has been OK, but what happens when I'm out of warranty in another few months and the WiFi dies again? I'm hoping I've just been really unlucky with having two in a row in a fairly short space of time, has anyone else had similar problems? I assume the warranty is based on the original purchase price and not replacements, so it will be out of warranty in August.

Am wondering if the next one does die if I should just rip out Nest and stick an old school Thermostat back in!

 

[phenx]

I used a nest for about a year before I sold it and got normal thermostat (got pretty much what I paid for it new, so the price held up well.) One of the main issues I had with it was it reguarly disconnected from the base, had to reset it once a week or so to get it to work again. I haven't missed it since I sold it, although I never really used the extra features it comes with.

 

[richieboy]

If this replacement one has any problems I'll definitely look at removing Nest entirely, ejecting it out of the window and getting something else wired in - for the features I do use it really isn't worth the hassle!

Seeing as I didn't fit the Nest, does anyone know if it would be a simple job to replace the Nest box with a standard thermostat? There are a lot of guides online for moving to Nest...but not that many for switching back!

 

[FlyingFish]

Yes its straight forward, you can wire up a 'standard' wireless receiver in place of the Nest heatlink, the wiring is easy to change over.

The wifi chip in my Nest failed within warranty, last year. Google was excellent with the returns/replacement procedure. Touch wood its still going fine, and apart from that hiccup, the unit has been very reliable.

I work in the heating trade, and we fit all sorts of controls for people, and yet the Nest is still one of the best looking units out there, even though I dont need all its features, they are handy and so is the app.

Mick

 

[The Darkness]

Is there an obvious error code displayed if the wifi chip fails? I've had one that will not detect networks anymore but wasn't sure how to check it's deffo failed.

Cheers

 

[richieboy]

First time there was no specific error code, just kept 'Searching' for WiFi networks and could never find any, tried setting up mobile hotspot etc and just couldn't detect anything, standard things tried like restart/factory reset etc but no difference.

Second time I got a W5 error, and essentially followed the same as above but it became apparent pretty quickly it was the same issue as before! I've got the third one fitted now and all is ok so far, just have to hope it doesn't die in another 6 months when it's out of warranty!

For what it is worth their live chat support is pretty solid and as long as you've gone through their hoops they are pretty quick at getting you a replacement...that said, the replacement I just got was a full retail pack..in French! Doesn't bother me as long as it works, but the first replacement was just the thermostat itself in a brown box, maybe it was just a refurb or something which is why it failed on me too!

If number three dies I'll likely rip it out and chuck a standard thermostat on, will have had enough at that point.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

had mine 4 years no issues.

they do say you should seperate SSID's for 2.4ghz ands 5ghz networks. they don't like 2 networks with the same name

 

[richieboy]

they do say you should seperate SSID's for 2.4ghz ands 5ghz networks. they don't like 2 networks with the same name

Not a factor for me, only running 2.4ghz.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Not a factor for me, only running 2.4ghz.

It's crazy for you to have 2 die. There must be something wrong with your install. Maybe too much leccy being sent to it or a dirty power source.

I've had mine 4 years no issues. I've also recommended it to a mate who then got it installed so did his dad and his uncle. Neither of them have had issues either.

 

[The Darkness]

First time there was no specific error code, just kept 'Searching' for WiFi networks and could never find any, tried setting up mobile hotspot etc and just couldn't detect anything, standard things tried like restart/factory reset etc but no difference.

Second time I got a W5 error, and essentially followed the same as above but it became apparent pretty quickly it was the same issue as before! I've got the third one fitted now and all is ok so far, just have to hope it doesn't die in another 6 months when it's out of warranty!

For what it is worth their live chat support is pretty solid and as long as you've gone through their hoops they are pretty quick at getting you a replacement...that said, the replacement I just got was a full retail pack..in French! Doesn't bother me as long as it works, but the first replacement was just the thermostat itself in a brown box, maybe it was just a refurb or something which is why it failed on me too!

If number three dies I'll likely rip it out and chuck a standard thermostat on, will have had enough at that point.

Cheers. Did you need to change the heat bridge thing too, it could you simply swap out the thermostat when you installed the new one? Mine was fine for nearly three years then went and I need to swap it out.

 

[richieboy]

It's crazy for you to have 2 die. There must be something wrong with your install. Maybe too much leccy being sent to it or a dirty power source.

I've had mine 4 years no issues. I've also recommended it to a mate who then got it installed so did his dad and his uncle. Neither of them have had issues either.

Yeah luck doesn't seem to be on my side with these. So far the second one was on an entirely different ring main from the first one, the only constant is the USB cable and charger so if this one goes also I could look at that. From googling around the WiFi chip death does seem pretty common, I am hoping I've just been unlucky!

 

[richieboy]

Cheers. Did you need to change the heat bridge thing too, it could you simply swap out the thermostat when you installed the new one? Mine was fine for nearly three years then went and I need to swap it out.

Nope, you can just re-pair the new thermostat with the existing heat link. You'll need the code printed on the bottom of the existing heat link box.

 

[The Darkness]

Thank you

 

[esoteric]

My NEST Thermostat E has seemingly died too. My brother went to turn the heating on today and it couldn't connect to WiFi. He troubleshot the issue which resulted in disconnecting the theromstat from the app etc and did a hard reset, now the thermostat is sat on the connect to phone screen waiting to be paired, but it can't be paired because it can't connect to WiFi and from here it's basically stuck and we can't do anything else from the thermostat, no hard resets or anything, we can't get past this screen.

 

[FlyingFish]

Phone their support line, I believe the Nest has 2 year warranty

 

[esoteric]

Phone their support line, I believe the Nest has 2 year warranty

He's on the web chat with them, was 46 in queue when he joined it, 46 dead WiFi chips I wonder.

 

[ShivP]

I have no problems with Hive if that is of interest?