Lux TX9000TS Touch Screen Seven-Day Programmable Thermostat
by Lux Products
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Lux TX9000TS Touch Screen Seven-Day Programmable Thermostat
Customer Review: Decent unit, but could be much more convenient to adjust programming
Summary: 2 Stars
I've had this unit for about 1.5 months.
Summary: The unit looks great and works very well, but it is not very convenient to program. Programming the unit is not hard per say, BUT it is VERY VERY tedious. It has all the features you could want, but they aren't intuitive to program, and the manual is a little difficult to understand.
Installing the unit was a breeze, no issues there. Programming the unit wasn't difficult either, although the process was not as streamlined as it could have been. Once you've set your schedule for one day, you can copy it to the next, and the next, and so on. So if every day has the same schedule, you're golden. However, if you want to set the same schedule for say Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you'll have to set each one individually. Also, there is no way to see the schedules in aggregate form. You have to go into the schedule process for each day and click through "next/yes" for each setting in the schedule for each day; all this to simply see the settings for a given day. You cannot jump right to a day in the middle of the week, you have to start from monday and work your way through all the different schedules/settings.
Example:
Monday:
1) set wake/morning start TIME, press "yes/next" (the difference between "next" and "yes", is that if changes were made to the current setting time/temp, "yes" saves and moves to the next field, while "next" resets the change, and moves to the next field)
2) set wake/morning desired TEMP, press "yes/next"
3) set leave/day start TIME, "yes/next"
4) set leave/day desired TEMP, press "yes/next"
5) set return/evening start TIME, press "yes/next"
6) set return/evening desired TEMP, press "yes/next"
7) set sleep/night start TIME, press "yes/next"
8) set sleep/night desired TEMP, press "yes/next"
Now you get moved on to Tuesday, where you repeat the process. So scrolling through the days can be a bit painful (~8 presses per day).
You also have to go through this process separately for heat AND cooling.
You have the option of hitting "copy" if you know you want to copy the previous day's schedule to the current day (this seems somewhat backwards and unintuitive). You can hit "exit" in the middle of all this, and my assumption is that only the values that have been changed will remain changed. I'm not interested enough to play with this specifically to find out.
So if you don't intend to modify or look at your various schedules and settings, often, it will be fine. If you want to change the schedule often, or even just want to check it, periodically, it's probably going to feel like a hassle.
Also it only has 1 field for displaying temperature, so you can't see the current temperature and the "Set At" temperature at the same time. It displays the current/actual temperature by default, if you want to see the "set at" temperature, press the temperature field once; it will flash, show the "set at" temperature, and eventually go back to displaying the current/actual temperature.
Final gripe/comment, and I realize it's kind of a picky one. I'm a night owl, and am usually up well after midnight. I wanted to program the unit to start the night/lower/sleep temperature at 2am (ie roughly the time I go to sleep). I couldn't do this because each "day" ends at midnight. While this makes perfect sense, it's something I had not thought of until I tried to program the unit. I would suspect most programmable units also suffer from this issue. So I can't hold it against the Lux either, but I figured I would mention it for the other night owls out there.
Sooooooooo....
Pros:
- Easy setup and installation
- Very nice looking display
- Works exactly as their manual describes (meaning controls, AND the accurateness of the start-stop for scheduling)
- Energy Usage timer (shows how long it has had heat/cooling "on") w/ reset
- Temperature calibration feature
- Customizable "swing" value up to 2.25 deg
- Controls lock (prevent unauthorized changes)
- Smart Recovery feature (where the unit can turn on "early" so that at the start of the "wake/morning" and "return/evening" settings, the temperature is already at the desired level; this feature is off by default)
Cons:
- Schedule/day programming is not geared toward allowing you to make changes without going through schedules for all days
- No way to reset values for your current schedule once you've changed them, without exiting and starting all over
- Terminology used in display can be unclear terms like "day, morn, eve, night" instead of "wake, leave, sleep"; "next/yes" instead of "cancel/ok"
- Can't see "set at" temperature and current temperature at the same time
When I started writing this review (as a result of a prompting email from amazon), I had no intentions of replacing the unit; however, after going through all the pros and cons, I just realized I really dislike the inconvenient programming. So now I will be getting the Honeywell RTH8500D 7-Day Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat. I've looked at the manual for the Honeywell (found it online here: f) and it appears much, much easier to program. It allows you to program multiple days at once, switch back and fourth between the 4 periods of the schedule (wake,leave,return,sleep) let's you make several changes to the currently selected day(s), set schedule temperatures for both heating and cooling from the same screen then save or cancel the changes all at once. (one slight downside, is that it appears the time settings for heating and cooling have to be the same) A second alternative, closer in price to this Lux unit is the Honeywell RTH7600D Touchscreen 7-Day Programmable Thermostat (manual here: ), it's not quite as convenient to program as the 8500, but still looks much easier to program than the Lux.
Hope someone finds this helpful! :-)
Customer Review: Flexible and versatile
Summary: 4 Stars
The TX9000TS is the third LUX thermostat I have owned, and the other two replaced name brand digital thermostats with good reputations. The Lux, however, gave me the flexibility to set things as I needed them, and the ability to manage things easily.
For many users, some of these features might be overkill. Four temperature ranges per day is generally useful since people often want a lower winter setting when they are under the blankets at night, or when they are away at work. Having a thermostat that sets things automatically makes it a lot easier, and allows you to wake up to a room that is the proper temperature.
Since people often have weekends off, an additional group of settings for weekends is helpful. But not everybody's week is divided the same way. Some people might have different days off. Others might have children in preschool three days a week and at home on other days. Regardless of your schedule, having seven distinct programming schedules allows you to tailor your settings to your weekly schedule, not somebody else's.
If you don't have a different schedule each day, you can set the temperatures for one day, and use the convenient copy button to populate the rest of the schedule. You can then go back and tailor specific days as desired. The copy button is a time saver, but its use won't be obvious without reading the manual.
Most settings are easy to take care of using menus, but a handful of "permanent" settings need dip switches, all of which is explained in the manual.
Despite the versatility and large easy-to-read display, this thermostat has a few shortcomings.
The most basic of thermostats show nothing but the current temperature and the setting for the desired temperature. This one shows the current temperature only. Although touching the current temperature will show you the set point, it won't be obvious to all household members or guests, and something as simple as pushing things up a degree or two won't be obvious to casual users.
If your room is 66 degrees and you see a subtle flashing of a flame icon, you know your room is being heated. But is it being heated to the 70 degree morning setting or to the 68 degree afternoon setting? You can't tell at a glance, and since the temperature setting changes throughout the day by nature, it would be nice to know at a glance how many degrees the thermostat is planning to heat or cool by. You might not know whether you need to override things until the proper temperature never gets reached.
Another potential issue is that switching the unit from heating to cooling is manual. Although the programs are independent, they cannot be enabled concurrently. If you set the heat for 70 degrees and cooling for 82 degrees, it would be nice for the heat to go on when the temperature drops below 70 degrees and the A/C to go on when the temperature rises above 82 degrees. I have those sorts of temperature swings during parts of the year, and it's inconvenient to need a manual switch. I'm using this thermostat for the bottom floor of my house, but if I were to replace the one upstairs I might consider a Honeywell for that reason.
If you do touch the temperature, you will see the set point, and have up and down arrows. Once you use them, leaving them alone will let the display revert to showing you the room temperature. All that is no big deal, except for a casual user who raises the temperature a degree or two and wonders what to do next until the display changes on its own. At that point, the new setting will not displayed, so only somebody who already knows how this thermostat works will have a clear idea how to do the most basic thing a thermostat allows for.
Mounting LUX thermostats is easy. Once the mounting plate is in place, a simple latch lets you remove it from the wall or replace it, and all settings can be done from the comfort of a chair if you so desire. Attaching the mounting plate merely requires two wall screws and anchors, as well as hooking a few wires to screw terminals.
A problem is that unlike LUX thermostats I had in the past, that had holes on the back of the mounting plate in various locations, this one has holes for the wires only on the upper right hand side. Trying to place this one in the location of my old LUX thermostat was impossible given where the wires came out of the wall. I needed to cut the wall and re-plaster.
Also, this one does not come with the escutcheon plate, and if you want one you need to buy it as an option. My old one came with one, but they are not the same size. Considering that people want to replace old thermostats by putting new ones in the same locations, I can't see why LUX didn't add a few alternate holes for screws and wires.
Overall, you get an easy to read touch screen that probably gives you more than you need to know at any given time, and less than you need to know in other respects. I'd rather need to press a button to find out the current day of the week when I'm not setting the thermostat than to need to know the difference between a flickering flame icon, a stationery one and a flashing or non-flashing snowflake. These minor inconveniences are no big deal if you are the regular user, but when your kids come home from college and see a new thermostat, they might have to track you down to ask how it works.
Customer Review: Great Unit, Easy to Program, Awsome Features
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok this is coming from a geek who is into electronics.
Old unit was a Sears (Honeywell) 5-1-1 on a 4 wire Electric Heat/Cool system.
Unit Pros - Big Display, Blue Light when need, Low Battery indicator, Filter Change indicator, Swing setting (See Features description)
Unit Cons - Doesn't display current temp setting.
Now it's been over 10 years since I got the Sears Unit, so it's been some time on what is new with features. Needless to say, this unit works pretty much the same as my Sears unit. So when other on here talk about hard programming, this and that as negative, I don't know what they are talking about.
Instructions - If you take the time to read over them, they aren't that hard to follow. In fact, the only thing I check in the instructions were the wire diagram just to be safe. I then had to look for programming as I made one small mistake. But unless you are not good with electronic in todays computer world, you may have some hard time as you are the type that can't program a DVR or Car Radio. If you can get around on your Cell Phone (If you own one), this should be cake.
Programming - This was pretty much like my Sears unit. You start off on Mon. Morn and you set the times up to 4 times for each day. The unit already has a Pre-Program Energy Star settings if you want to use it. These settings are 62F for 8am, 10pm & 70F for 6am, 6pm. When I first did this I was hitting next instead of Yes to change the settings. But once you have a time set for your choice, all you do is hit Copy button if you want it the same for all the days. SIMPLE! My Sears I had to program each day at a time. This unit allows you to touch the time, temp, or day to cycle through to change if you want.
Features - I like the low battery feature. My old unit did not have this and I am sure it is standard on current units today. But it doesn't bold well when you wake up in the winter morning freezing only to find out the batteries were dead in the unit to power on the heater. Swing setting, now this is a cool feature. On my old unit, the heat would come on as soon as it was 1 degree lower than the set temp. This setting allows you to change it. You can change it from .25 to 2.25 difference. A lower number has your heat/ac come on more keeping a constant temp. Higher number will use less energy as your system won't power on as often. Replace furnace filter setting is also nice. Something I am sure none of us do as we don't think about it. The unit will now tell me that I should replace it after so long or furnace usage. You can even set your preference on time on this also. The cool blue light is nice. Standard on todays units I am sure but I didn't have this. Nice to see at night when I hit the light button and you have this awww blue display it. Number are also nice and big. My old unit were small.
The down side I have to say is that you can't see what the Temp is set at. Because of the big display Lux didn't add this. You have to touch the screen and the current Temp will then change to the blinking Temp setting for you to change. Why couldn't Lux just put the Temp setting in the top right corner? There is room there. Or have in small number next to the current room Temp Room txt on the right side? It's not a big deal as it something that will take a little to get used to. Installing took me like 5 min. You can program the unit before hooking it on the wall. Another cool feature that I though was neat!
If you are looking at this unit, rad over at Lux website instructions first as you can download them off their site if you can use this unit.
Customer Review: Finally, someone got the interface (almost) perfect
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought a pair of these setback thermostats to replace a White-Rodgers setback and a ritetemp setback. While both of my present thermostats were technically perfectly operational, the former had a small, one-line screen and no backlight and both were hard enough to set that on those rare occasions when I wanted to change a setting I had to resort to a manual. Not so with these Luxs.
I cheated a bit in that I downloaded the manual from the Lux Web site and had it read before my thermostats arrived, but even so they would have been a snap to program. I am fairly handy and didn't even find it necessary to turn off the (24 volt) power to my 2-wire gas heaters (and I am _not_ recommending this shortcut for anyone else). Within an hour I had both units mounted, programmed, tested, and running. One required drilling 2 new holes, the other mounted in the same holes as the unit it replaced.
The advantage of the Luxs over my old thermostats is in the touchscreen interface. The font is large, especially the room temperature, there is backlighting, and, to make things even easier the electronic front panel can be separated from the wall mount so that you can do your programming at a table or desk. I inserted 2 AA batteries in each unit and made 2 hardware settings (24 hour time and "smart recovery", keep reading for an explanation). The day of the week and the time are set from the touchscreen, as are all the software settings. The start time and temperature for each period of each day are set from one of the (several) available menus and one day's settings can be copied to the next day by pressing COPY. Those settings, which can be done in a minute or two, are all you need to be up and running and all most people will use. Snap the faceplate onto the wall mount and you're done.
My "almost" in the title expresses one of only two reservations I have concerning these thermostats. For some reason, the engineers at Lux decided not to show the set temperature on the main screen, the one you see most of the time; only the room temperature shows. It's easy enough to see the set temperature (just touch the room temperature), but I would have liked not to have to do anything to see the set temperature.
The only other complaint I have is with the smart recovery algorithm. The idea is to have the thermostat monitor how fast your house cools off (typically at night) to the setback temperature to have some idea how much lead time it will need in the morning to reach the higher, morning set temperature. The faster your house cools down at night, the colder it must be outside, and the longer it should take to come up to temperature in the morning. At least that's the idea. This feature works perfectly with the thermostat controlling the bedroom heater, but not with the thermostat controlling the main living-area heater. I did a little reading and discovered that if the thermostat determines that it will take more than an hour head start to reach the morning setting it simply will not try and will start at the requested time (no lead). I run my main living- area at 58 F at night, lower than the bedrooms, and I guess that's why the two thermostats perform differently in this regard. I can live with this situation, but I don't see why the one hour constraint is there in the first place.
In summary, despite two minor drawbacks, I find these Lux thermostats to be a dream to program and easy to read. All in all a very satisfying purchase.
Customer Review: Great unit if not a little expensive
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this to replace a new Honeywell RTH221b that was just not cutting it. The price, over 60 bucks was a bit steep, but not out of the ballpark in regards to other higher-end thermostats. The problem with the low end Honeywell I mistakenly purchased was that it couldn't handle the way hot water boilers worked. Without the ability to adjust the swing, it constantly overshot the temp setting in both directions, and then the radiators got either stone cold or boiling hot. Nothing in between. I'd set the stat at 68 and the room would hit 71 and drop to 66 without touching the unit. The heater would run for 20 minutes straight then not at all for 45 minutes.
The Lux has the ability to set a swing temp AND recovery, which means that it can anticipate when to shut off and turn on so the heat stays more constant. So far, so good, except that the unit should be played with a bit to get it to act properly...which I'm still working on.
I installed the unit about an hour ago. I set it to 69. It hit 72. Now I'm waiting to see how low it goes before it comes back on. Thats the swing. If it get to 67, it'll be a 3 degree swing and should be reset to 2 degrees before I try it again. The recovery works between program periods (morning-day/day-evening/evening-night)to bring the heat up in a smooth way (I think).
I don't want the heater running hard and then not at all. I want it to cycle about 4 times and hour to keep the temp constant.
As far as the lux thermostat itself...its big and is built well. I can't share the concern about the bottom flap that covers the heat-cool and fan switches being flimsy. Its built just fine. The backlight is nice. It should stay on a few seconds longer but no big deal. Programming the thing is not hard. Just takes patience and about 10 minutes. The instructions are comprehensive and, as such a bit lengthy. Again, not bad, just technical. The touch screen is cool and very easy to see. Especially for my post 50 eyeballs.
The little Honeywell was toy-like. The Lux is a beast and very solid.
The only con is that I'd like it to have an indication of when the heat is on, since its in another area of the house and hard to hear it. Helps for adjusting the settings.
It's a great device. Worth the bucks? Most likely.