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Review on πŸ”Œ Enhance Your Nest Thermostat with the Google Nest Power Connector - Convenient C Wire Adapter and Accessories for Smart Thermostats by Brad Jeffress

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Misleading product - Does not energize wires C

I have a 2 wire thermostat so I had high hopes for this product. But it doesn't work as advertised - it doesn't supply the same current as the physical wire C. After installation, my Nest Thermostat (Gen 3) was reading 40mA when the system was off and 20mA when the system was on. This is the expected behavior for a 2-wire installation with no C-wire. After a day or two, the nest's battery died. I used a multimeter and made sure I was getting 24VAC in the right places. So what did the female power connector do? Apparently nothing! I spent over an hour on the phone with Nest tech support and nothing got resolved in the end. I kept asking what the current reading should be when the Nest Power Connector is installed and got conflicting information. A tech told me that my current reading should be the same as the physical wire C which would be 200mA of current. Another ran diagnostics remotely which showed everything was working properly and said 40mA was the correct reading. I've replaced the Nest Thermostat three times and the Nest Power Connector twice. The behavior was always the same - the power reading matched the reading without the C-wire, and the thermostat's battery kept draining. In the end I connected the physical C-cable and now everything works (lin: 200mA). So the Nest power connector does NOT deliver the same power as the physical C-Wire and doesn't seem any different from a "power stealing" configuration with just 2 thermostat wires.

Pros
  • Easy install
Cons
  • I'll write later