Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I really want to like this thermostat. I really do. When it works, it is WONDERFUL. When it doesn't work, it is a useless pile of junk. Lets start with when it works... You have an app on your phone, you can control the temperature and change scheduling easily. Scheduling can be either daily or automatic based on preexisting setpoints triggered by the geofence. Your phone's location triggers the geofence and you are either Home or Away. If you're Home and it gets to a time you decide, it turns into Sleep. Nothing is easier. Installation is easy enough, remove old, label wires, put the new one on which has a very neat mount that you snap the wires into and then snap the thermostat on to. Test and go! The display is sparse but sufficient. When the device is asleep it shows the current temperature and time. When you tap it, it shows the setpoint, current temp, time, mode, and some other info like the wifi connection and what the compressor/heater is doing. It does it's thing very well when it's working... Now the parts I do not like: You must use a 2.4ghz wifi signal. No exceptions. It doesn't work with 5.0 _OR_ a router that combines the names of the 2.4 and 5.0 networks. Honeywell says you also can't use an extender. There is no option for an ethernet wire either, but I'm not really surprised there. Connecting the unit to the wifi network is a chore. You MUST turn on airplaine mode on your phone because it will screw up the connection process if you don't. Then connect to the thermostat's wifi, then connect to your 2.4 ghz wifi, then it will hopefully work. I have found that if you haven't connected to the 2.4 ghz network previously, it won't show up. You need to connect to it on your phone wifi, then connect to the Lyric, then it should show up and you can enter the password for the wifi, then it ought to connect. Their app is awful. Other honeywell thermostats get access to their web portal and have more advanced app support. This thing is like a teaser to buy a better model from them, but you already own THIS one, don't you? It's amazing that they can't unify their thermostats under ONE app that does things you want. I would like to know WHEN it was on and what the temperatures were during the run time. The only data this logs is geofencing, "THERMOSTAT HAS GONE OFFLINE" and "THERMOSTAT HAS COME BACK ONLINE." Yeah, I get those A LOT. I have manually split my wifi networks and connected it direct to my router (20 ft away) so we'll see how that works in the future. But oh my god this thing goes offline almost EVERY day around 9:30-10:30. Installing this oddly shaped thermostat with a tiny mount over your old thermostat? Get ready for painting and patching. I was lucky the hole in the wall for the wire wasn't so big that I couldn't get the three screws in around it. I still do need to paint around the old one because it peeled some paint away as I removed it. Not really honeywell's problem but be aware that this is shaped like no other thermostat and you will probably be painting the wall. Now the worst part, and I had just spent about an hour on chat with Honeywell trying to sort it out and I REALLY hope it's fixed. Occasionally, mine likes to simply do nothing. It will flash "COOL ON" in the top left, which when flashing means it's about to do that and when solid means it's actually doing it. You will hear a relay click inside when it starts the compressor. Mine likes to just flash "COOL ON" and keep the house hot. It has only done it three times in three months but do I really need my wife to come home with the kids to an 85 degree house when the system says it's trying to cool it to 78 but isn't actually DOING anything? No, I sincerely do not and I speak from experience here since it happened twice to her and I had to listen to how hot the house is and the thermostat was a stupid purchase. Honeywell also says that they do not actually do warranty exchanges themselves and that it is up to the point of purchase (here) to honor THEIR warranty for them. So we did a factory reset, and I set it back up in the app (urrrgghh!!) and found out that somehow when I added my wife's phone to the geofence it overwrote my email address and the thermostat was locked and they had to release it, and I had to break apart my wifi network names, and I had to waste an hour messing around with something that above all else, should at least turn the ac on when it's supposed to. They said if it refuses to cool again, I should contact Amazon and ask for another one.... At that point I will ask for my money back and buy a "proper" thermostat like a Nest or Ecobee. If that doesn't happen, I'm going to throw this thing in the garbage and put up my old $25 thermostat and be done with it. So in closing, it's great when it works and it sucks when it doesn't. It usually works but it should ALWAYS work.