It is time to replace my 10+ year old Nest and since I have moved from Android to iOS I am looking for something that will work with Apple home. I see the ecobee listed in the Apple Store but is that the only thing? Or just the one that Apple recommends/has a partnership? I would like one that can use temperature sensors as the bedrooms on either end of the house can vary quite a bit from the thermostat.
I also have a single nest smoke detector and several dumb ones that I need to replace. Are there any that work with Apple home?
Dislike my ecobee pro in my current house. Liked my first gen ecobee in my last house. The new one has a poor quality air quality sensor and I’ve had to calibrate the temp for it to feel proper. Also had to replace a unit that lost its connection with HomeKit and wouldn’t rejoin the home.
For me, my next solution will be based on what works best in Home Assistant.
To be fair, Ecobee isn’t the worst thing in the world, just not a brand I’d buy from a third time.
I like my Ecobee a lot but the one thing I’d look for next time is something that does not require the vendor’s cloud service. Should be able to have full local control because eventually all cloud services shut down.
Ecobee is fully local via homekit… Your internet can be off and the homekit commands will be sent local. You can also control everything from its screen locally if your internet is down.
Initial setup (first time powering it up) and use of the Ecobee app require internet.
So you already have HomePods? Because if so, all of your cheap dumb smoke alarms automatically become smart. It’s just recognizes the alarm sound and alerts you.
Worked for me last night when my daughter burned the toast
I’ve been using my Tado thermostat for the past 5 years without any issue. It integrates well with HomeKit and home assistant. Its radiator valves are great at separating the heat around my home.
For smoke / CO detectors, I just have dumb ones. But I’ve noticed my HomePod mini has urgent notifications when they sound. Don’t know how accurate these are as they require sound recognition.
Not the answer you were looking for, but these guys sell a solution to get Nest stuff working in HomeKit: https://www.starlinghome.io/
It’s annoying you have to pay another hundred bucks to get this integration working, but it’s an option.
That’s kinda cool but if that’s the only option, it’s better using Home Assistant instead in the first place.
+1 for ecobee
For smoke alarms, I recently picked up one of these Z-Wave smoke alarm relays. It attaches to your existing smoke alarm interconnect circuit, and pairs with a Z-Wave hub such as this one. Add that to Home Assistant with Z-Wave JS, and pair it to HomeKit with the HomeKit Bridge integration, and you’ve got smart smoke alarms!
I use tado and am very happy
Ecobee works, but I’m not a fan of dealing with the thermostat’s built-in UI. It also doesn’t have an “eco” range setting like Nest does. If you’re inputting everything through the home app, you’ll probably be fine. Ecobee also sells occupancy+temperature sensors that you can use to tune the thermostat further.
Nest with Matter. Depends on the functionality you’re looking for, but I’m super happy with the newer Nest Thermostat in HomeKit using the Matter support that was added earlier this year.
It doesn’t support eco mode or learning functions, but it does everything traditional thermostat can do from the wall, but from HomeKit. Plus I can script temp changes and min/maxes using Automations.
Nest has also had some huge discounts, I got two through my energy provider for $40ea. Sure beats a $200 ecobee.
