ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium 2022 REVIEW

ecobee has the ‘smartest’ thermostat available.

We moved into our house 10 years ago. The house was built in the late 1960s so of course, it had an older thermostat. One of the first upgrades we made to the house was to install a smart thermostat. We tried a Nest at first. I was an early adopter of that system and felt it was natural to continue with it.

In early 2014, Google acquired Nest Labs, the company that designed the Nest thermostat, for $3.2 billion. When that happened, I decided to migrate my smart thermostat interests over to ecobee.

Since I’m an Apple user, HomeKit has been my go-to for smart home management. So, when the Nest was bought by Google, I knew that HomeKit integrations were an unlikely option. To this day, Nest does not offer native HomeKit integration. ecobee, on the other hand, does work with HomeKit. So, in 2015, I adopted the ecobee3 as our smart thermostat.

It’s been a champ since day one, however, in the past year, it seems as though it is showing its age. I installed the unit we have in 2015 and haven’t had any issues with it until this winter.

We started experiencing random restarts of the thermostat and it had to ‘calibrate’ every single night. We did some troubleshooting to see if maybe it there was something software-wise that could be a fix, but in the end, it really seemed that the unit was just at the end of its life.

Fortunately, yesterday, ecobee announced the release of their newest thermostats – the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium and ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced. I was like a 5-year-old on Christmas morning when I heard this news. I knew we needed to upgrade ours ASAP.

About ecobee Premium

One of the biggest draws to me with this newest release of ecobee thermostats was the built-in virtual assistant. The Enhanced version does not have this feature. So, the Premium model is the one we got and the version I will be focusing on in this review.

Both new thermostats are considered the most sophisticated smart thermostats yet. They come with built-in radar technology for improved occupancy and motion detection. The Smart Thermostat Premium is considered ecobee’s flagship model. It’s the only smart thermostat with both an indoor air quality monitor and an embedded smart speaker.

The ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium has been redesigned from the ground up to offer a more sophisticated user experience. It has a 50% larger touchscreen glass display and a refreshed user interface. The display is more colorful and features a more user-friendly menu system.

Some of the main features the ecobee Premium includes are:

• Up to 26% annual savings on heating & cooling
• energy saving through eco+
• compatible with iOS and Android devices
• Built-in occupancy detection
• HVAC accessory support: two 1-wire acc or one 2-wire
• Siri and Alexa Built-in
• Spotify Connect and Bluetooth
• Smart sensor included
• Indoor Air Quality Monitor
• Real-time weather monitoring
• 3-year warranty

Pricing and Availability

Both new models of the ecobee Smart Thermostat started being sold on May 17, 2022. The Premium model has a retail price of $249.99 while the Enhanced model is being sold for $189.99 (at the time of publishing). It’s being sold through ecobee.com and select retailers including Amazon, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Best Buy.

Installation and Setup

The ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium comes in recyclable packaging that is organized in such a way that a beginner would be able to identify all the parts easily. The main body of the ecobee Premium is stunning. I can’t get over how much the design has changed since the ecobee3. It’s heavy – made with zinc – and the glass face is gorgeous. The design is similar to the original – they look like they are in the same family of products – but completely different at the same time.

Installation of the ecobee couldn’t be easier. The app provides step-by-step instructions and there are many videos online that do complete walkthroughs of the setup. The first step is to remove the old thermostat and label the wires coming out from the wall. ecobee provides sticker labels so that you don’t have to worry about them getting mixed up (I still have the old stickers on the wires from our last installation).

Once the old thermostat is removed, you will want to place the backplate and then the wiring plate onto the wall. The instructions make it sound like you are supposed to attach the backplate to the wall, but you shouldn’t do this until you have the wiring plate affixed as well. The screws are meant to connect the two plates together and then attach to the wall together.

The wiring plate is labeled to match the stickers on the wires and it’s very easy to read. there is a little snap switch on each wiring slot. If you press this and stick the end of the wire into the wiring plate it will hold the wire in place. Once all the wires are in place and the plates are attached to the wall, you place the control unit (the main body) onto the wall. It will snap into place on top of the wiring plate.

If everything is wired correctly, the main display should light up with the word, “Hi.” If you don’t see this right away, remove the body and check your wires. Ours lit up the first time and we continued with the set-up process. Most of this setup takes place on the thermostat itself which is very responsive. All in all, the entire installation/setup took about 30 minutes.

Initial Impressions

So far, I’ve been very impressed with the ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium. I love that I now have a smart speaker in my hallway along with the thermostat. Siri on the ecobee is brilliant and very responsive. The display is ridiculously beautiful. It’s bright, which is great for me because sometimes it’s hard for me to see things that are dimly lit. We’ve only had the thermostat hooked up for a little while and we’ve not had any issues with it restarting or calibrating. It’s been very quick to react to commands and has done a great job of controlling the A/C.

One of the issues I had with the ecobee3 was its menu system. There were several options on its home screen that all seemed like access to the device’s settings. This was not the case. Now, there are fewer options on the home screen and a very well-defined hamburger menu that takes a user to the settings. I’m no longer frustrated with the interface and actually enjoy using it.

Final Thoughts

The ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is a fantastic investment for any homeowner. Not only can it help regulate the heating and cooling of your home, but it can also help control other smart devices in your home – thanks to its built-in speaker. The ecobee Premium combines several devices into one and that’s something I really like about it.

For more information, visit ecobee.com, Facebook, and Twitter.