Thermostat Room Sensors -First Impressions (plus comparison to Climate sensors)

[carverofchoice]

I bought 6 of the new Room sensors that connect up to the Thermostat. These things look REALLY good!

The magnets in these things are REALLY strong! The batteries were really strongly attracted to them (both in the sensor and the sensor stand).

You can easily decide which sensors are included in Comfort Control or not by selected the plus or minus in the different sections to move them to the other section (as shown below).
You can also select which ones are used for Comfort control during the day time vs night time by selecting or deselecting the House icon or the Moon icon:

You can set a “Threshold Temperature” (Ex: 6 degrees) for each sensor to where if one of the sensors varies from the Thermostat temperature by more than that amount, it will show a red warning for that sensor, indicating it has a huge difference there, as you can see on 2 of the sensors below:

Each sensor also lets you select how you would like the Thermostat to manage hot/cold spots. You can set it to:

• Prioritize Saving (which I believe means it will give less concern to temperature differences with that sensor and more priority to the average of the other sensors)
• Balanced (which I believe means it will count toward the average of all of the other sensors selected as balanced)
• Prioritize Comfort (which I believe means means the thermostat will continue to go until all sensors labeled this way reach their set temperatures (though other areas may still vary in temperature)

The battery level is just an icon in the settings - Device Info page

By comparison, the HMS climate sensors battery level just says a word like Normal or Low.

Differences between Thermostat Room Sensors Vs HMS/Hub Climate Sensors:

• Climate sensors have Push Notifications for Temperature/Humidity highs or lows, and Rule triggers for Automations, TStat Room Sensors currently do not.
  • Unlike the HMS “Climate sensors” that connect to the Hub, these “Room Sensors” which connect to the Thermostat do not currently have notifications to tell you when a temperature goes above or below a certain temperature, nor do they have rule triggers to do automations (for example, I have a space heater connected to a Wyze plug which is turned on or off automatically solely based on what the Climate sensor determines the room temperature to be. If it gets too cold, the Climate sensor automatically turns on the space heater for that room, once it warms up the room to a certain temperature, it shuts off the heater automatically, keeping the room at a pleasant temperature. If I leave the room for more than 10 minutes, the heater is also turned off (and as a fail safe, if the heater is ever on for longer than X minutes, it also auto-shuts-off). I am also able to put these right above my stove and then I get notifications when the stove turns on (goes above set temperature) and when it cools back to normal temps (drops back to below the “too hot” temperature). These more recent Tstat Room Sensors cannot do any of those automations or notifications that are possible with the climate sensors.
• The Climate Sensors Have cool stats!
  
  
  
  
  
  NONE of the above stats are possible with the Tstat Room Sensors
• The Tstat Room sensors LOOK AWESOME with their display, and you can view their temp and humidity at a glance without looking at the app; though the Climate sensors are less conspicuous and easy to place almost anywhere. Both are easy to mount to a wall or set on a shelf or whatever you want:
  
  
  
  
  
  As you can see, I am currently leaving several placed near each other so I can see how consistent they are with their measurements to each other (to be discussed more in a minute).
• Room sensors have a motion detection sensor so the Tstat can determine if the room is occupied, but you can not view this detection anywhere in the app (the sensor display itself will show a little dot on it for somewhere around 16-20 seconds when it detects motion though) or use it as a motion sensor for automations or notifications or anything, it is solely for the temperature calculating ability currently.
• The Room sensors currently can be used for determining what your HVAC system is doing. The Climate sensors may or may not have this ability in the future. Wyze previously indicated they were researching how to make it possible for the Climate sensors to work for temperature averaging use with the Thermostat, but that capability is not possible at the time of this writing.
• The Room Sensors take 2 AAA batteries (YAY! I can use Rechargeables when the batteries need replacing 3 years from now) while the Climate Sensors use a Button Cell Battery (which lasts 18 months, so that’s great too).
• The Climate sensors are more affordable, presumably because they don’t have a display, are smaller, etc.

Consistency comparisons:

They are pretty close to each other, and often the same. It seems the climate sensors are just a tad more sensitive to humidity, and temperatures are almost identical. The few differences reported could be explained by things such as the Climate Sensor sitting flat on a surface, while the Room Sensor is on a stand. In the Family room the difference could be that they are slightly farther apart, see the above picture with the Room Sensor under the TV and the Climate Sensor above a doorway. That would perfectly explain the differences there for example. Most of them were next to each other though. All in all I would say they are pretty consistent with each other and certainly within reasonable tolerances. That is reassuring.

Things I wish would be changed:
Room Sensors:

• Add stats, Push Notifications, and Rules similar to what the Climate sensors have.
• Allow us to have more than 6 of these used toward the “Comfort Controls”
• Add Google and Alexa Access

Climate Sensors

• Enable the Thermostat to be able take the readings from these into account when averaging the household temperature
• Add Google and Alexa Access
• Be able to pick which sensors are used or not used for the HMS Environment Stats

Overall, Even if nothing changes for either of them I like both of these sensors, but they currently are definitely better at different things than the other. I will be keeping and using both sets of sensors, though I will likely redistribute them into different areas of the house now (Room Sensors get priority for places I want considered for HVAC controls, and Climate sensors for other areas I still want monitored, though a few critical rooms will still have overlap with both sensors in the same room.

[ChristianS]

How the heck were you able to order, receive, install, and review 6 of these already? I ordered one unit at 6:30 am the day they were announced (May 3), and it still hasn’t even been shipped yet!

What’s the deal Wyze?

[drboyd]

Ha! Did I ever beat you, or what?!?

Mine have already been ordered, received, tried, failed, and a return request is in the works!

[spamoni]

@carverofchoice

but you can not view this detection anywhere

@carverofchoice , just got done setting mine up. You are correct in that you cannot view this anywhere in the App. However, on the sensor itself, there is a dot which appears when it sees motion. and it is quick at catching motion.

[PAJ]

Mine connects but never udates temp or humidity in the app. Struggling to get anything from Wyze, anyone have any ideas why this would be the case or do I just have a non-functional sensor?

[spamoni]

What do your sensors look like in the App. I have left mine connected and doing nothing with them until they fully acclimate to the environment. One of mine is not transmitting the Temp or Humidity at this time. Going through a few steps to see why.

But so far they seem to be functioning for me. I am paying specific attention to the Temp and Humidity of each compared to the App.

[Brewcam]

So let me get this straight…the built in motion sensor has been disabled, but now we can buy a new external motion sensor…is that what you are telling me?

[csmith1]

Yes and no, the motion sensor on the Room Sensors will not trigger a home/away state like the motion sensor used to on the thermostat if thats what you are referring to.

This would be a cool feature though as having multiple sensors around the house would greatly decrease false Away triggers.

[Brewcam]

Oh boy.
So the “feature tip” mentioning “motion-sensing comfort” doesn’t trigger Home from Away?
Dud.
I’m also curious how, per the feature tip… “Only the occupied room will be heated/cooled”.
I’d call it a challenge from my thermostat to do anything room specific…no matter how much is understands the specific temperature of said room.

[Brewcam]

What is the point of these?

[csmith1]

@Brewcam

“Only the occupied room will be heated/cooled”

Agreed, that is a very misleading statement. I could see it spun if the system allowed you to only use the temp from one sensor, but it will always balance with the thermostat so not even true from that perspective.

Misleading marketing aside - these are fine devices for just generally balancing the temp in your home. If you are looking for anything more, these are not it. At least on the current software version.

[petschke]

Can anyone explain the purpose of these room sensors? I’m assuming Wyze Thermostat doesn’t automatically control any dampers, so even if it detects one room is hot vs others, it can’t actually fix the imbalance. All it can do is blast more cold air into all rooms; which simply reduces all the temperatures. Other than monitoring the temp, how is this worth the money when I can just go into thermostat and force it to cool because I’m in a room that’s warmer than I want.

I have a ton of Wyze products, but I do not see the product market fit here - just seems like a temp/humidity measurement device that you can see in Wyze. Am I missing something?

[carverofchoice]

@petschke

Other than monitoring the temp, how is this worth the money when I can just go into thermostat and force it to cool because I’m in a room that’s warmer than I want.

Because some people do not want to have to monitor this constantly and manually change things all the time depending on which room they are in (too much effort to do too many times per day). The sensor will help do this automatically for the people who want it to be done automatically. Some people want that. Others don’t. Wyze has catered to both preference groups. People can absolutely use just the Tstat without sensors totally fine too.

It isn’t there to fix an imbalance to no longer exist. Instead it is to make a person as comfortable as possible where they currently are at. A person may not use a certain room at the exact same time every day, so it can be hard to set a schedule to tell the Tstat when it should go up or down a little to make sure a certain area is comfortable. With these sensors you can set it up so that certain rooms in the house are ALWAYS above or below a certain temperature range during certain times of the day (based on Tstat day/sleep schedule), and also have it alter the temperature goals to give more preference to whatever room you are currently using at the moment.

Absolutely a person can do all of this manually without the sensors. But some people don’t want to manually change the temperature 10 times per day or have to remember how much higher or lower to set to it based on the room in question. The sensors will figure it all out for that user and they’ll never have to think about it again.

Absolutely, this product isn’t for everyone. Shifting the detection area throughout the day caters to comfort instead of savings. Some people who want to focus solely on savings may prefer not to have these. Wyze has made the Thermostat to function really well all on its own without extra sensors, and that is perfect for that market group of people. These sensors are not targeting that market. They are targeting the market of people who have houses with big temp or humidity imbalances throughout their house and want to feel more comfortable in the room(s) they are currently occupying, and don’t care as much about the temp differences in the rooms they aren’t currently occupying, and want this to dynamically update in those main areas. This sensor is geared toward people who really want that.

[Brewcam]

Sorry @carverofchoice …this just doesn’t compute.
Are you telling me the Wyze folks created a whole new device because “some people want that”??

I don’t really see this being much more than something else to see the temperature on.
If I have a room on the 2nd floor that tends to be warmer in the summer (I do), all that will happen is the AC will run more often making that room more comfy and the other rooms too cool.

Oh, the motion sensor will assist?

Now we are getting into the area where Wyze has simple pissed me off.

As an original purchaser of the Wyze Thermostat, one of my favorite features, especially for a rental home, is (was) the built in…yes built in…motion sensor.

The original firmware allowed one to set Away mode.
When the motion sensor was activated it switched to Home mode.

–tangent–>I made a feature request that when in Away mode and motion switches device to Home mode, there be the option to revert back to Away mode after XX minutes
–end tangent–

This is (was) one of the great features.

Then…without any warning, upon the next firmware update that function was gone.
I even called support and they had no idea why that feature wasn’t working.
After going through multiple BS thermostat resets, someone at Wyze finally realized that feature was removed.

Somewhere, somebody with power didn’t like that feature.
Notice how many complaints there are about this feature in the forums?
None.
Notice how many complaints there are about this feature being removed in the forums?
More than “some”.
Yet that feature went up in smoke almost instantly.
What should have been done is the ability to disable the feature in the settings, not wipe it out entirely.

You might say the geo-fencing does the same thing.
Yes it does, IF everyone has the app on their phone.
This is simply unrealistic.

I’m done with my tirade for now, but it really bothers me that this much effort has gone into introducing a new device, yet software functionality has removed a feature I find more valuable.

[SlabSlayer]

@Brewcam, commenting ONLY on the motion sensing State Change feature you mentioned. I am still testing other features, or lack thereof. Suggest you get confirmation on my findings from others before making a decision:

@Brewcam

The original firmware allowed one to set Away mode.
When the motion sensor was activated it switched to Home mode.

I have been testing a single sensor to see what it actually does since there is NO actual operations and functions manual published.

To my surprise, the motion detection to switch thermostat state works with the sensor.

I have one sensor, Included in Comfort Control, Auto Comfort on, Home Mode only, Balanced. I manually set my Thermostat to Away State. I then walked in front of the sensor and it immediately changed my thermostat State to Home.

I have found however, it will NOT change the State to Sleep (when only Sleep is set on the sensor). Probably because it is outside the Thermostat’s sleep schedule and currently in the Home Schedule.

More testing ongoing and warranted. If the State Change on Motion is only applicable during that specified State Schedule it is a pretty useless feature if the Thermostat’s schedule overrides the feature. One would need to leave the schedule in Home mode 24\7 and manually switch away every time.

[carverofchoice]

@SlabSlayer

To my surprise, the motion detection to switch thermostat state works with the sensor.

I have one sensor, Included in Comfort Control, Auto Comfort on, Home Mode only, Balanced. I manually set my Thermostat to Away State. I then walked in front of the sensor and it immediately changed my thermostat State to Home.

This is really interesting, and something a lot of people have been asking for. Thanks for sharing! I didn’t even think to check that. Nice insight.

[SlabSlayer]

Yeah, wasn’t even testing for that when it happened. But then I duplicated it and tested it under Hold mode to confirm. Please run it thru the paces w\ all your sensors to confirm it’s not a fluke.

[carverofchoice]

I’m away from home for a bit, but I totally trust @spamoni to test/confirm this. He’s got most everything else with these sensors tested out thoroughly. spamoni4 can you test this out in your spare time to get us a second confirmation?

[spamoni]

Absolutely will. But wont be able to get to it for an hour, is that ok?

[spamoni]

@SlabSlayer , What would you like me to confirm?

I can let you know the following off hand:

1. If using Auto Comfort, you would set the mode in which you would like he Remote sensors to participate in. So basically, if the T-Stat is in Home Mode, then only those sensors slated to work in Home Mode and sees motion will be used in conjunction with the T-Stat. Same is true if you are in Sleep Mode.

2. I Will need to test to see if the system is set to away mode and then sees motion, will it switch to Home or Sleep based on the schedule. However, this images sort of implies that you gave to toggle this on in order for devices to determine if you are home or away. Is yours Selected?

   

EDIT

Just did the following test:

• Set one of my Sensors to Home and Sleep and turned on Auto Comfort.
• Put the T-Stat in Away Mode
• Walked by the Sensor and the T-Stat, found that it stayed in Away Mode
• Removed the Sensor and added a new Sensor to Home and Sleep
• Turned on the Auto Switch Check box in the image above. Note: to turn this on, I had to set the Location Permissions to Always on my Android Device
• Set the T-Stat to Away Mode
• Then walked by the sensor and it did switch to Home. This is expected as My schedule is currently Home Mode.

Item to note as well, being in Auto Comfort and having the Auto Switch Selected, I believe it will switch the T-Stat to the Scheduled Mode when any of the sensors see’s motion and not just the one in the Included List.