ecobee3 Smart Thermostat & 3 Room Sensors (Open Box)

***1/4/17: Update to my original review*** While I thoroughly enjoy the product, I experienced an issue with the latest Android App (ver 3.1.1) that no longer works or opens on my phone (Galaxy S4 on Android 4.4.4). The prior version 3.1.0 worked perfectly. Contacting support, they went through the standard uninstall, reinstall the app instructions, but it doesn't work still. They ended up essentially telling me to get a new phone and outright refused to provide the prior app version that worked on my phone, parroting in horrible grammar "The ecobee app in Play Store is the updated version ." From the app ratings, other users are having the same issues as well. I have never had a more souring customer service experience than I have with Ecobee. It has caused me to spin a full 180 from being an advocate of their product, to now one of warning others to avoid. If you have the same type of phone, you may want to install the app first before buying to make sure it even opens, otherwise you'll spend $250 on a thermostat you'll have to makes changes to either on the thermostat itself, or through a PC browser, and the company could care less unless you go out and buy the most recent model of any phone. Ecobee needs to go on a pink slip spree in their customer service area because this was a simple issue to resolve that they stonewalled me on for no reason. ******** Original review below: I recently purchased a home in Florida with the thermostat lazily placed a foot from the door that enters the attached, un-insulated garage. The garage gets to and stays over 95-100F in the summer and just opening the door into it quickly upon leaving/returning home would allow enough heat in to kick on the AC instantly. Since the living area is not anywhere near this door into my home's personal oven-room, and just quickly going into the garage while the house was comfortable kicked on the AC, I was seriously considering going through the pains of relocating where the thermostat was. I'd lived with roommates prior who had a Nest, but I was unimpressed with some of it's features, and mainly with the fact that the placement of the thermostat dictated how it did everything (learning, detected "home" or "away", took temperature reading). Where a thermostat is intelligently placed, a Nest works, but in Florida where that is almost 100% not the case, it doesn't. I did some quick research and never having heard of Ecobee, quickly was quite happy to hear about it. Waiting for a black Friday deal, I finally bought one and two additional sensors. Installation was fairly straightforward, although I had some issues with an "E" and "W2" on my old thermostat that weren't jumpered, but ultimately found they in fact were "jumpered" at the handler. Odd configuration in my case but was able to hook up everything just fine. The Ecobee3 has features I'm used to from a Nest, such as being able to turn things off/on, change temp, etc, but it's quite expanded and a very data giving product when you use an Internet browser to access it online. You can see many data items which me being a data analyst is quite awesome. The interface is very slick, clean, and conservative looking. What sold me on the Ecobee3 though was the ability to use remote sensors. From what I mentioned above regarding my thermostats placement, this completely sold me on it. The Ecobee3 takes sensor readings from sensors where it detects the area is 'Occupied', averages them, and uses that average as the detected temperature. You have the option to remove sensors and the thermostat itself from being included in this average when setting up your 'Schedule', and this makes perfect sense if you have a horribly placed thermostat and don't want it's location to be included in setting the temperature. The one included remote sensor is sufficient to do that and it lets you place it exactly where you want it. In my case, it's in my bedroom where 95% of my time home is spent (it's a huge master suite). My only cons, and this is coming more from a person who wants to know exactly what the product is doing, is that there are no official firmware revision logs on the Ecobee site at all, and there are items on the Ecobee3 itself that I have no clue what they are. An example is the obvious sensors of some sort on the upper left of the unit that has a very low lit red light that looks like HAL is watching me, and what looks like a hole for a camera near it (think hole on your smartphone screen for the front facing camera). See attached image for what I'm referring to. To my knowledge, the lower left of the Ecobee3 unit is where the motion and temperature/humidity sensors are (just like on the remote ones). Also when the unit is taken off the wall, on the back near the top there is a little 'drawer' that appears to be a place for some sort of expansion module, but there is absolutely no reference to these items anywhere that I can find online which I find troubling, especially with what may be a camera that is not referenced or obviously disclosed, with who knows who accessing it at Ecobee. If my Ecobee wasn't facing a hallway wall directly across from it, I'd be using some black electrical tape to cover it up until I knew what it was. Outside of that though, I'm very very happy so far with the unit. I wish Ecobee would be a bit more forthcoming and detailed about the inner workings of the mystery sensors/ possible camera, and firmware details and changelogs, but to the average Joe-Shmoe homeowner who's not a techy like I am, that's not an issue. I am being completely impartial when I say this but given the choice of a Nest or Ecobee3, I would suggest going with Ecobee3 as you're getting more features for the money as both are the same price. A Nest and Ecobee3 lite which is a cheaper version of the Ecobee3 that doesn't have remote sensor functionality would be a more apples to apples comparison. Comparing a Nest to an Ecobee3 though is sort of apples to oranges since the Ecobee3's remote sensors are functionality the Nest lacks. I've used both the Nest and Ecobee3 now, and while the Nest has a more beautiful design, it is seriously lacking in some functionality. If you have an HVAC unit with the thermostat tucked away in some obscure area of the house you never go near, it doesn't matter how pretty and beautiful the thermostat itself is; neither unit on it's own will do you any good. That's where the remote sensors the Ecobee3 utilize completely take functionality to the next level. Go for it. If you don't like it, Ecobee has a 30 day return window they give you!