Heard back from Wyze yesterday. Sounds like they are going to address it in a software update. Here is the email:
"Richard (Wyze)
Jan 3, 2021, 12:40 PM PST
Hi Mark,
Thanks for updating us. I’m very glad to hear that your Thermostat runs perfectly well now. I can see that you have wanted to know how to customize the temperature difference. I’d be glad to check this one for you.
You can set the value of the minimum difference between the current temperature and set temperature before the system calls for heat or cool. A smaller difference means shorter cycle times, whereas a larger difference results in longer cycle times. By default, the differential temp is 0.5°F which means if you the heat is set to 65°F we will turn the HVAC on when the temperature falls to 64.5°F. A higher Differential Temp will help prevent unnecessary short cycles from wearing your heating/cooling system and reduce save cost.
At this time, this option is unavailable due to bugs that we are still working on. Don’t worry, we will make it available in the coming app updates 2.17+. Once available, you should see this by going to Settings > System > Differential Temp.
I hope this information finds you well and feel free to reply if I can assist you with anything else.
Kind of silly that this thermostat came out in the winter and they weren’t entirely ready to operate correctly. I have an upstairs and downstairs unit, both the same problem… over throws the target temp by 2-3 degrees every time… I’ve also tested this against 3 different brand thermometers and wyze is always off by 1.5 degrees to actual temp. I expect .5 difference between the units but that’s a big jump… I’m also waiting for that remote sensor cause my sons room doesn’t have a thermostat and we are always having to crank the heat in our room to level his
I’ve solved the issue. Into the trash it went and I went out and bought a Nest. Zero issues with temp. Extremely disappointed in Wyze. Way too many products and zero customer support except cut & paste responses that do not solve problems.
I like my nest thermostats (i’ve had 4 in my 2 previous homes) but it wasn’t all better. It was a pain in the butt to change Nest’s smart programming…the way the UI is presented is good but making a single change wasn’t as smooth as it should have been. I also didn’t like how I couldn’t run the fan unless it was in Heat or Cool mode. Wyze allows this, just like a dumb thermostat does. It’s still early going for me but so far I’m digging these $50 thermostats.
Same here, the wife said if there is no fix or feedback they are working on a fix by the end of next week, she wants the 2 units returned and switch to a different brand, I agreed so we are not being wasteful with our electric usage.
I really don’t have this issue with mine. The only thing I can think of is in the settings under “Behavior” I have mine set to “max comfort” which was not the default. I would assume is you set the slider on the “savings” end of the scale, it would give you greater differences like your experiencing.
This makes sense. I observed my upstair thermostat overshooting the target temp and I have that slider set just one notch left of center, indicated as “More Savings” next to Behavior under settings.
I also set mine to max comfort. It seems to be close to the set temps that way. So they should either better describe the differential in the description or give us an advanced way to manually set it.
The worst part about this is, the product information page still says this is a feature for people buying it today. If it’s not a feature, it should not be advertised as a feature. Even if the slider worked and they told us exactly what it does; that still would not be these advertised features:
Differential Temp Customize the temperature difference before the system kicks in. The smaller/larger the difference, the sooner/longer before the system calls to heat or cool the space back to your set temperature.
Minimum Run Time
Extend the life of your HVAC system. Use the Minimum Run Time feature to set the minimum amount of time the system should run for after you’ve turned it on, even if it’s been manually turned off.
Customize the temp is a setting of temperature between cut in and out. “Minimum amount of time” should be measured in time.
Neither of these is covered by a slider that changes both at one. These were both advertised features when I purchased the thermostats, and continue be advertised as features now, when they do not exist.
This seems to be the way Wyze operates. I still like their stuff, but I have grown to accept that some of the features they claim to have, just don’t work. So far, none of those things have bothered me on the thermostat as they are not that important to me. But not to say they are important to other people such as yourself.
I found this out with my door sensors and camera notifications when it takes up to 15 minutes for me to get a notification on my android phone. It’s strange when I use a third party app that works trhough wyze, I get the notifications right away, but not on the wyze app itself. Wyze has pretty much totally ignored this problem with android phones. What seems to me to be a easy fix, just gets ignored. And that makes me leery of buying any of their products for security purpose like their new monitored alarm system. Your house will probably be emptied out by the time you get a notification. I worry about the doorbell notifying me 15 minutes after someone has been at my door and I miss them.
But I like their little cameras to keep an eye on things. And the door sensors are good to let me know when I left a door open somewhere. But not to warn me someone had entered my house.
They did say that new features would be added to the thermostat in 2021 so lets hope they do.
Part of the notification issue is the way android devices sleep and check for new notifications roughly every 15 minutes. Or if you turn the screen on the phone you may get a bunch of alerts at once.
That said, I think Wyze could set their alerts to be high priority to get delivered instantly but it probably costs them more. What third-party app do you use to get alerts?
The app is IFTTT. It is free for a certain number of texts each month. Once you reach your limit, you won’t get anymore texts until the next month. Or you can pay around 30 or 40 bucks a year for unlimited tests. It also works with other apps besides Wyze.
I just don’t get how IFTTT which gets its notifications from WYZE can send me the text instantly, yet the Wyze app takes 5 to 15 minutes. And it apparently is not an issue with Apple. Go figure. Whatever the issue is, Wyze should fix it but they don’t seem to give a damn,
Just installed my thermostat today and was wondering this exact thing… it showed 68 degrees and was set to 69 but didn’t turn on… I had it on balanced and from what I understand in the app it won’t kick on until it goes below 68 on the balanced setting… took it up a notch on ‘comfort’ will see how it goes…