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Home / News / Wrap up warm: Nest has a battery-draining bug that shuts off your heating

Wrap up warm: Nest has a battery-draining bug that shuts off your heating

No fix in sight, but a manual restart will get your heating back on

If you’ve got a Nest Learning Thermostat controlling your heating system, get ready to break out the thermal blankets – it’s got a battery draining bug that’s shutting off heating systems.

A problem with the software is draining the thermostat’s rechargeable battery, which forces it to shut down your boiler when it eventually runs out. 

Early reports from customers suggest it’s limited to Gen2 and Gen3 Nest Thermostats, but it’s still early days, and the original model could end up affected too.

A Nest rep confirmed the company was aware of the bug to Gizmodo, saying it was investigating the issue and hard at work on a fix.

With no idea what’s causing the problem, customers have no choice but to recharge their faulty ‘stat more regularly.

For the time being, the only way to get your heating online again is to manually reboot the thermostat – after you’ve recharged the flat battery, of course. Tapping the ring to bring up the main menu, turning to SETTINGS, tapping to enter the menu, turning to RESET and tapping a third time should spark your boiler back into life.

Or you could just prise the thermostat off its base and leaved its microUSB charging cable plugged in permenantly until Nest comes up with a fix.

[source: Gizmodo]

Profile image of Tom Morgan-Freelander Tom Morgan-Freelander Deputy Editor

About

A tech addict from about the age of three (seriously, he's got the VHS tapes to prove it), Tom's been writing about gadgets, games and everything in between for the past decade, with a slight diversion into the world of automotive in between. As Deputy Editor, Tom keeps the website ticking along, jam-packed with the hottest gadget news and reviews.  When he's not on the road attending launch events, you can usually find him scouring the web for the latest news, to feed Stuff readers' insatiable appetite for tech.

Areas of expertise

Smartphones/tablets/computing, cameras, home cinema, automotive, virtual reality, gaming