Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsa lot of potential but UI/UX, backend device management needs work
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2020
UPDATE!!! So three days after I wrote this review this thermostat broke even further! The AC no longer kicks on. Well... it could by my AC your thinking... sure it could be except 1) the relay for kicking on the AC is no longer working (audible clicking when AC kicks on is no longer there) 2)Switched out to my ghetto old thermostat and nor problem... Don't get this thing, definitely got some issues.
Didn't start off in the right foot with this item... received item, packaging was opened and a visible nick on the bezel of the thermostat. Prime is awesome where return/exchange was easy. Asked for an exchange and four days later another unit came in... also package showed signs of previously opened but thermostat was in mint condition as far as I can tell so kept it.
-Setup(WiFi connect and Alexa integration). Set was med to difficult... iOS integration was a nice touch to try to simplify the WiFi network pairing process but it was a bit confusion. As part of the setup process user needs to put the thermostat into different pairing modes and the indicator is based on what was being displayed on thermostat... unfortunately WiFi direct connect/Airport display on thermostat is very similar so very easy to get these two modes mixed up resulting in multiple setup attempts until user realizes there is a difference.
- Energy saving? So one of the advertised features is some short of smarts that will result in energy savings/usage... with my none scientific observation and data collection I would say that's not true with the 2 weeks I had this device. Compared to my old/ghetto thermostat (very basic unit) T5 turns on and leaves AC on a lot longer than my ghetto unit use to do... to the extend that my spouse and is feeling cold in SoCal where it was 107 degrees outside.
- Alexa integration - it was way easy... compared to getting T5 connected to WiFi. The nice thing is once integration had no issue with Alexa controlling T5. And a saving graces of ability for T5 to control temperature, having Alexa (voice control), saves me the time having to run to the thermostat every 30 mins.
- Weird WiFi drop out problem: after 2 weeks of usage and woke up one morning to T5 being disconnected from WiFi (try to switch on via Alexa). Fiddled with WiFi settings/resetting/reconnecting for 2 hours and was not able to get T5 reconnected to WiFi. So returned my exchanged T5 and bought a third one.
Got me a third T5 and initial setup was extremely difficult (unable to connect to WiFi/internet). took a few hours but figured out I needed to delete my previous T5 from some super obscure Honeywell website. Two weeks into my third T5, thermostat dropped/refused to connect to internet (critical for alexa control). Spend a couple of hours resetting/reconnecting WiFi and still unabled to reconnect. And this time around I couldn't find that obscure Honeywell website to delete registered device under my account so I am giving up and will be returning my 3rd T5 and replace with Ecobee.
- Weird note... i've gone through 3 T5 and the first 2 seems to be by Honeywell themselves and the 3rd one seems to be a unit produced by someone other than Honeywell but the box still primarily adverstised as a Honeywell product. This maybe explains if you look up where to login into your Honeywell account to manage your devices you find 3-4 other Honeywell websites but actually for other devices... this contributed to user's troubleshooting experience...
- Summary: I really liked T5. For the price you get all the fancy features and it looks great on the wall when compared to Ecobee/Nest, etc. Unfortunately the setup experience kinda sucked. And of course, network dropout (device reliability) super suck and is my main problem... some major fail there during development/quality control. If you are looking for a thermostat that looks great and with all the bell/whistle this is definitely it BUT this is for users that are not looking for/care much for the IOT connected portion... that means you don't really care about Alex and App control. If you care for connected part of the features than skip this... you save money but your time and sanity will be trade off.
