Nest Thermostat Not Heating: How to Troubleshoot

In this post, we’ll walk you through handy tips to fix heating issues with your Nest Thermostat. If this sounds like what you’re looking for, let’s head right into it.

First off, your Nest thermostat might not heat due to the following reasons:

The thermostat isn’t compatible with your heating system.
Your Nest thermostat is malfunctioning.
You didn’t install the thermostat correctly.
The wiring in your heating system is faulty.
Your HVAC system has a blown fuse.

That said, let’s look at what you can do to fix this problem.

Table of Contents

Troubleshoot Nest Thermostat Heating Issues

1. Check if the Nest Thermostat is Compatible with Your Heating System

If your Nest thermostat is incompatible with your heating system, it won’t turn on heat. The Nest thermostat doesn’t support high-voltage heating systems and proprietary systems.

High-voltage systems are heating systems that require about 110 or more volts to function. An example of a high-voltage system is an electric radiator.

On the other hand, proprietary heating systems only work with thermostats made by the same manufacturer. They often contain a communication protocol that lets them transmit information to thermostats.

If your heating system is high voltage or proprietary, you’ll need to replace your Nest thermostat with a compatible alternative. In the meantime, you can re-install your old thermostat to your system.

What if you aren’t sure whether your heating system is high voltage or proprietary? In that case, you can ask the manufacturer of your heating system if the system is compatible with the Nest thermostat.

If your heating system is neither proprietary nor high-voltage, yet your thermostat isn’t heating, continue to the next step.

2. Reboot Your Nest Thermostat

Another reason your Nest thermostat may not heat is because the device isn’t working properly. You can resolve this issue by rebooting the thermostat.

To reboot your Nest thermostat, press and hold the thermostat ring (for about 10 seconds) until the screen goes off. Next, release the ring. Then press and release the ring quickly—to turn the screen back on.

Now the reboot is complete. Your Nest thermostat should work fine now, and turn on heat. If not, continue to the next step.

3. Install Your Thermostat Correctly

If your Nest thermostat isn’t heating, chances are you didn’t install the device correctly. That said, you’ll need to re-install your thermostat properly to fix this issue.

Please note that re-installing the thermostat will delete all the settings you’ve made to the device.

Follow these steps to re-install your thermostat correctly:

Switch off your circuit breaker.
Detach all wires from the thermostat.
Next, check your thermostat’s user manual to know where each wire should be placed.
Rename the wires using your circuit board. The circuit board is where your wires were originally installed.
Use the compatibility checker to check if the Nest thermostat supports your wires. The Nest thermostat is not compatible with high voltage wires and stranded wires.
Remove the display screen on your thermostat.
Now, connect your wires using the wiring diagram in your thermostat’s user manual.
Once you’ve connected all wires correctly, put the display screen back on your thermostat.
Turn on your circuit breaker.

Once you’ve installed the thermostat correctly, the device will turn on. Then you’ll need to re-apply your preferred settings to the device.

After this, your thermostat should connect to Wi-Fi and start heating.

If you discover that your thermostat still isn’t heating, move on to the next step.

4. Factory Reset Your Thermostat

If your Nest thermostat doesn’t start heating after you’ve tried all the steps above, you might need to factory reset the device.

Take the following steps to factory reset your Nest thermostat:

Open the Quick Menu on your thermostat by pressing the ring on the device.
Rotate the ring to select Settings.
Next, tap the ring and select Reset. Then click on All Settings.
Now, press the ring to factory reset the device.

Your thermostat will reset to factory settings, and all the settings you’ve made to the device will disappear. You can re-add the settings after the device reboots.

Your Nest thermostat may start turning on heat again when it turns on after the factory reset.

But if the device isn’t heating, try the next tip.

5. Fix the Wiring in Your Heating System

If your Nest thermostat doesn’t heat after a factory reset, the wires in your heating system might be faulty. As such, you’ll need to fix the wires.

But first, you should confirm that the heating system’s wires are actually problematic. You can do this by detaching your Nest thermostat from your wiring and re-installing your old thermostat.

Ensure that you turn off your circuit breaker before detaching your Nest thermostat from the wiring. You’ll also need to remove the thermostat’s base plate.

After re-installing your old thermostat, wait for the device to boot. Then, check if the thermostat is heating. If the device is not heating, you’ll need to repair your heating system’s wires.

However, if the device is heating, there might be a serious issue with your Nest thermostat. In that case, you’ll have to reach out to Nest Support.

Wrapping Up

If your Nest thermostat isn’t heating, check if your heating system is compatible with the thermostat. Then reboot the thermostat.

If the thermostat still isn’t heating, install the device properly. Another solution you can try is factory resetting your thermostat.

If the Nest thermostat doesn’t heat after you’ve tried all the steps above, you might need to fix your heating system’s wires.

You may also like to see how to troubleshoot cooling issues and connectivity problems in a Nest thermostat.