Orbit83521 Clear Comfort Programmable Thermostat with Large, Easy-to-Read Display, White

When I found the need to replace my 17 year old thermostat I did my homework. This unit had all the features I wanted at a very reasonable price. Love the 7 day programming. We have a wild schedule around here and cookie cutter weekly programming would not help us save money going into the winter months. Each day you can program the temperature for wake, leave, return and sleep. With a more "normal" schedule the Energy Saving schedule it comes programmed with would be very helpful and cost effective.That said I did need to ask for help with installation. I found the manual to be cumbersome and only confuse me more. I followed YouTube videos and took pictures of the wiring before detaching my old units. This was not helpful however because things seem to have gotten more complicated over the years. The labels for the wires are convenient but I did not know which labels went with my 2 wires. Their simple placement under 2 screws was now replaced by feeding the wires into the housing blindly, tightening the screws and hoping it was in there correctly. The wires fed through a completely different place on this unit than my previous from the wall which took some finagling and a few extra holes in the wall for the wires and screws for the housing. When all was said and done they are installed and work beautifully.I personally found it easier to play with the system than to read the manual. The copy feature was great for adding the same programming to additional days without manually inputting them.I recommend getting familiar with the "hold" feature. On occasion we come or go "off schedule" and can quickly adjust up or down a few degrees and hold it until the next preset arrives. Very handy.Overall, well worth the money. The units are subtle and attractive and most importantly functional. The electric bill is already coming down along with those New England temperatures.

Nice and small and easy to install, a breeze to schedule for the whole week and you can just copy over from another day if you prefer. The screen is bright enough and is a slight blue/white hue with black text which should be easy to see. Buttons are easy to use and properly clicky, so you get proper feedback when you press them. While this is only intended for single stage thermostats, it will work with multi stage with it kicking into a higher mode after a few minutes. Make sure you set up the temperature difference for when it starts though before mounting it otherwise it will turn on and off every 5-10 mins trying to maintain a certain temp. You'll hear a very loud audible click when it does turn on.

We've been impressed with the ease of install of this thermostat right out of the box. We were able to use the same anchor holes the old thermostat used. Unfortunately this thermostat sits lower on the wall than the previous thermostat, so we'll need to do some spackling and painting to hide the exposed area (lesson learned - always remove the thermostat when you paint the walls). My 84 yo mother-in-law can be sitting 10 ft away on the couch and easily see the temperature w/o her glasses. The backlight only stays on for a few seconds after you've changed settings, and then it turns off, making the display a bit harder to read in a darker room.It would be nice if the programming had a 7 day setting for folks who don't need separate programs for weekday/weekend. I discovered the "copy" function about 4 days into programming the settings, and this made it much easier to set up for my elderly in-laws. One annoyance I did find while programming it was the setting function times out pretty quickly while you are setting temps and times, so if you have to pause and think about what you are setting, it times out and drops you out of the function within 3-5 seconds - way too fast. I feared I had to start over for that day I was programming, but I found it would save whatever settings you had gotten through before dropping you out. Give the user 10 seconds before it drops out of the feature and I'd be much happier.I also saw some folks complaining about hearing a 'click' when the unit comes on. You can hear it, but it's a muted click, and some folks might find that useful to know when the heat/AC is coming on.I see folks complaining about temperature 'swing' in their reviews of this unit, and another reviewer posted this very helpful info about accessing the advanced settings menu to address it (haven't tried it yet myself), so I'll copy his directions here in my review, too, as I believe this info is very important for folks who might experience this swing issue in use:"To access the advanced menu:1. Slide the MODE switch to OFF.2. Press RUN to wake up the thermostat and activate the back light.3. Hold the RESET button. (This button is on the back of the thermostat where you installed the batteries.)4. Press the SET button while holding the RESET button. (Do this fast! If you hold RESET for more than 5 seconds, it resets the entire thermometer to out-of-the box default values. If it does not work on the first try, release both buttons and try again.)5. Release both buttons in less than 5 seconds.You should now see screen that displays "offset" in the upper right corner. Press SET to cycle through the advanced settings.OFFSETI found it helpful to increase the temperature offset by a couple of degrees. My thermostat is in the hallway where there are no heater vents. By the time the hallway reaches my desired temperature, the temperatures in the rooms with the vents are typically 2-3 degrees higher than the hallway temperature.EARLY STARTI left this off, but you can turn it on to have the heat start before the programmed time. I just programmed the start time to begin 15 minutes before I get home.SYSTEM TYPESet to "F" for furnace, "HP" if you have a heat pump.MINIMUM CYCLE PERIODAccording to the user manual: "Changing the minimum cycle period to six minutes or greater enables smart logic." Apparently the thermostat has some ability to learn the best cycle times for your system. They give a table in the manual for common cycle periods. I set mine to 12 minutes for a 1-stage furnace with an electric fan."