I had a 13 year-old programmable thermostat that died due to corroded batteries. It protruded only a little from the wall, controlled the temperature well and had three temp settings per day. When leaving on vacation I would take about 45 seconds and reprogram it to use even less energy. The total buttons were +-temp, heat cool, fan, off. Some people want to program their thermostat via smart phone from work but I just want something that it easy to use when I'm standing in front of it.
This unit is nearly impossible to use without the instructions in front of you. Almost every button is either 2 or 3 function, which is fine except the delay between pushing the button and the action happening is really long. Remember the early digital cameras--push the button, watch the action go by, lower the camera, CLICK!? This is worse. It does have a nice feature called "swing" that lets the temp swing a user selected amount. If you want the temp to stay within .5 degrees of the set temp, it will do it. I chose 2 degrees. Their "holiday" setting uses much more energy than I would like to so, like my old one, I still have to reprogram the unit every time I leave on a long trip. Unless I have the instructions in front of me, I have not been completely successful. I could go on about the programming problems. It is telling that a company maintains a large help section on their website and even includes 24/7 chat. A thermostat should not be that complicated.
In addition the pathetic interface, the unit is thick. It looks fine from the front but the sides are ugly and protrude quite a way from the wall. Also, the upper and lower plastic parts of the cover slide side to side easily.
I've tried this one for six months, two seasons, and four trips away from home. Every time I interact with it to do more than raise the temp for a guest, it causes major frustration. Later this month it goes back.
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We had to replace the old programmable touch screen thermostat we had as the touchscreen stopped touching. Went to the local big box hardware place and picked this one up (it was the cheapest w/ full 7 day programmability) for $30 on sale.
Swapping out the old thermostat and plugging this in was pretty simple. 3M have included a ton of stickers so that you can label every wire as you pull it off the old thermostat. If you don't label the wires, I'd say be prepared to call an electrician or heater repair place.
One other review says "this thing needs batteries." If you have power run from your furnace, as we have, then you really don't NEED the batteries. The batteries are only necessary because it has a powered display that, if you can't power it up, won't let you control your furnace (or AC).
Programming this required the manual for about 2 minutes. Once I read up on what buttons to press and in what order, setting the time of day and temperature for each day was bang on simple.
The only thing we had an issue with was how we had our HVAC settings. If you can't get your furnace to kick in, check these settings. Use the manual to decipher what mode 1-5 is. We needed ours set on Mode 5 as it does some preheating thing with the air before blowing air out of the furnace. Otherwise the thermostat clicked but the furnace never kicked in.
I am positive there are easier thermostats out there. The thing is, at this price point, this was the easiest to program according to what we read while in the store. The 3 Honeywells (none of which offered full 7 day programming, only 5-2 or 5-1-1) were about the same price but the manual was also needed. We know because we opened them in the store to read how to program. Doesn't seem like anything at this price range is just plug and play.
Setting this up to hold when you are away is as easy as hitting the party hat button (holiday according to the manual), set the temperature you want set while you are away and you're done. When you return home, press the button again and the normal program will take affect.
Recommended, but if you can spend more money for an easier to program model, I'd recommend that first. Though honestly, once these are programmed, as long as they don't lose the program, how often do you need to know to do this?
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This thermostat is perfect. You can program for seven different days and therefore can tailor to your exact weekly schedule. For example, in the winter I have it set to drop the temp at night when I'm under the covers in bed, turn on about 30 min before I wake up, and then drop again when I leave for work. It turns on again 30 min before I get home from work so I always come home to a warn apartment. The instructions clearly lay out how to program the thermostat and even without them, it's not rocket science. There is also a Holiday option. You trigger this when you'll be away for a while and it'll run a separately defined schedule so as not to be wasting energy when you're not around. Definitely has shown to drop my gas/electricity bills over the past 8 months I have used it. Haven't had to change the battery once so far and if your house/apt has the wiring for it (most newer ones do) the thermostat can be hardwired to the power line and not need batteries.
Great purchase, I highly recommended it.
Honest reviews on Filtrete 7-Day Programmable Thermostat 3M22
I currently live in San Diego, approaching two years in a house with this model of thermostat. The weather is very nice most of the year, except for maybe twenty days in the summer when it's nice to have the air conditioner running, and about as many in December and January where we'd like heat overnight.
Being from Michigan, I laugh at what the locals consider temperature extremes here. So, most of the time the thermostat is simply off. Turns out that this is the only operational mode I can reliably reach.
When the cool nights or hot days arrive, we brush the dust off the Filtrete thermostat and find the display is blank. Attempts to revive it fail until we buy new batteries. Apparently the batteries don't last six months, even if during 90% of that time the thermostat isn't doing anything. But never mind that inconvenience it is silly for a thermostat to need batteries at all. The simple Honeywell thermostat that lasted for decades in the house I grew up in did not need batteries. There's 24V wiring nearby our thermostat is within two feet of the doorbell. Maybe there's a way to hook that up? Whether you dislike inconvenience or desire to decrease your contribution to pollution, the need for batteries sucks.
Okay, say we get past the power-on issue. There are "+" and "-" buttons, and several others that can't be read without a bright light and a magnifying glass. Thermostats tend to be in hallways or out of the way places not blessed with bright light suitable for reading. The control panel lettering is light gray on beige hard to read even with good light. Though my eyesight maybe isn't as sharp as it used to be, it's still pretty good, and for sure there are millions of older people, and some younger than me, whose eyesight is worse. This thermostat is not for them. Bad visual design!
Still, the "+" and "-" are fairly visible, and seem obvious. Plus for a higher temperature, minus for lower. This evening is kinda chilly, so I push the + for heat. I see a number increase on the LCD display (medium-darkish gray digits on a medium-lightish background). We get heat. Fine. Tomorrow it'll forget this setting, and I'll have to pump the "+" button get my favorite temperature again. Repeat until cold night go away. I suppose that to make the setting stick I'll have to "program" the thermostat.
As for all the other buttons forget it. According to the product description, you can program it by time of day, and days of the week, and so on. In real life, we push buttons at random until the furnace starts. I remember the book "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity" (http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-Products/dp/0672326140, an excellent read, just as valid in 2012 as when published.) The Filtrete 3M-22 is a poster child for that asylum.
I spend enough time writing software for astrophysicists, the last thing I want to do when I get home is stand in front of an overdesigned household gadget for half an hour trying to do something that turns out to be twice as complicated. At least astrophysics is fun and interesting!
Go buy thee a simple no-battery thermostat, with a simple analog dial. If you want to go as opposite as possible from this dud, try http://www.amazon.com/The-Round-Easy-See-Thermostat/dp/B003E1F3VI Maybe there are programmable thermostats that are easy to use let me know!
