Customer Reviews

Honeywell RTH230B 5-2 Day Programmable Thermostat

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

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.

I installed this thermostat to control a gas furnace, following the wiring instructions. The instructions said to remove the jumper wire in the connection terminal if you had a two-wire control circuit. I did as instructed; the furnace came on but would not quit. After I played with the unit for several hours, my wife checked the Honeywell website, and finally found that the instructions there said that the jumper was mandatory for proper operation if you had a single transformer and a two wire system. I put the jumper back on and the thermostat has worked flawlessly since. The thermostat works really well, but the directions stink.

It is a very good product and easy to program. I would have preferred a cover that is hinged rather than snap on and off.

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.

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.

I picked up this 5/2 Honeywell thermostat because it was about $10 cheaper than a White Rogers version (that I had at my old house and liked). I figured, what could be so different? Well, a lot.

1)the cover is not hinged, so for 'fiddlers' who like to change settings, it's a total pain to pop it open and get inside to adjust programs. You are able to adjust temperature temporarily without opening the Honeywell cover, but it eventually reverts to the program. .

2) no backlight

3) battery consumption, for some reason, is really high. My first set of fresh duracell AA's went out after 6 months

4) non-intuitive display

I could provide a lot more detail but the bottom line is if you're the type of person who is constantly checking your thermostat and likes to adjust programs frequently, look elsewhere. I don't know the model number but there's a 5/2 White Rogers with a swing down cover that works great - spend the extra $10 on that one.

This thing was a piece of junk from day one. Getting the front plate to snap on is a pain. It took me 20 minutes of fiddling with it to finally get it to latch right.

It never kept our house at a constant temperature. If we set it at 68, it read anywhere from 67-71. If it was reading 70 when it was set at 68, the heat would still go on.

Last week the heat wasn't kicking on at all so I replaced the batteries with brand new ones. It took a half hour for the heat to finally go on. We don't use discount/cheap batteries here, we always use name brand. So it's not cheap batteries that's the problem.

Today, the heat wasn't working again and I went down to check the pilot light on the furnace. That was fine so I replaced the batteries again and the heat went on immediately. Long story short? This thing is a piece of junk that eats through batteries like no tomorrow. When I told my uncle, who is a seasoned Mr. Fix It, that I just replaced the batteries last week, he told me that it's probably eating through the batteries so fast because something on the board is shot. So we paid $30 for something that lasted less than a year. Needless to say, when my husband comes home from work today we will be taking a trip to the hardware store to buy a new thermostat that ISN'T a Honeywell.

DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT!!!! Spend an extra $20 and get a better quality thermostat from a different company.

Just installed this to replace a Lux unit that failed. Installation is pretty easy but it will not turn on my furnace. It will only turn on the blower motor in manual mode. I keep getting put on hold with Honeywell or get disconnected with a message that they are too busy. I plan to return this to Home Depot. I also did a quick search online and the failure mode I have seems to be pretty common with this Honeywell thermostat model judging from the online postings.

3 out of 7 of these failed in 3 years or less.
the logic malfunctioned in various ways and the units would not control as designed.
when they did work they worked well.

I found the instructions confusing at the most key part, ie, where to insert the wires, and where the J-switch goes. The screen doesn't light up which is a pain when trying to check temperature or change settings at night. You have to take the cover off to change settings, the cover doesn't flip. The screws were difficult to access with a standard Phillips head, down in narrow channels. You have to toggle between one display to see actual temperature vs set temperature, instead of being able to see both at once. I'm frustrated enough that I'm going to switch to a Lux model which I'd installed before and loved.