Honeywell 5·2 Day Programmable House Thermostat Model Number RTH-6350D — Review

© 2010 Peter Free

 

21 December 2010

 

 

A home product so good that it requires a review

 

Do-it-yourself home products are often poorly designed and sometimes of inferior quality.  They almost always come with instructions that are significantly worse than bad.

 

Not this Honeywell.  It’s exceptional in almost all respects and reflects a careful attention to design detail that is increasingly uncommon.

 

 

Assembled in Mexico, rather than China

 

Since I do not favor exporting our entire economy to China, being assembled in Mexico is a plus.

 

Note:

 

I also am not a fan of (a) the Chinese government’s non-enforcement of intellectual property laws or (b) its deliberate manipulation of its currency so as to disadvantage other nations, including the United States.

 

Most of the Chinese products that I have been forced to buy, for lack of an alternative, have either not performed at all, or have not performed reliably and in accordance with their purported design aims.  That’s been true of cheap garden equipment up through moderately expensive cameras and computers.

 

Of course, not everything made in China sucks.  Just most of it.  Worse, there’s no effective way to tell what is good from the shiploads of bad.

 

Whenever I can, I buy “made in the U.S.A.,” so as to keep my neighbors working.  And I don’t care if it costs more.

 

What the Honeywell 5·2 Day Programmable Thermostat Model Number RTH-6350D does

 

This home heating/cooling thermostat allows the user to program an identical sequence of temperatures for weekdays and a separate sequence for the weekend.  It differs from Honeywell’s 7-day thermostat, which allows separate programming for each of the seven days.

 

 

Necessary parts are included (except for two AA batteries)

 

(1) The thermostat comes with two mounting screws and two sheetrock anchors.

 

(2) It also includes a plastic-coated summary of setting instructions, which are designed to be stored inside the thermostat itself.

 

Once folded, the summary instructions cleverly slide into the thermostat itself.  A prong of their coated paper projects outside the thermostat, so that the user can easily pull them out, when needed.  The installation instruction booklet shows the user where to slide the summary (although it doesn’t tell the user to fold the paper to fit the slot).

 

(3) Two instruction books are included.  One covers installation and the other programming.

 

The installation instructions are non-specific and apparently cover a variety of Honeywell thermostats.  The programming booklet is specific to this model.

 

(4) Also included are two small sheets of 26 printed, glue-sided wiring labels.

 

Honeywell seems to have had the foresight to recognize that some of us might ruin one of the labels and need a backup one.

 

These labels peel off the sheet.  A specific wiring code (as in G, RH, W1, and Y1) is printed twice on each label.  Folding applicably-named labels over each of the home’s thermostat wires allows the label to stick to itself, with the code then showing on both sides of the now-glued ends.  Clever and helpful.

 

These wiring codes correspond to wiring codes printed on the old (and the new) thermostat’s wiring receptacles.  The user tags each of the wires leading to the old thermostat with the appropriate matching label — and only then disconnects each wire.

 

 

Excellent installation instructions

 

The unit’s basic installation instructions for mounting and connecting the new unit are clear.  They include a brief overview of the general steps, followed by more focused detail for each.  The process is simple.

 

The instructions also tell the do-it-yourselfer what size bit to use to drill the new baseplate screw anchors.

 

The installation booklet contains a list of compatible wiring codes, should your old thermostat not match the labeled receptacles on the new one.

 

 

Good wall plate and wire connector design

 

The thermostat’s wall plate (the part that screws to the wall) is clearly marked with “up” arrows and has two jutting prongs marked “level.”  These prongs are like tiny shelves.  They are designed for a short carpenter’s level to rest on.

 

The two wall plate screw holes are also well designed.  The right side one is screw-width vertically, but longer horizontally.  It allows you to scoot the plate right or left to correct for slight errors in horizontal distance between the anchor holes.

 

The left-side hole is screw-width horizontally and longer vertically.  It allows you to shift the left edge of the wall plate up or down to make minor alterations in horizontal levelness.

 

The wall plate contains the terminal electrical connections for the thermostat.  So you will be connecting your now-labeled wires into these.

 

Honeywell made the wire-connecting row of tiny “boxes” all in one piece and horizontal.  The wiring codes are part of the plastic mold on each box.  These codes can be seen from above and below.  The strip of connector boxes also pivots a bit, which makes it easier to see what one is doing.  Clever again.

 

Wire connections are made by unscrewing a tiny screw, atop each connector box, to make room for inserting the wire.  (This requires a very narrow-bladed screwdriver, similar to what gunsmiths use.)  Then screw the screw back down to tighten the connection.

 

 

Good battery compartment design

 

This model thermostat allows the user to pull the batteries out by pivoting the battery compartment out from the unit, while facing the thermostat (when it is still mounted on the wall).  Convenient.

 

Getting the batteries out of my old unit required snapping the entire thermostat off its wall plate.  That always ran the risk of breaking the plastic mounting prongs.

 

 

What’s not so good — programming instructions

 

After using the programming manual, I came away pretty certain that its writers did not have quite the step-by-step thoughtfulness of the engineers who designed the thermostat (or of the people who wrote the initial parts of the mounting instructions).

 

The installation instructions contain a catch-all section on how to program the thermostat to match it to the particular kind of heating/cooling system the buyer has.  But it does not explain what the terms mean.  Most are arguably obvious (at least insofar as do-it-yourselfers are concerned).  But a couple were not.

 

Fortunately, the thermostat itself answers questions by leaving inapplicable items off its 18-function menu.  Apparently the thermostat “reads” the home’s wiring harness, when it is connected.

 

Programming the weekday and weekend schedules is reasonably straight-forward, except for one critical thing.  There’s no overview readout on the thermostat with which to check what you entered as against what the instruction manual told you to do.

 

 

The biggest flaw — no thermostat overview screen with which to check a summarized view of your program settings

 

You can’t be certain that the values entered were input correctly and remembered.  So you have to wait for the thermostat to operate through at least one day of the weekday and weekend cycles to check.

 

That’s an arguably minor flaw, but an odd one — given how camera manufacturers (for example) are expert at showing all operating settings on one tiny screen.

 

 

Overall — A grade

 

Overall, you won’t find a thermostat (or any other do-it-yourself product) better thought out than this Honeywell.