Wyze Smart Thermostat has quickly established itself as the go-to company for low-cost, practical smart home gadgets. That is true for the Wyze Thermostat and its new Wyze Room Sensors, which help keep your entire home comfortable with minimal maintenance. Regardless of the size of your home or the number of feet running around it, this smart thermostat and its optional Sensors are more than capable of maintaining a consistent temperature.
The Wyze Thermostat does require a C-wire, but an adapter included allows you to upgrade nearly all existing setups. There are a few quirks that may make it less than ideal for some households, but the Wyze Thermostat is an excellent value for most families.
Wyze Smart Thermostat design
If you’re replacing an old thermostat, the Wyze Thermostat will feel futuristic the moment you take it out of the box. On all sides of the black, pill-shaped product, buttons are completely absent, leaving only a small, motion-activated IPS display and a clickable temperature wheel. It’s a stylish thermostat for the price, and it feels far more expensive than you’d expect.
Each unit also includes an optional wall plate that can be used to conceal unpainted areas from your old thermostat or to make it more visible on your wall.
The only disadvantage of this sleek design is that much of the Wyze Thermostat’s functionality is dependent on a smartphone app. To quickly change settings, you can also use Alexa or Google voice controls. Wyze does allow you to toggle through different options directly on the unit using the temperature wheel, though navigating through all of its menus is a bit tedious, and clicking the temperature wheel doesn’t feel as premium as the rest of the product.
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Wyze Smart Thermostat Installation and Setup
The Wyze Thermostat is simple to use, but getting it installed is a different story. A C-wire is required for proper installation. If you already have one, congratulations — your new thermostat will be operational in minutes.
However, if you’re unlucky, you’ll have to use the included C-wire adapter. This means heading over to your furnace, popping open the front panel, and wading through a sea of wires. It’s not necessarily difficult, but it does take some time. Wyze provides everything you need for the installation, though you should allow a little more time than the recommended 30-minutes. It also helps to have a colleague nearby to double-check your work.
After you’ve installed the C-wire and hung the Wyze Thermostat, it’ll run through a quick series of tests to ensure everything was done correctly.
The installation process is the primary reason why the Wyze Thermostat will not be suitable for everyone. If you don’t have a C-wire and don’t want to rewire your HVAC, you’ll need to hire a professional or look into alternatives that don’t require a C-wire. However, the extra 20 minutes of the fuss is a small price to pay for the thermostat’s low cost and versatility.
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Powered by your smartphone
Fortunately, the Wyze smartphone app gives you great control over your thermostat. Checking out all of its features in one sitting can be quite overwhelming. The main screen is simple to use, as it displays the current temperature in your home as well as what it is set to. This screen also allows you to quickly turn on or off your HVAC system, which is useful if you’re lying in bed and don’t want to get out of bed to turn on your air conditioner.
The Controls menu is located at the bottom of the main screen. This allows you to change the State (Home, Away, or Sleep), Mode (Auto, Heat, Cool, Off), and a few other settings.
The true functionality of your Wyze Thermostat can be found in the Settings menu. You can tell the thermostat whether you want to save money or be comfortable. Different temperatures can be set for different times of the day. You can even enable Auto Switch, which monitors your phone’s location to determine whether it should be set to Home or Away.
If you’re curious about your usage, there’s even a handy chart that shows you how many hours your HVAC is on each day. It’s rather basic (it only shows a bar chart of usage) but it’s a good way to monitor your energy consumption and pinpoint ways to reduce your bills.
It’s up to you whether you want to use all of these features, but it’s great that such a low-cost product gives you that option. It’s even better that they’re all just a click away, while the main features of the Wyze app are front and center.
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Wyze Smart Thermostat Room Sensor?
You can pair your Wyze Thermostat with up to six Wyze Room Sensors to get the most out of it. These are sold separately ($25 each or a set of three for $70) and aid in the elimination of cold and hot spots throughout your home.
The Wyze Thermostat will essentially average these readings together after placing them in key locations (I’d recommend at least one in the most used room on each floor). They can also detect motion and prioritize occupied rooms.
They appear to be excellent on paper, but my initial testing yielded mixed results. One sensor is installed in my loft, a second in my living room, and a third in my office. On some days, my readings were only a few degrees apart, while on others, it was nearly seven degrees warmer up in my loft.
However, with a little tweaking of my Wyze app settings, I was able to get my entire house to stabilize around the same temperature, with only a few degrees of wiggle room. There are still days when some areas are warmer than others, but the Room Sensors undoubtedly help to mitigate these hot spots — though I’d hesitate to say they’re completely eliminated.
The Wyze Room Sensors definitely improve the base performance of the Wyze Thermostat, and despite the fact that they require some manual adjusting, I would recommend them to most users. They live up to their price tag, and while they aren’t perfect, it’s helpful to be able to see temperatures throughout the house at a glance and help reduce hot spots.
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