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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Round Honeywell thermostat is inaccurate, August 22, 2008
I have four of the round Honeywell thermostats in our house built in 2005, three for zone heat and one for A/C and zone heat (#T87F 2873 3). Ours has the mercury bubble unlike some of the newer ones that are mercury-free. None of them maintain the temperature settings very accurately. For instance there were times when the thermometer on the thermostat showed 3 degrees below the setting but the heat would not come on; at another time the temperature might be 3 degrees above the setting but the heat would not shut off. My main thermostat is off by about 6 degrees but that varies from time to time. Sometimes the heat or A/C comes on and goes off 6 degrees from the setting, other times it is just a couple degrees off. We had the builder replace the A/C thermostat but the replacement acts pretty much like the first one.
The list price of $70 (as seen on an Amazon seller site) for the non-electronic thermostat is very unreasonable. None of the parts are made of material worth more than a few cents. I may be showing my age but it doesn't seem like too long ago when the round thermostats sold for $5.
The round Honeywell thermostats do last a long time because there is hardly anything in them to go wrong. The electronic thermostats that I've had in former houses have nice features but seem to last only a couple years before malfunctioning. Lightning or power surges or poor design must do them in. I give the round thermostats 2 stars at least because they last a while, though in my case, not very accurately.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Like The Old Ones... Stay Away., January 2, 2010
I wanted to ditch my Hunter digital thermo for the classic round. We have the OLD classic round (with mercury!) down at work and it's simple, accurate and I love it.
So I shopped around and bought the new incarnation of the Round.
I don't like it. And here's why.
First off, the new color is a stark, brilliant white. I didn't want white. I wanted taupe or beige or whatever the old color is.
The new thermos are electrically controlled, there is no mercury.
I want mercury. I'm not scared of mercury. The world is not going to end because of mercury thermostats. Mercury is allegedly more accurate because...
THIS THING IS NOT. If I want my house at 70 degrees, I have to set it at 76. If I want my house at 66 degrees, I have to set it at 70.
There is NO heat anticipator dial inside. I don't know if that is a mercury-only thing, but I can't adjust it. My furnace calls for an anticipator setting of .8. Dunno what I'm supposed to do now...
Now, the thermo works just fine and is simple, but it's off by six degrees. That's silly nonsense.
I called Honeywell and was told that since I bought it off a (reputable) seller on eBay they wouldn't honor the warranty. So now I'm stuck with it unless I want to return it to the guy. I guess I'll just keep it.
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
When it's time to get a Round to ditching your digital thermostat, January 28, 2008
Since its introduction in 1953, Honeywell has reportedly sold more than 58 million of these T-86 round thermostats. That's an amazing number. And there's a reason they're so popular: They work, they're simple and they'll last a long time.
In Summer 2007, we had central air installed in our old house and the dealer wanted to put in a programmable digital thermostat. I loathe digital thermostats for a whole host of reasons but in this case, I didn't want a beige, chincey-looking plastic box hanging on the wall in my beautiful upstairs hallway. The dealer brought out a couple of these T-86 thermostats and I opted for the white (as shown here) for a couple reasons.
One, the white casing makes it much less obvious on white walls. That's a plus. The bigger selling point is the size of the numbers on the dial's face. The numerals on this model (YCT87K1003) are dark, large and well-spaced, making it easy to read both room temp and set temp. In an upstairs hallway with minimal overhead lighting, that is very important. In a house where two near-sighted, bespectacled and middle-aged people live, that is very important.
Another plus is that many of these modern T-86 thermostats (unlike prior models) contain no mercury. Another nice feature is the trim ring, which is very forgiving for installing into existing buildings (where cutting into walls is required).
You can probably buy a knock-off product for less, but speaking as someone with a background in architecture, I'd stick with Honeywell. They've been making thermostats since the 1880s when they started with the "Damper Flapper," a primitive switch-type mechanism designed for coal-fired furnaces that used a motor to open and shut the damper.
In my downstairs foyer, I have one of the 1930s Honeywell Thermostats, complete with its solid brass housing and the words "Minneapolis-Honeywell" on its front. More than 70 years old and it's still a dandy!
I highly recommend this contemporary T-86 Honeywell Round. It's been an industry standard for more than five decades. And the best news? The most recent information I could find shows that this product is "Made in America".
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