Apparently, Nest thermostat gives up when you need it most, sometimes. And its problems can reveal in various forms!
Luckily, there are easy fixes for most of the common problems with Nest thermostat. And if you are handy, you don’t need a professional to fix it for you.
Stay with me to learn some quick fixes!
Nest thermostat Problems
When it comes to smart thermostats, Nest is definitely one of the best. Sadly, it may become unresponsive or show various symptoms of trouble.
Here is a list of those problems:
- Not controlling the heating and cooling unit properly.
- Shot cycling heating and cooling.
- Motion sensing does not work or showing you wrong temperature readings.
- It indicates a low battery and needs to shut down.
- Suddenly turns off and on. Sometimes, won’t turn off too!
- The display of the thermostat becomes unresponsive and won’t light up.
- From the Nest application, the thermostat gets offline and disconnected from the Wi-Fi.
- Making strange noise like stuttering, thumping, or chattering.
Troubleshooting Nest Thermostat Problems
The fact is— these above-mentioned problems may happen to any smart thermostat brand. So, without getting frustrated, keep your head cool and follow my troubleshooting tips.
- Nest Thermostat Won’t Turn On or Off
If it does not turn on, you should take it off the base and charge it using a USB cable. You can charge it from the computer or wall charger.
You should charge it for at least 1 hour. If it turns on within a few minutes of charging, shut it down. Then turn it on again. Once restarted, hook it up to finish charging.
Once fully charged, re-attach it to the base and it will be working just fine again! But what if it turns on but acts sluggish?
Well, you have to restart it. Turn it off and then turn it on again. This should solve the problem!
- Nest Thermostat Not Cooling
Even worse, it may start blowing hot air instead of cooling your room! So, let’s see how you can fix it easily.
First of all, this happens when you don’t wire it according to the heat pump row. You have probably wired it according to the conventional row.
You can either browse the Nest website or add the thermostat in the Nest app to get the right interactive wiring guide. Follow that guide to wire it correctly.
Once wired correctly, the thermostat will detect the right wiring and blow cold air.
- No Power To Rh Wire
This may happen when you hook it up for the first time. The nest may tell you there is no power to the Rh wire; so, it’s can’t turn on. It’s a little bit tricky but still solvable easily.
But first, let’s look at the probable causes first why it may happen.
A tripped breaker should be your first suspect. But before you open the air handler to perform the check, make sure the breakers are off!
Now, check the breakers whether tripped or not. If you have a blown fuse, that’s easy to fix! Just replace the blown fuse with a good one.
You can find new fuses at your local hardware store and it will cost you only a few bucks!
Now, watch this video to learn these troubleshooting!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
If your Nest won’t turn on, most probably it’s a power issue and most likely the battery has run out of juice.
To preserve the battery life, Nest will turn off the Wi-Fi, display, and other features when it has a power issue. And that’s why it won’t turn on.
Nest will stop cooling if its C connector is not connected to your system properly. Use the thermostat diagram to check all the wires are connected the right way to the right thermostat connectors.
If your Nest thermostat is close to the hot water pipes, air vents, warm air, or electrical outlets, it may show you the wrong temperature.
Because close proximity to such stuff will cause the thermostat’s Wi-Fi chip to overheat and affect its temperature reading feature.
Forced air heating is the first option.
When your Nest thermostat is in heating mode but your heat pump is blowing cool air, adjust the O/B wire orientation settings of your heat pump on the Nest.
It’s a smart thermostat. It understands your home and the weather. So, it says in 2+ hours, it’s simply telling you that this is an estimate time it will take to hit your new set point.
If it’s charging, you will see a blinking red light located at the top of the thermostat.
It erases all the options you choose and all the personal information. You need to reset your Nest if you want to install it in a new location.
Final Thoughts
Again, it’s a cool smart thermostat despite having some issues. But now that you know all the common problems with Nest thermostat and relevant troubleshooting, you can deal with these issues confidently.
If you face other problems not mentioned here, let me know in the comment box. I will include those problems in this article!
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when taking nest off of Eco mode.. it still switches back to this
My screen is blue when the air is running but then it just stops running and goes to a gray screen. I can manually start it again but it won’t restart on its own?
When I put the setting of thermostat to ( cool – heat ) both AC & Heating comes ON.
This happened after our house was struck by lightning. Miner electrical with light bulbs & plug and sockets. Big problem I have is the thermostat can’t put in heat & cool mode. Coo & heat individually works
The temp setting doesn’t jive with the actual temp..
Have to continually lower setting a few degrees to start cooling again because it’s not an accurate reading
Why doesn’t my usage history show anymore. It always has before and just stopped?
I can not get my nest thermostat to cool to temperature I want. I want it to be 78 in house. We are always frozen at 72 degrees it will not change. I have followed all tips but can’t get AC above 72!
My heat link has a slow pulsing blue light and the thermostat has a blue ring circling round – help
Heating temp set at 68. 62 inside and furnace won’t kick on. Shut off preheating but no change.
My thermostat is set at 70. The furnace is running when the temperature(on the nest itself) says it is 76. Why is is running and how can I fix
My Nest E shuts of a number of times aday. It has been working for 2 years and this is the first problem I have had. Any words of advice, please?
My thermostat is set at 68 but it randomly switches to 91 degrees, so now I have to turn it off at night. The other morning I turned it on in the morning and it said 91 degrees even though it was at 68 when I turned it off.
My thermostat randomly jumps to 91 degrees, so I turn off heat at night. The other morning it said 91 degrees when I turned it on even though it was 68 when I turned it off.
I recently connected my nest thermostat, I ran a test on the system, and no matter how long I wait, the fan, heating, or cooling will not start. How do I fix this
It only gives me cool & off as an option. I’ve lost the ability to heat!
My downstairs unit works perfectly, allowing all options.
Weird… help
How to change date and time?? Also, notes changes at specific times and don’t know where they are and how to change or correct them. Thanks.
Also…how do I get an instruction booklet for my nest thermostat. Thx.
Does anyone know if the power goes off will the thermostat return to normal working condition by itself, or does it need manual reset?
Why does my nest work intermittently. When not working shows no power red wire fault code, then will begin to work again.
My nest stat has been installed and working perfectly for 8 months. 2 days ago, it started showing the tools in the display and when investigated stated that the Rh wire is not connected. So, I restriped & cleaned the wire and reinserted and the unit started back up.
But it keeps doing it at different times of the day and night and I do nothing, and it starts back up or I can turn the power off at the air handler or breakers and it will start up. My wife is going nuts and want me to throw the thin out and get a Honeywell T87F that can be depended on
My Nest readout goes blank. Why does my nest work intermittently. When not working shows wire fault code, then will begin to work again. It has been working for 2 years and this is the first problem I have had. Any words of advice, please?
How do you resolve code e298
Have thermostat set at 67 , temperature shows to be 75 , getting a little warm in the house
My issue with issues are that my Nest thermostat had a mind of its own. We have a sensor in our downstairs, so the thermostat will run based on the temp in that area, but it randomly switches back to upstairs and it does the same thing with Home and Away settings. How can I resolve this issue?
Heating temp set at 72. 68 inside and furnace won’t kick on. Shut off preheating but no change.
My thermostat seems to recharge the battery very frequently
(every 2 – 3 days) and the temperature goes down. Why is that?
Do I need a new battery? Also when I change the date and time to the correct one it never stays. Please advise.
This is without a doubt the lowest functioning thermostat I have ever owned and I’m 65. I follow the instructions and want 19 degrees it gives me 15.5. Terrible product that has made an easy process a pain in the ass. It’s called a Smart thermostat…hadly.
Our 2 year old Gen 3 Google Nest stopped working. We replaced the battery, made sure it was charged and it would work for two hours then stop. We charged the battery again and it ran for two hours and stopped. I had the A/C guy run a new C wire to make sure it powered up. It worked for one day and stopped.
My nest gen 2 loses the internet at least 2 time a day, nothing else loses internet. What can I do?
My Nest does not pick up internet signal. When I went online to chat I was asked to pay $2.00 with my credit card information and even though it is only $2.00 I refuse to put my credit card on a website. How can I fix the internet issue. I have talked to our internet people and it works fine with other equipment. Phone and computer.
My thermostat was disconnected from the WIfi. When I tried to put in my password the thermostat wouldn’t respond to the commands to erase. I ended up with a string of letters instead of the commands at he bottom of the dial. Help!