Sensi Touch 2 Smart Thermostat
Like
- Easy to use
- Remote sensors
- Simple scheduling
Don't like
- Pricey
- Limited automation
A smart thermostat learns how you behave and uses the latest technology to find the balance between comfort and energy efficiency in your home.
Or it can just do what you tell it to do.
The Sensi Touch 2 comes with a lot of the features you expect from a good smart thermostat. It can set schedules and has a comprehensive app that allows you to control every aspect of your home comfort. It also supports external room sensors, and it even has geofencing, meaning it will adjust when you’re not home.
But it also just works. This thermostat is much easier to learn how to use than others I've tested. The display is big, bold and simple. It’s a touchscreen, meaning you don’t really have to get used to a button or dial. Even the app is easy to use.
It may not be as customizable as other thermostats that lean into their smart features. But you may not need or want those. Maybe you just want to set the temperature. If that’s the case, the Sensi Touch 2 could be a good option for you.
Getting started
Prepare to use the app while you install the Sensi Touch 2. I found I needed to set up an account online before I could finalize the setup of the thermostat and connect it to the internet -- and that’s also necessary to control it with the app.
As for the wiring of the thermostat, you’ll need a C-wire, which provides power to the device. If you don’t have one, you’ll have to get an adapter, as the thermostat does not come with one. Some smart thermostats come with adapters in the box, while others, like the Google Nest Learning Thermostat, can function without a C-wire.
The Sensi Touch 2 looks nice on the wall, and it’s about the same size as my iPhone 15. But it doesn’t come with a wall plate, which can cover up marks or other blemishes on the wall around it like, say, screw holes or scratches left by previous thermostats. It’s worth taking into consideration whether or not you’ll need to fill holes or clean up the wall before installing it.
Choose how you control your home’s comfort
The best thermostats are ones you don’t have to fiddle with. And one of the best ways to make that happen is to set a schedule. In the summer, you can have it set the temperature to be warmer during the day and cooler at night. Maybe it’s the opposite in the winter. However you want it, the Sensi Touch 2 makes it easy to set a schedule in the app.
The app interface for setting a schedule on the Sensi Touch 2 is very simple and intuitive, and offers you the option of creating different settings for a variety of days -- not just weekdays and weekends.
I appreciate the choice of how to make that schedule. You can set a “cool” schedule that just turns on the air conditioner -- great for summer. You can also set a “heat” schedule, which does the opposite for winter. But I live in Ohio, and I have, at times, needed to run the heat and the air conditioning in the same day. Fortunately, the Sensi app also allows me to set an “auto” schedule, where I can pick the range of temperatures I want my home to be during certain times of the day. If it needs to run the heat to hit the bottom of that range, it’ll do that. If it needs to run the air conditioner to hit the top of that range, it’ll also do that.
The ability to set a range means I can set one schedule for all seasons and make those ranges as wide as possible to avoid running either heat or air unless absolutely necessary.
Being able to set schedules for “day groups” makes it quick and easy to set weekday and weekend schedules without having to do so manually for each individual day. You can pick and choose what days of the week get what schedules, which could be useful if your schedule changes a few times a week, like with in-office and work-from-home days.
Another feature, “early start,” has the thermostat start heating or cooling your home before a certain schedule starts so that it hits the desired temperature at the right time. This can be useful if you have a stuffy bedroom and you want it to be cooler at bedtime, but you don’t want to spend the first hour in bed waiting for the room to chill.
You can also set it up to use geofencing -- tracking your presence and absence in your home and setting the temperature accordingly. Unlike some of its competitors, the Sensi doesn’t allow you to set a specific “away” schedule or temperature range. Instead, it just sets the temperature back three degrees when it detects you’re away. So if you had it set to cool to 77 degrees when you’re home, it’ll set it to 80 degrees if you’re more than three miles away.
While geofencing is great, allowing you to save money by running your HVAC less when you aren’t home, this setting isn’t as customizable as it is with other thermostats. It’s limited to moving the temperature by only three degrees when you’re more than three miles away. Other devices allow you to set the distance and the temperature settings.
Super simple remote sensors
Every home is different, and so is every room. The sunlight, sealing, insulation and appliance use in each room varies widely. Adding a temperature sensor to your thermostat can help you spot problem areas, although you probably already know where they are.
The Sensi Room Sensor connects very easily to the Sensi Touch 2 thermostat.
The Sensi Touch 2 doesn’t come with a temperature sensor in the box, but you can buy them for about $40 each. Setting up the sensor provided with my review unit was almost unbelievably easy. I didn’t even need to open the app on my phone. I just had to tap the menu button on the thermostat’s touchscreen, hit “remote sensors” and add a sensor. It took mere seconds.
Once the sensor is added (you can rename it in the app, if you desire) you can pick what sensors are being used to control the temperature. If you only care about the temperature upstairs, for example, but your thermostat is wired downstairs, you can use an external sensor to ensure it’s making adjustments based on where you want to be comfortable. You can add or exclude sensors from being used at different times.
I wish the Sensi Touch 2 allowed you to include the sensors in the schedule creation, with the thermostat relying on one sensor in one part of the day and another for another part of the day. Being able to tell the thermostat I only care about the bedroom temperature at night would be a nice feature.
The bottom line
The Sensi Touch 2 is an eye-catching, easy-to-use smart thermostat. If you want to control your home’s temperature from your phone or from the thermostat, and you don’t care too much about the device learning your habits and trying to guess what you want the temperature to be, it’s a perfect choice.
For the price, the lack of those smart features is a drawback. At $210, the Sensi Touch 2 is one of the pricier thermostats on the market. The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium, for example, is $250 -- but that includes a sensor. The Sensi Touch 2 and a sensor would be less feature-rich for the same price.
That said, you may not need a thermostat that’s super intelligent. You may just need to control the temperature. And there aren’t many better, or better-looking, devices at doing that than the Sensi Touch 2.
How we evaluate smart thermostats
Most of the home energy products we test and evaluate here at CNET have a lot of numbers attached to them -- the efficiency of solar panels, the power output of batteries. Not so with smart thermostats. All of the smart thermostats we've tested can perform the basic functions of turning your heater on when it's cold and your AC on when it's hot. While some of our scoring is based on tangible, mathematical data, it's mostly about the myriad ways you can interact with the thermostat to get the comfort level and energy savings you want.
We've experimented, tested and handled each of the thermostats mentioned on this list, including installing them on a testing rig that simulates a standard HVAC system, programming them and trying their various features.
The 10-point scores we give smart thermostats are based on these metrics:
- 20% is based on the available smart home connectivity and other features, including geofencing and external room sensors.
- 20% is the price, with a formula that rewards less expensive products.
- 60% is completely subjective, based on our assessment of what the device offers, how easy it is to install, how easy the app or interface is to use and what features it has that might be non-standard for thermostats but helpful or useful for consumers.
Choosing a thermostat is an incredibly subjective and personal choice, and our goal in scoring is to highlight those products that do the most and do them well. Your buying decision should focus on your priorities, which might not align exactly with ours, so be sure to look at more than just a score when choosing a device you will probably interact with almost every day.