The Wyze Thermostat Installation and Review
I own several Wyze products and have been impressed by their design, function, and price. So I decided to upgrade my old thermostat with the new Wyze thermostat. There were several reasons I wanted to upgrade my old thermostat. It ran on two AA batteries and was a pain to program. The Wyze thermostat was easy to install and can be programmed and controlled with my phone using their Wyze app. Basically, I could be lying in bed and adjust my house’s heat, which is pretty cool. It can also function as a stand-alone thermostat. It works with all kinds of furnaces and central air A/C units. The other nice feature is that the Wyze thermostat is a smart thermostat and can be programmed to save money on your heating and cooling bill.
What’s In The Box
- Wyze thermostat
- User manual
- Labeling stickers (convenient)
- Wallplate
- Wiring harness
- Screws and tools
- C wire adaptor
Setting Up The Wyze Thermostat
The setup was fairly easy. My old thermostat was already in place, and there was existing wiring ran to my furnace downstairs. I have a natural gas-forced hot air system. So the hot air is heated and then blown through the house to vents in each room. My furnace only contained three wires running from the thermostat. C, W, and R. If you don’t have a C wire, which provides power to the thermostat. Wyze provides a C wire adapter kit. Depending on your system, it may contain different wires.
Step 1
Shut off the power to your furnace. This can be done at your power box, or mine has a power switch right on the furnace. I opened the Wyze app on my phone. Then I added the Wyze thermostat as a new device. The app took me through the setup process with how-to videos and tips. The app is very intuitive and makes setup a breeze, even for non-technical people.
Step 2
I removed my old thermostat. Mine just came out using a release button on the bottom. Once I removed it, I took a picture of the old wiring harness on my phone for reference.
Step 3
Then I unscrewed the old cables from the wiring harness and labeled all of the cables with the labeling stickers that came with the Wyze thermostat. I have three wires. C, W, and R. Depending on your system, there may be more. I just followed the steps and videos on the Wyze app.
Step 4
I then drilled new holes for the Wyze mounting bracket and placed the screw fasters into the two holes. This allowed me to mount and screw in the Wyze thermostat. The wiring harness has a handy level built-in to ensure that it is straight. Then I placed the three wires into the appropriately labeled holes and gently inserted the thermostat.
Step 5
Once everything was in place and secure. I turned the power back on to the furnace. The thermostat powered and booted up. I then paired the thermostat using the Wyze app and finished the setup. It also asked me some questions about the type of heating system that is in my house.
Wyze has a helpful video explaining the whole thermostat setup.
Programming The Wyze Thermostat
The Wyze thermostat was easy to program. I just launched the Wyze app and opened the thermostat icon. Once open, it displayed the current temperature of the house and humidity. I just pressed the setup icon in the upper right corner of the screen, and it took me to the scheduler. Here you can set up when to turn on the heat or cooling and the temperatures and times. The app controls are pretty straightforward and easy to use. It has home, away, and sleep options. If you do not want to use the app, you can also use the controls and screen on the thermostat to program and make changes.
Wyze Thermostat Savings
Since the Wyze thermostat is a smart thermostat, it can save you money. You can set its behavior by using a sliding scale between comfort and savings. It will then adjust your heating or cooling based on the scale. The thermostat will then optimize the best ways to heat or cool your home efficiently. Using the insights page, you can also see your daily average use by month or weeks.
Other Features
The Wyze thermostat has several other useful features that I would like to mention. You can set up notifications that get sent to your phone if the house gets too cold. This can prevent frozen pipes. It also has a locked thermostat option. This will prevent kids from tampering with it. Another nice feature is filter management. This will let one know when it is time to replace the furnace filter.
Overall Impressions
I am very impressed with the Wyze thermostat so far. It looks great, is easy to set up and use. I like the fact that the LED display will turn on and off when you approach the device. Showing you the current temperature. The dial also makes it easy to adjust manually. Another feature I like is it will show you how long it will take to heat your home to the desired temperature. I was also able to get a $25 rebate on this thermostat. Because it was an energy-saving programmable thermostat, check with your state, power, or gas company to see if they provide a rebate.
Where to Buy:
Amazon
eBay
Conclusion
The Wyze thermostat is solidly built and is of great value for money. I own several Wyze products like cameras and smart plugs. I have been very pleased with all of their products. They all work seamlessly within the Wyze app. Wyze is also working on getting the thermostat Energy Star efficient. I am sure with upcoming firmware updates; more features will be added in the future. My next review will be the Wyze doorbell, which is on preorder and should arrive next month. It looks like we are turning into a Wyze household.
Whoa, wait a minute, for heat pump installations this thermostat has been a nightmare. DO NOT buy it if you have one. Just go to the WYZE thread on heat pump units, NOBODY has been able to get their systems working properly. There has been NO support from WYZE either. I CANNOT believe they put this unit out there without testing it fully on all sorts of heat systems. My system is using about 20% more heat than it did before the upgrade. I am also a little surprised that sites like this one just give it a great rating because it worked on one system. You may want to do your homework if you are going to provide a complete review. I liked WYZE for cameras, but the company has laid a really bad egg on this one. I a done with them at this point
Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with your system. Hopefully, Wyze will have a firmware update to address the problem. I can only test the Wyze thermostat on my forced hot air system and it works great. That is what my review is based on. Good luck!