Lux Products GEO-WH Wi-Fi Thermostat, White

I've searched around a lot and the Lux Geo is the thermostat I finally decided on. It's been installed for almost two months now, and has pretty much lived up to expectations. It's not perfect, but it's plenty good enough that I purchased a second one for upstairs.What I finally decided to be my "must have" feature is usage history data. I want to see what the temperature was and how long my HVAC operated. After reading many different articles on home energy, I confirmed that there's almost no significant energy savings to be had by using a "smart/wifi" thermostat as opposed to a just a "programmable" one. All the big savings claims are in how it's used. So I wanted something more significant when going from "programmable" to "smart/wifi" than just claims of savings.And it also meant that I didn't want one that attempted to "learn" what I wanted. People feel hot, cold, or comfortable at the exact same temperature, depending on what their body is doing at any given moment. And every body is different. Yesterday, I had to put on a jacket and socks, yet the temp was 2 degrees warmer than it normally is inside. Sometimes I run warm. Sometimes it feels warmer/cooler than it is due to the outside temperature differential. Sometimes I'm comfortable, but others are not. And for whatever the reason, there are those in my family that feel that if they change the thermostat to an extreme hot or cold, it'll make it get to that temperature faster somehow---this happens in the car. All. The. Time. The thermostat is at 74 where everyone normally likes it. But the car is hot after sitting in the sun for a while. Change it to 65 so it gets cold faster! ...and I digress. :) Basically, a consistent climate for the house is always better than one that bends to whims. And a "learning" thermostat will always be playing catch-up.The main points I looked for in a thermostat were the following: * Usage history data * WiFi (access through a phone App) * Auto change-over (automatically switches between heating and cooling as needed) * Continues to work when the Internet and/or WiFi is unavailable. * Console lockout (something to deter a passer-by from messing with the thermostat)I looked at a bunch of thermostats, considering reviews as well as perusing the user manuals. All of the Honeywell WiFi thermostats dropped out because none of them offer usage history. The Emerson (Sensi/1F86U-42W) models dropped out for the same reason. The Vine "Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat" (TJ-610B) also has no history, but there were other red flags for me on that one that would have kept me away regardless.That left the Nest (3rd generation), ecobee3 (2nd generation), ecobee Smart Si, Schneider Electric Wiser Air (1st generation), and the Lux Geo. The ecobee3 is the nicest, but was 2.5 times as expensive as the Lux Geo; it's nice, but not 2.5 times as nice. The Nest is in the same boat with the ecobee3, but looks like one of those old Honeywell thermostats from 50 years ago, and it has that irritating habit of thinking it knows what you want more than you do. The Schneider is the next one on the list as you go down in cost, but the "only 24 hours of history" and the repeated reports of a clunky phone-app experience made me feel that I'd rather spend extra to get an ecobee3. In the same price range as the Schneider is the ecobee Smart Si. That has the same functionality as the ecobee3, minus the added temperature sensor functionality---and people don't feel it looks as nice. There have been complaints about ecobee's servers going down, but those were resolved years ago, so that didn't worry me. However, complaints that you can't program an ecobee at all if the Internet is down felt significant to me.And now we arrive at the ~100 mark. Here we have the Radio CT50 and the Lux Geo (well it was back when I bought mine). I was originally favoring the Radio thermostat, but there has been talk (Amazon reviews) of the company starting to abandon the product line and enough people have had issues with WiFi connectivity that it gave me pause. I might have gone for the ecobee Smart Si if not for finding the Lux Geo. It hit all of the major points on my list, and ~100 is better than ~150.Cons * Usage data is only in the "cloud", not local. (ALL thermostats with history have this problem.) * Cannot operate the thermostat through the phone app if the Internet is down. (Almost all "cloud" connected thermostats have this problem.) * No "recovery" functionality. (Where the thermostat automatically figures out how to get the temperature to the setpoint before the next schedule starts.) This isn't really important to me. * The setup couldn't find my WiFi network, so I had to manually enter the SSID. However it did connect perfectly after that and it has stayed connected since---and I did not have this same problem when setting up the second Lux Geo upstairs. * The time that the fan runs in "Clean Cycle" mode is not reflected in the history.Pros * The least expensive thermostat offering usage history data (well, it was at the time I bought it). * I like the look more than I thought I would (don't mind the up-close jaggies in the temperature readout). * The history data display makes it easy to see how your schedule is working out. * Automatic change-over between heat and cool. * Works without Internet access (physically, not through the phone). * Has a console lockout feature (on the Home screen, hold the green triangle-button for ~11sec). * The displayed temperature is very easy to read from a distance. * Leaving the backlight on provides a bright night-light. * It allows offset of the temperature readout. * I like the simple dial interface; the soft audible clicks when turning or pressing are nice feedback.I now have one Lux Geo on the main floor and one upstairs. Both have been calibrated with an offset of -4.6F which brings them into the range of other various digital thermometers I have available around the house (they're all within about 1F of each other). Both are running off the 'C' wire and use the batteries as a backup. I've also figured out, thanks to the history, that having the upstairs temperature set one degree hotter, both HVAC units run about the same amount of time each day. So I feel they're working together fairly well.Everything is presently working well enough that the thermostats fade into the background. Every few days, I might check the history on my phone to see how much the HVACs have been running, or what the variance has been in temperature through the day. On occasion, I turn on the "clean cycle" mode for a day, but I haven't see a clear benefit in the present weather; I'll probably experiment with it again when it's colder. (Clean Cycle makes the fan run for 6min every 20min to push air through the system; some people like/need it in their home to even out the temp through the house.)On a final tangent, the Lux Geo's sensitivity to temperature changes has revealed that I've got an issue with the location of my downstairs thermostat. There's either a draft, or I have something wrong in my wiring that occasionally builds up some heat. I originally had feared that the thermostat was broken, since occasionally it would read 3-5 degrees (F) warmer than thermometers I'd put next to it. However, when I took it off the wall and moved it a foot away, it would change to match the other thermometers. So if you think your thermostat is reading the wrong temperature, get at least one other thermometer to check it against. When it's "off", move them all to another location. I've seen the Lux Geo adjust within 10 seconds, but it really depends on the temperature difference how fast it changes (which is a good thing).

UPDATE DEC 11, 2021Now I would give a minus-5 rating. They fixed the app this year, and seemed to be stable for months, but now thermostat just disconnects. It does not automatically reconnect and requires removal of batteries and reset. This works for a few weeks. Again unable to connect to tech support by phone, and reply from email is that they are 'aware of connection issues' and are working on it. Same answer I got 4 weeks ago so hardly believe that they are 'working on it'. I am now completely fed up, and today will replace the Lux with an Ecobee or Emerson model - these do not work with millivolt heating units, but installation only requires adding a $10 relay as I already installed a 24v transformer to keep my Lux going without relying on batteries. Of course with transformer and relay, this will not work in power outage but I had already added a manual thermostat in parallel, to kick in if temperatures got close to freezing. This is what you should do with any smart thermostat actually. Lux - I really tried to stay with you, but this is goodbye.UPDATE Oct 19, 2020:Originally I gave this a 4/5 star review. I have reduced this to a 1 star (and would give it zero if I could) and advise people NOT to buy. Most of what I had written remains correct as far as installation. However, Lux was purchased by Johnson Controls in 2019 (after my purchase), and they developed and released a month ago possibly the WORST app ever. IT NO LONGER CONTROLS THE THERMOSTAT RELIABLY. So now I have a 'dumb' rather than 'smart' thermostat. What is the point of having this over a $30 manual thermostat, if you can not control it remotely?? Worse is their lack of customer support. My thermostat suddenly dropped having a solid connection I had for past 18 months, so I travelled 3 hours to our remote property only to find that the sudden disconnect was because Lux servers suddenly stopped supporting the old app. No message from Lux and no option to stay on old app. Installed the new app, connection seemed ok, and the app reported the temperature correctly BUT it would NOT control the thermostat. Poor UI design with scroll wheel that you have to keep trying to turn. Give me back simple UP and DOWN arrows! Very buggy software. If I manually change the thermostat, the app reports the change correctly with a slight lag. If I try to change the temp in the app, at first it looks like the temperature changes but then after 30 seconds , it reverts to the previous temperature! I tried login in and out, resetting the thermostat, rebooting the router, re-installing the app... nothing works. Plus with whatever they did in the firmware, the WiFi sensitivity is worse now, and I was marginal before. Even moving the thermostat right next to the router with full bars does nothing to fix the connectivity.I have tried to call their customer support. They are not open on weekends. They do not have a 1-800 toll free number, only a New Jersey number that has long wait time. After 15 minutes on hold, I hung up. They do not respond to on line email form I filled in. They no longer offer a web based app to control - only the phone app. So fail at every level.I am so angry that this company changed to this app without option to remain on the old app that worked, and left so many customers without access to their thermostats. You would think that they tested, but this appears like they released a completely untested and buggy app. Their customer support is non existent. If I had this over to do, I would have just gone the extra step and installed a small transformer and relay (as my heat system is millivolt) to provide power from AC rather than relying on batteries, and bought from a reputable manufacturer like Nest or Ecobee. I liked the previous Lux thermostat setup. I now hate my useless, non functioning Lux Geo thermostat.PREVIOUS REVIEW:This originally sold for much more but more featured WiFi smart thermometers became available and brought prices down. We bought 1 for remote location cabin, replacing a mechanical dumb thermostat. Here is what I like and don't like.1. While it is one of few battery operated WiFi enabled thermostats, I personally would not trust a smart thermostat controlling millivolt heating unit without a 'failsafe' in a situation in which failure could lead to frozen pipes. A solution that gets around this is to wire a mechanical thermostat in parallel and set it to minimal lowest temperature. I was able to place the mechanical thermostat in a closet that was immediately behind the Geo. Of course if you are running a regular furnace, if the power is out, so is your heat regardless of what thermostat you are using.2. We use a propane fireplace (which has three power vents) to heat a small cabin, and like most fireplaces it is millivolt system. All it needs to call for heat is closing circuit on 2 wires which is great if power is off as we can still get some heat. This thermostat is one of few WiFi themostats that will work with a two wire millivolt system, and was really straight forward to wire using RH and W wires only. The Lux Geo turns heat on/off perfectly well. BIG plus for the Geo. You can use a Nest or Ecobee, but they need 24V to work, so you would need to add a 24v transformer and wire in a relay to then provide an open/close circuit for the millivolt. We did not need all the bells and whistles (or $$) of higher end smart thermostats nor the increased complexity of a relay.3. Lag can be an issue. The lag between changing temperature on app and having the thermostat respond can be quite long if you are using battery as power source. The unit delays communication to protect battery life. I added USB power and it is much better, usually within 1 minute. On battery, could have been 10 minutes or even more! I have noticed that sometimes I have to enter the temp change twice - not sure if this is related to server lag and time out at Lux end. Just need to check if accepted.4. Power: There is no icon for which power is being used ie USB or battery or C wire. I know that USB or AC from transformer is working as I can take the batteries and the unit still operates. As a note, when you put the batteries back in, there is a message asking whether you are installing NEW batteries? Clearly Lux knows that system will fail with weak batteries and again that is a concern if you are using this in remote location and you are unable to physically check the system. Using USB to power adds a wire from the bottom that decreases the clean look. I added a 24v AC transformer (Fyve Global unit bought on Amazon) and fed the wires to thermostat through the backplate, to make the install cleaner. Easy - one wire to C, the other to RC (no polarity on AC so does not matter which wire) and remove the RH-RC jumper that is in place so that they are not connected. Works great.5. There is no indication on app of WiFi communication being intact between unit and router or between app and the unit. This would have been really helpful to have. Maybe they will add in future as other smart thermometer apps have.6. WiFi sensitivity is ok but not great. The icon for WiFi does show 2 bars with the router where it is and that is enough for control. If I put the router further away to get only 1 bar, the unit still seems to work ok. Better to have more bars I think - dropping a WiFi signal would not be good . On the plus side, if the router loses power, and WiFi lost, Geo will re-establish WiFi contact once available. I have our router on a UPS just in case.7. You can invite family or friends to control thermostat through the web site. Adding email addresses sends an invite to them to set up an account and control the temperature. Good to have this feature.8. Not listed as feature, I think that settings are put into non volatile internal memory so if all power fails (house AC and battery), it will remember the last settings.Overall there are clearly some plus and minus issues on this thermostat but overall my impression is positive for the things it does, that no other units do. Looking forward to arriving at a warm cabin this winter.

I was searching for a thermostat with 2 features:1. Works in an RV (either 12v or battery operated)2. Smart/wifi capable to control remotelyThis thing is clunky but works for these two 😆 if you've searched for the same you know there aren't many options.I wanted to be able to adjust the temperature remotely in the kids room/nursery without having to go in there and do it manually while they are sleeping. I got this to work, but it wasn't THAT simple.I have 2 of these now as you can see from the pictures, to replace the 2 thermostats in my cardinal forest river RV (factory Coleman Mach Thermostats).Installing the AC-only one is easier and I could've used a different thermostat for this since I don't need to be able to use it without shore power (since AC only works on shore power anyway) but I got another LUX GEO for consistency, and so i didn't need to use a different smart app for each thermostat.I learned that the smart features do not function great on the AA batteries and that there was a micro USB option to power the device. If the device is plugged in via USB, it updates the changes you make via the app within a minute (typically). If you are running batteries and change a setting or temperature in the app, it can take up to 20 minutes to make that change 😆 (to save battery life according to the manufacturer). So i used a simple 12/24v to USB converter (like $10 on Amazon) to power them and keep the lithium AAs in there for backup or if we are without shore power to make sure I don't drain my RV battery.For the AC-ONLY thermostat you only need 3 wires on this one; Red, Yellow, and Green (high fan). You can cap blue (12v-) and Gray (low fan). You can also use a toggle switch for green and gray wires to retain High and Low fan. I only ever use High so i just capped low fan.However if you want to do the micro USB mod like i did (and like you see in my photos) you can split the red wire for the 12v+ and use the blue for the 12v- on the USB converter. This is what I did.The other thermostat is the same but also has heat so you basically do the same thing and just use the white wire (heat)So:Red to RC AND 12v+ on your USB converterYellow to YGreen to GWhite to WCap GrayBlue to 12v- on your USB converter (black wire)With this I'm happy with it! I will keep you all updated. I see folks saying that the temp gets off but there is a setting to correct the calibration on the unit so i don't think that will be a problem.

Update: I've had this since November and it has worked great until recently. Original I had to manually calibrate the temperature reading a bit in the settings. However, recently I came home and my place was extremely hot but the thermostat said it was 79 (I live in AZ and there have been a few days I've actually had to turn on the AC), but my old Honeywell battery powered thermostat was reading 82 and it was sitting in the coolest room in the house. So, I recalibrated the temp again by using the reading on the old thermostat and everything appeared to be good. However there has been three or four times that the two thermostats have been more than two degrees off even though I left the old one sitting directly on top of the Lux. The main problem is that it hasn't been in the same direction. There was the day that it read three degrees below the old one and one morning it was reading two degrees above the old one. It still cools down enough at night that I can turn off the AC without the house heating up or even having it cool down. When I woke up and my house was cool and comfortable I walked past the thermostat and noticed it thought it was 80 degrees inside. It's really unfortunate since I pretty much like everything else about it, but since I can't be home to constantly calibrate the temp, I have to replace it with something else.I have been using this thermostat for about a month. Be advised, if you are using it on batteries then it won't update as quickly as it would when using a c-wire. When using a c-wire it updates in a minute or less. When using batteries it updates about every five minutes. The reason for this is so the batteries last longer. The app is very user friendly and I like the widget that come with it (I have an android phone). There is one widget that shows the current temp and the temp the thermostat is set too and a sperate smaller widget that you use to turn on/off away mode.The geofencing feature is my favorite part of owning this thermostat. It doesn't make much difference during the week when I'm at work since the schedule is set to turn up/down depending if I am using heat or AC. However, it is great for the weekends when I may be out of the house at any point during the day. Now, I don't have to worry about setting back the temp when I leave. You can set the distance you have to be from your home before it sets it to away mode. This is nice for if I go to the grocery store near my place I don't have it changing the temp when I'm going to be back soon anyhow. The only problem I have with the app is it only updates your location every seven minutes. I work less than two straight line miles from home so I have to set the radius of the geofence to 1.5 miles. So, with a 7 min location update and a minute thermostat wifi update I'm over halfway home by the time it turns off away mode. This really isn't a big deal though because of the small widget that you can turn away mode on/off. When I leave work I press it and I'm good to go.The thermostat is a little big, compared to others, but not so much so that it looks ugly on the wall. It was easy to install and I tried it oriented vertically and horizontally before deciding on the vertical orientation (purely personal preference). It has a good amount of options in the settings menu to set it up for your system.One thing I had to do was calibrate the temperature. Even after leaving it alone for awhile it still read a couple degrees above what my old thermostat and an old school liquid thermometers showed. Took me a few tries to get it calibrated just right. During this process I discovered it displays the temp differently that what my old thermostat does. When calibrating it I noticed that it showed the exact temp it was reading down the the tenth of a degree. Basically if the exact temp is 73.3 then the thermostat reads as 74 where if my old thermostat would read 73. Now, if you set the temp to 74 when it reads 74 sometimes the heat would still kick on. I'm guessing because the real temp is actually below 74. Once I figured that out I was able to calibrate the temp better.If you aren't really concerned with having a color LCD touch screen then this thermostat is as good as any other wifi thermostat. I don't like the idea of the how the Nest "learns" your schedule or preferences. I'm sure it does it well since it is so popular, but I don't think it is worth the extra money especially with having the geofencing and a good smartphone app where I can easily adjust the temp when I want to. I actually use my phone to adjust the temp a lot more than I thought I would. I especially like it when I have to wake up earlier than the scheduled temperature change during when it is cold out. Cold in my room and am dreading getting out of bed to turn up the heat, oh yeah, I can grab my phone sitting next to me on the nightstand and adjust it without having to get out from under the covers. I know is sounds lazy but who hasn't been there before.

Not having a "C-wire" for my heating system, my choices of smart thermostats is limited. The C wire is what provides constant power to a smart thermostat. My choices were, a $300 Nest or this $89 abomination. I was impressed with what was in the box. It comes with a cord to plug it in if you want or, you can use the supplied batteries. It even comes with something you can put on your furnace to provide a C wire. Other thermostats charge extra for this. Some houses use 4 wire cable to all the thermostats but, only use 2 of the wires. You could use this thing on your furnace and connect it to one of the unused wires. A really nice extra. In my house, they cheaped out and only ran 2 wire cable.With only 2 wires to connect, hooking it up was easy. As a really expensive manual thermostat, it's great. Turn the dial and push it in to set the temp. I'm sure this 7 day programable thermostat can even be programmed on the thermostat itself but, there are no instructions on how to do that. Not even on line. That's ok, I was going to use the app. I downloaded the app and, it wouldn't connect to the thermostat. I have an Android and the instructions only have screenshots for an iPhone but, the concept is the same. You set the thermostat as a wifi access point, you connect your phone wifi to that access point, you go in the app and select your regular wifi network. Similar to setting up an Alexa or a smart TV. Pretty simple, right? It wouldn't connect. I went through the process at least 10 times.I was just going to return it to Amazon but, I decided to call the support number instead. I had to look for the number online because, it's not in the manual. I was surprised to get someone very quickly. We stepped through the same process I went through about 10 times and it didn't work for them either. They said "We'll send you a new unit. It'll take a couple weeks". I should have said "Nah, I'll just return it to Amazon".I get the new thermostat and, it has the same issue. Won't setup through the app. I notice on this new thermostat that there's another option on setting it up. On the old one, you only had the option of setting it up through the app. This new one had the option of setting it up though WPS. There's nothing in the manual or the online instructions on how to set it up through WPS. I'll try it anyway. Maybe the screen will walk me through setup like every other WPS device on the planet. Nope. I hit "WPS" and it literally says "First, go to website to register. When prompted, enter device ID". It doesn't tell you what website. I had to Google it. I entered the Device ID and I got "Invalid device ID".Now, it's too late to return this to Amazon.UPDATE: I had emailed support asking for instructions on how to use WPS to set it up. I never heard back. A couple days later, I emailed support saying "Hey, I got the new thermostat. What do you want me to do?". No response.I called them and got someone on the phone fairly quickly again. We spent about an hour on the phone trying to get this one to work. "Take that batteries out, hit the reset button. Put the batteries back in. take the batteries out again, hit the reset button. Put the batteries back in". We did that at least 4 times. He couldn't get the screen he wanted on the thermostat. He said "I'm going to have to have my supervisor call you. It should be about an hour". 2 days later ..... no call.Update #2. A week later, still never heard back from them but, I finally got the thermostat to connect !!! I guess the 87th time is the charm. The problem now? The time is off by several hours. There's no option to set the time on this thermostat.Update #3 about 2 months later. When you change the batteries in this thing, you have to go through the whole process of getting it connected the the network again. And again ..... 87 times !!! I'm just using it as a regular dial thermostat at this point.