I’m an owner, know very little about HVAC. I have a technical background, but unrelated, so here goes.
Long story short, I’ve had a newly installed Magic-Pak unit controlled by a Nest thermostat for a few years and the entire time I thought that the furnace operated incorrectly. Every time it would turn on, then (seemingly or actually) turn off, then turn on again, start the blower, blow cold air for a few minutes, and then finally produce heat. The cold air part was kind of intermittent in terms of duration + no error codes, and so no one could really diagnose anything, a contributing factor being that Magic-Paks seem to be rare around here. Only the furnace was affected. I started observing it pretty much right after the installation and even had a whole support session with Google. They sent me a replacement for the Nest and assured me that my wiring was correct, all the readings I provided were fine, and whatever I was observing was normal for my furnace. With that replacement, nothing changed in terms of operation.
The furnace finally died recently with a short in the control board, which was replaced (along with the igniter for good measure) and now we’re back to the operation I described above. Yesterday I took out the Nest and put in a simple cheap Emerson relay thermostat. Lo and behold, the operation is perfectly normal, every time it “turns on” once and produces heat almost immediately. Looks like this Nest should be nowhere near my equipment, whatever the incompatibility with the unit or my wiring may be.
Question #1: Any recommendations for a smart thermostat that uses relays instead of generating control signals internally?
Question #2: Has anyone had absolutely any luck holding Google responsible for equipment damage?
All other comments are welcome. Thanks!
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