My smart thermostat tried to cook my dog while I was at work Tuesday

Got home and the house was 94 degrees because the Nest decided to go into 'sun protection mode' and crank the heat somehow. My golden retriever was panting on the tile floor in the bathroom. I ripped that thing off the wall and swapped back to my old dumb Honeywell. Has anyone had their smart home gear just straight up malfunction in a dangerous way?

3 comments

3 Comments

sean_green441mo ago

Honestly, did you ever think a thermostat could be THAT dumb? I used to be all about smart home stuff until my smart fridge decided to freeze everything in the crisper drawer solid. After reading this, I'm seriously rethinking my whole setup because no gadget is worth risking your dog's life over.

the_rowan1mo ago

Smart thermostats are something else, man. My neighbor's kid accidentally locked us out of the house once by changing the code on a smart lock and then forgot what he typed. We had to crawl through a window with the dog watching like we were idiots.

nathan1001mo ago

Rowan, that lock thing is exactly the kind of nonsense I'm talking about. You hand over control of your own house to a gadget that thinks 94 degrees is fine because some algorithm decided the sun was too bright. Sean, your fridge sounds like it was possessed too, but at least you could just throw out frozen lettuce. My dog had no way to escape that heat, and that's what gets me - these companies push all this automation on us without thinking through the obvious failure modes. A dumb thermostat just clicks on and off, no firmware update is going to make it decide to roast your pet alive.