Rheem RETST700SYS EcoNet Smart Thermostat, Black

I bought 2 units to upgrade my old thermostat. They were defective units, they would not connect to wifi which is why the whole reason for me purchasing them in the first place. I contacted customer support and we tried troubleshooting every way possible and still would not work. I return them and I lose $140 restocking fee. Punch of crooks. DEFINITELY DON'T RECOMMEND!!!

The media could not be loaded. It works well most of the time. However I do have to reset it every few weeks. It is quite expensive but required for my new system.

Great

thermostat didnt work with the system it was made for.company refunded the return and kept $76 of my refunddont by from them

These thermostats are reason enough to avoid the Rheem Econet line, which is a shame as they are a good, reliable American HVAC system. I can't help but think the design of this unit was farmed out to an offshore outfit that had no experience with smart thermostats or frankly typical issues of home ownership.Cool features:1. See exactly what your compressor is doing, you can geek out at subcooling values, line temps and pressures, just a wealth of info (too bad you can only read it from the actual thermostat screen, not remotely)2. Nice looking display, readable in most lighting, touch panel is responsive, no lag3. Shows local weather in case you didn't have a smartphone or other connected device.4. Detects when filter media becomes cloggedTop reasons to avoid:1. No local API for 3rd party home automation, you are reliant on Rheems Cloud system which is slow and at times unresponsive. if its offline or your internet is out, you can't do anything with the thermostat other than using the touch interface. Other thermostats provide a local API (Radiothermostat for example).2. Thermostat is far from smart. The unit is heated by the touch screen light and the temp compensation is poor. As soon as the heat comes on, it blows enough air over it to drop the temperature 2-3 degree, which is enough to make it panic and think that it isn't getting adequate cooling, so it turns on Aux heat. Again a bit of coding to offset the heat from the display, and at least not turning on the electric heat for the first 30 minutes. There is a menu item buried in the installer settings called Aux. Heat Hold Off Time. Maybe you aren't too worried about that, but it doesn't even have a simple recirculate mode, ie run the fan for 10 minutes every hour, what house perfectly balances temperature?3. Nearly useless App. It lets you change modes and temperature. Doesn't even show you runtime for the day or week! At times its unresponsive due to the remote server as well.All said, the hardware is really nice, its just the software is very unfinished. Compared to other thermostats, at least from the end user perspective, it is so behind the times. An HVAC tech might love it as it gives him stuff he normally has to connect gauges to the unit for, but for most people they know they have an HVAC problem when its not blowing cold or hot air. Skip this and more over skip buying any HVAC system that forces you to use this thermostat.

I (stupidly) ended up with this thermostat as part of my new Ruud furnace and A/C system. In my opinion, this thermostat needs a software overhaul before any more units are sold. I tried to have it removed and my 7-day programmable Honeywell put back in, but that is impossible because this thing is integral to the Ruud system I purchased.In the summer, I wanted to have the fan run continuously even when the compressor was off to keep the air circulating in my house, as recommended by the installer. The techs from the company that sold and installed the unit made multiple trips to my house and multiple calls to somebody at Rudd/ EcoNet trying to switch it to continuous fan, but despite everyone's efforts, after a few hours the fan would shut off. The techs didn't know how to do it, and the instructions from Rudd/EcoNet did not work. No matter what they did, the fan would not stay on.After a lot of angst and phone calls and visits, someone ended up changing the schedule - the 28 time periods in the week - to continuous fan. They didn't explain that to me, but it was fixed and it was good for the summer.Then autumn came, I switched over to heat and didn't want the continuous fan. So again, I started down the road of trying to do it myself and failing and then calling the installer. I spoke with the tech supervisor. He gave me the wrong information about how to change the fan setting, and the fan reverted to continuous on.I eventually figured it out on my own: the system will only override its schedule for a max of 8 hours. Any change you make will not hold beyond that time. So in order to stop the continuous fan, I had to change the fan within the schedule. But there is nothing in the 34 page on-line instruction manual that explains that. And now twice a year, I will need to adjust 28 settings (7 days a week, 4 schedules a day) to turn on or off the continuous fan.My sister is coming to visit and I will need to raise the heat significantly while she is here for a few days. There is no way to do this beyond the 8 hours. On my Honeywell, all I had to do was press a HOLD button and it was done and would stay at that temp until I wanted it to return to the schedule.I am also noticing that one corner of the touchscreen doesn't work well - the lower right quadrant will not always respond to the finger touch. Sometimes I have to touch it multiple times to effect a change. And a couple of times I have had to stop and come back later because it was not responding.What most irks me most is that I am stuck with this thermostat. I can't switch to something better or cheaper and easier. And I, the consumer, have no way to contact Rudd directly. Rudd/EcoNet doesn't have any contact point for consumers. They instruct you to contact the installer. But the truth is, the HVAC companies and their techs are not thermostat programmers.

Delivered in a plastic pillow pack (this is on Amazon) and the unit carton it was packed in was damaged and filthy (this is on Seller). I suspect it was used. It works, but had to be reset by the tech who installed it. Sorry, Amazon 0 for 2 on this purchase. For a $270 T'stat, disappointing.