Customer Reviews

Honeywell RTH8500D 7-Day Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have both the Honeywell RTH7600D (bought at Costco for around $65 and packaged there as model RCT8101A) and this Honeywell RTH8500D. Both units are very good with the one major difference being the "Vacation Hold" feature; the 8500 has it and the 7600/Costco version does not. The programming interface is different as well, however, one is not necessarily better than the other. The 7600 unit is a little easier to program whereas the 8500 offers a shortcut that allows multiple days to be programmed at once. Since you'll likely program the unit infrequently, I don't think this should necessarily be a consideration unless you are an installer of these units where time is money; then the 8500 is the unit of choice.

The Costco version for me is going back because it lacks the Vacation Hold feature. If you travel or not at home frequently, the Vacation Hold feature allows you to hold the temperature, say, at 50 degrees for 10 days while you take off for a ski trip. With this feature, once the timed Vacation Hold is over, the thermostat resumes it's normal programming schedule. So, when you arrive home, the house temperature is at a comfortable level.

The Costco version allows you to manually override the program schedule, however, you must manually remove the override as well. Therefore, when you arrive home from your ski trip, you come home to a cold house and you'll need to manually reset the thermostat and wait for the house to warm up. If this is not an important feature for you or you're are at home most of the time, go for the Costco version and save about $40.

Otherwise, the RTH8500D is an excellent unit that has worked quite well for me over the past several years.

UPDATE: We recently (May 2011) installed the RTH8500D in our bedroom. The "click" of the relay contact when the thermostat calls for activation annoys my wife who has rather sensitive hearing. I contacted Honeywell and they said the clicking sound is unavoidable at the current time and suggested insulating the back plate of the RTH8500D with 1/8" Styrofoam to deaden the relay sound. I temporarily tried a thick folded piece of clothing material and I didn't notice any difference. After reading other Honeywell thermostat reviews, the clicking sound seems to be universal across many of their thermostats. So, if considering a bedroom application, you may want test the unit to ensure it's within an acceptable noise level .

I had trouble finding programable thermostats that would control my split system Carrier heat pump. Honeywell has the installation manuals for every one of their units online ([...] I spent time looking at this unit's documentation to be sure it could handle my Carrier unit. Be careful, many Honeywell and other manufacturers have units that don't handle heat pumps, and some include "call a professional" <expensive> in their instructions. Setup was a cinch and the ability to program temps for four times per day for up to seven days will save me money throughout the year. It's a simple unit, seems compatible with most systems, has some neat features like "vacation hold" where you can override all the programming and set a temperature to "hold" until you reset it for programming. You could be away for an evening or a month...it would honor the "hold" setting.

There are a couple of "if this...then that" instructions, but they're really well put. I did notice a poor rating on one of Honeywell's other thermostats because one purchaser didn't realize the difference between possibilities linked with "AND" vs. "OR". "And" means EACH MUST EXIST, "Or" means ONLY ONE OF THEM SHOULD EXIST. So, although the instructions are excellent, they must be read carefully before using the unit on a more complex system, such as a heat pump.

Only thing I'm not too happy about is the very short time the backlight stays on...barely five seconds. Unfortunately, in my house, the unit is mounted in an area with little natural or ambient light. I'm sure once the screen is totally familiar to me this won't matter much. But, learning the system and setting the various "System settings" takes reading along with the Installation Guide and the screen is constantly going black. Maybe I just haven't found the setting that lets it stay on longer...

I'm not experienced with HVAC. I'm a 62 year old woman/avid home "improver" and installing this in place of the 25 year old mechanical mercury stat was very easy...maybe 30 minutes.

I replaced a 20 year old thermostat with this model. I have a simple gas heat / air conditioner. It took me longer to find he scissors to open the box than it took to actually install. I love that is actually comes pre-programmed with suggested times and temps. In fact, I left the Monday - Friday settings as it. I did however purchase the oops-plate for this unit since the older one was larger than this one. Excellent product.... quite happy.

I wanted a touchscreen thermostat that accepted power from the furnace system so I didn't need to replace batteries every year. (It will run off of batteries if your system does not provide 24vac power to the thermostat; many were not originally installed to do so.)

This model has practically every feature you could want in a standard thermostat. It's easy to install with a bit of careful reading and looks great on the wall. I like that you can set a temperature range (disabled by default; must set an advanced option to enable) and the unit will automatically switch between heat and cool to maintain the set range.

Each of the 7 days of the week is individually programmable with up to 4 events (wake, leave, return, sleep). It offers advanced hold modes: 1) hold override temperature until next program event; 2) hold override permanently until canceled; 3) "vacation hold" for a number of days before automatically resuming the normal program.

Another advanced feature is the "recovery" mode, where the unit learns how long it takes to heat/cool the living space and it can turn on the heater or air conditioner early so that it reaches the set temperature at the set time. Cheaper thermostats only turn on *at* the set time and then the temperature has to catch up to the program. This unit can anticipate your needs, so if you want it to be 75 degrees when you wake up at 7:35, set the wake-up event to 75 degrees at 7:35. It takes care of the rest.

Highly recommended! I have three of these in my home, one for each zone.

My old programmable thermostat started shutting itself off when ever it felt like it. After a few weeks of this random behavior I decided to get a new thermostat. I read all the reviews and decided on this one.

Just like everyone else said, it is easy to install. In most cases, it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes.

In my case all the wires were the correct color, so I didn't even have to label them.
Popped off the old one and mounted the mounting plate with the two screws and anchors, inserted batteries, pulled out the tab and I was done.

The programming was extremely intuitive. Press which days you want to program, what time period (and you can change that too) and set the heating and cooling temperatures at one time. In less than 5 minutes and that the programming was done too.

The coolest feature (for me) is the temporary hold. People have mentioned the vacation hold and the regular hold, but for me, the temporary hold is what I have been wishing for and didn't even know it existed.

Where I live it is very hot during summer and early fall. When I go to bed it can still be so hot outside that we cannot open the windows. I need cool to sleep. On the other hand, I don't want to use hold to keep the cool temperature all night. Or reprogram the thermostat every time I want the air condition to stay on for an hour more until I fall asleep.

This thermostat does that. You can set the temperature and then with a press on the clock tell it when to revert to the regular program.

I wish I got this thermostat years ago; I would have saved a fortune because I wouldn't have the air conditioner coming on in the middle of the night, when I used regular hold.

I love this thing.

This is a great thermostat. You set it for a temperature that you want it to maintain and it does. It's as easy as that. After programming it to automatically use the A/C or Heat you never really need to touch it again. I had to figure out the right temp for my house first because it differed from what I had my old thermostat set for but only by 2 degrees. I was going to go for the cheaper one/next model down but read many reviews about how the touch screen doesn't work properly. This model is worth the extra $20 and increased features without any problems. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have these last 3 months.

First the installation was a piece of cake. I have a simple setup with only a AC, Heat, Fan, and 24 volt wire setup. That was simple and the instructions were very simple to follow.

The programming is just as simple. Press prog, edit, select the day(s), adjust the temp for AC/Heat for that time period go to the other 3 time periods and do the same AC/Heat settings and it is done. You can select multiple days or every day. I chose the Mon-Fri to be the same and then Sat and Sun to be the same. The thermostat always shows the programed settings and the actual temp. Very easy to understand. And when you have set a hold temperature, it clearly shows that as well.

Want to change the temp? Press the up/down arrow on the AC or Heat side to a temperature you want and your done. It will stay on that temperature until the next program time. How simple is that? You do not have to press any other buttons, switch it to heat or cool, or tell it to hold the temperature. It knows you want to hold the temperature or you would not be changing it. The Hunter always started flashing the time to hold it for and the default was for one minute and you had to change it manually with more button pushes.

The temperature difference between Heat and AC is 3 degrees. When you program your Heat for 72 the coldest you can adjust the AC for in the program setting is 75. That is ok since it is so easy to then go adjust it another degree when you want it cooler or warmer and it will hold so easily till the next program time.

I had a Hunter 44860 and I am sure glad I took it back since the program difference on it is 5 degrees. Can't even get both the AC and Heat in a comfort zone in my opinion on the Hunter model. The only thing I did like about the Hunter was the color change from red to blue for Heat and AC.

Buy this thermostat, you will be happy with all the features and the way it functions.

The ONLY thing I would improve on, is a brighter display or maybe a larger one to make it easier to read. My thermostat is not in a very well lit area so I use a flash light to compensate for that.

First of all, the auto temperature control is awesome. No more switching between heat and cold. And the programmability is beyond comprehension, in a good way. You can literally program the ever-loving christ out of this thing. And the fact that it is removable from the wall for programming is totally awesome. If you want a great thermostat for any application, get this one.

I was pretty happy with this thing. But then it crapped out. To be more specific, about 7 months after installing it my heat stopped working. I called an HVAC tech who was able to identify that the thermostat was the problem. The 'Y' terminal on the thermostat (which controls the heat pump) was no longer sending a signal to the HVAC system. After a few calls to Honeywell support, they honored their one-year warranty and sent me a replacement thermostat. The only caveat: apparently they no longer market the RTH8500D in the States, so they sent me the RTH7600D model instead. Kind of annoying. But, they did more or less honor their warranty, and my new RTH7600D works fine. Let's hope it lasts longer than the 8500D did.

Also, just FYI, the packaging states that it was assembled in Mexico. Same with my replacement RTH7600D.

Easy to install and program this stat maintains a 1 degree differential. You can also overide the program for the day or put this stat on vacation hold. I always used Honeywell themostats, but this buy far is the best yet...have 4 zones in my house with 4 of these stats!