GE Cync Smart Thermostat review

There’s one company that kind of claims to own the market on smart thermostats… but if you’re not into the hype or the high price of a Nest thermostat, you might be seeking other solutions. I recently got my hands on the GE Cync Smart Thermostat and in this post I’ll show you what it’s like to install, tell you what it can do and what it can’t and let you know if I can recommend it for you.

What is GE Cync Smart Thermostat?

This Smart Thermostat seems designed to be refreshingly simple. It doesn’t require a schematics manual to install and it doesn’t have a dozen features you’ll likely never use. While the design is a bit basic, GE has clearly tried to make it modern and unobtrusive. With this Smart Thermostat you can set schedules, control the temperature while you’re away from home, and control your home heating and cooling with your voice.

Thermostat Set up

I’ve set up probably a dozen smart thermostats in my lifetime. They range from utterly impossible for the average human to set up, too easy as pie. Getting this one set up leans more towards the easier side, though I did have some difficulty getting the thermostat to connect to my home’s Wi-Fi network.

Installation; affixing the backplate.

I actually ran through the set up sequence about four times, and each time the device would say it was unable to connect. I tried it over a few times and had a few different results, then on about the fifth time, inexplicably, everything just connected. If you’re also having trouble getting the smart thermostat connected to your homes why I find at work, I’d recommend you reboot the app, remove and reinstall the face plate, and try again. Your patience will likely be rewarded.

Easy scheduling

GE makes it super easy to set a simplified schedule for your thermostat. Doing this can allow you to drop the temperature overnight when you’re bundled under all your blankets, or on the weekends when you tend to be out of the house. The scheduling feature is extremely easy to navigate and understand, unlike nests scheduling feature which seems overly complicated and less intuitive. I set up a simplified schedule where the temperature will go down a handful of degrees while we’re sleeping then turn back on just before we are set to week.

Multiple Setpoints through the day

You can also set up multiple Setpoints as GE call them through the day so it can be wam in the morning, cool during the day when everyone is at work or school, then warm it up again when you head home and cool it off again at bedtime.

There’s also an “Early On” setting you can use to ensure the furnace gets the up to temperature before the time you choose, so there’s no waiting for it to warm up or cool down.

Voice control

The Cync smart home lineup.

You can add either Google or Alexa voice control to the Cync system, meaning you can simply ask you digital assistant to raise or lower the temperature. I set up the GE Cync Smart Thermostat with Google Assistant and while it worked well, the version I could access in the Google Home app had everything in Fahrenheit, though my Cync app was configured in Celsius.

Optional Eco Mode

To help save energy, you can enable the thermostat’s eco mode when you’re not home and monitor your HVAC’s usage. It’s not really clear from GE’s website what this setting will do, and neither the app nor the manual help either. From toying around with the app it appears you can simply establish a lower temperature for when you’re not home, and activate it with a push of the Eco button in the app. You can also set the Eco mode to take over overnight. But in terms of this geofencing and knowing when you’re home or not, or using any type of presence sensing inside the thermostat to detect you, that doesn’t exist here. But like I said up front, this is a less complicated thermostat than something like a Nest, which will do what I just said.

After using your GE Cync Smart Thermostat for a while you can get more detailed information about your usage. Since I only had the thermostat for about a week before doing my review, this aspect I’ll have to come back to later on.

Overall review GE Cync Smart Thermostat

Overall the thing I love most about this Thermostat is that it’s smart but not too smart. It’s deliciously uncomplicated by multiple schedule modes, different settings and too much technology. It’s easy to install, easy to use and lets you get smart automation and wireless or voice control easily.

Downsides? It may not be a slick looking as some of it’s fancier competitors it does the job well. And the initial connection to Wi-Fi wasn’t simple.

I can definitely recommend the GE Cync Smart Thermostat to you. It sells for about $119USD/$215CAD and you can get it from Amazon.

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