STAY AWAY UNTIL THE ENGINEERS FINISH FIXING “… A KNOWN PROBLEM AND ARE WORKING ON IT.” (I don’t know how you’ll know that unless GE publicly acknowledges the problem and it’s fix). As of late August, 2022 a Chat with GE reps (Luis and Daniel were very nice and tried their best to get it working) identified a problem with hardware or software that renders the Cync App useless. The thermostat always shows as “disconnected” and there is no way to reconnect it to the App. THE UGLY, OKAY AND GOOD Most people want the bad first so… UGLY: They are selling a product that wasn’t fully tested and has a fatal flaw, unless your use for this thermostat doesn’t require, or you don’t want, remote control from your phone. I got the feeling that some installations or production runs might not have this problem. It took hours on chat to determine that this unit had the problem. The rep’s response indicated that there is no known fix at the time I of attempted installation (it was 15 August, 2022, I think… maybe 16th). The software programming for setup, while great for thermostat installation, has clearly not been tested. The setup begins by asking if your thermostat has been installed. Answering “Yes” or “No” has no effect, as you are still required to go thru the same dozen or more screens before you can start the setup of the Cync App to the Thermostat OKAY: The shape of the thermostat comes from the wall and “swoops” up to the control face. This makes it look like its less secure if struck and more likely to get hooked in something carried past it. I prefer it look like a block coming out of the wall, or better, have a slightly larger base than face. Still, it isn’t a huge problem as it only comes out from the wall a little over an inch. It doesn’t have a touch screen. There are touch buttons along the bottom of the screen. The Wyze and others in this price don’t either. The setup of the “schedules” in the App is typical and awful. Without explaining why or what the system is, you are asked to enter times for certain temperature changes. “When you get home from work..” “When you get up in the morning…” When finished, I realized that there seemed to be three modes: Auto, Cool and Heat, with schedules for all three. Then no graphical display of what I had chosen to do. Awkward and not something fun to do, so not something a lot of people will use, I think. Still, it looks like the Wyze and others, but I haven’t tried Nest, just Ecobee and Wyze. GOOD: The design of the face is good. The wording on the screen is clear and large enough to be readable without your glasses :). The buttons along the bottom of the screen emit a haptic click so you know your push was received. It dims in the dark but brightens up as you move past it. A sort of motion activated night light. The ability to use remote sensors is a real plus. They are tiny and look like Apple AirTags, but have a tiny notch in back so they can hang on a nail or screw head. Since the App failed, I couldn’t test them. The Cync App begins with installation of the Thermostat and it was great. There are pictures and clear instructions on each of the more than a dozen pages of the installation. The setup for the App and Thermostat linking and connection to your WiFi is clear and easy to follow on the few pages to finish that synchronization. The package has a special dongle that allows replacing a very old thermostat that doesn’t have an “R”, or return power wire. Older thermostats didn’t need both wires of the 24V power, so they just had one wire of the power and the control wires for AC, Heating, Fan, etc. The old thermostats were therefore connected with a minimum number of wires. So without this dongle, some installations might require rewiring the low voltage wiring from the HVAC system to the thermostat. That could be a big job and probably expensive. Most smart thermostats include this dongle. A lot of wasted dongles in the trash, I think. GE Cync Chat was quick to connect and helpful. I didn’t try the phone to a person, but I felt like there was a real person connected to chat. They didn’t seem to be following a rigid “script” and responded to my questions and replies. MY CYNC INSTALLATION STORY: I ordered this as a birthday gift while staying with friends for a week. Fortunately, I was there to help install it. It went smoothly until trying to connect the thermostat to the App. The birthday guy and I replaced the old thermostat. The instructions say to download the Cync App first. Good idea, though that meant doing the email/password which had to be written down somewhere (and eventually lost). The App includes a very detailed and simple set of more than a dozen pages that lead you through removing the old thermostat and installing the Cync Thermostat. Very nice. Powered on and it showed a Bluetooth symbol, but wouldn’t yet actually control the HVAC system. The Cync App seemed to have a little trouble finding the thermostat but eventually it connected through Bluetooth after a “reset” or two (holding the far right button on the thermostat for a few seconds). Then the App lead us through connecting the thermostat to the home WiFi. Failure after failure. Got on GE Cync webpage and activated Chat. Luis came on and we tried a few more resets and a power cycle. Still failed. Luis asked when the unit was purchased. That seemed strange unless it was some warranty issue. After almost a dozen tries and not doing anything different, it connected to WiFi. Yeah! We thanked Luis and set about finishing setup including adding a remote sensor and setting up schedules. Then, being experienced engineers, we shut down the App and restarted. It logged in correctly, but now it showed that the thermostat was “disconnected”. There was no way to reconnect. The Bluetooth symbol was gone from the thermostat’s screen. We figured out how to “add” a new “home” on the App. Strangely the App made us go thru the dozen or more pages of hardware instillation, despite checking “Yes” on the first page where it asked, “Is your Cync Thermostat installed?” It seems that question doesn’t matter, the only software path was through the dozen or more installation screens. Clearly the software had not been tested for this situation where the thermostat was already installed. We did get the thermostat connected after a few tries. We shut down the App and now we had two homes where the thermostat was “disconnected”. We got on Chat again and Daniel was helpful. We now added a new device to the second home. Now we had a home with two “disconnected” thermostats. Daniel also asked when the thermostat was purchased. Finally Daniel had us email a “log” from the App to him. Then he wrote, “This is a known problem and the engineers are working on it.” So I had given a gift that took up half a day of the recipient’s time (and mine), and we had to reinstall the old thermostat. Selling a defective product is, and should be, a kiss of death to even a great product. It means that it was probably designed in haste and tested very little. There is no requirement to recall or stop selling defective products unless the defect is dangerous. Not working products can be sold freely until the class action lawyers find out. I wonder if asking for the purchase date was for warranty or to find out if it was part of a defective batch? If so, then not all thermostats might have this problem. Those made before or after the bad batch might work without this “…problem”. So some might not have this problem. I cannot recommend this product until the manufacturer publicly acknowledges the flaw, offers to compensate those affected and guarantees that the product will work as advertised. Another words, you have been warned, so if you buy it, your taking your chances so don’t blame them after you have read this review.
