— Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission.The Cync Smart Thermostat (available at Best Buy for $119.99) joins a growing line up of Wi-Fi-enabled smart thermostats, offering basic scheduling features and remote control via the Cync app, as well as smart assistants Alexa and Google Assistant. Cync is the smart home brand formerly known as GE Lighting. This is the first smart thermostat from Cync, designed to fit in with Cync's ecosystem of products like smart bulbs and security cameras. One of the biggest selling points is compatibility with Cync temperature sensors. The HVAC controller performs well and is reliable for remote management, but ultimately the smart thermostat falls short on the learning, energy saving features I’m looking for when it comes to a smart thermostat, like the more affordable and intuitive Amazon Smart Thermostat.
About the Cync Smart Thermostat
The Cync Smart Thermostat comes with everything you need to get started, including a C-wire adapter kit.
- Smart assistants: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
- C-wire: Required, but a C-wire adapter kit (included with purchase)
- Colors: Black touch control panel
- Dimensions: 1-inch x 5.25-inches x 3.25-inches
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz required), Bluetooth
Assuming your HVAC wires are in good shape, the installation and setup process is fairly quick and simple. The Cync app walks you through how to connect the wires to your particular set up. The thermostat includes a back plate, trim plate, power extender kit, screws, anchors, wire labels, and paper instruction manuals to get you started. Make sure to check to see if your HVAC system is compatible with the Cync Smart Thermostat. No hub is required to use the thermostat. It connects to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and can be managed remotely from the Cync app.
The thermostat also features a digital panel with tap to touch controls for heating, cooling, or energy saving modes, as well as temperature adjustment. The thermostat controller’s panel is backlit, and gets brighter when you adjust the settings and dimmer when you’re done.
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What we like
Works with temperature sensors to more accurately heat and cool your home
The Cync Smart Thermostat works with up to six Cync temperature sensors.
The Cync Smart Thermostat works with Cync’s room temperature sensors (available at Amazon). The sensor is a separate purchase of about $30, but could be a worthwhile investment to help more accurately heat and cool your home. The temperature sensor compatibility is a part of what sets Cync’s thermostat apart from competitors, like the Nest Thermostat and the Amazon Smart Thermostat. Up to six sensors can be paired with the Cync Smart Thermostat.
In the Cync app, you can set temperature and humidity thresholds for the sensor, which triggers your system to respond accordingly. The sensor(s) can be accessed by clicking through your thermostat controls in the app. This is where you can view the sensor’s current temperature.
Email alerts are also sent in order to ensure that your thermostat is working properly. You can also create a schedule for each room you have a sensor in, allowing the thermostat to automatically heat and cool designated areas of your home at certain times of the day.
The included instructions advise you about how and where to hang the sensor, which has a handy mount on the back. The sensors are ideal for use in spots where the temperature tends to be uneven—like your drafty hallway or sunny Florida room.
Hanging the sensor is crucial not just for accuracy, but also for safety. Be sure to keep it away from pets and children since it contains a coin cell battery, which is highly toxic, and the reason for the chemical burn hazard warning printed on the back of the sensor.
There is no C-wire required for installation (when you use the included adapter kit)
Here's a look at how I tested the Cync Smart Thermostat. When cool air comes on, the blue button lights up. When the heat is on, the red button lights up (pictured).
The Cync Smart Thermostat comes with a C-wire adapter kit that you can hook up if your home does not have the necessary wiring otherwise.
When smart thermostats first became available, your HVAC wiring needed to include a common wire, more affectionately known as the coveted C-wire, in order to work. Many smart thermostats still need a C-wire to work, but more and more of them are offering C-wire adapter kits. What sweetens the deal with Cync’s thermostat is that it comes with the necessary adapter, so you don’t have to buy additional gear like you do with the Amazon Smart Thermostat.
You can adjust the temperature using voice control with Alexa and Google Assistant
You can use a smart display like the Amazon Echo Show 10 to control the Cync Smart Thermostat.
The thermostat works with Alexa and Google Assistant, allowing you to call out voice commands like, “Alexa, set the Cync Thermostat to 72 degrees” or “Hey Google, turn off the Cync thermostat.”
You can rename the thermostat to whatever you want in the Cync app, which I recommend doing if you’re using Google Assistant to control your HVAC system by voice. Google’s voice assistant mistakenly misheard me say “sink” (and then attempted to correct itself to "sync") instead of “Cync thermostat” on multiple occasions—an amusing example of why smart assistants, as intelligent as they can be, still have a ways to go.
One thing to note is that, if the thermostat is in eco/energy saver mode, you will need to ask Alexa or Google Assistant to change the mode to cooling or heat before either assistant will let you make adjustments to the temperature.
Google had a hard time understanding "Cync" thermostat and confused it for "sink" and "sync" (pictured) on several occasions.
When you ask a smart display like the Nest Hub (second-gen) or the Amazon Echo Show 10 to change the temperature, digital touch controls will also appear on screen, allowing you to tap up or down and make amendments to your most recent command.
What we don’t like
This smart thermostat is light on features compared to competitors
I prefer a smart thermostat with intuitive learning features like the third-gen Nest Learning Thermostat (pictured), one of the best smart thermostats around.
The Cync Smart Thermostat is missing key features that make a smart thermostat, well, smart. Sure, it can be controlled via an app remotely or by voice using certain smart assistants, but it does not offer home automation features like geofencing, which can trigger the thermostat to turn on when you pull in the driveway or set to eco mode when you leave.
It also lacks the intuitive smarts of the Amazon Smart Thermostat or Nest Learning Thermostat (third-gen), which can learn your HVAC preferences and habits, and make energy-saving adjustments on your behalf. While it does have scheduling features available for heating, cooling, and auto modes, which you can adjust remotely, the Cync thermostat doesn’t have powerful enough AI to make amends to the schedule on hotter or cooler days where you thermostat may need to kick into gear ahead of schedule in order to get to temperature properly.
It’s not Energy Star-certified
One of the biggest reasons to buy a smart thermostat is for energy-efficient benefits that can shave money off of your monthly power bill. It’s a bit off, given this, that the Cync Smart Thermostat does not meet the Energy Star certification requirements.
This won’t be a dealbreaker for everyone, but if your goal is to reduce your power consumption and have a friendlier energy footprint, then an Energy Star certified model like the Amazon Smart Thermostat or Nest Learning Thermostat (third-gen) is a better choice. It’s worth noting that other main competitors like Honeywell and Ecobee also make smart thermostats with this particular certification, so it’s fairly normal for a device like this.
Privacy
The Cync app prompts you to enter an authentication code when signing into the Cync app. The code is sent via email to the address attached to your Cync account. This can help keep your smart home safe and secure.
Should you buy the Cync Smart Thermostat?
No, this smart thermostat doesn’t offer enough features for the money
The Cync Smart Thermostat misses the mark when it comes to the more powerful, potentially money saving features you’ll find from competitors like Amazon, Ecobee, and Google Nest. While the remote management is nice, I appreciate the intuitiveness of a thermostat with more powerful AI to control the dial for me based on my location and habits for the money.
While the Cync Smart Thermostat offers reliable performance, it’s too light on the features I’m looking for in a Wi-Fi-enabled smart thermostat. And while we like that Cync’s thermostat is compatible with temperature sensors, each one is an additional cost to consider on top of what you’ve already paid.
Learning thermostats isn't for everyone, so if you don’t care about the lack of these features, I’d still point you to a different thermostat, like the Wyze Smart Thermostat. The $120 MSRP of Cync’s thermostat doesn’t match the spread of features available. Wyze’s is a fraction of the cost ($70 MSRP) while still offering everything Cync’s does: Alexa/Google Assistant control, temperature sensor compatibility, and scheduling/remote management capabilities.
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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.