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That $60 smart thermostat I installed is now mocking me daily
Last month I swapped out a perfectly good old school thermostat for one of those wifi smart ones because the homeowner insisted it would save them money. Spent two hours wrestling with the wiring and the stupid app kept losing connection to my phone. Turns out the unit itself needs a common wire that their 1980s furnace just doesn't have, so now it runs on batteries and dies every 3 weeks. I lost about $60 for the thing plus my time on a Saturday afternoon when I could have just put in a basic $15 model and been done in 20 minutes. Has anyone else dealt with these cheap smart thermostats that barely work without a C wire?
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janah8325d ago
Right? Those adapters that claim to work without a C wire are hit or miss at best. Grab a 24V doorbell transformer and wire it in at the furnace, that fixed mine for good.
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nancyn6924d agoMost Upvoted
I dunno, is it really that big of a deal? I feel like people get way too worked up over one missing wire or a hard-to-find filter. Like yeah it's annoying but some of these gadgets work fine out of the box if you just follow the directions.
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henryp4025d ago
You ever notice how everything today needs some extra step or part that wasn't part of the original deal? @janah83 is right about those adapters being a gamble, but what really gets me is this whole pattern. I bought a "smart" coffee maker last year and it needs a specific filter that's always sold out, plus an app update every month. It's like nothing can just work by itself anymore you always need a workaround or a hidden fee to make the thing actually do what it promised.
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