Dear internet friends, here’s my review of the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium. That’s a long product name, phew!
This is the latest addition to my ever changing smart home device roster. I had been eyeing the premium thermostat for a while now, taking my time to research and make sure it fits my smart home needs, and of course, waiting for a good deal to happen. So I recently took the plunge and acquired a used — yes, used 😱 — Ecobee Premium Thermostat, bidding adieu to my “trusty” Google Nest Thermostat that once held its place to control my temperature upstairs.
Let’s dive in. In this review, I’ll present my early observations and reflections. From the initial unboxing to the very first interactions, I invite you to read along, participate in the conversation, by dropping your thoughts in the comment section below.
Specs
Product: ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium
Retail price: $249.99 (USD)
Release date: May 17, 2022
Model: EB-STATE6–01
Dimensions: 4.09 x 4.09 x 1.02 inches
Fare-thee-well, Google
Now, about my shift away from Google products — let’s just say I’m feeling a bit burned. Most of my smart tech hardware was and still is Google Nest. However, their product quality has taken a dip since the Nest takeover. Don’t get me wrong, smart tech ain’t pocket change, so it’s gotta last a good while. But they’ve recently been killing off stuff like Stadia and Nest Secure, two things I had invested in. What’s a couple more headstones in the Google graveyard, right? With Matter-enabled tech slowly popping up in the market, I figured now’s the time to shift my ecosystem mindset and diversify my “smart eggs” into strategic baskets, and embrace companies that are really focused in their niche fields and subject matters (example: Ecobee is for climate, Ring for security, Philips Hue for lights, etc.). So I embarked on a mission to rid my smart house of Google products, one at a time — I’ll add a review later about replacing my Nest Secure with a non-Google product, stay tuned. Where were we, oh yes, Ecobee…
Where to buy
I picked up a used ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium for less than $200 on Amazon, which saved me $50 compared to retail. Add in the $30 rebate from my energy company, that’s $170. Considering that a 2-pack of ecobee SmartSensors is $100, and you’re looking at a hypothetical thermostat cost of $120. If I can flip my old one for 40 bucks, we’re talking 80 bucks. Still in the land of ‘what ifs,’ though, but not bad to replace a free Google Nest Thermostat. I recommend checking your own electric company’s marketplace for deals around relevant holidays like Earth Day, or for some broader times like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. You can always set a deal alert on Slickdeals.
The Look and Feel
Design-wise, the ecobee Premium overall look is very consistent with previous models. However, this is the first model that packs a very has a sleek zinc casing. It feels substantial, like it means business. It’s heavier and bigger than the Nest Thermostat I replaced, but it’s packing more features, so it’s all good.
Quick tip: If your metal band ever gets stained, a little TLC can bring it back to life. I used a microfiber cloth and with a bit of windex and some patience I was able to buff and restore it to a brand-new look!
Installing and setup
Inside the box you’ll find the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium (duh), ecobee SmartSensor, backplate, wire labels sticker sheet, screws and drywall plays plugs, power extender kit (for systems without a c-wire), trim plate, and a quick start guide.
Ecobee’s app estimates a total install time around 45 minutes. Mine took roughly about 20 minutes thanks to my familiarity with the process and knowing where the cables connected to on the ecobee Premium base. Once mounted I did notice that my device wobbles ever so slightly vertically, and yes, I did tuck the wires back — been there before. Regardless, it feels sturdy and I know it’s not going anywhere.
A small thing is that I had to drill an additional hole on the wall to mount the plate and base. This is more a diss on the industry itself for not having universal mounting dimensions, but I don’t see the hole, so I don’t really care.
Setting up this thing was a walk in the park with the ecobee app. The in-app process had a complete guide with illustrations on what to do. Because I was setting up a second hand unit, things got a bit rocky towards the end, with the registration code. I should’ve reset the device first but once I got my pair code, I was back on track.
App
The app is simple and is fast. Like the thermostat, the app does a good job informing you of relevant information, like the temp, what mode is on, humidity, air quality, and you can expand with one tap to see all sensor temps and their occupancy status as well.
The ecobee app offers a nicely designed widget to see thermostat set points at a glance and tap to quickly update temperatures. Widgets can be tricky when it comes to background battery consumption, but ecobee ranks at 1%, with a mere 2 minutes running on background within 24 hours.
But there’s certainly room for improvement in the app. One of the things I noticed is how the app and the thermostat settings are not consistently organized. For example, Hold Action under “Preferences” (Thermostat) vs. Hold Duration under “Device Settings” (App).
I also noticed there are some features I can only access from the thermostat preferences, like the screen brightness, Active to Standby Screen Timer, Heating Smart Recovery and Cooling Smart Recovery. This is not a deal breaker, but when I was laying in bed with the thermostat glaring in my face at night—because it won’t turn off with low light—I had to get out of bed to adjust it, which was momentarily frustrating. Another feature you can only setup at the thermostat is Access Control — ecobee’s PIN/child lock. This is a great feature for all dads, but another pain that it can’t be managed via the app. The Discover tab is a bit of a hot mess. It was insightful to start out and understand some features, but quickly felt redundant. On top of that, I did encounter some weird glitches like some cards in loading state limbo.
Room (Smart) Sensors
Ok so this was the decider for me. Even though Google Nest sells a remote temperature sensor, the newest Google Nest thermostat doesn’t support it, unlike its older siblings like the E and the rotary thermostats, even though it has Bluetooth technology for setup purposes — which is how the sensors connect via Bluetooth 4.0 LE. This is where the frustration sets in, because it was a decision made by someone, to not enable this. Plus, by owning the Nest learning thermostat in the past, I learned that even though you can pair up to 6 sensors per compatible Google Nest thermostat, only one can be active and overriding the thermostat itself, which is lame.
With the ecobee it’s different, because not only ecobee thermostats can use sensors, you can pair with up to 32 Room Sensors. But here’s the kicker, you can have multiple sensors working with your thermostat to average the temperature in a given floor or area. And let’s be real, having sensors scattered around your place is the smart way to go. No more relying on just the thermostat’s location to figure out how warm or cool your rooms are. This was important for my upstairs with three rooms and a thermostat parked in the hallway. Plus, my primary bedroom’s got an extra air supply compared to the other rooms. Trust me, it’s a comfort upgrade that hits you in all the right places, which makes this and any ecobee that supports SmartSensors a game changer.
The ecobee SmartSensor packs more than just temperature as it includes motion and occupancy accessories, which is great for automation. It gets smarter with the “Follow Me” feature, which senses room occupancy to better regulate climate in active rooms. However, this requires a bunch of sensors laying around to work, in my opinion. My plan is to set up 3 sensors total, one in each bedroom. Even with that, don’t think I’ll enable “Follow Me” though, since I work from my 5x8' home office upstairs—a former walk-in closet — and I don’t plan to have a sensor in there.
Integrations
Ecobee has been around for a while now. This pioneer in the smart thermostat market, was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, which kinda is a tell-tale sign that it’s not going anywhere. So as you can imagine, fast-forwarding 16 years later, they’ve made some friends along the way. It works with Google Assistant, Apple Home, Alexa, SmartThings, and even IFTTT. Even though it’s not officially Matter-approved yet, it’s got Thread support, so fingers crossed for that bright future — read tweet from ecobee.
I did notice that I lost the fan accessory in Apple Home from the Nest Thermostat (via Starling Hub), that I was using to automate for humidity control but I trust ecobee with their fan algorithm to ensure humidity and everything else is in check.
Air Quality Monitor
Onto the air quality monitor. It’s a fancy addition that, honestly, I didn’t need. We all know what happens when you whip out a paintbrush or cook up a feast — the air quality does its thing. But hey, seeing that data on the screen, not buried in some app? That’s kinda nice. Also you get a notification when the air quality drops
Important to know that the sensor doesn’t directly gauge CO2 levels; rather, it evaluates CO2 levels through an assessment of the average correlation between VOCs and CO2 present in exhaled human breath.
Voice assistant(s)
This ecobee buddies up with Alexa and Siri. But here’s the kicker — you can’t have both at the same time, which was a bit of a downer, but that’s life. I opted with Alexa because that’s what I’ve switched to from Google Assistant on my Sonos speakers. The mics on this thing are great and pick up voice very well, sometimes too well. It could be beneficial to allow adjusting mic sensitivity in a future update. Interacting with the speaker in a small room, requires less sensitivity compared to a large one, and plus, there are so many voice-enabled devices in homes nowadays, that you can’t go wrong with giving smart home owners more flexibility.
However, I’m not a fan of the interface when either Siri or Alexa is invoked, because it just shows their respective logos, and hides temperatures from the display. I feel like there could be a better (and smoother) transition, in, and out.
Speaker
Let’s talk about the speaker — it’s got its own dedicated one. The speaker is located on the back, at the top. You can even play Spotify through it. Don’t get too carried away though, it’s no Sonos. I’d compare sound to a first-gen echo dot. But it’s got enough oomph for assistant chit-chat, timers, and adjust lights when moving around the house.
Display
Even though the screen on the Premium is 50% larger compared to older ecobee thermostats, it’s my biggest letdown. There’s no excuse, ecobee should’ve packed an OLED display instead so you can have true black and flawlessly blend the software with hardware. Even at the lowest brightness, you can clearly see where the screen ends and the black glass frame begins. I’d like to see a future where the ecobee does not have bezels—like the upcoming iPhone rumors.
The text is easy to read, and looks great from far away, but up close text looks pixelated and scrolling isn’t the smoothest ride. I think a nicer panel would’ve been great, and would solve most of these issues.
One of the things I’ll miss compared to the Google Nest Thermostat is walking by and the screen (mirror) turning on automatically to reveal its status. And according to ecobee, both the Smart Thermostat Premium and Smart Thermostat Enhanced pack a radar sensor to sense occupancy in the room where the thermostat is located that can detect occupancy up to 19.5 feet (6 meters) in front of it and 10 feet (3 meters) at 60 degrees to its sides. Plus, there’s a proximity sensor inside as well. I’m not sure why the thermostat screen can’t turn on and off when motion is detected. It feels like a software limitation to me. Just like the mics, it would be nice to be able to adjust the proximity sensor sensitivity. Instead ecobee users—like me now— have to adjust the values of the Active and Standby screen brightness, and if you want the screen to turn off while you sleep, you need to select that option from the thermostat itself—remember you can’t adjust display settings from the app!
Changing the temperature is easy, but it’ll take some getting used to coming from the Nest thermostat. I just want to pause for a moment and say that nest (the Alphabet kind) has the best mechanics to adjust temperature. That rotary wheel felt so natural and premium, with haptics, and clicks. Bravo! Anywho, it’s much different with ecobee. It’s a touch screen, which comes with its advantages and disadvantages. One of which, it’s a fingerprint magnet. Side controls are nice to avoid touching the screen, but more features require more freedom in the user experience and input methods, so it’s a worthy price to pay.
Security (bonus)
With ecobee creeping into the home security territory, with door and window contact sensors, cameras, and a rumored ecobee doorbell around the corner, I think the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium’s and its dedicated speaker has untapped potential for added security features.
With 2 kiddos running around, I need to know when a door is opened. Not by push notifications or emails, but by sound. Both the Nest Secure (to be unsupported on April 8, 2024) and the Ring alarm systems, offered that right out of the box.
Personally, what I ‘d like to see happen is ecobee leverage the existing thermostat speaker as a chime, so when a door/window contact sensor is opened you hear a chirp from the thermostat(s) when set to home, or sound a loud siren when set to away to deter break-ins. There’s no excuse to not have this in a near future. On top of that, the thermostat could also work as a central security keypad to arm and disarm your home, right from the thermostat. This would help reduce the amount of smart devices and ecosystems we have in our homes. If I had the chance to eliminate my security chime, range extender, keypad, trust you me, I would.
Even though this would certainly help justify ecobee’s smart security subscription plan, it would still come at a price. Currently, ecobee offers two security tiers, the Standard and Complete (both require a smart thermostat or SmartCamera).
Standard — costs $5/month or $50/year. This plan basically enables push notifications for reminders to arm/disarm your home based on geofencing, for when a door or window opens via contact sensors, or when smoke alarms has triggered. This plan automatically shuts off your thermostat when a door or window are left open, and also includes 30-day video evidence for one camera, only.
Complete — costs $10/month or $90/year which includes everything on the Standard, as well as 24/7 monitoring with better response times, potential home insurance savings, and 30-day video evidence for unlimited cameras.
In my view, these packages come across as overpriced, given what they bring to the table. One of the biggest complaint online is that customers need to subscribe to any plan to gain access to basic features like receiving alerts when doors are opened, or to even leverage geofencing. Not cool, ecobee—see what I did there? Security solutions such as the Ring Alarm system, have these basic features right out of the box (with the exception of the 24/7 monitoring.) However, if ecobee was to utilize the thermostat as security system as well, I think they’d have more user adoption.
Dave’s recap
This is a great thermostat, if not the smartest of them all (for now). If you’re looking for a smart thermostat to replace your traditional one, the Premium is a great option, as long as it fits your needs. I almost got an older ecobee, but I ended up choosing the Premium model, because of features that I knew I needed, plus some more.
Overall I’m very pleased with my new ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium. It packs a lot more features than its replacement. Most importantly it supports room sensors so I can cool my upstairs rooms more efficiently so our family can sleep more comfortably. I also gained an Alexa in the upstairs hallway which is convenient to manage the kasa switches in the hallway and staircase. Even though the display is a bit of a let down, this thing is still a thermostat at the end of the day and it’s not a media consumption device like an iPad. But when you stack the convenience, energy savings, and that sleek design, it’s a smart choice for upgrading your home’s vibe.
Thanks for reading my first review, ever! I’m curious to hear your thoughts and feedback. Is there anything you’d like reviewed? Let me know in the comment section. Until the next one, folks. Keep it techy!
— Dave
