Ecobee (5th Gen) review: Smart thermostat with Alexa voice control

Our Verdict

Ecobee has beefed up Alexa and the speaker quality in the company's newest smart thermostat.

For

Improve speaker
Full Alexa support
Improved remote sensors
Works with Spotify

Against

Large
Big bezel
Not every bit attractive as Nest thermostats

Tom's Guide Verdict

Ecobee has beefed upwardly Alexa and the speaker quality in the company's newest smart thermostat.

Pros

+
Improve speaker
+
Full Alexa support
+
Improved remote sensors
+
Works with Spotify

Cons

-
Large
-
Big bezel
-
Not equally attractive as Nest thermostats

The Ecobee4 was one of the get-go best Alexa compatible devices that wasn't a smart speaker starting time. It was a clever idea, i that several other companies have adopted.

Still, that thermostat lacked some of Alexa'southward core functions, and the speaker wasn't all that great. Ecobee has fixed both problems with the Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control — yes, I wish they merely called information technology the Ecobee5 — and the company added a few more than features, likewise. As the top shelf choice of the all-time smart thermostats with Alexa congenital in, this Ecobee (fifth gen) review explains why information technology's the one to go.

Editor'due south note (Oct. 2022): This review has been updated to reflect the fact that the Ecobee SmartThermostat at present works with Siri.

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Price and availability

The Ecobee SmartThermostat was showtime released in June 2022. Its price then — as it is now — is $249, though you can frequently find it on sale.

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Alexa features

Like most tertiary-party Alexa devices, the Ecobee4 didn't support Alexa calling, messaging or Driblet-In. The new Ecobee SmartThermostat, withal, includes all those features. That'south a welcome improvement, which will make this device more handy when y'all're calling the family to dinner.

When y'all wake Alexa, a blue bar on the top of the Ecobee lights upwards, awaiting your command. Even with music playing through the Ecobee, I was able to speak in a conversational voice from 15 feet abroad and still take Alexa hear me and interpret my vocalisation correctly.

However, I'1000 surprised that Ecobee hasn't developed a smart thermostat with Google Banana built in. I go that it'south not easy — Sonos took a year to figure this out — just I would promise that it's on Ecobee'due south road map.

Still, you can pair the Ecobee with Google Banana (it's i of the best Google Home compatible devices). It'due south one of the best Homekit devices, and is IFTTT and SmartThings compatible, too.

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Siri compatibility

An update to the SmartThermostat in October 2022 added back up for Apple's assistant Siri. However, it works a fleck differently than with Alexa. Unlike Amazon's assistant, which is built into the thermostat itself, all Siri commands spoken to the thermostat have to get routed to a HomePod or a HomePod mini on the same network.

Setup is fairly straightforward and should only take a few minutes, though you take to disable Alexa in social club to utilise Siri. In my example, I had to detach and reattach the Ecobee from my wall to get things finally working, simply this shouldn't be the case for well-nigh users.

Once up and running, Siri responded promptly to my commands when I spoke to the thermostat. Cleverly, the LED bar at the peak of the Ecobee, which lights upwards blue when using Alexa, instead turns a variety of colors similar to the top of the HomePod mini.

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Audio

The speaker on the Ecobee4 was pretty tinny, so other than asking Alexa questions, you didn't want to do anything else with information technology. The Ecobee SmartThermostat's speaker is a fleck beefier, making this a passable amusement device. It's on a par with a very good clock radio or somewhere between the 2d- and tertiary-generation Echo Dot. Yous're not going to use this thermostat to entertain guests at a political party, merely it'south good for playing music in the background while yous're doing something else, like cooking or reading a volume.

Ecobee likewise added Spotify support; Spotify joins Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and SiriusXM as music services supported by the thermostat, a very welcome improver.

The new remote sensor has a slightly smaller design, improved battery life (up to 5 years) and a longer range (upward to 60 anxiety).

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: New remote sensor

Alexa is nice and all, but the best parts of Ecobee'southward thermostats have been the remote sensors, which tin can notice both temperature and occupancy. With these, you can do some pretty smart things, like tell the thermostat to make sure even the coldest parts of your firm get warm, merely just if in that location are people in that surface area.

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: remote sensors

The new sensor, one of which comes with the SmartThermostat, has a slightly smaller pattern, improved battery life (up to v years, thank you to a much larger battery) and a longer range (up to sixty feet from the thermostat). The latter improvement is especially handy for me; when I tried to put the previous sensor in my attic, it went out of range of the thermostat. I had no such problems with the new sensor. You can purchase additional sensors in a pack of two for $79, and older sensors are likewise uniform with the new thermostat.

The Ecobee at present supports both 2.4- and 5-GHz Wi-Fi, which is squeamish but not a huge deal. On your dwelling house network, devices, similar the Ecobee, that crave lilliputian bandwidth should be relegated to the two.4-GHz network. Devices, such as streaming sticks, that crave greater throughput should be assigned to the v-GHz network.

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Blueprint

While its face up is now glass instead of plastic, the newest Ecobee smart thermostat looks the same as previous versions: a square with rounded corners and a rectangular bear upon screen in the middle. When the Ecobee debuted, I thought its design was a nice divergence from Nest Learning Thermostat's round design.

Over the years, though, I think the await of the Nest has held up better than that of the Ecobee. For 1, the Nest is more meaty, and at that place's much less of a bezel around its display. On the Ecobee, information technology now merely feels like in that location's a lot of wasted space.

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Security monitoring

Since the launch of the Ecobee SmartThermostat, the company has expanded its offerings to include the Ecobee SmartCamera, a habitation security photographic camera with Alexa built in. The SmartCamera has a 180-degree field of view and can digitally zoom in and track individuals.

The Ecobee SmartThermostat can be integrated with the camera in a number of means. For starters, the camera has a thermometer built in, so it can exist used every bit a remote sensor for the thermostat. Additionally, when the SmartThermostat enters Abroad mode, it can send a indicate to the camera to actuate. To enable these features, as well as save cloud recordings of videos, you'll need to subscribe to Ecobee Haven, which starts at $5 per month.

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Energy-saving features

Similar to Nest, Ecobee uses the sensors in its thermostat to notice if you're home and then conform the temperature accordingly. I only wish that you could tie the Ecobee'due south Home and Away states to other smart dwelling devices, every bit you can with the Works with Nest program.

More than: Best Smart Thermosta

Ecobee'due south other smart feature is called Follow Me, which takes advantage of the device's remote sensors to find which rooms people are in then adjust heating and cooling appropriately.

Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Verdict

The Ecobee SmartThermostat improves nicely upon the two core features of its predecessor. I like that it now has the full functionality of Alexa paired with a better speaker and that its remote sensor has a better range. I wish it had Google Assistant congenital in, though.

If yous're in the market for a smart thermostat and use Alexa a lot, then you'll desire to check out the Ecobee SmartThermostat. If you're an occasional Alexa user, the older Ecobee4 should suffice. And if yous don't use Amazon's assistant at all, and so the Ecobee3 Lite or the Nest are the best options for you.

The changes that Ecobee made to its latest smart thermostat aren't radical, but they are welcome. Now, almost that name ...

Credit: Tom's Guide

Michael A. Prospero is the deputy editor at Tom'southward Guide overseeing the dwelling house, smart home, drones, and fitness/wearables categories, as well as all buying guides and other evergreen content. When he's not testing out the latest running scout, skiing or training for a marathon, he's probably using the latest sous vide machine or some other cooking gadget.