Customer Reviews

Lux TX9100E 7 Day Universal Programmable Thermostat

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It took more time to remove the old thermostat than it did to install this new one. I did read the instructions carefully, but I did not look all the way through the packaging materials. I made my own wire labels from masking tape and carefully noted what each wire was connected to on the old thermostat. As I was getting the new thermostat out to install it, out pops a complete set of stick-on wire labels! Using those would have saved a few minutes.

The only thing that was not real clear was just when to attach the new thermostat to its wall-mounted base. Since I am using the optional battery backup mode, I found that I could sit in my recliner and program the thermostat, then click it into place on the wall mount. I don't use a lot of alternate programs ... just the same one each day. The "copy" option worked great. Just set up your first day, and copy it to the other days. Simple.

I have a heat pump with a second stage (very expensive to run) electric heat strip. My old thermostat would kick in that second stage whenever I clicked up the temperature setting a bit. This new thermostat lets you set just how far apart the setting for the heat pump and the second stage should be. Also, it has an "early recovery" mode that anticipates the morning "warmup" phase ahead of time, and it starts the phase early and gradually ... once again so that the second stage heat does not kick in unless it is really cold outside.

If there are any negatives, the backlight is not very bright. When you press any button you can see the display in the dark, but it isn't near as bright as a computer monitor or flat-screen tv. Still, if you are going to use this with the batteries as the sole source of power, this level of brightness would probably use minimal battery resources. If your wiring allows powering it directly from the furnace / heat pump, then it is too bad that there is not a brighter setting for the display.

This very versatile programmable thermostat is a great alternative to purchasing a more expensive Honeywell thermostat. This thermostat will readily wire up to any single stage or two-stage heat pump system - electric or gas; my unit is a Rheem all electric two-stage heat pump system. Lux shipped the unit promptly and well-packaged. All necessary mounting accessories and clearly-written instructions came with the unit. Installation was a breeze. I must note that if you are a do-it-yourself type, I strongly recommend that you contact Lux and/or your A/C-heater manufacturer to compare notes on which color wire goes to which terminal on your thermostat when connecting the wires. Each system's wiring codes are different, and thermostat makers add extra connection terminals to accommodate as many different systems as possible. For example, in my Rheem system, I have a brown "C" wire that is used as a common for the thermostat and a blue wire that is used to activate one of the heater controls. I connected the brown "C" wire to the "C" terminal and the blue wire to the "B" terminal of the thermostat. In other systems, there is no "C" wire and the blue wire is used as a common. In this particular case, if you were to connect the blue wire to the "B" terminal on your thermostat instead of connecting it to the "C" terminal, you could possibly damage your system. Once wired up correctly, the unit is very easy to program - it takes maybe 15 to 20 minutes to set up a 7-day routine that once set, can be left alone and never touched again and it will provide you with round-the-clock automatic temperature adjustments that will save you money and keep your home comfortable.

There is only one small negative to the Lux TX9100E thermostat. In some wiring applications, it may be necessary to insert a jumper wire between two specific terminals to correctly accommodate your particular system's requirements. Lux does not include this jumper wire in its package. You are required to make one yourself if your system requires it.

I went from a non-programmable thermostat to this LUX model. It has 4 time settings per day and is programmable for 7 individual days in both heating and cooling. That's 56 different times and modes that can be set. It's extremely flexible and is super easy to install. Having the unit adjust temperatures for the different zones in my house automatically during the day so that zones are adjusted for our usage has cut my electricity bill almost in half.

Installed this Lux 9100E programmable thermostat two days ago. My wife and I just bought our first house a few months ago and it had a very old Honeywell mercury thermostat. It wasn't bad, it worked very well but wanted a thermostat I could program to turn on and off at certain times with set temperatures. We have a Rheem gas furnace with forced hot air and central air with a Rheem air conditioner on the side of the house. So I guess we have a one-stage HVAC system. I did a lot of research on other thermostats (i.e. Honeywell, Hunter) and finally decided to go for the Lux 9100E. Didn't want to spend 100 dollars on a stat so this seemed like a good choice for me as far as bang for the buck, features and most important it has a temperature swing setting. I paid 40 dollars for it on sale at Lowes. Installation was pretty simple and took me 20 minutes......just read the manual and label all wires accordingly as you remove them from the old thermostat. I removed the old thermostat, placed the supplied stickers on the corresponding wires from the old thermostat (G, Y, RH, RC and W) and just matched them to the new thermostat terminals. I needed to jump the `RC' terminal to the `RH' terminal using the supplied wire in the kit. This was shown in the diagram instructions as well as how the old thermostat was set up so I just did the same thing. The only thing that made me scratch my head was I noticed the old thermostat had two wires connected to the old `Y' terminal. I wasn't sure if both should go to the `Y' terminal on the new thermostat or if one of them should go to the `C`(common wire) terminal. It was a Saturday, tech support was not available until Monday, so I thought the best thing to do was to replicate the same thing on the new stat and connect both `Y' wires on the Y terminal of the new stat. That seemed to be ok since the heat works fine. I like the swing setting which allows you to set a desired temperature swing range of when you want the heat\cool to keep running and remain off. This decreases the on/off cycling of your system which should increase its life. The swing settings are from 1 to 9 in .25 degree temperature increments. In other words, if you have the heat temp setting at 70* and the swing setting set to 4, the heat will turn on at 69* then turn off when it reaches 71*. Keep in mind that this thermostat also has a built in delay feature which basically delays the on and off time. The default setting is 5 minutes and can be changed to 2 minutes. So, if you have the heat temp set to 70*, the swing set to 4 (one degree .25 x 4) and the delay set to 2 minutes, then the heat will turn on 2 minutes after the thermostat drop to 69* and turn off 2 minutes after the thermostat reaches 71*. Hope that wasn't confusing. The delay is set by switching the jumper switch on or off on the back of the thermostat. For some reason though, whether I have the delay set to 2 or 5 minutes, the delay is always 2 minutes. My thermostat for heat is set to 70*, the swing setting is set to 4 (one degree) and the delay set to OFF (5 minutes). With these settings the heat should turn off 5 minutes after the thermostat reaches 71*, but it turns off only after 2 minutes. Same thing happens when the heat is supposed to turn on. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? That's really the only negative thing, or at least the one thing I couldn't get to work as I wanted. No big deal, 2 minute delay is fine or I could even increase the swing setting to adjust accordingly. The LCD display is a light blue which is very nice, stays on for 12 seconds when activated by pressing either the up or down button. Programming was very easy and the thermostat is very accurate. Looks nice on the wall as well. Also has a filter change reminder which can be set to `remind' you to change the filter at whatever setting you have it set to. I have mine set to 30 days. The LCD does not display both current and set temperatures, it just displays current temp. Just hit either the up or down arrow to see the set temp. The one feature that this thermostat does not have is that it does not automatically switch from heat mode to cool mode when called for. In other words, you need to manually change the program mode from heat to cool and visa versa. I live in the northeast so it's really not an issue at all.....just leave it on Heat mode during the winter months and switch to Cool mode in the summer. All in all, this is a very nice thermostat, it's accurate, looks good and has all the features I was looking for that works for us.

As others have mentioned the wireing instructions are not always clear depending on your system but the tech support is great. I sent them an email with my current system information and within 24 hours they responded back with exactly which wires go where. Installation took about 30 minutes and programming took another 5-10 minutes. Great value considering other programmable themostats for two stage heat pumps run at least $30 more.

Loving the new thermostats. Very easy to install and they work great! I was concerned that the battery was going to be difficult to get to after reading some of the other reviews, but it looks like they took care of that and made it so you just take the face plate off to access a battery change. Highly recommend this product. Quick delivery too!

We purchased this after reading numerous reviews from various sources. The thermostat is attractive, well designed and functions as was advertised.
We had a question regarding model information and were pleased with the quick and concise information given. Installation was easy, good directions provided.
This is a great value in both money and quality. Highly recommended!

I found that, contrary to what the technical support person told me, i.e. that this product/model could be bought at Lowe's, but it wasn't available there or anywhere else in my town. I bought it online because I had to. The price was competitive with the other thermostats I found at Lowe's. I had hoped it would replace all the functions of the prior thermostat I had, but it doesn't. The thermostat that finally died showed two temperatures, first the current house temperature, and second, the temperature the thermostat was set at. This new model, which is supposed to replace the other, doesn't show the temperature setting, only the current house temperature. And looking inside the panel of operating buttons doesn't help find the setting either. I don't like having to carry all those times and settings around in my head!

Initially, I was looking for a larger, cooler-looking touchscreen thermostat. However, most of those, except for the really expensive thermostats, couldn't accomodate a multi-stage heat pump with emergency heat. I also wanted a thermostat that would operate off of the 24v line with battery backup or with just battery power and this one did both of these things. So I tried out the Lux TX9100E and I'm glad that I did.

To begin, if there is even the slightest, tiny doubt in your mind as to how to wire the connections, e-mail Lux before you start the installation. Maybe even e-mail them anyway, as some adjustments might not be evident. In my case, I had the wiring down properly, but there were 2 micro-switches and a jumper they wanted me to move and I wouldn't have known this without sending the e-mail to Lux. I think it would have still worked without flipping the switches, but it will work better with a completely proper setup.

On the downside, I had to repaint my wall because this thermostat isn't quite as tall as the last one and the unfinished wall was visible above the Lux, which looked a bit funky. The good news is that I now have one nicely painted wall, although you might not have the same problem that I did. Apparently, no trim piece is made for this unit.

The design is clean and functional, if not as cool in appearance as some. There is considerable customization available via the mostly hidden controls that you'll find under the swinging door. You can program multiple settings for each of the 7 days in the week. The copy feature is helpful as you can simply copy Monday's settings, for example, to Tues through Fri and then set up custom settings for the weekend.

Because the unit also operates on batteries, you can easily remove the thermostat from the wall and program it from the sofa, rather than having to stand next to the wall during the programming process. I like the fact that it uses AA batteries, which you can find everywhere. The unit it replaced used button batteries, which are more expensive and not as widely available.

Installation was easy. I drew a diagram of my old thermostat on a sheet of paper with notations about what wires went where just in case. I thought I had turned off the power at the junction box, but I started to smell smoke during the installation process, which is not good. Turns out the power was not off and two of the loose wires were touching. So make sure the power is off so you won't have a problem.

I was going to hire someone to install this thing, but some friends questioned my masculinity and so I decided to do it myself. Install was actually much easier than I thought it would be and the unit works great.

This is a highly flexible thermostat at a cheap price. I believe that Lux thermostats are top-rated by a leading consumer publication and I can see why. The customer service is great, the product works well and my sense is that it will last a long time based on the seemingly solid build quality. Highly recommended!

Bought this model after trying a Honeywell one that didn't work. The first thing I noticed was the ease of the display and programming. The display is easy to read for the most part, much easier than the Honeywell. I have a RiteTemp in my house with a slightly larger display, for the past 2 years and I installed these two new Lux 9100e in rental properties. The RiteTemp isn't bad but the installation of this unit is simple and straight forward. It took me about 10-15 minutes to install and test the system and another 10 minutes to get it all programmed. Plus with the large number of systems it is compatible means it will meet just about everyone's needs. I hooked up the wires and sat down to program the display before putting it on the wall and had it done in about 10 minutes. The turn dial program feature is nice simple to me. I know some people say they don't like it but I find it very easy. The hook up pins for this system are easier than the honeywell and Ritetemp to get wires to fit right.

The only thing you must worry about is that the little screws do come all the way out so you have to be careful not to unscrew them too far or they fall out and you can lose the little middle black plate. I dropped one in the carpet and took some looking to find it. It also took me a couple of tries before I got the copy to work. All and all I can't really find any big problems. I have only had them installed in the units for a few weeks so I can't comment on how well they work in the long run. For the 10 bucks the light-up display and 7 day programming is worth it over the step down TX500e.