Honeywell RTH230B 5-2 Day Programmable Thermostat
by Honeywell
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List Price: Our Price: $24.99 You Save: $15.00 (38%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $15.48 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Honeywell RTH230B 5-2 Day Programmable Thermostat
Customer Review: Quick Intallation, Easy instructions, Easy use, as well as a value
Summary: 5 Stars
I finally decided mid way through the summer to replace my aging thermostat with a more modern programable one after the shock of the first summer electric bill. Every day I would raise the thermostat before I left, but ocassionally I'd forget and waste a days worth of cooling. There are many choices for thermostats, and I initially looked at this model because of the name, Honeywell, A brand that I recognize and Know is a major player in thermostats and climate controll. I purchased this model because of its great step by step instruction and ease of installation. I have worked with other older programable thermostats, and many use to be difficult to program and even more dificult to figure out the display. Well, this unit has a nice easy to read picture display, and the programing is a snap. One feature that is nice is that it has 4 programable times during the day: wake up, going to work, home from work, bedtime, allowing you to save energy over the day, but also over night when it is cooler. It also has easy to program saturday and sunday settings as well, with available 4 programing settings as well if needed. So if your in the market for a new thermostat, this is a nice simple unit, affordable, and easy to use, why waste more money on a more expensive model.Customer Review: Poorly designed product
Summary: 2 Stars
Compared to their old model CT3200, the new model RTH230B does not have anything better.
For CT3200, a pair of batteries can last more than 2 years, while for RTH 230B I have to replace the battery pair at least twice a year.
Time/Temperature setting in CT3200 is much easier and more user-friendly.
Furnace filter replacement signal is useless.
RTH 230B is more fragile than CT3200. During a year you will need to remove the unit cover and batteries cover many times to make changes in day/time/temperature setting or replace batteries. Doing so will potentially cause damages to the unit. On the other hand, for CT3200, I only need to flip the covers to make changes.
It is more difficult to wire RTH 230B than to wire CT3200. There are small pins in the wiring slots, which are easily broken. I wired and rewired RTH 230B only once, and one pin became broken. Consequently, I had to come up a remedy to make sure the wire has a solid contact in the slot.
In summary, RTH 230B is purely a cost-saving product for manufacturing, and it does not provide any added value to home owners. I will definitely not buy this product again.
Customer Review: Good option for the price but you should be aware of...
Summary: 4 Stars
As other reviewers have said the product is easy to install and it is also very easy to program. However, there are a few things you should be aware of.
- It is battery powered, meaning that if the batteries on the thermostat die, your AC system will stop working until you replace them. The better models get their power from the wires on the wall.
- Even though installing it is very easy (all you need is a screw driver and pliers) and the instructions are clear, make sure you know what you are doing or have a professional install it. We had 5 wires going to our old thermostat so we followed the 5-wire instructions on the user's manual. By doing so, a transformer burnt out and we had to pay $140 to get it repaired. Turns out that even though we had 5 wires going to our old thermostat, we only needed 4 for this one, which according to our AC guy, we couldn't had known unless we worked with AC units all the time.
- There are no troubleshooting or installation instructions for this particular model on the Honeywell's website. They have some cool wizards there but this model is not included.
Customer Review: MEH
Summary: 2 Stars
Simple install although I'm using it for heat only on a gas fired boiler which is the easiest install.
Programming is not intuitive, but not as hard as some reviewers make it out to be. It's right up there with setting/programming a cheap digital watch. But it COULD be so much simpler.
Numbers are easy to read and overriding program is as easy as hitting up or down on the temp.
The BAD thing that really brought down my rating is that the temp readout, of what temp the room is... sucks. It "sticks" at a number most of the time, it's weird. You'd think a quality thermometer would be used in a digital thermostat! I checked it's readout against several other thermometers which all read consistent. This unit reads anywhere from 2 to 8 degrees out of whack. It could say the room is 70 when it's really 63. Pop/reinstall the batteries and it magically says 63... until it hits 70 again, then the 70 readout remains even after room cools down. UGH, and since it's inconsistent I cant just set it low to compensate.
Gotta find another one.
Customer Review: Find something else
Summary: 2 Stars
The cover must be removed to access any of the programming buttons, including manual functions. The cover fit so tight I was afraid that I would pull it off the wall. I had to file off half of the bottom tabs to prevent this.
The thermostat is located very close to the heater and would be very difficult to move so it has to be set higher than the required temperature. This is expected, however on cold days, below 40 degrees it is necessary to turn it up for a while to bring the rest of the house to temperature. If I use the outside buttons when in the program mode then it stays at that setting for 2 hours, which is to long. After the house comes to temperature the thermostat has to be turned down, which adds another 2 hours to the temporary setting. When a different programmed time is reached (i.e. bedtime where the thermostat is set 12 degrees lower) the thermostat remains at the temporary setting and does not switch to the new programmed setting. Therefore I can't use the outside buttons but must remove the cover and use the manual mode.