List Price: $175.00
Sale Price: $171.88
Today's Bonus: 2% Off
---UPDATE---
So the vendor has worked with us to help solve the problem we were having with our Harmony. There was some back-and-forth about whether or not I was, essentially, an idiot, but I persevered in convincing the vendor that I had not installed the unit incorrectly. They shipped me a replacement unit, at their expense, to see if the second unit would experience similar problems (i.e., an inability to fully and quickly heat the floor). I'm very pleased to say that the second unit functioned as intended, and can quickly (~15-20 minutes) raise the temperature of our tile floor by 10 to 15 degrees. I've bumped the review from one star to four, since I feel the inability of the scheduling function to work in the absence of a temperature sensor is a poor design decision (i.e., you can't schedule the unit to come on at 100% for half an hour at 6:00 AM -you can only use the scheduler if the unit can read a temperature from your installation).
-----ORIGINAL REVIEW-----
We recently purchased a home with a 240V heated tile floor system in the master bathroom. The thermostat driving that heated floor was a manual model, with an on/off switch and a rotary power dial. Turning the heater on first thing in the morning meant that you'd have a toasty hot floor by the time you got out of the shower, but oh, that walk _to_ the shower was cold.
I purchased the NuHeat Harmony hoping to overcome this limitation and to improve the aesthetics of the bathroom. The fact that this thermostat sits flush in the wall in a dual gang box, and is compatible with any dual-gang decora-style plate cover, was a big seller.
I was a little concerned about whether the existing temperature sensor in the floor would be compatible with this thermostat. When I contacted NuHeat to ask if it would work, they told me to try it, and if it worked, great! If not, I could always use the thermostat as a power regulator.
Well, the temperature sensor is sort-of compatible (i.e., doesn't generate an error message), but the readings don't seem accurate. So I tried putting the NuHeat in power regulator mode. Big drawback: you CAN NOT PROGRAM the thermostat to turn on and off while in power regulator mode. It's just a 0% to 100% manual setting only, no timer, no programming.
REPEAT -YOU CAN NOT PROGRAM THE THERMOSTAT IN POWER REGULATOR MODE
If you have an existing installation, and the thermostat probe is not compatible, this unit WILL NOT FUNCTION AS A PROGRAMMABLE THERMOSTAT. Which is curious, because you can enter the programming mode, select program start times, and specify a power level (instead of the temperature that you can specify when the thermostat is in temperature mode) of between 5% and 45% (weird, I know). NuHeat customer service indicates that this is normal behavior.
Even worse, the floor, which used to get toasty hot in 20 minutes or so, now BARELY GETS LUKEWARM after nearly two hours of full power.
I contacted NuHeat to inquire about this, and was not impressed with the level of customer service. I told them my old thermostat got the floor warmer quicker, which made me think something was wrong with the NuHeat (e.g., it wasn't delivering full power to the warming mat, despite being set to full power). Their response? My previous thermostat was "not a Nuheat thermostat and I don't know how to compare it with the Harmony."
So, I'm in the process of exchanging the thermostat for another, hopefully functional model. Because the manufacturer wouldn't help me, I'm having to do it through the vendor (and pay return shipping). If that one actually heats up the floor as it should, I'll learn to live with the inaccurate temperature readings (so that I can use the programmable feature). If not, well, I guess I expanded a single gang box to a dual gang box for no good reason.
------------TL/DR version ------------
Only functions as a programmable thermostat with a compatible temperature sensor in power regulator mode, you can't schedule it to turn on or off.
The unit I got won't heat the floor anywhere near as fast or as hot as the previous thermostat. Hopefully a defective unit.
Customer service is lacking
----------------------------------------
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Perfect t-stat for Nuheat In-Floor Heating. I looked at the other options they have available (specifically the Solo) and decided to go with this one since it matched my decor better.The solo is externally mounted and looks like it was an afterthought. The Harmony works well with a standard electrical box and matches my decora switch plates perfectly. Four period timer works great. heats floor quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment