Honeywell TH9421C1004 Visionpro IAQ Thermostat Reviews

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This is my second thermostat. I bought this unit to replace the exact same unit that had the touch screen fail. Honeywell will replace it for free under the 5 year warranty, but it needs to be returned by a certified Honeywell installer. The unit will cost $100 to have installed by an installer even though all that needs to be done now is pop into the same bracket on the wall, so I am doing this myself and keeping the original as a spare. It seems this is a common issue with the unit that Honeywell should honor as a return by the customer rather than a certified installer. It certainly is not the installation that has caused this failure but rather a part manufacturer quality defect. This is supposed to be one of the best thermostats they produce (and it was 3 years ago). I am a little disappointed that I had to fork over so much to fix a known issue. At the very least, Honeywell could offer a touchscreen replacement rather than forcing the sale of the complete thermostat. (other vendors offer such a solution at a far lower cost)

I like the thermostat, but not the overall quality; therefore I can only give this 3 stars.

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Honeywell thermostats are amongst the best available for the home. I got the 9421 thermostat as part of a new heat/air package installation and am very pleased with the choice my installer made. As with many programmable thermostats this thermostat has the ability for individual day settings and two or four periods during the day for wake, leave , return and sleep. Programmable thermostats save a considerable amount of energy vs those with only a single setting. The cost of this thermostat can be recouped several times over during a single cooling season.

One nice feature is the ability to have the thermostat automatically switch between heat and cool. Because of this feature heat and cool set points must be at least 3 degrees Fahrenheit apart. If you don't want this feature, you can opt to switch between heat and cool programs manually.

I have found that compared to other brands of thermostat the Honeywell is *so* much easier to program. One feature that is missing however is a 'cheat sheet' attached to the thermostat itself as one finds on some other thermostats. This means you better keep the manual safe for programming advanced features. Honeywell thermostats automatically change time as a result of daylight savings time. The need to re-program as often is therefore eliminated.

The control panel can be locked out from tampering. Especially nice is that lockout can be set to two different levels. Total lockout, or partial lockout where only current program cycle temperatures can be overridden. Temperatures revert back to program settings when new daytime period occurs.

There are many 'advanced features' available through a special 'hidden' menu option. One such feature I like is the ability to set the thermostat to display time as a 24-hour clock.

The 8000 and 9000 model thermostats share the same basic features and menu controls. Where the 9000 thermostat differs from 8000 models is the addition of extra features such as

Rechargeable lithium backup battery vs 3 AAA alkaline batteries in 8000.

Ventilation Control Home ventilation from 20 minutes up to 180 minutes.

Back-light control Ability to optionally keep back-light on at low light level at all times. 8000 series dim out with no option to leave on.

Ability to switch adaptive intelligent recovery off. 8000 series this feature is always active. (Potential energy savings).

Additional furnace filter reminder settings. There are extra run time set points plus the addition of calendar days.

Restore energy star schedule advanced function.

Outdoor temperature display.

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What a splendid device! As an electrical engineer, I wholeheartedly endorse this product. In my house it now controls the humidifier, the whole-house ventilator -and, more prosaically, the furnace and the air conditioner. That's all from one simple-looking package mounted in the hall, with adjustable backlighting even. I have it set so that it functions as a nightlight, but that's just a byproduct of my not wanting to squint or turn on the hall light to see what the LCD screen says. The menus are simple and natural, and the degree of system control is most gratifying. The homeowner (or his wife) can specify whether the ventilator is permitted to run during sleep time, for just one example.

The installation instructions are written so clearly that even a PhD engineer can do it! Nicely, they are separated into Installer and Homeowner levels, so that the homeowner (or his wife, in this case) can't accidentally screw up the installation's intimate details that don't need day-to-day attention. That's house things like square footage, number of bedrooms, etc. It's also technical items like number and types of heating and cooling units (e.g. fossil fuel, electric, heat pump), ventilator's capacity, whether an outside temperature module is included, at what intervals you want to be alerted that it's time to change the filter or humidifier pad, and a welter of other twiddle-knobs to keep a tech-type happy.

I bought this through Plumbing Planet with the decision based in part on their satisfaction scores with Amazon customers. I give them very high marks in that regard -the package arrived on the stated schedule, and it was most professionally packaged. I liked that they included instructions for the thermostat's return, should I have wished to, and in marked difference to other suppliers, they do not require a RMA, or "return materials authorization". That speaks of confidence in their own products.

I like to shop locally rather than with distant suppliers, and I'll pay a premium to do so. It adds to my local economy, and significantly it keeps in business the folks whom I can go ask questions of and are more motivated to stand behind their product. For this purchase, however, they could not come within my range of $100 over the price I got from Plumbing Planet. PP sold me this unit for less than my local supplier can buy it direct from Honeywell. We are all puzzled, but it is true.

In summary: I am very pleased and would buy it again in a heartbeat.

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This is my second one. The first one lasted about 9 months, then the humidity sensor failed. I inspected the circuit board and it had quite a bit of corrosion. After cleaning some of the corrosion off, some of the functionality which hadn't been working came back to life (such as the backlight & temperature sensing). I could never restore the humidistat, so I bought another one. The new one worked well, except now it doesn't "come to life" on the first touch. You actually have to touch it several times before it lights up and starts responding. This is odd because the first one didn't do this.

One other complaint is that the detailed setting menu has a lot of features in the book which aren't actually in the menu on the device. Some of the settings are things you would expect to be there based on the features of the thermostat. I assume they aren't there because the manual covers more than just this model and other models have additional capability.

One final installation note is that I spent like 10 hours installing this and checking the wiring. I couldn't get the thing to power up and I thought it was a wiring issue. The real issue was that the screen wasn't positioned quite right in the case and I guess it wasn't grounding properly. It became a routine that every time I took it off the wall I had to slap it again my hand to "set" the screen and then put it back on. If I didn't slap it around the screen would not light. Weird, eh?

When working, it's a nice device. Recently I've been comparing the humidity reading to a portable humidistat and there is a 5% difference (the Honeywell is 5% higher). I actually trust the portable unit more than the Honeywell. It's still precise even if it's not acurate so it's ok for me (it is always a 5% difference).

I looked into getting this replaced under warranty and here is the story. You can get it replaced under warranty ONLY IF you have the warranty claimed by one of Honeywell's authorized installers. The unit will then be free to you, but the installer will charge you $100 $150 to install it (if they didn't provide you the first one). So it's kind of a wash if it goes bad. I just bought a new one myself and slapped it on the wall. This isn't a complicated installation, but for a guy to drive out, risk a lot of trouble shooting, and order the part you for....well don't expect it to be free or cheap.

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Great thermostat.

However, after 2 years the the right half of the screen froze. The AC repair guy said that this happens frequently. He recommended to be careful and don't use wet fingers. I don't know if that was the actual cause in my case.