Thermostat Magnifier for the Visually Impaired Reviews

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I got this magnifying lens ... easy to install.

I suppose it makes the numbers somewhat larger ... but my 80 year old father was not helped by it :-(

Maybe if your eyes are only a little bad, this can help.

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Reviews of Honeywell 50002883-001 Coverplate

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List Price: $20.63
Sale Price: $12.64
Today's Bonus: 39% Off

These cover plates are exceptionally useful in the event you are replacing a thermostat and damage, old screw holes, unpainted areas, or junction boxes are now visible because the new thermostat has a smaller footprint. My issue was that I had a vertically oriented thermostat that was mounted on an electrical box. My new Honeywell RTH7500 is horizontally oriented and would not cover over the junction box. With this kit, my new Honeywell RTH7500 thermostat was able to be mounted so that the junction box was not visible. These plates also come with a metal bracket that is specifically designed to mount over junction boxes, and then the appropriate sized cover and the thermostat then attach to the bracket excellent design. And, when everything is mounted, the plates are aesthetically pleasing they appear to be integral to the thermostat and not some piece of patchwork stuck up behind the thermostat to hide something.

If you need to cover up problems that would otherwise require additional time to patch and paint, these covers are for you.

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I got this for my model rth2310b which is the basic 5/2 programmable thermostat from Honeywell (the one with the blue screen). This plate fits perfectly for our thermostat, hiding the hole in the wall behind it where the old round mercury one used to rest. I'm not sure why Honeywell doesn't advertise this as fitting more than one or two of their thermostats because the pre-drilled holes for both of the plates this comes with will work with many of their products. Also, the little raised surfaces around the holes work to help align the thermostat. Just thought I'd let people know that since there is nothing on their website that informs you.

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These face plates are definitely the easy way out and I'm all about that. We recently replaced two OLD thermostats with Honeywell programmable versions but ran into a little issue since the old ones were HUGE and the new ones were much smaller. We were left with big unpainted squares around the mounting boxes that had been drilled and anchored by the home builders who apparently took the easy way out.

I was NOT looking forward to trying to match the existing wall paint and patching the big anchor holes then I came across these.. they look awesome under the thermostats and were very easy to install... gives the whole job a very professional look.

PRO TIP: Read the instructions guys... I skipped them thinking how hard can it be? You put the screws through the holes and screw them in.. well these really only fit one way and depending upon your mounting method you may or may not need the metal spacer... for my upstairs thermostat I didn't read that and ended up with it not quite flush with the wall... decided to read the instructions for downstairs and it looks better. The difference isn't really enough for me to take the whole thing apart again but it would have been a better job if I would have paid more attention to start.

Honest reviews on Honeywell 50002883-001 Coverplate

The Honeywell thermostat back cover works perfectly. It looks great and fits perfectly. I should have bought this to begin with but it was not available in the store. Thanks!

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Lightning blew out my old white rodgers thermostat. Replaced it with a honeywell RTH 6450D but it did not cover the 2x4 box or the sides of the old thermostat that were not painted. Found this backing plate on Amazon and thought I could jury rig it to fit and cover the exposed hole and un painted walls. Lo and behold no jury rigging needed the plate fit this thermostat perfectly even though it is not listed in the description. Honeywell should be more specific as this plate must fit many other thermostats in the RTH line as well. Problem solved perfectly. Thanks Amazon, no one locally carries these. You saved me tons of work.

Reviews of Weber Style 32908 Professional-Grade Barbecue Beeper Digital

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All reviews indicating probe failure are consistent with my findings, which is an engineering design flaw in the choice of low-temp material for the wire insulation that eventually carbonizes with high-temp exposure (my opinion). The thermister sensor itself remains functional (assumming it was always inside food; I disassembled one probe to confirm how it failed). The failure will not usually occur immediately, unless exposed to very high temp, such as a grill on sear. As far as I can tell all probes of different manufactures are essentially of the same design (I have several, and they are interchangeable among the units). The main point to take away is that ALL of these will eventually fail after accumulating enough high-temp exposure time. You are essentially cooking the wire insulation until it carbonizes internally and shorts out the sensor. The silly part of this is high-temp wire probes have been around for decades, so this is just plain bad engineering, not rocket science, but so far (based in part on other reviews) I don't know of anyone doing it correctly in the consumer market (you need an industrial probe). The worst environment for these is the grill, which is why I put this review here; you may get only one use.

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I purchased this product about two years ago and it's great for cooking meats on the grill. No more second guessing whether the chicken is done (or overdone).

But so far I've gone through three sensor wires in that short time period. Each time they failed (reading of 199° immediately after turning it on), I've had to call Weber and request a replacement. I was always accused of closing the lid on the wire, which I never did -I would always make sure the wire was placed in one of the little notches on the side of our Weber grill. But to their credit, they eventually would agree to send me out a new one.

After the third sensor wire failed just recently, they sternly informed me that "this would be the last time" they would replace it since I've had the product for more than a year. The unit has a one-year warranty, but I guess it doesn't matter that I never got more than a year out of any of the sensors.

If they improved the durability of the sensor wire then they would have a great product on their hands. As it stands now, I'd steer clear of this product.

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It works great but only when you wrap the sensor wire with heavy duty aluminum foil/ I made sure it was wrapped with 4 layers. This stops the direct head that it will get. If you do not do this, it will eventually fail.

I have used this for cooking slow and you have to turn it back on after 8 hours as it turns off to save batteries. The range on the unit is very good and will go through brick walls and cement floors.

I highly recommend this if you take the easy precaution of wrapping the wire in aluminum foil from the probe and any area that will be inside the heat area.

Honest reviews on Weber Style 32908 Professional-Grade Barbecue Beeper Digital

I bought two of these units. The instructions require you to reset the receiving unit in order to get it to synch with the sending unit. However, it does not seem to work. After many attempts and much frustration, I got it to work.

The unit seems very accurate, and its great to have it remote. However, I have already ruined one of the two probes, as I inserted it into the meat immediately, while I was still searing. My grill temp must have been over the 480 degree limit, as the probe has now been damaged and does not work at all.

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Weber should be ashamed to have their name on this. No timer, the temperatures are already programmed (rare, med rare, well done), you can't adjust them. After the first hour it lost the signal and I could get it back, turned it on and off, nothing. Spend a few extra dollars and get the Redi-Check, it has a timer, you can set the temperature, and the remote sensor has a temperature read out. I own 2 Weber grills, and I only buy Weber accessories, but this one is junk!

Venstar T5800 ColorTouch Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $277.06
Sale Price: $162.90
Today's Bonus: 41% Off

I am an owner of the T5800 and while I'm not a HVAC contractor I work in a related business. I'm writing this review mainly to refute some of the things stated by the previous reviewer. . . .

The main thing I must say is if you don't know what you are doing hire a professional. I've always said "the devil is in the details" and while it may be a breeze to replace a thermostat (all you need is a small screwdriver) there is always a possibility that some little things may (or may not) get in the way of a successful installation.

This thermostat requires a constant supply of 24 volt power, and you must have a wire called a "common" coming from your system transformer and running to the "C" terminal on the thermostat. This "C" wire along with the "R" wire provide the power and they shouldn't be touched together or jumpered together unless you are interested in sparks, flames, or melted plastic. If you are running a furnace and an air conditioner and you have 4 wires coming to your thermostat (the most common scenario) you will NOT be able to use the T5800 out-of-the-box. This doesn't mean it's game over. There is a product called "Add-A-Wire" that you can purchase very inexpensively that will allow you to duplex 2 functions on 1 wire and then use the free wire you created as your common. You could also run another wire.

For the reviewer to say that you can just jumper things together is akin to saying you can put a paperclip in an electrical outlet and everything would be fine. Specifically, jumpering "R" and "C" together would most certainly fry your transformer. The fact is a thermostat installation might not be a DIY project. If you aren't sure of what you are doing, pay the money to hire a professional, or do a little more research. Don't criticize the product or the manufacturer because of your own ignorance. It sounds like in this case, Venstar bailed this person out. Kudos to them as they really weren't on the hook to do anything (IMO).

So enough review bashing. This is a very cool looking thermostat AND with the addition of the Wifi Key (part number ACC0454) you can access it over the internet from any computer, your iphone, droid, etc., etc. This is very, very convenient if you are going on vacation and you want to return to a heated or cooled home while saving energy during your trip. You can display family pictures as a "screensaver" which makes the thermostat a lot like a digital picture frame. All flashy features aside, the T5800 is a very easy thermostat to program and use. I have owned many thermostats in my day and this is by far my favorite. Luckily for me I had the "Common" wire in place when I started my thermostat replacement project and so I didn't have to worry about the problems the other reviewer had. My only beef with the thermostat setup is the multi-step firmware update I had to do. No big deal, but you have to have an SD card reader on your PC and you have to download some software. Another "devilish detail" which was no big hassle for me, but might have stumped my Grandma.

Also the Add-A-Wire accessory, which can be used to expand a 4-wire configuration and "create" a common wire is part # ACC0410. Even with the Add-A-Wireyou may still need an HVAC professional to help, as the common side of the transformer will need to be identified on the equipment side.

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I did a LOT of shopping to replace our 6 year old RobertShaw cheapie that was installed when we did a recent remodel. That one used a pair of batteries to provide the power it needed. In this case, the Venstar requires 24VAC (if I recall) power to be supplied -which we were not wired for at the time. After going into the attic and looking at the wiring I found two unused wires on the cable that ran to the thermostat. I found the other missing wire that supplied the 24VAC from the furnace and connected it to one of the two available wires which allowed the full 24VAC to be available at the thermostat -we checked it with a volt meter.

A few things that set this thermostat apart from the others -accuracy for starters. We frequently found our RobertShaw thermostat to be multiple degrees off. I could sit a calibrated Thermapen thermometer right on top of the thermostat and the old thermostat would be on average about 3 degrees high. Ugg.. We also noticed that with other models of Honeywell models we'd had in the past as well. This one is spot on or at best 1 degree off -usually it's reading the same value that the thermapen reads which is really nice.

Another feature that sets this one apart from the competition is the super easy to read/understand screen and associated content. We had ours up and running easily with the easy to use prompting.

One area you need to check when doing the install -make sure you understand the dip switch settings -there are 3 of them if I recall. Initially we had set the jumpers wrong which caused it to not shut off the heat after it started -so a few times we found it heating to 75 when we told it to stop at 70F. Ugg.. Anyway, reading closer on the meanings of the dip switches indicated that we had set one switch incorrectly. We changed that switch and it's been a champ since with NO issues.

One other interesting thing I found with this thermostat are the short run times. Our old thermostat would frequently cycle on for 5-10 minutes minimum before it would shut off. This one frequently runs for 3-4 minutes max -short runs and then shuts off.

Overall this unit is by far the best thermostat we've ever owned. We did buy the optional WIFI key for it and frequently use the iPhone app to control it which is really nice if you're in bed and don't want to get up to bump the temp or whatever.

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I can't believe how much this thermostat does. It's super easy to use, I can put in my own pictures to make a photo slideshow or even just change the background, and I can connect to it through wifi and see the temperatures in the house or outside, and change settings from anywhere with my iPhone. I bought the wifi card (which was surprisingly inexpensive and has NO MONTHLY FEES!!) so I could change the temperature settings on the thermostat remotely, in case I forgot to turn it off or wanted to turn it on, on my way home. But I realized I can even use the iphone like a remote control for the thermostat IN the house, too for example, my phone is on a charger next to me all night so now I can adjust the temperature on my thermostat in the middle of the night without getting out of bed. Nice...

Also I love being able to send a text message that will display on the thermostat.

PS I had this product professionally installed by an HVAC contractor, very happy with the results.

Honest reviews on Venstar T5800 ColorTouch Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat

This thermostat installs very easily, especially if you have all the necessary wiring. I had a White-Rogers thermostat with a faulty outdoor sensor. Rather than replace the sensor, I upgraded to this t-stat for the color screen and online connectivity. The big benefits to this t-stat over others is:

1) can't beat the price

2) color screen is customizable and looks very high end

3) extremely easy to use and good looking user interface

4) no stupid expensive wireless gateway needed, just a simple WiFi card.

Mine is hooked up to a Rudd 2 stage A/C 2 stage heat pump with LP furnace unit. The Installer Test Menu was perfect for confirming all stages were working properly. Also, don't miss the dip-switches on the back of the t-stat during installation.

Once wired, it takes 30 seconds to boot up. The setup menus are so easy If you've ever used a Garmin GPS, you'll be right at home with this thermostat. The user interface is setup very similar, with big icons and a menu bar with a "back" button displayed on the bottom of the setup screens. If you want to get really user friendly, you can even enable the simple thermostat option, great for the less computer savvy users. I also love that it shows if you're using 2nd stage cooling or heating.

The Optional outdoor sensor was also extremely easy to install (2 additional wires). I mounted the sensor in my outdoor condenser unit. The outdoor sensor is very simple and doesn't appear to be weather resistant so you want to mount it either in your unit or under an eve or overhang of your home. The installation of this allows you to set a temp you'd like the emergency heat to run (i.e. mine kicks in when the temp goes below 35 degrees). Another benefit to installing the outdoor sensor is that it displays outdoor temp on the t-stat, along with high/low temp for the day in a pull-down menu (after upgrading the firmware).

The Optional WiFi key was also a simple install I had it on my wireless network and registered with VenStar in less than 5 minutes. Once it's online, you create an account on VenStar's website and enter the MAC address displayed on the t-stat. You then have full control of the t-stat and all configurations from your computer. Once you have your account created, you can also download the VenStar app on your phone. After signing in with your VenStar account, you can control the t-stat and see your daily/weekly usage.

The only "cons" i can think of is that this t-stat seemed to cycle my equipment more often than my old White-Rogers t-stat. This was easily fixed by adjusting the deadband settings and number of cycles allowed per hour in the installer menu. Also, why not include WiFi in the unit Having the key stick out defeats the purpose of purchasing a different colored frame. I'd like to see some more functionality in the App (such as ability to edit the weekly or vacation schedule), but these configurations can be made from your computer and could show up in a firmware upgrade. Also, make sure you have an SD card available so you can upgrade the t-stat firmware I used one from my digital camera.

I really can't give this t-stat enough praise. My buddy who works for a HVAC company commented that this is probably the easiest thermostat to configure. If you want an inexpensive, great looking color screen, and WiFi connected thermostat look no further. I've added some pictures in the user picture gallery.

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I'm just updating my HVAC system, so now is the time for a 21st century thermostat. I looked at everything I could find on the market. Yes, Honeywell has one with a color screen. Yes there are several with color screens. I looked at the Nest, and I didn't like the round format. That's a lot of wall I would have to clean up around the old rectangle! Worse, the learning mode looked inappropriate for me, as my schedule is different every week. I really need to adjust it remotely as needed, and the optional WiFi adapter for this is perfect. i'm not sure how far it will communicate to your router, as mine is only about 6 feet (through one wall) away. My wife absolutely LOVES the screen savers. Unfortunately, you can't transmit photos over the wireless. You have to push them onto an SD card (not supplied) and load them onto the thermostat. And you can only put 100 photos onto it. But having pleasing vacation pix on a continuous slide show makes it a pleasure to walk past this thermostat. The features are extensive. Covers my new two-stage cooling system, as well as 2-stage heat. Remote adjustment via iPhone and Android has been flawless. While I can find lots of minor improvements, I really can't see ANY added feature that would put any competitor ahead.

Reviews of DeLonghi HR715 Retro Convection Heater

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List Price: $84.00
Sale Price: $77.88
Today's Bonus: 7% Off

We have bought two of these units. Like most everything we have bought from DeLonghi, they work well, and they stand behind their products.

Don't be fooled by some who have posted here, who obviously don't get out much. These are space heaters, small space heaters, good enough for a small bedroom or large bath.

Our Master Bath is on the large size, whirlpool tub, seperate tiled shower, double vanity, etc. This unit works more than well at keeping us toasty, without having to over-heat the rest of the house. We have also used it in our RV, and it works well there as well.

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After reading some of the other reviews, I think some of the other purchasers don't understand how convection heating works. Convection heaters don't give a burst of heat, they heat the air in a room, making them ideal for people who will be moving around. They are not a good fit for people who will be seated and want to direct hot air at themselves. They also need some time to heat the air in the room.

These are excellent heaters. We bought two, and loved them so much I just ordered two more. A single unit keeps a 10x15 room nicely warm using the low setting. This despite a bank of very inefficient windows. They are silent, and very energy efficient, since they use the fact that hot air rises to move the air through the heater. They are pretty big, but are very attractive.

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I bought this heater to heat the 400 sq.ft. second floor of my 100-year-old house. I have hot water radiators that heat the first floor just fine, but the old boiler has a difficult time getting the water all the way up to the second floor so I have used fan style space heaters for years. I decided to upgrade to this convection heater and cannont believe the difference. It heats the entire second floor fairly evenly and does not dry the air like the fan heaters did. It looks nice too, which is a nice added bonus. I would recommend it to anyone looking to supplement their heating system.

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I bought this early for winter, didn't need to use until two weeks after purchase. It worked great the first four nites then stopped. Now it won't turn on. I called the seller on day 30 after the ORDER date (not ship date, not received date) asking for an exchange or refund. The rep clucked on the phone about it being thirty days, took my info and promised a call back. A week later, no call back. I can't get through on DeLonghi's number, I'm put straight into a hold queue and after half an hour I hang up. This item is definitely not worth the money, and Polstein's is an equally unreliable seller with zero customer service.

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I have a small house and unfortunately a new, expensive powerful, loud forced air gas heat furnace. I had it put in mainly for the air conditioning factor, but soon regretted the blasts of dry hot air last winter. I missed my old hot water radiatior heaters. I stumbled on this by accident. I liked the looks, I know DeLonghi's reputation so I took a chance boaasting to everyone that I would never use my furnace again. And to my surprise, I won't !! lol This is a great looking, quiet, safe little heater and it heats my 450 sq. ft. house well. A nice toasty warm, natural heat, without all the dryness. As the winter progresses and it becomes colder I may need a second heater but as of now it suits me just fine. I have a fireplace that also provides some heat. So my recommendation to those of you despairing over the cost of a furnace system: Forget it. I would have had I know about these !

Discount ecobee EB-SMARTSi-01 Smart Thermostat 2 Heat-2 Cool with Full Color

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List Price: $270.00
Sale Price: $164.52
Today's Bonus: 39% Off

I am very impressed with the Ecobee SMART Si-01 thermostat. After spending weeks reading reviews about WiFi enabled thermostats that met my requirements, I purchased this one. I wanted a thermostat that could be used at my vacation home and monitored remotely. This model connects to WiFi in your home and sends low and high temperature alerts to your email. The installation was easy and took about an hour.

I have an oil furnace with 1 stage heating and no AC. I replaced a 2-wire Honeywell mercury thermostat. The Ecobee will not run on 2 wires alone and requires a 24V power supply. Since I did not want to fuss with running a new thermostat wire from the furnace control panel to the Tstat and I needed to connect the EcoBee to a backup power supply, I purchased a power adaptor. LockState Connect LS-24VAC 24 Vac Adaptor for LS-90i. I followed the EcoBee wiring diagram for the SMART Si with external 24VAC transformer. Using this diagram, I wired the 24V transformer to the "C" and "RH" terminals on the Ecobee. I then wired the two wires from the furnace to the "W" and "Y" terminals. The EcoBee powered on and reported the correct ambient temperature, but could not operate the furnace. After more reading, I took off the cover on my furnace control panel and discovered that the thermostat wires were connected to terminals "R" and "W". I went back to the Ecobee and connected the thermostat wires to the "RH" and "W" terminals. After powering the furnace and EcoBee back on, everything worked correctly.

The thermostat is easy to operate and intuitive. EcoBee has plenty of online technical support and knowledge info. I also downloaded the EcoBee app for Blackberry and it works great. On the EcoBee web portal or with the app, you can simply change temperature and the HVAC equipment turns on. Since the thermostat is connected to the Internet, you can view outdoor temperature and forecasts from the home screen. On the web portal, you can even download the climate data (CSV file) for your home to track temperature, humidity, climate set points, HVAC operation time, etc. If you enjoy looking at data like me and playing with Excel, this is a really cool feature. All of this is free! This EcoBee model was easy to install given my simple heating system.

For people where this device will be used at a vacation home, when you register on the EcoBee web portal, enter the address where the thermostat was installed, NOT your primary address. This is not clear on the registration form. The thermostat uses this address to determine the outdoor weather.

Be aware that the SMART Si is not compatible with EcoBee smart plugs or the remote sensing module. This did not bother me.

I would highly recommend this product to anyone thinking about purchasing a new thermostat. I cannot think of anything negative about this product. EcoBee is a great company at the forefront of energy technology. I will consider purchasing other products made by them.

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I had this item installed in my home today after using a Honeywell non-internet connected device. The difference is the additional control that you have upon leaving your home. Once on the road, you can set your thermostat down (or up) to maximize savings. It also runs a program to help with savings. The device looks sleek and the color screen garners attention. Overall the price is very comparable to non-connected thermostats. This device lives up to its name (Smart SI) and takes outside weather via the internet and Humidity into account when helping you to save. This is especially helpful in the southeast where humidity plays a big role in cooling your home.

I will follow up with a second review after a couple of months of usage but so far, I am very impressed!

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This is my second Ecobee stat see my review for the other one here:ecobee EB-STAT-02 Smart Thermostat 4 Heat-2 Cool with Full Color Touch Screen. I have the EB-STAT-02 installed at my vacation home, and this one I have installed at my full time residence.

Although it's not as feature packed as the touchscreen EB-STAT-02, the SmartSI is, nonetheless, more than adequate for most homes.

A year ago, before this stat became available, I purchased a WiFi enabled Filtrete stat from the big orange box down the street. Big Mistake but that's another story...

Anyway, this thermostat delivers!

Ecobee's primary sales target is the professional contractor but I've found their tech support most helpful in the past. This thermostat was very easy to install though, so no tech support was required it was a wire for wire exchange. It took less than an hour to mark the existing wires, remove the old stat, install the new one and reconnect the wires.

Connecting to my home's wifi network was a simple, intuitive process similar to connecting a notebook computer or other device.

Since I already have the Ecobee web interface setup for my vacation home, adding my primary home thermostat to the same page was simple. There's a drop down box that I can select either location from turn on the A/C at the vacation home, turn it off at the primary home, go!

Not to downplay the "stand in front of it" appearance of the unit, it's downright beautiful in comparison to the Filtrete unit, but I don't see it all that much. I walk past it in the morning on my way to let the dogs out, noting that it displays the current indoor and outdoor temperatures as well as humidity levels (outdoor readings via the internet). I have, from time to time adjusted the temperature up or down a bit but for the most part, I interact via the internet. I just find it easier to sit in front of my computer and program in the home, away, sleep and wake up settings. It's a programmable thermostat provided that your day to day routine doesn't change much, you won't *need* to tweak it.

All in all, a great thermostat that I highly recommend!

Honest reviews on ecobee EB-SMARTSi-01 Smart Thermostat 2 Heat-2 Cool with Full Color

As Amazon sometimes combines reviews, I feel the need to say this is for the thermostat pictured, the Ecobee EB-SMARTSi-01... I bought this thermostat months ago and let it sit on my shelf while I contemplated all sorts of challenges or frustration attempting to install it. Wow was I ever worried for nothing. The install was a snap... it was super easy. Here's a run-down of my experience that may help you. As they say, PROFESSIONAL INSTALLATION IS RECOMMENDED... I'm just a guy, and installing this yourself is at your own risk! Be sure to power-off everything at the breaker!

1) First off, you need 5-wire thermostat wire. YOU MAY ALREADY HAVE THIS EVEN IF YOU ONLY SEE 4 WIRES AT YOUR EXISTING THERMOSTAT. Check at your heating/AC unit. You may see a blue wire ("C" on the thermostat, both your old one as well as your new Ecobee, is for cyan... or "blue"). On my Lennox unit the original install had the blue wire wrapped back around the existing thermostat wire... since "regular" modern thermostats (cheap ones) just use a battery in the thermostat itself. On my heating/AC unit, all the markings corresponded with the existing thermostat... the wire colors all went where they'd logically go... and everything in the Ecobee matched that. So it was pretty easy... yellow from the old thermostat, from "Y" in the unit, to "Y"... blah, blah, blah... simple, huh? Just connect the blue wire to the "C" at the unit, and the "C" at the Ecobee.

2) I couldn't tell at the time, but this blue wire was back behind the wall at the existing thermostat. I only saw that the house wire was 5-conductor once I checked the heating/AC unit.

3) On my house, the builder stupidly put the existing thermostat right in the sun's path through the house. So I've always been annoyed that for an hour a day my thermostat is in direct sun and makes the AC work overtime trying to lower an incorrect 90 degree reading. It was because of this that I decided to relocate the new thermostat. I didn't realize it at the time, but I could have used the existing thermostat wire... pulling it through the wall and floor, from down in the basement. This would have saved me running new wire (5-wire is cheap and name brand at Home Depot)... and this means you'll ONLY need to match up wires at the thermostat... which, if I didn't need to relocate mine... would have made it LITERALLY a 5-minute install.

4) Cut to getting everything in... all looks great, breakers back on... everything good. Take note that many newer units have a regular switch, like a light-switch, at the heating/AC unit... so you'll have the breakers in the box, plus a standard switch on the side of your unit... AND you may have (as I did) a pressure switch that disables all heating/AC power unless the unit's door is installed! You'll think something broke, but everything is fine once the unit door is back on.

5) So... the Ecobee powers up... gives me the little code as I register my unit and log into the Ecobee site... and all is right with the world. Well, almost... one thing I found is that my new Ecobee didn't show the same temps as my old thermostat. My old one was always in sync with a digital thermometer on my wall. At first I thought, "great, now I have to fool this thing with adjusted settings"... but nope, just go to Menu...Settings...Installation Settings...Thresholds...Temp Correction... then if your thermostat reads 2 degrees low, just +2 on the adjustment. Now it's perfect!

6) Other reviewers that say the Ecobee web-portal is clunky, or beta, or whatever... are you kidding me? It's CAKE... very smartly laid out. Chances are that if somebody's struggling on their site, they're way over-thinking it! To program your thermostat for the entire week (read: forever) should take you a couple minutes at the most. At the bottom of the program grid there are 4 buttons for each day... the grid matches those colors. All you do is drag the mouse across a chunk of time, like say, 8a-5p, then a box pops up so you can designate what that time is called... for example, "Away", then you can enter temperatures for ANY time that is then called Away... and so on... like I said... CAKE... it could NOT be any easier!

7) The greatest thing beyond all this... is you can lock out your thermostat. I have roommates. A long time ago I made the mistake of telling a guy to make himself comfortable before I went out of town... he literally used FOUR times the gas that I'd ever used before! I have no idea what he did... but this thermostat solves all those problems. The NEST thermostat is a learning thermostat that lets your house be a democracy. Anyone with a kid, or an inconsiderate roommate, knows that person thinks nothing of dialing the thermostat down to 50 degrees to cool off the house, then forgets about it as they leave for the day. With the Ecobee, all that is history.

8) Now I can either lower my heating/cooling bills... or rather, get more value from those expenses by taking advantage of reduced usage overnight and while the house is empty... then increasing the comfort level when it's most appreciated.

I'm very happy with this thermostat... from the ease of the installation, to the appearance and function... to the ease and functionality of the web portal... and the fantastic convenience and integration of the smart-phone app. So far I haven't been able to find one thing to complain about... and reading other reviews where somebody had a problem... apparently they gave up before finding the simple solution. One guy said the display was too bright, uh yeah... super easy to change that... I found another guy who mentioned the temp difference that I mentioned... yeah... it's super easy to change that.

I never thought I'd say that I was thrilled with a thermostat... but the reality of finally having REAL control and peace of mind over my home's comfort, and the cost to keep it comfortable... is like watching money go down the drain and suddenly somebody hands you a remote control drain-plug.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ecobee EB-SMARTSi-01 Smart Thermostat 2 Heat-2 Cool with Full Color

I have radiator heating and I've always struggled with overshoot, even with thermostats. Based on the reviews of others and some chatting with the company sales reps in forums, I decided to go with the SmartSi (the other option I was looking at was the Nest).

I have to say that I'm very happy with it. I enabled the adaptive mode, and on the first day it overshot by a few degrees like any other thermostat, and the next day it started the heat an hour early and cut it off after only 15 minutes. An hour later the temperature topped out right at the setpoint right on time. Sometimes it misses by a degree, but looking at the online reporting it seems to be smart enough to run the heater in little pulses throughout the day to just keep things where they're supposed to be.

Having the outdoor temperature on the screen is handy as well.

The only glitch I ran into was that it lost time during power outages (installed it right before Sandy hit). The unit recovered time quickly when it could get online. It turns out the battery inside wasn't seated properly I emailed support and they offered to replace the unit, but were fine with me opening it up myself. That took all of about 5 minutes and fixed the problem now it doesn't lose time at all if I cut the power to it.

Biggest issue DIY'ers are likely to run into is a missing common line. This has to be on the heater relay if you have separate heat/AC. If you don't know what you're doing best to hire a professional for that you can damage your heater relay if you don't wire it correctly or if you short it out.

Obviously haven't run it in cooling mode but for some testing, but if it can handle radiators I'm sure an AC will be no big deal. The unit takes into account outdoor temperature so it can anticipate how the temperature will change before it actually does.

Their support is outstanding. Email, phone, Google groups, etc. They do prefer to work through contractors though, so I'm not sure how much wiring help they'll give you due to liability concerns. So, keep that in mind.

SPT 2.5 cu.ft Compact Refrigerator Stainless Door with Black Sides Reviews

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $189.00
Sale Price: $159.00
Today's Bonus: 16% Off

I've had this fridge for about two weeks now and it's been really great. I bought it for my office and mostly to prevent me from eating out, so I had a few criteria. First, it had to be fairly small footprint, but large enough to store a good amount of real food, such as leftovers, some fruit & veg, and materials to make snacks with such as PB&J. Second, it had to have a real compressor, one that will cool well below the ambient temperature as the office building gets quite warm in the summer and I really hate when food goes bad. Third, I didn't want the unit to give up a bunch of space to a can delivery system, since I don't drink usually have canned drinks around. So, that's how I ended up at the SPT, it's the only one I found that fits all these criteria. I'd never heard of SPT before buying this fridge and quite honestly, if it had the same features as all the other fridges I'd seen (researched for two weeks), I probably wouldn't have bought it. However, given that it had everything I was looking for, I decided to take a chance and I'm glad I did.

First, the aesthetics; it's a vertical rectangular shape, modestly attractive looking, basically it looks like a small black fridge with a stainless door. I was a bit surprised at the size, it's quite a bit taller than I was expecting and the black does makes it look a little monolithic. The unit actually looks bigger than it really is, I was shocked to find that it fits nicely under my desk. The Stainless Steel finish on the door isn't quite as polished as the vastly more expensive full-size GE fridge I've got at home, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked, especially considering the price! This unit is solidly built and is surprisingly lightweight, which was great for moving it around the first day, figuring out where it should go. The door, as shipped, opens on the left, but it looked like a fairly simple job to switch sides (haven't needed to) and SPT included extra plastic inserts for covering up the holes should this be required, a nice touch. Door was protected with plastic film and all three shelves and the ice maker were taped down to prevent them sliding around.

On to functionality; the fridge works! It got the four iced teas I put in it ice cold within only a few hours of being plugged in and I've got the unit set at 4, the factory preset median setting and it works great. Stuff down low in the fridge was kept nicely cold, the ham I put up near the icemaker had frost in the package, but the meat wasn't frozen. Note to self, meat goes lower in the fridge. The lower door shelf holds four Honest Tea bottles, but the wire holder swings out to hold bigger items. The top door shelf is a little shorter and has a fixed bar, so PB & J go up there. Inside shelves are made of white plastic-coated wire and well spaced. The freezer holds at least a trio of standard sized juice boxes; it's wide, but not very tall, so low items work best. One other extremely cool thing is, the energy consumption rating for this fridge is actually below the lowest range on the chart. This makes it extremely efficient, which isn't a factor for me, but I can see this being a plus for someone being challenged about its power consumption. Given how well it keeps my food cold, it must be very well insulated to achieve such low consumption.

Things of note:

1) This unit only has one leveling foot, at the front right corner. This is probably not a problem for most people, but my office floor is as flat as a Ruffles potato chip, so levelling the fridge required shims under the front left foot.

2) Power cord is only about 5Ft long, once again, not a problem in most offices, but I would really have liked a longer one. Extension cord to the rescue.

3) Unit isn't silent, but it's not loud either. Some people have complained about other fridges being loud, I don't find this one to be unpleasant, it's like low-level white noise in the background. If I get in early, I can hear the fridge, but once the office wakes up, it's inaudible.

4) Unit came very well packed in an enormous box, strapped and taped closed. I was impressed, but I did have to lie the fridge on its side to get it out of the box.

5) This hasn't been a problem, but the manual says that should the fridge lose power, it won't come back on automatically.

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This turned out to be the perfect refrigerator and I'll try to answer some questions about posted concerns.

Noise when you first turn on the fridge and perhaps the first 24 hours, the refrigerator will cycle quite a bit and the compressor will make interesting noises. not bad, just different. once the refrigerator has had it's break in period, the compressor only turns on every 30 minutes or so for a very short time I don't notice it anymore and the compressor is not loud at all.

How soon after the item is turned on that you can place things inside within two hours the refrigerator will be cold however, placing warm items in there will require additional times for the refrigerator's temperature to level out it's been that way ever since they have been making refrigerators.

The stainless on the door is beautiful and we are delighted that we spent the extra money it looks great in our office see video.

Finally, it's by far the best unit for the money and we have no complaints.

The video will provide an idea about how much can be stored inside we have removed one of the shelves to leave more room for bottles and cans.

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After my son was born, we wanted a mini fridge for the bedroom so that my husband wouldn't have to run downstairs to get milk out of the fridge in the middle of the night. It quickly got upgraded to also storing bottles of water and fraps. It does a wonderful job at keeping everything nice and cold. The interior space is rather spacious. We typically have around 12 fraps, 15 bottles of water and one or two bottles in the fridge at all times with room to spare.

Some people have complained that this fridge is loud but I don't agree. Whenever the compressor turns on, of course you can hear it, but it's not very bothersome and doesn't wake up our baby despite being 5 feet away. The stainless finish looks good and doesn't seem to get fingerprint smudges which is great.

I want to point out that the description of the product is incorrect. It mentions that it comes with a transparent vegetable drawer with a glass shelf which isn't true.

Overall this is a great mini fridge at a very reasonable price.

Honest reviews on SPT 2.5 cu.ft Compact Refrigerator Stainless Door with Black Sides

I bought this to put under my desk at the office. It fits perfectly and cannot be seen by others. What I love the most is what I don't have... noise. Unlike my last minifridge the unit operates very quietly and keeps items appropriately cool. I was surprised to find that the freezer compartment actually keeps items frozen.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for SPT 2.5 cu.ft Compact Refrigerator Stainless Door with Black Sides

I bought this fridge a couple weeks ago and it looks nice in person, came very nicely packaged with no effort needed to put it together. The inside smelled a bit at first of plastic but I left the door open for a couple days and the smell went away. After I plugged it in, it got very cold after just a couple hours and keeps cold well. My biggest complaint is the noise. For the most part, it's quiet in the maintenance mode but when it is turning on to cool itself, it makes loud clanking sounds that I can hear from my second floor and I have the unit on the first floor. I researched other fridges and seems like noise is always an issue so I guess this is a decent fridge if you can put up with the noise.

Review of Honeywell RTH110B Horizontal Digital Manual Thermostat

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $29.99
Sale Price: $26.38
Today's Bonus: 12% Off

This is a great basic model thermostat by honeywell. It has a nice clear easy to read display and simple controlls and adjustments. great to replace those old dial or slide thermostats. Great for the workshop. But, in my home, i have the programable version of this thermostat, looks identical to this, and simple to use, and it only cost around $10 more on average than this model.

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This is junk. The batteries don't quite fit right, so I continually have to jiggle the batteries to get it to go on...this was after replacing the batteries with new ones several times until I realized it had nothing to do with the batteries, but the poor make of the unit. THEN...tonight was the final straw. Sometimes, it will take a long time to turn on, or will turn off before it gets to the desired heat. Tonight I came home, and although I had the heat set to 70, it never stopped running. When I came home it was 94 degrees in my house! Thank God my dogs had plenty of water because my house was an oven. I have to wonder if I had stayed out later, just how high the temperature would have gotten in my home. I am replacing this with a better one tomorrow, the savings just isn't worth it and now I can't imagine what my electrical bill will be like!

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Have had this thermostat for 6 months now and it works fine in regulating the temperature, both A/C and heat.

BUT, to access the controls that allow you to switch from A/C to Heat, you have to remove the plastic face-plate and this is NOT easy to do. It tends to stick, and one could easily pull the whole unit out of the wall. So i recommend removing this cover plate permanently, just leave it off, and you will be fine.

Honest reviews on Honeywell RTH110B Horizontal Digital Manual Thermostat

Everything below the lb sign was my initial review. The unit failed 3 days after installation. I returned it for a refund. Cool no longer functioned, as indicated by previous reviewers. Junk.

#

Perhaps some specifics instead of "its real good".

I recently installed and tested both heat and A/C for several cycles, without fail. It took longer than 15 min. to install, but not a lot longer. Any mechanically inclined home owner, use to doing home repairs can do this. It does hold the temperature for heat and cool to 1 degree as advertised. For me this is its greatest feature.

The 3rd piece, very top cover, must be removed/lifted to operate the switches. I trimmed the tabs off the lower edge to allow this cover to lift without effort. Else, repeated use would tear the unit from a sheet rock wall anchor, even a plastic insert anchor.

Perhaps, as other users reported long term use will produce variations in temperature control. I find this hard to believe as an ex-engineer, because solid state electronics do not behave this way. They either malfunction right away or they work for the life of the unit.

Now the serious down side that you can live with. The thermometer, on which the unit senses temperature, is fixed at assembly and can not be calibrated. Ours is off by 2 degrees from 3 other thermometers. But the work around is to simply adjust the temperature set points up by 2 degrees, to match real house temperatures. This is annoying, but I bet other inexpensive models have similar or worse flaws. I know that the Lux unit I purchased last year failed its installation tests after 1 cycle.

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Installed and lasted 2 winters before fan switch failed.

Worked fine until it failed. Cheaply made. Go for something sturdier.