Honeywell Lyric Smart Thermostat Review - Tom's Guide
Our Verdict
The Honeywell Lyric Thermostat cleverly uses your smartphone and geofencing to plow itself on and off, merely it doesn't arrive enough for a side by side-gen thermostat.
For
- Attractive blueprint
- Easy setup
- Unproblematic smartphone controls
Against
- Geofencing feature works intermittently
- Doesn't work with all routers
- Fewer features than Nest
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Honeywell Lyric Thermostat cleverly uses your smartphone and geofencing to plow itself on and off, but it doesn't arrive enough for a next-gen thermostat.
Pros
- +
Attractive pattern
- +
Like shooting fish in a barrel setup
- +
Simple smartphone controls
Cons
- -
Geofencing feature works intermittently
- -
Doesn't work with all routers
- -
Fewer features than Nest
You'll never take to go upwards off your couch to change your thermostat once more. Honeywell's Lyric Thermostat is one of a new brood of "smart" thermostats that y'all tin can command using your smartphone. This $279 device tin also sense when you're arriving dwelling or leaving for work, and will automatically set up the temperature in response. But how does it compare to the other smart thermostat, the Nest?
Update: The 2d-generation Honeywell Lyric Round ($249) is now Apple HomeKit-certified, significant you lot'll be able to control it using Siri. Honeywell hasn't said still if it will offer a merchandise-in program for owners of the original Lyric.
Blueprint
Harkening dorsum to its thermostats from the '50s, the Honeywell Lyric is circular, with a large white face up surrounded by chrome trim. In the center is a small, circular touch screen that shows the temperature. Just to a higher place that is a smaller, arc-shaped screen that indicates if the Lyric is heating or cooling, and what temperature it's trying to reach. To the left is a weather icon that, when pressed, shows your local forecast in the main brandish. On the correct is a button that lets you set the Away fashion.
Like with the Nest, you can plow the outer ring of the Lyric to change the temperature; soft backlighting (blue for absurd, bister for warm) adds a nice homey touch. The dial method of irresolute temps is so intuitive that it's a wonder why thermostat makers abandoned the thought for then long. I preferred the Nest here, every bit turning its dial offered a chip more resistance.
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Overall, the Lyric has an elegant look, but doesn't experience as sleek or as premium every bit the smaller Nest.
The Lyric comes with an optional white plastic shield that can be used to cover up holes, in case you lot don't feel like spackling.
Setup and Installation
Honeywell makes installing the Lyric equally simple as possible. I won't diameter you with all the details, but the process was very like to installing the Nest. First, I downloaded the Lyric app to my iPhone, and followed the onscreen, step-by-stride instructions.
I so had to shut off power to the system. Next, I had to mount the Lyric's baseplate to the wall, attach the appropriate wires and then adhere the top portion of the thermostat to the baseplate.
Later on that, I connected to the Lyric from my phone via Wi-Fi. I then configured the thermostat's settings to tell information technology the type of heating and cooling arrangement I had, my desired temperatures, and my location. In all, setup took most 15-20 minutes.
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Unlike the Nest, which has a built-in rechargeable battery, the Lyric requires a lithium AAA battery, which you demand to supercede one time a year. Too, one time you install the bombardment, you demand to plow on the heating mode for five minutes, so the cooling cycle for 5 minutes, so that the Lyric can best summate the power requirements of your HVAC system, and get the well-nigh juice out of the bombardment.
App
When y'all open the Lyric app, a modest circle at the peak shows the current temperature in your house or apartment, with a blue background to indicate if the Lyric is in cooling way, and an amber background if it's in heating mode.
Beneath this circumvolve are your event settings, such as "I'm leaving home" and "I'm going to sleep." Y'all can create and edit these for a diverseness of circumstances, such as having the Lyric enter Away mode when you leave your house, or setting information technology to enter Eco mode when you get to slumber.
Printing on the circle at the top, and information technology expands to replicate the controls on the Lyric itself. Here, you tin manually switch from heating to cooling modes, change the temperature using a dial at the bottom of the screen, cheque conditions weather and prepare an Away timer.
Performance
The Lyric sets the temperature using geofencing. That is, it switches from domicile to abroad modes depending on when you are home (more specifically, when your phone is home). You can set the geofence to either 500 feet or 7 miles, simply annoyingly, this setting is not in the app itself. Rather, it'southward in the App settings menu on iOS. I also wish I could change the distances.
The geofencing feature worked fairly well. I similar that the Lyric started cooling my apartment merely before I got home, so I didn't walk into a hot house. The Lyric's Fine Tune feature also makes slight adjustments to the temperature based on outdoor environmental conditions. However, in that location were multiple occasions when the Lyric failed to realize I had left, and kept cooling my apartment while I was abroad. Other times, information technology took a while for the Lyric to realize I had returned.
The Nest also has a few other features that the Lyric lacks. For one, there'south no way to see when your heating or air workout was agile on the Lyric. As well, while you can conform every setting on the Nest thermostat'south display, you lot need the Lyric'due south mobile app to change certain settings, such as your location or Wi-Fi password. This could be an issue if you don't have your phone with y'all.
The Lyric is also supposed to send notifications when someone is leaving or entering your house, but this feature didn't commencement working until my second week of testing. Also, I merely received notifications when I had left my apartment.
Another effect — i that I didn't meet, but one that Honeywell is aware of — is that the Lyric isn't compatible with sure wireless routers. The company said it is working on a list that it will put online.
Connected Features
While controlling your thermostat via a smartphone app is convenient, the next step for such devices is connecting to a home automation network. Yous can control the Nest through a variety of sources, from the Jawbone UP24 and the Harmony Ultimate remote control to IFTTT.
Update (12/21/15): The second-generation Honeywell Lyric Round ($249) is at present Apple HomeKit-certified, meaning you'll be able to command it using Siri. In addition, it tin also work with Samsung SmartThings, Flash, Logitech, and IFTTT (A total list of compatible smart home systems tin be found here). Honeywell hasn't said yet if it will offer a trade-in program for owners of the original Lyric.
Verdict
It'due south not surprising that Honeywell is entering the smart thermostat arena. However, while the company has decades of experience making thermostats, it's in the same boat as everyone else when making apps. While I like Honeywell's idea of using geofencing to prepare when its $279 Lyric thermostat turns off and on, ultimately, the mobile app and interface offering less than what yous go with the Nest. While the Lyric has improved with time, the Nest and Ecobee3 offer more features and greater interoperability with connected home systems.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/honeywell-lyric-thermostat,review-2297.html
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