home thermostat: are HD's as good as anywhere else?

[David Combs]

Or do they have their own shitty ones, made by name brands but expressly for HD?

If HD is bad, then where?

Thanks!

David

[RBM]

My personal opinion: if it doesn't pass quality control, send it to HD. I buy Honeywell and White-Rogers from Grainger.com

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I've used a couple of Honeywell from their and they've been working perfectly for a number of years. Lux is supposed to be lesser quality so I avoid them.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Honywell Vision Pro series Ting Ho!

[bryanska]

For programmable thermostats, the difference is probably very very small. The thermometer in most is probably a simple piece of Chinese silicon. Add an integrated circuit, and voila. A perfectly good piece of electronics. Lifetime: about as long as any other lump of integrated circuitry with no moving parts, which is to say about forever.

Maybe in the past there was a difference in the metallurgy of the mercury-driven spring coil, but all that variation and cost has been engineered out.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Made in China stuffs are all made on different specs. Compare Honeywell and say Hunter thermostats. Open it up and look inside. Feel the buttons for human interface. I had to replace quite a few Hunter, Noma, etc. cheaper thermostats at my relavies'and friends'. They usually last until warrant runs out. I use Honeywell Vision Pro touch panel 'stat and wireless one which never gave trouble since installed. Just reelace batteries when it's time to replace them. Maybe you have not worked in the field of QC for screening source material? If you think an IC being sold at RS and one from industrial whole sale house is one and same, WRONG! If it is mil-spec'd one, then that is again different category.

[Joe]

Any Honeywell you buy at any store is a fine product. The pricier ones are better performers according to experts in the field. So go ahead and buy the top tier at any store you like and get on with your next important project with that muck less to worry about,. HTH

Joe

[Rick Blaine]

I can tell you that all the major brand stats are made outside of the US these days. They aren't very complicated and the components all come from non-US countries anyway.

I had some Lux stats that developed a contact issue where corrosion over a couple of years got to the point that the stat did not see a change in the rotary switch position. I'm not convinced that that was a problem unique to Lux though.

[Rick Blaine]

And if you think Honeywell or any other stat manufacturer is buying mil-spec or even industrial spec components for their stats, you would be very wrong... Even if they were (they aren't), those specs mostly relate to harsh environment (vibration, temperature, salt fog atmosphere, etc.). None of those apply to the typical household environment and none will extend the life of a component.

Furthermore, no manufacturer would buy "seconds" or QA fail components to populate production devices. They'd fail product QA or the retailer/distributor returns would quickly put the company out of business.

[George]

It is quite common to use "seconds" in manufacturing. Where this is most common is in electronic component manufacturing. There will always be a range of quality in any production run. Stuff that doesn't meet the first quality spec is labeled as some other quality and sold off or used to make a cheaper version of a product (often the big box version).

[gfretwell]

Just be wary of anything in a big box with a non-standard model number (unique to that store chain). Sometimes this is just done to make comparison shopping harder but other times it is a "reduced cost" item that might be lower spec.

[jim]

Also so you can't match and beat prices White Rogers have never let me down

[Tony Hwang]

When you mentioned extending the life of a electronics comonents. then what would be the main factor determining it's life? Silicon components will last 20 years plus under normal operating condition. Even there is a mil-spec. soldering.