Honeywell RTH7600D Touchscreen 7-Day Programmable Thermostat
by Honeywell
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Honeywell RTH7600D Touchscreen 7-Day Programmable Thermostat
Customer Review: CAUTION!!!
Summary: 1 Stars
CAUTION!!! I just wasted $100 on this thermostat. Be very careful that you also don't waste your money! With the package trumpeting "easy to install" and the reviews on here talking about how easy it was, I started the installation process this evening after receiving the unit today. I followed the instructions step by step. Label the wires as you remove them from the old thermostat, the instructions tell me. The illustration shows four wires ... mine had six. Didn't tell me what to do about that. But it didn't make sense to put an R label on the red wire and a W label on the white wire. I'm not color blind. So I remove the wires without labeling them. I turn to the next page of instructions to find out that the labels have nothing to do with the color of the wires and everything to do with the labels on the connection post which don't necessarily correspond to the colors of the wires. Could they have told me that on the previous page??? Now I have no idea what wires go to what new posts ... AND I have no idea how to reconnect the old thermostat! But I plow forward. The instructions now tell me that if I have a heat pump, I need to go to page 20, where I find out that it is even more complex and the "if this then that" combinations are more confusing than calculus. But I plunge forward, hoping to figure this out. Buried in the notes on page 23 - yes, page 23 - they tell you that if you have a W2 wire on your old thermostat, you need to call a qualified technician! Page 23! Call a qualified technician! Keep in mind that the instructions had me disconnect and remove the old thermostat on page 4! This thermostat is supposed to be easy to install. It is supposed to save me money. But I am left with no alternative than to reinstall the old thermostat. I took some big risks and rewired the old thermostat, making some guesses about what wire went to what connection post. Thankfully, it seems to work. This thermostat saved me NO money ... it just wasted $100! Now let me see if I can find an HVAC technician that will even show up for less than $250 ... oh yes, and find a day to take off work from my busy schedule to have it done. Thanks Honeywell for the "easy to install" thermostat!Customer Review: Can be a bit complicated to use.
Summary: 4 Stars
Installing this was dirt simple: the mounting holes and the wiring matched exactly the old thermostat I was replacing. Taking the front off to insert the batteries was a little hard, only because I was afraid of applying the needed force to pop the front open. The only other thing that proved to be a momentary head-scratcher was the fact that I had to go through the advanced setup screens to turn on the "Auto heat/cool" feature--once I did that my air conditioner started working correctly again, and now I can just set a temperature range and either the heater or cooler will be used to keep the temperature in the temperature range.
Once installed it works like a charm. There are only five touch regions: the three buttons at the bottom and the up and down buttons to the side. My only gripe about the design of the hardware is that in order to apply enough force to press one of the touch regions, the unit moves slightly against it's mounting base, which makes the whole thing seem a little cheap. (But then, I guess I'm used to modern Apple products which are built with incredible tolerances.)
The user interface can be a little confusing. If you want to switch from just heating to just cooling, you press the touch panel anywhere to turn the thing on, then the "System & Fan" button. The button changes to a "System" button--which you press repeatedly until the "Cool" label is flashing. Then you press the "Done" button. Programming the heat/cool temperatures for each day is similar: you wind up pressing buttons (whose context changes) until the cows come home.
Adjusting the temperature is fairly simple: just press the up or down button until you hit the desired temperature, then press 'Hold'.
In some ways it takes a bit of a rocket scientist or a computer gadget freak to program this thing successfully. Fortunately I happen to be both, so for me, after a little playing around it was relatively easy to set the thing up.
If you're not a gadget geek or a rocket scientist, you may want to have the help of your computer savvy 14 year old to set this thing up.
Customer Review: Darn Nice Thermostat
Summary: 5 Stars
There are two versions of this thermostat, this model the RTH7600 is the touchscreen version. For less money, you can purchase the exact same thermostat with a smaller screen and push buttons (not touchscreen), the RTH7500 (Honeywell RTH7500D Conventional 7-Day Programmable Thermostat).
Once set up, this is a very accurate thermostat.
Mounting is straightforward; Honeywell includes stickers to label your wires from your original thermostat. Mounting the new thermostat was very easy. And then matching up the labels on the wires to the screw terminals was simple. The only advice is to use a pair of needle nose pliers to guide the wires into the terminals.
I had a bit of trouble with programming. I have a hot water system with a central air conditioner. In order to set up the system initially you have to go through a series of cryptic code numbers that only make sense if you have the manual. I'm still not positive I have my system set up correctly to use the air conditioner - I'll see come summer time. My old thermostat went out late on a Saturday, so I had to muddle my way through the setup without Honeywell's fairly generous Monday through Saturday support phone line.
Yes this took much longer than 10 minutes to install and set up.
The preprogrammed temperature settings are surprisingly good. You can set a different program for every single day of the week. Programming the temperature and times is really slick - you can select any day or days of the week and make them the same program. There are four temperature / time settings per day.
Now that the thermostat has run for a few weeks, the thermostat has learned how long it takes to arrive at the set temperature and starts up my hot water heater plenty early to get there on time. I've notice the temperature in the house is much more stable now, with a lot less up and down movement.
This is a very good looking thermostat. The illuminated screen is a great touch. I don't know how they could make set up easier or less cryptic.
Customer Review: Works on heat pumps with back up heat given time
Summary: 4 Stars
Edit to original review:
I installed this on a heat pump with auxiliary heat and, initially, the AUX heat ran too often, as detailed below. However, given about 2 to 3 days to run as programmed, the unit stopped using AUX heat and functions great. I made not changes to the configuration, it just stared working correctly. I'm assuming the intelligent recovery program needs a little time to learn how to recover without use of AUX heat. I just wish the technical service reps had mentioned this need. All they told me was that my heat pump was malfunctioning. Since the heat pump worked fine before the replacement and it works fine now after a little waiting, I have a hard time believing that advice. I'm moving my rating up to 4 stars.
Original Review:
For a heat pump with auxiliary heat - When the room temperature is 2 F cooler than the set point, the auxiliary heat comes on. I called Honeywell, and this parameter cannot be changed. Therefore, you cannot program the thermostat to reduce the room temperature set point by more than 1 degree without the auxiliary heat coming on to warm the room. Since this thermostat works with heat pumps with auxiliary heat, I expected to be able to set the heat to 60 F during the day, and have the temperature return to 70 F upon returning home without the use of auxiliary heat. The thermostat should have a ramp feature or some other logic to prevent the auxiliary heat from coming on in response to a set point change. When it's 60 F outside, there's no reason for electric auxiliary heat to be running to warm the room because of a pre-programmed set point change. So, with this thermostat, I will keep my house at a constant 68 during the winter, and use the programmable features only while running the air conditioner.
If you have single stage heating, you will be pleased with this product. But if you have a heat pump with auxiliary and want to program temperature changes during the winter, you will be disappointed.
Customer Review: A very good thermostat
Summary: 4 Stars
I had a new Bryant small packaged system installed and decided to replace my older White-Rogers digital thermostat with Honeywell RTH7600.
Three days after the installation the thermostat is working fine. The numbers are large and clear, the programming was easy and intuitive. It is quite a bit smaller than the old White-Rogers and looks more elegant. I like that the thermostat can be taken off the wall and programmed while you sit in a chair.
I noticed a few issues, but nothing to prevent me from recommending this thermostat. These are the issues that I wanted to mention:
1. There is no back light button. For the back light to turn on, you have to touch one of the buttons on the screen. Once you do that, it activates the appropriate function (lowers temp setting, goes into fan functions, etc.) Then, you have to cancel that operation if that is not what you want. Therefore, just a simple checking of the temperature setting in the dark involves a bunch of button presses.
2. Advanced programming relies on codes. I needed to use the advance programming to set a reminder for filter replacement. The advanced functions use codes like 0120, 0170, 0300, etc. instead of words. Then, you have to select an appropriate switch for each function, e.g. "0" off, "1" 1 month filter reminder, "2" 3 months filter reminder, etc. I would prefer English words on screen rather than codes. However, codes are very clearly explained in the installation manual, so you better hold on to it if you need to use advance settings in the future.
UPDATE: It's been a year and a half since the installation and the thermostat is working fine. I decided not to do any advance settings for auto switch between the heater and A/C. It is still on it's first set of rechargeable LSD AA batteries (Sony CycleEnergy AAs). I am satisfied with this thermostat and, other than the lack of a backlight button, I do not have any concerns.