Sebastian SylvanSo I got really tired of nest bugs and decided to switch to Ecobee.. And It's even worse! It literally does not actually work at all. Partly due to bugs, and partly it just doesn't do the most basic of things a smart thermostat should do. Why does not a single review mention that it is just a fully broken product?
All I want is for it to go into "away" comfort setting when I leave and into "home" comfort setting when I get home. Seems like the most basic feature right? Nope. Impossible with ecobee. You might thing this works from reading docs, but it's actually just fully broken by design and also by bugs.
It's not possible to set "away for now" via geo fence. The best you can do is an away "hold". Which means it resets after 2h, or at next scheduled event depending on settings. So it won't stay in away mode if you're away for longer than that. You have to do a _manual_ "away for now" or "vacatoin mode" to get it to actually stay in away mode. No automatic system at all.
You might _think_ the "smart away" feature would work. But nope, it doesn't. It does not put the system in "away mode", it just adds 1F to the heat/cool temp differential. So it'll still spend all day cooling/heating your house, just 1F less. Massive energy waste.
So it appears that it simply isn't possible to do the most basic of things with this thing. The only way to make it smart is to disable all smart features entirely and use the Home automation stuff to explicitly set temps. I.e. have the ecobee just hold the most recent temp indefinitely. How did nobody who works at ecobee realize that the whole "smart thing" just isn't even working at all right now?
I just absolutely hate modern products. This should not only work, it should not only be possible to do easily. It should be the default, and work out of the box.
I also hate how modern tech reviews are basically pointless. You used to be able to read review to find out if products were good or bad. Now they seem to just not do any real testing and just want clicks for ads. How does missing a basic feature like this not get mentioned in any of the 10+ reviews of this in all the major outlets? What do they actually DO for a living if it's not testing and reviewing products?