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HomeKit Replacing ecobee with HomeKit

purdnost

purdnost

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 2, 2018
497
131
Some questions about using solely HomeKit to manage my ecobee thermostat as opposed to the ecobee app:

1. Do I need to keep the ecobee app installed on my device?
2. I can remove everything from my ecobee app schedule except sleep, which appears as an all-day event. Will this conflict with HomeKit?
3. ecobee Device Settings > Hold Duration: Does "Until the net scheduled activity" need to be enabled in order for scheduled automations in HomeKit to work? What about if "Until you change it" is enabled? With it be strictly manual-enabled, as in HomeKit automations won't change the thermostat temperature?

Any other suggestions in replacing the ecobee app with HomeKit are welcome.
 
1) Even when devices are HomeKit supported, you still should keep the manufacturers app installed. Reason being is HomeKit won’t do firmware updates on the devices. I just tuck them all away in a neatly organized folder called “HomeKit Apps.”

For 2) and 3) the best advice I can give is test it out. Not everyone’s experience will be the same depending on what automations you currently have firing with what triggers, devices and parameters. I’ve had to do so much trial and error for automations which helped me eventually tweak them perfectly. That’s also part of the fun 🤪
I personally use all my automations with HomeKit so it’s all combined and I can see what I got going for any particular time, location, etc... Don’t have to jump around between 100 apps. It stitches everything together. That’s the purpose of an all inclusive (HomeKit) app. If HomeKit doesn’t do it, I look to Eve in which case, those will also be integrated into the HomeKit app.
 
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Another thing I forgot to mention that I like about the manufacturers apps are the notifications. I turn off camera, door and sensor notifications in the HomeKit app and use the manufacturers app notifications. Reason being is they grab my attention more. When you have all the notifications come in from the same app (HomeKit in this case) they tend to appear generic and after a while you may have a tendency to ignore them. For example, with my OneLink Smoke/CO detectors. I don’t want them looking the same as a door sensor that’s used often like a patio door. If I get a notification from OneLink, I know it requires immediate attention.
 
Looks like the app isn’t required for firmware updates:

“ecobee devices will update themselves automatically, provided they are connected to Wi-Fi.”

Help Centre

support.ecobee.com support.ecobee.com
 
Anyone got an idea of when they are rolling out Siri to the Ecobee devices? Remember it being discussed during WWDC or something, but its been crickets since.
 
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