Orbit 83521 Clear Comfort Programmable Thermostat with Large, Easy-to-Read Display, White

I purchased this 8 yrs ago and installed it myself. As an old woman who doesn't like to mess with anything electrical, I found this extremely easy to install using the included written instructions. It's been like old faithful. Install and forget about it. Battery life is excellent, I've only had to change batteries a hand full of times in 8 yrs. I recently bought a wall clock which also has a temp readout. I've noticed there is a 4 degree temp difference between the two. Which one is correct? I have no idea. I know I'm comfortable at 71 degree so that's what this thermostat has been set on and I've been happy at that temp. If I felt the need to replace it, I would buy this same one again. It's so reliable that I don't pay attention to it, so twice in 8 yrs my furnace stopped working. Turns out that when the battery gets low the little fan icon blinks but I never notice it. So if it gets cold in here I just grab batteries and fix it fast. Good price, great battery life, works well for heat and AC, easy install. I call that a win.

So, I bought this to replace the generic Honeywell thermostat I had been struggling with for years. ( Stupid little beige box with 2 toggles and one slider with an ambitious temp gauge. You know that bugger. And you hate it. Don't feel ashamed. It's a trash design. It's ok though. Read on.) It's getting to be that time of year again. I had a moment the other morning. Picture me. Groggily rising from my rest before the sun has even thought about starting this day. I emerge from my bedroom. It's cold, because the day prior, it was warm enough to not need heat. So you left it be. Clever chap, eh? It's Monday. It's 345 in the morning. I knew 2 things about the day so far: it was cold, and I needed to take care of the morning board meeting. A mad dash down the stairs, clad in only the skin I was born with (and... the skin that grew to cover my growth, of course). A tight turn onto linoleum floors. So cold. A slap of the ol thermostat and then a rush to the bathroom. It didn't have to be like this. I knew that. I had been holding out for my new thermostat. I had wanted one that had a full color display, iot abilities etc. But they were wants I had needs And now we are here. I've only just installed it on my arrival home from work. As you can imagine, after a 10 hour day at the plant, there isn't much I want to do but relax. I had a job though. 15 mins. One screwdriver. Done. Programming was super simple. Provided is a very well made booklet containing any information you might need for the device but yeah Here we go Rank time. 1-10. You know the drill Packaging 9/10 OI! That packaging was rugged. Absolutely beautiful presentation though Make a rip strip for easy access! Product Sexy/10 Let me not mince words: This thing is gorgeous. It just looks great. Slick, clean and modern. NICE! Programming 10/10 Responsive, easy to understand. This is some good stuff. Be up and running in 5 mins. Never have to touch the thing again This is a good product. I'm buying another one to replace my other thermostat. Which is also a beige vague box

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. OFFSET I 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 START I 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 TYPE Set to "F" for furnace, "HP" if you have a heat pump. MINIMUM CYCLE PERIOD According 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."

The display is big and easy to read, and it has a backlight so you can read it even when the room is dark. The programming is pretty straightforward. There are 4 events for each day of the week. For each event you set a time and a temperature. Oh, and there are separate sets of events for heat and AC. You can copy from one day to another. So if, like me and I assume most people, your schedule is the same for all weekdays, you program Monday, and then you copy Monday to the rest of the weekdays, then deal with the weekend. It might be nice if there was a way to say "copy to the whole week" instead of day by day. But really, once you get it programmed once, you're probably not going to change it very often. You can even detach the control panel from the back so you can carry it to a table and sit down to program it if you're having trouble or need to think about it. Installation is pretty typical for a device like this. Different hvac systems can have slightly different wires, but for me, I had 4 wires: heat, a/c, fan, and ground. They have the screws labeled with abbreviations of the colors, like R for red and W for white. 3 of the 4 I had the colors matched the labels. Oh, you have to drill a couple of holes to attach it to the wall. They provide screws and anchors so that's not hard even for someone with my very limited carpentry skills. I've had it for maybe a month now and it's worked with no problems.

UPDATE: almost a year later I saw a couple of glitches. To be more specific - although the set temperature changed to, let's say - 76F from 78F at 4 pm, the compressor wouldn't start even two hours later, and I had to turn the thermostat if off and back on for the change to take effect. The batteries are in good shape so the only problem was the thermostat itself. It doesn't happen often and I'm monitoring it but I emailed the manufacturer and in a few days they sent me a replacement, without any hassle or trouble. I am still keeping the 5 stars and I will keep you updated if anything changes. ADVICE for conventional heating: I had a problem when I had to turn the heating on, 2 month after I installed the thermostat. But it wouldn't work. Nothing moved, no heat, no blower. I also don't have a heat pump, but conventional AC heating (I believe the coils heat up). Anyway, I read the manual again and found the problem: there is a jumper on the back of the thermostat that, in my case was set on "oil/gas heat" and you have to move it to "electric heat". Don't miss this step :) So far it brought a much needed feel of new to our living room and seems to be working just fine. I suspected that my old thermostat was way off (I know for sure now...) and I installed it with central AC and heating without heat pump. DETAILS: * didn't come with batteries * 15 minutes to install (once I had the wires on the other side of the wall) * comes with peel off labels to put on the wires so you don't mess up during installation * took me 10-15 minutes to set it by following the directions * if you touch it (hold it) the temperature will immediately increase (it's very sensitive) and it will take up to 30 minutes to settle * large screen and nice, modern look and feel. Should anything change, I'll be back with updates :)

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.

I bought the Orbit 83521 thermostat because it looks nice and is supposed to have a way to set a minimum run time. The thermostat is absolutely the most attractive I have ever seen (including those Nest ones). It's sleek but not too modern and the stainless steel rivets on the front match my kitchen appliances. The thermostat is also very easy to program and the instructions are clear and easy to follow. BUT the minimum cycle run time feature does not seem to work. I've been fiddling with it off and on for the last two weeks, but the thermostat seems determined to run my system for no longer than 8 minutes. I would like it to run for at least 15 because that is by far the most comfortable for me (when I force it to do so manually) and doing so saves gas (I have a forced air gas furnace) and reduces wear on the furnace. Also, if the system doesn't run long enough than not enough hot air is delivered to the rooms furthest from the furnace because the cold air has to be expelled and the ducts warmed up before the heat can arrive in force (just like letting your hot water pipes heat up before taking a shower). 15 minutes is enough time for this, but not 8. I speculate that the "smart logic" feature is overriding the time limit feature. This is such a bummer because otherwise the thermostat is perfect and I probably would have bought two more this Christmas to replace the non-programable thermostats that my mom and brother have. Why didn't Orbit just let the consumer pick the settings that are best for them? This "smart logic" feature is so dumb.

I love the look and functionality of this item. Especially the ability to easily duplicate settings quickly for a regular Monday through Friday schedule. You will appreciate this if you have ever had to program one before. The only downside is its not compatible with a two stage gas furnace. I hope to find the same brand and features for my equipment. Other than that I would highly suggest this over the more expensive WI-fi enabled units. The negative reviews and fear of losing connection when I am away from home was a deal killer for me. Look and function are my qualifiers and this unit delivers in those regards. Edit. Turns out that if you have a 2 stage furnace and are replacing the T-stat as a DIY project you might find what you are swapping out is also listed as not compatible. What I discovered is a 2 stage model Tstat is slightly more expensive and on some furnaces this can be done at the units computer board instead. In simpler terms, Google what you are replacing and read the manual to determine if it is designed for a 2 stage furnace. The HVAC company was obviously pinching pennies with the original install. Currently installed and working for me. Edit: In all fairness this unit can work with a two stage furnace. The board on the furnace can be configured to accommodate it. I searched the previous brand only to find they cheaped out during the original install. Have been using this through the winter and now into the summer and I love it. Sleek looks and all. Programming is a breeze once you get the hang of it. There is a copy function which makes it short and sweet. Totally worth it for me and waking up to a warm house or coming home to a cool house is such a life improvement,

It's a nice, easy to use unit that is visually pleasing and simple to set up. It can be programmed in your hand, as opposed to mounted on the wall, which makes it less of a pain in the ass. The price is right too.

A very good product. Easy to install,, it took me about 30 min. to replace my old thermostat with this one. The instructions are clear. The display is easy to read even at night and the configuration is quite simple.

I installed this thermostat in less than 10 minutes. It was intuitive and directions were clear, only thing I had to look for in the manual was how to set the clock (turn the unit off then set). Overall I am happy with the purchase, although I wish the clock would appear larger when the unit is not in use, id rather see the time than the temp from across the room.

This is a great programmable thermostat, I've had it a month now and I'm very pleased. Even though it was my first time using one, the programming of it was straight-forward, as are the features. Now the installation... I took off one star because the instruction manual does not show *any* diagram or have any instructions for my wiring system which is a "2 wire system". Grr. So I was completely lost until I stumbled across a YouTube video by some random guy that explained how to wire a new thermostat to an older "2 wire system". Yay for that guy! Still, the thermostat itself is good and works great.

Just had new furnace put in and installer put a new thermostat on. It was cheap, hard to read and temperature range way too much between start and stop. Did the research and come up with this Orbit digital. Install and wiring was real simple. Even supplied stickers for the wires so you don't mix them up. Only improvement would be to have slightly larger holes for inserting wires....took a bit of fiddling. Temperature is now constant, easy to use and see. Can see temperature from several feet away. Totally pleased.