 All products listed have been installed by PriorityAC LLC for our customers, all thermostat manufacturers have room for mechanical failure at anytime. This being said, ease-of-use, capabilities and price should be the three categories any home owner should base their purchases on. The following article is our recommendations for The Top 5 Thermostats on the market today. Before we jump right in to the pictures and features of the different thermostats, we need to touch gently on the subject of electrical theory and how a thermostat functions. The "t-stats" we will be talking about are 24 volt ac, the thermostat can communicate with the furnace circuit board and outdoor unit in two ways simply put, with batteries or without. Ideally, with-out batteries is better (because batteries weaken over time and create voltage drop which weakens thermostat internals.), 8 wire should be ran for any new model thermostat or change out, but it's not always cost effective. Older homes' thermostats used to be ran with four or five wire which isn't enough wires to upgrade your system to the future, batteries are needed in most older homes. #5 Honeywell 5000 This is an awesome t-stat for the price! For single stage heat and cooling equipment ONLY, this thermostat functions great with or with-out batteries. Very basic design, low price point, easy to use. I bought one from Home Depot one time though, and it was broken out of the box. I never had that happen with any I've purchased from HVAC supply houses. This is the thermostat made for the customer who wasn't ready to buy another thermostat! We have this on our trucks. #4 Honeywell 6000 Another great lower priced t-stat, the Honeywell 6000 is the base model for 2 stage equipment and also has built in programming you can edit based on your habits (most customers don't actually like the programming feature though). This thermostat can also be ran with or with-out batteries based on how many wires are there. I have experienced a call back or two due to programming the thermostat confusion, but if you leave that feature alone, it is a great thermostat to optimize your 2 stage equipment. #3 Nest Here's one I bet you're excited to see on the list. I wanted to love this thermostat, but the price is high and we have had multiple service calls because of software issues with the Nest. They don't operate well on multiple zone systems (would be super cool if they did). This thermostat with todays technology work best in a single system home or rental property. I placed the Nest as number three on our list because I can see this thermostat improving greatly in the coming years and have been watching their companies approach on home automation. Needs 6 to 8 wires. #2 Honeywell 8000 Now this is my favorite thermostat personally. This 2 stage thermostat is touch screen with hundreds of settings, great for commercial offices, custom homes, the tech savvy homeowner. The feature I enjoy most is Relative Humidity display. Relative Humidity- the amount of water vapor present in air expressed as a percentage of the amount needed for saturation at the same temperature. This thermostat also features no battery or with-battery operation. #1 Honeywell 9000 Wi-Fi This is the thermostat for the elite among us. The colored screen is awesome and can have a wall paper uploaded to it! It can be operated from anywhere. Relative Humidity display option. The price is steep, but it's the top of the line!  Honeywell 9000
I hope you found this article insightful and it aids in you purchasing the thermostat you want. |
