r/Nest • u/AvgHeight510 • 1d ago

Nest causing premature HVAC equipment failures?

Basically the title. Got my parents a nest 3rd gen (before the 4th Gen came out a few years ago), they have a central HVAC system with a heat pump and emergency resistance heating in the air handler. Within a few months, the fan in the air handler went out. They call in a repair guy, he asks if the nest is new or if it was installed with the system. They tell him, and his response is "oh, yeah, we see a lot of nests burn out people's fans right after install." They had just had that entire system put in about 5 years prior. Fast forward a couple years, and the compressor in the heat pump dies. They have the compressor replaced, and two years later, it dies again. I'm about ready to set up a camera on their heat pump outside to see if it's cycling or just running the thing constantly (and therefore killing it). Anyone else have similar experiences? Do the nest thermostats need to be programmed to cycle the compressor so that it doesn't burn out?

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5

u/MarvinStolehouse 1d ago

Doubtful. All it does is tell the system to turn on or turn off.

Unless it's wired up real goofy, the HVAC system doesn't know or care if it's a nest or not, it's just waiting for the signal to start or stop.

2

u/Zealousideal_Pen7368 DIY | Nest 3gen & E | Hello | Cams | Floodlight 16h ago

Very unlikely. Some techs don't like Nest for some reason and blame anything on it. The system was likely not installed properly.

1

u/AvgHeight510 15h ago

"the system" being the heatpump and air handler, or the Nest itself? We DIYed the Nest. The heat pump and air handler were all replaced new and ran totally trouble free for about 5 years prior to the Nest arriving.

1

u/HWTechGuy Nest Protect, Outdoor Cam, Thermostat Gen2, Hello, Yale Lock 15h ago

Agree. I've had Nest 2nd Gen for 12 years. Six years on the old system, got a whole new system in 2019, and am still using Nest.

I have 4th Gen sitting in the box waiting for a cool day to install.

1

u/tooclosetocall82 1d ago edited 1d ago

I’m not sure about nest, but I have an ecobee and it has a short cycle setting where it will not turn the compressor on for a set amount of time after it’s turned off. Maybe look for something like that?

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u/ddm2k 1d ago

Nest has a 5 minute lockout

1

u/PreciousChud 1d ago

Similar to my question. It’s apparently 50/50 that yes it’s the thermostat or there’s no possible way it’s the thermostat.