Customer Reviews: Read 58 more reviews...
 This is well worth the price; you'll get the money back in months! March 9, 2010
N. Schimpf (Sheboygan, WI USA)
I bought this thermostat in November as I audited how I could possibly save money on the natural gas bill this year, which in the past usually has averaged $150 per month and was hard to keep up with. We rent, but there's no contribution by the landlord to our gas bill, so it's up to us to figure out how to save money in a 140 year-old lower duplex apartment with plenty of air pockets and trouble spots.
Before I installed this we had the basic Honeywell classic disc thermostat which was likely around 40-45 years old, so I was expecting plenty of savings right away the moment I replaced that old thing with this. Setting it up was easy, though the manual was a bit unclear on which wire to put in, so I had to go by trial and error to get the right wire setup before I could activate it.
Once I did however, and after setting my energy use settings, it has worked beyond my expectations. The temperature stays where I need it to, not too low, not too high, with maybe a two-degree plus/minus variation between the actual measured temperature and what it is in the middle of the room. I now have a varied setup where it stays cool during the day, and then warmer at night, and it works out very well. The blue light helps in setting it in the dark and it's nice to be able to have an at-a-glance look at how long the furnace has been on during a day, week or month to compare with your bill to find out how much it does cost an hour to heat your home.
However I have definitely noticed the results of this thermostat on my gas bill. Where it used to loop and vary wildly during the winter months, it has now stayed steady within about the $75 per month range, counting both heating and cooking. It has taken the stress off worrying about setting the thermostat and it has more importantly kept everyone in the house warm when they wanted, but not roasted out of bed at inopportune times. Definitely buy this and be content and knowing that you're pretty much buying this for free after a few months as the savings roll back in.
Love love love it!! February 15, 2010
Jamie L. Underwood
It took me about an hour to program and install. The instructions were super clear and it was really easy. and programming wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, based off of the otehr reviews I read. I've have it over a month now, and know that I saved a lot of money already, but I do have a 10 degree difference from my night to day temperatures. Definitely worth every penny. I'm going to get my grandmother one too!!
 Perfect balance of customizable and easy to use. Mostly. February 6, 2010
Julia Rietmulder-Stone (Harrisburg, PA)
My boyfriend salvaged a Hunter 44550 from a property he was renovating. It sat around in his warehouse for a few years, and then got installed at home. Since it was just what happened to be on hand, I didn't really think about whether or not I liked its features. Until it gave up the ghost after about two months. Hard to know whether it quit prematurely or not, since I don't know anything about its life prior to the few years it sat in the warehouse.
Anyway, the contractor/electrician who'd done work on my house when I first bought it had recommended going with a Honeywell, so when I started researching to buy a new programmable thermostat, I was sure that's what I wanted. I hesitated after seeing the prices and the reviews, though, and so started looking further into the features of the various options.
This Hunter 44550 can do seven different programs, or just be used as a 5-2. It's waaaay cheaper than the Honeywell 7-days. I really only need 5-2, but like the flexibility should I need it in the future. It's very easy to program initially, whether you're doing it as a seven-day or as a 5-2, at least with the help of the cheat sheet printed right on the inside of the cover. I did need to refer to the manual to figure out how to do a permanent hold, but it's not complicated (hold the "Hold" button for a long time).
I think the thing that really sold me on getting this one again is the "Home Today" button. Hit it either during the wake-up interval or during the day, and thermostat is set to whatever you normally have it at when you're home. No manually setting it before the second interval starts, then realizing that it's freaking cold because the program took over at 8 o'clock anyway, or setting it and holding, then realizing in the middle of the night that the temperature never lowered again because you forgot to release the hold.
This does sort of have an energy usage function -- it'll tell you how many hours in the current day, previous day, current week, and previous week the heat has been on. I haven't used this feature except to glance at it out of curiosity every so often. I have radiators, so I've never looked into whether or not it has a filter-change reminder, and I don't have AC, so I've never used it for that.
It also has an auto-recovery function (though it can be turned off via a switch on the back). It's not clear to me if the thermostat "learns" how long it's going to take to get the house up to the desired temp at the right time, or if it just starts at some pre-set interval before the programmed time, but it does a pretty good job, although when it's very cold it doesn't always make it all the way. I may adjust back by 20 minutes or so to make up for it. (As a side note, this thing does only ten-minute increments, which is fine with me; hard to imagine that I'd ever need it to be set to the minute, and it makes scrolling through the time options much faster.)
It's pretty easy to install, as it's of the style with a plate that gets screwed on first, then the thermostat itself snaps onto that. It requires a small screwdriver, but not so small that a reasonably well-equipped homeowner wouldn't have one on hand. There are several contractor options that can be selected only via switches in the back of the thermostat (only accessible if it's removed from the wall), including increment (standard is -1/+1, alt is -1/+2), 12 hour or 24 hour time, and some others that I couldn't imagine using and so don't remember. There's also something on the back that has to be done if you're using it with a single-stage heat pump, but I don't really know what that's all about. I assume it means you can use it with a single-stage heat pump. :-)
All in all, I'm very happy with this thermostat, but I'm hesitant to recommend it without reservation since the first one I had died. That said, I'm inclined to believe that it was not indicative of the general quality of the product, so for its ease-of-use, *very* favorable price, and excellent functionality, it gets four stars.
WONDERFUL THERMOSTAT February 3, 2010
A. D. Oltmann
I purchased this inexpensive thermostat because it thought my old Lux (uber-expensive) thermostat was not working. Turns out it was the furnace not the thermostat. None-the-less I have not put the old thermostat back on and have sold it on Craislist.
This is the best thermostat I have come across. I did A LOT of research most of last fall and winter of 2008/2009 and most of the fall (and the beginning part of the winter) of 2009. I read a lot of reviews, I went to a lot of websites. I talked to my dad (a facility manager for a $20mil building, now a project manager for a company doing building worth over $100mil). In all the reviews I was skeptical of this unit because of the price (small) and the brand name (hunter).
The price is small, it's no where near where the price of other brands. For the most part when it comes to things like this: you get what you pay for. Something with a cheap and disposable price is usually cheap and disposable.
My other concern was the name: Hunter. Normally, not a company I associate with heating and air. Yes they make fans and yes some of their fans now have a heating element, but I don't think of thermostats when I think of Hunter.
I decided to take a chance, but if I didn't like it I wanted to be able to return it so I bought locally (only $39).
I HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT IMPRESSED. I love this unit. It's truly wonderful. I can't say enough about how much I like it.
PROS:
-PRICE. This is very easy on the wallet
-Installation....VERY EASY TO INSTALL.
-Light. You have to push the button to have the light on even at night. My old Lux automatically came on at night, nice but disturbing to others if I was changing it late at night. Also, this one does not make a loud humming noise when the light is on.
-Battery cover is on the front, you do not have to take the unit apart to replace the battery (which shoudl last for about a year)
-HOME TODAY button. This button, when pushed, will bypass the programming and tell the unit to go to the warmest or coolest (depending on the season)setting for the day. For instance, being that I am lost my job and am home during the day (it's winter here). When I push the button it jumps to 68 degrees (our warmest setting)and will stay there until I hit clear.
-pre-programmed schedule. Most units will come with a pre-programmed schedule. I like the settings on this one best.
-Recovery. If you have this programmed (if you want it off there is a switch on the unit, it comes pre-programmed in the "on" position) it will have the temp you want at the time you want. Usually, a thermostat would begin changing the temp at the set time. Recovery will tell the furnace to began changing the temp 30minutes before the programmed time.
-Easy. The Lux I replaced was not very intuitive to use. This one is really easy and simple.
CONS:
-AUTO PROGRAM button. I like the auto program settings, but the button is right next to the CLEAR/HOLD button. It's way to easy to push the AUTO PROGRAM button and change all the changes you have made. It would be nice if Hunter made AUTO PROGRAM a two button feature so one would have to hit two buttons at the same time to change to AUTO PROGRAM settings.
-nothing else.
I can't say enough about this unit. It's the best out there for the price and the features. Someone mentioned something about the temperature reading being inaccurate. Well, I have noticed there can be a 1-2degree difference between the set temp and the temp the thermostat tells the furnace to stop (the final temp). I don't find this annoying. It's not a big deal because if the tempt is 1-2 degrees lower (in the winter and higher in the summer) the unit will kick on. This person also complained about different temps in the house....are you kidding me? The unit will have a different temp on the wall and off the wall...all will. If they don't the device is compensating for being on the wall. Temps near the wall will be different from temps in the center of the hall not to mention room-to-room. Don't let that review dissuade you. This is a good until.
Sorry for the long review.
 heat sensor not accurate January 19, 2010
M. Lin (New Jersey)
The heat sensor on this unit is not accurate. For instance, I set it to 72 degree and when the unit starts, it gets really hot in the house that by the time it stops after the unit shows 73 degree, on the unit I took off, the reading easily goes above 80 degree. I have another thermostat in the house and the reading is also way above 72 degree.
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