How to Fix Your Nest Thermostat When it Won’t Respond

If you have a Nest Thermostat you have probably heard about the recent issues and may be living in fear of the dreaded technology glitch that is causing many Nest users to lose heat in the dead of winter. 

We are here to calm your fears! 

Nest Support has published an informative page with the very convenient title “What to do if your Nest Thermostat has become slow, unresponsive, or won’t turn on.” Could you crack that code? 

For more detailed information, see Nest Support page. For a quick summary, keep on reading: 

Nest Thermostats that were recently updated to software version 5.1.3 or later may be having problems, including becoming unresponsive, not correctly charging the battery, or shutting down completely. Nest says to try recharging and restarting your thermostat to resolve the issue and get it up and working again. 

Symptoms of this issue include the following: 

• The thermostat being down on the Nest’s mobile app and disconnected from the Wi-Fi 

• The thermostat alerts you that the battery is low and it needs to shut down 
• The thermostat’s animations are slower than usual 
• The thermostat shows a message saying, “Please remove the thermostat from its base, then reattach it;” 
• The thermostat’s display is dark and unresponsive (you may also see a blinking red or green light above the display) 
• The thermostat can’t control the corresponding heating and cooling system(s) 

If your Nest Thermostat is on but you can’t control it or it’s running slow, try manually restarting it by turning the thermostat off and then back on again. If your Nest Thermostat is off and won’t turn on, take the thermostat off the base and charge it using a USB cord plugged into a wall charger or a computer. 

IMPORTANT: Do not try to manually restart your thermostat while it’s still connected to a computer for charging. (They didn’t explain why, but if Nest says don’t do it, DO NOT DO IT.) 

After approximately 10 minutes of charging, disconnect the Nest Thermostat from the USB charger. If the unit has turned on during this time, shut it down and then turn it back on again, manually restarting the system. Once it has completed the restart, plug it back in to finish charging. After an hour of charging, disconnect the Nest Thermostat and reattach it to its base. 

You should be good to go at this point, but  if you’re done with Nest and want to switch your thermostat, you can view our comparison of common thermostats.  

If you have attempted both of these processes and the Nest Thermostat is still showing signs of problems, you will need to bring in reinforcements. Enter us! If A-Plus put in your Nest Thermostat, please reach out to us at 301-747-3140 or schedule an appointment online. 

And if you’ve got another issue, like a warning from Nest that your furnace is shutting down, then your thermostat could be functioning as it’s meant to. You may need to call A-Plus as one of Waldorf‘s premier furnace experts to fix your unit.  

Finally, do not let this incident concern you about your Nest’s reliability. By owning and properly utilizing Nest, your thermostat is actually saving money for you every day. When set it up properly, Nest intelligently learns your lifestyle, then adapts your heating and cooling use to optimize energy savings every day, which typically results in payback within the first year. And, Nest is still one of the only thermostats under $300 on the market that does this. So don’t let one problem get you down. You were smart to invest in a Nest, because a smart thermostat is still one of the best investments in your home that you can make.