Smart Thermostats may not be so smart!

If you’re looking to get a smart thermostat, be careful in regards to installing it yourself. As an example, you want to hire a technician to properly install new technology with old equipment. 

My father, who has been in the industry over 45 years warned me. These smart devices are not necessarily always the smartest. There has been many complaints in the heating and cooling industry where technicians have commented the number one reason their furnace is not working is because of a smart thermostat is self installed on older equipment. 

On the hottest day in July we worked with cleaning a furnace that was only blowing hot air. The thermostat said it was set for 24c, however there was no AC coming into the office. 

I still have to rely sometimes on my father (founder of Vacu-Man Furnace and Duct Cleaning) for advice on this stuff.    

At first we thought it was the compressor, which put me into a heart attack thinking it was going to cost thousands of dollars to repair. 

Good news it wasn’t the air compressor. After 6 hours of cleaning and getting it looked at, my father advised that the owners should go buy a $30 simple thermostat. 

Customer did at the end of the day and sure enough, it worked. They were using the Ecobee Lite 3 as the smart thermostat and sure enough this was a problem with many people that have tried to self install it. 

In summary

make sure that you get a professional tech to help with the installation.   Vacu-Man only employs gas techs for working on these units, but you want to call a heating and cooling tech to properly install these new smart devices on older Furnace units to ensure that it’s done right!