Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 stars4 week and 1 yr review -- love it
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2012
Prior to this purchase I had never installed a thermostat and had zero knowledge of HVAC systems. I spent time reading online how to determine if this thermostat worked with my existing system (my AC equipment is 20 years old so I was quite worried), and I contacted Honeywell and confirmed my wiring setup with them before purchase. Honeywell responded quickly and confirmed my existing wiring would work with this, and told me what wires to connect where to make it work.
Installation was very easy, and the only difficulties I encountered had nothing to do with the thermostat and more to do with my own wall mounting issues. I had to drill holes in our plaster wall to mount it, and drilling into old plaster always is scary as sometimes it just explodes, but I was able to install the included anchors without difficulty. Then I discovered my wires didn't have much slack to them, so I had a difficult time getting a couple of them into the wall plate because the Honeywell positioning on the wall was slightly off from where the old thermostat was installed.
Once I got the wires connected I just followed the instructions and everything has worked perfectly since then. I did have to change some of the default settings, and the system they set up, while it works, is not intuitivive to anyone -- it absolutely requires the manual to make changes. I needed to configure it for my radiator heat (water/pump), and the "auto" temp control (which will switch between heat/AC to keep temp in a defined range) is not an option unless you make it available through the menus. I assume they did this not to confuse people, because even when the Auto option is available, it's still just a choice next to heat, cool, and off, so it's not as if you are FORCED to use it by enabling it.
Setting up the WiFi worked but not as smoothly as I would have hoped -- I used my Macbook Pro to configure it, and the Honeywell website locked up while I was trying to finalize the setup, so I couldn't tell at first if it actually worked. It turns out it did set up correctly, but I could only tell that by looking at the thermostat and seeing that it showed a WiFi connection. Also I've noticed just when walking by the thermostat it seems to randomly at times telling me that it is connecting back to the WiFi when it should never have lost its connection. I have a fairly new and high-quality router that connects by WiFi to multiple devices, none of which just randomly lose their connections. It so far hasn't imapcted my ability to use the iPhone app, however, so I'm letting it go for now.
The iPhone app is very nice, and they just pushed out a software update for it to add functionality, including a 5-day forecast. It does NOT let you program the daily schedule, but it does let you change heat/cool/off, fan, shows you current temp and set temp, and let's you change the set temp to something else.
When you change the set temp you can make it a permanent hold, or a temporary hold to a specified time at which point it goes back to its scheduled programming at the next scheduled change. There is no vacation mode option in the app, but I honestly think it is not necessary -- when you're leaving you can turn the temp up at home or via the app, and since you can change it via the app you can set it to whatever you want before coming back home. I've tested the app both over WiFi at my house and WiFi elsewhere as well as around town over AT&T, and I always connect to the thermostat within 5 seconds.
The thermostat itself does exactly what it is supposed to -- it gives an accurate temperature read, it has enough customization so we can program it how we want, it looks great on the wall, and it is easy to read regardless of the ambient light. I've read mention on the Home Depot website that people didn't like the plastic feeling or that you could feel a little give when pushing on it because of how it mounts to the wall plate. Unless you buy a Nest thermostat plastic is pretty much the choice of material, and and the give is VERY slight, and I have zero concern that it is not stable on the wall.
Lastly I will say I ordered this the first day it became available on Amazon -- I think because of a pricing error I received it cheaper than intended, as the day after I ordered it the price on Amazon went from $99 to $199. So apparently I got this cheaper than most/all other customers, which just adds to my satisfaction. I did contact the selling company after installation because of potential problems after installation as I thought I had a defective unit (the WiFi connection issue and one unrelated thing that ended up not the fault of the thermostat). The company was responsive to my concerns and offered to ship another one out free of charge, but I ultimately told them it was not needed as I actually don't think the unit is defective.
Overall for the price I think this is as good a thermostat as you can buy, particularly with the WiFi features and the solid quality of Honeywell behind it. It does not have all the features or awesome aesthetics of the Nest (which I almost bought), but it has enough features and a good enough appearance to satisfy 99% of customers at a significantly lower price.
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August 2013 update
I've had this for a year now and am very thankful I purchased this and not the Nest. The smartphone app now lets me control everything of real importance, and the iPad app looks great. The Nest still looks slightly cooler and more futuristic, but this one does everything perfectly, and still looks good after a year of use. I've never had a single problem connecting remotely to this thermostat, and it does a great job of the core thermostat functions. Unless you have to have the Nest aesthetics, I can't think of a reason to buy it over this product.
