D-I-Y with a Honeywell thermostat

Feb 01, 2026 Last reply: 5 months ago 11 Replies

My existing WiFi room 'stat has reached its near-end of life, so I bought a Honeywell unit to replace it. I read up on what I had to do, I powered up the remote unit to make sure it was working, and then proceeded to remove and replace the old Relay box, which of course meant that I had to cut the old Lucar connectors off, as the new unit just needs bare wires inserted into terminal blocks.



The manual* details the start up procedure, which includes confirming that the Remote and the Relay Boxes communicate. They failed, several times. There is a procedure to re-establish setup data and communication, which it calls Binding, and although I followed the procedure, it failed every time. I accepted that I would have to restore the old system, so I went out to the garage and retrieved the new connectors and crimper.



I am firmly of the belief that equipment can be frightened into working when it is threatened with replacement, so I tried the Binding process once more, but it never completed the procedure as described. But then, as I was shutting everything down, suddenly the boiler started up without warning. I adjusted the Temperature setpoint, and the boiler responded correctly. The units still fail the Communication Test, but there is an icon of an antenna on the display, and it appears to be working.



The old unit has no name, I know it came from Toolstation several years ago (about 2012). It had a communication indicator light and a Heat Demand light. The Honeywell has no communication light, but is supposed to have a Heat Demand indicator in the display, which is missing in action. But it does have a Relay On light, which is basically the same thing.



As the Americans would say: "Go figger!"


  • In common with most manuals, if you can find them, this is a multi-lingual sheet, with hardly anything written, but lots and lots of diagrams of fingers pointing at buttons. It takes some time to work out what it is actually instructing you to do and see.

I have followed the listed steps several times. Once the Relay box is in Binding Mode, then doing the multiple steps to put the Remote also in Binding mode gives the Relay box enough time to exit Binding mode.

The manual makes it seem easy. But it isn't if the equipment doesn't respond the way it's supposed to.

But there is a benefit to the Honeywell unit compared with the old nameless one. The old one had a huge deadband. Say the SP was set at

21.0 deg. As the temperature dropped, it needed to go down to less than 1 deg. below SP, so it had to get to below 20.0 deg. The heat would kick in, and the temperature would keep dropping until the radiators had dispersed enough heat to stop the drop. It could drop as far as 19.0 deg. if on the first cycle. Then, the temp. would have to rise to above 22.0 to shut the heat off. So a swing from 19.0 or 19.5 to 22.0 deg. The new one seems to keep a deadband of about 1 deg. Fantastic!

The only problem is that it reads about 1.5 to 2.0 deg. low, so what was a Setpoint of 21.0 is now 22.5 on the Honeywell. I can live with that.

For some combinations, you could likely find a video.

# Rebinding a Honeywell T87RF Thermostat to a Honeywell BDR91 Relay Box

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Paul

Thanks. I am firmly of the opinion: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", and since it appears to be working, and much better than its predecessor, I won't fix it. If it stops working, that may change.

My Honeywell programmable stats have got an adjustable offset - has yours?

I did not see any mention of it in the manual, but I will look for it. This thermostat is not very programmable. It's not critical, it's just a number that's not quite accurate.

I have been otherwise engaged today, tomorrow should be better.

It does, thank you. I had skimmed over that section of the manual when I thought that it wasn't even talking to the relay box. Now I can engage with its advanced features. At least that programming works, as opposed to the binding procedure, which works in all but fact. I wanted to enter an offset of 1.5 deg., but I have had to settle for 1 deg. I'll see if it needs to be 2 deg. by observing it and the old display over the day.

I calibrated mine by hanging a laboratory grade mercury thermometer next to it.

I don't happen to have one of them. In fact, more important is that it now matches the old readout, so I don't need to do any mental adjustments. One annoying thing is the table stand for the remote unit. There is nothing to clamp the parts together, and if you pick it up off the table, it all falls apart. The rubber band, which held the battery cover in place on the old unit, is now in place on the new one, in a fetching cross-over pattern.

Usually there is some sort of indication that they are in binding mode - the display flashing, or an LED flashing. Usually it involves holding buttons pressed, for longer than 10 seconds.

Mine never completed the binding process, however many times I tried, exactly following the described procedure. Also, there is supposed to be a flame icon on the display to show when heat is being called for. Neither of these work. But the 'Relay On' LED on the relay box works fine. It controls temperature very very well, so I will not do anything that might break it, at least until I can risk it not recovering.

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