Wi-Fi 7-Day Programmable Thermostat (Open Box)

I purchased this in May of 2022, and posted this review in December of 2022 after 7 months of use. I had been considering various smart thermostats off and on for well over a year and finally decided to go with this one, and I am glad that I did. I bought two of them, one for each zone. The installation was as easy as it gets and took about five minutes per thermostat. Didn't even need to read the instructions, just turned off the circuit that powers the furnace so that the old thermostat lost its 24V power source (verified by the thermostat losing power on the display). Pulled the thermostat off of its mount, took pictures of the wiring for reference, unscrewed the five wires and the old mounting plate, screwed in the new mounting plate (the screw holes perfectly aligned for both the old and new Honeywell units), reattached the five wires in their appropriate slots, turned the power back on to the furnace circuit and everything worked perfectly. The next step was to setup the new smart thermostat for WiFi, and this took a little bit longer because the process can be finicky. You have to remove the thermostat from its mount for about ten seconds and then put it back in, this helps initiate/restart the WiFi setup process. Then quickly go to your wireless device and join the new thermostat network. Then in my case, I had to manually open a browser tab to http://192.168.1.1 to complete the WiFi setup. If you don't see the new thermostat network or if that network address for it doesn't open up, then you will need to remove the unit from the mount for 10 seconds and then put it back in and repeat the process. A list of WiFi networks should open up on the above noted address, and from there you can join your 2.4Ghz WiFi network. Once WiFi setup is complete, install the Total Connect Comfort app and create an account. You will then need to register your new thermostat(s), all you need is that piece of paper from the box that says the MAC ID and MAC CRC. Once the new thermostat is registered, you will be able to control your thermostat from anywhere with any device. Total Comfort Connect has an app and a web portal that allow you to access, configure and adjust your thermostats. The web portal gives you more options, for example, I could not find an option to remove a thermostat on the app, but you can on the web portal. So if you can’t find what you’re looking for in the app, check out the web interface. While this device gets ~70% 5 star ratings, the other ~30% appear to be largely related to improper installation and/or frustration associated with the installation. The instruction PDF for this unit is 140 pages and could easily overwhelm most people. I have condensed the process into this short review as it related to my install, which was switching from an older Honeywell thermostat to this newer smart thermostat. Note that I already had the 'C' common wire and this was a simple replacement as everything I needed was already in place. Honeywell does log your thermostat settings and usage of your HVAC system and send monthly reports to the email where you registered the thermostat account. They probably sell this information without your personal identifying information. For example, in this report they compare your current month’s usage to the prior month. This includes how many hours you used the A/C and Heat, and how many hours they were off, as well as the average thermostat temperature settings for your home and away schedules. Some people will be opposed to this as a matter of privacy, so beware if that’s you that this is what you should expect. I am big on privacy, but I am not bothered by this enough to refuse to use the product and I will still recommend it to others. I hope this review helps others make their decisions to use or not use this thermostat. My family is very happy with it, and we have so far had no problems or complaints. If this changes, you can rest assured that this review will be updated to reflect that. I like that this new unit is not a touch screen, so there are no smudges, and the screen is much clearer than the old unit. It is really nice to be able to control the HVAC system remotely, to easily setup a schedule, and to easily make adjustments from the app. Stay warm/cool!