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280 points RyanShook | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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dreamcompiler ◴[] No.45144685[source]
"Dumb" home devices work as expected for 25-50 years, and then you replace them.

"Smart" home devices work as expected for about a year and then they fail in new and exciting ways, and then you replace them.

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slg ◴[] No.45144993[source]
While I agree with the message, I think honesty is important. The Nest gen 3 was released in 2015[1]. People got a 10-14 years out of these devices.

Also, that posts says the thermostat will still work locally so the failure state of the "smart" device here is that it became a "dumb" device after a decade+.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nest#Nest_Learning_Ther...

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Aurornis ◴[] No.45145565[source]
> People got a 10-14 years out of these devices.

Thermostats generally last a lot longer than that.

Most of these Nest units continue to work perfectly well and could continue operating with a simple cloud service for many years.

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1. hinkley ◴[] No.45146474{3}[source]
Top level said 25-50 years. 14 sounds like a lot if you fixate on the bottom end of the scale.

I’ve seen house thermostats that were so old they were starting to embrittle from ozone and UV damage. That’s more like 40+ years.

Also as someone else pointed out, the Nests are typically at least 2-3 times the cost of a normal thermostat. True, they eventually pay for themselves, but that money still went to Nest instead of PG&E.