Wyze thermostat differential is an issue

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Ok, after about a year of sitting on the fence, I finally installed my Wyze thermostat replacing an old programable one. The old thermostat worked great but since I had the wyze just laying around, I decided “hey, why not”. Installation was easy, had it up and running within 20 minutes, upgraded firmware to the latest, set schedules and I thought I was good to go. Reality hit.

No matter what I tried, it appears that you can set a desired temp BUT according to the Wyze support, depending on your temp differential, the thermostat will NOT cool or heat to your desired temp BUT to the temp designated by your temp differentail. For example, you set your temp diff to 2 and your desired temp to 75. The thermostat will kick in at 77 and cool to 73. How is this a good idea? If I wanted it to cool to 73, on MOST OTHER thermostats I would set it to 73.

Ok, they suggested I change the differential to 0.5, well then it increases the compressor cycling and thus wear and tear and in my opinion is just not a viable option.

At first I thought it was my settings but after texting and emailing wyze support, this is exactly the way the thermostat is supposed to function.

For me, this is just not what I was looking for and in my opinion is a major flaw in the firmware/software. I do not understand the logic behind this. Why is it that my old manual thermostat can start the cooling 2 degress above the desired temp and stop AT the desired temp but this NEW SMART thermostat can’t do that?

Total disappointment Wyze. You dropped the ball on this one.

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Welcome to the Wyze User Community Forum @res07ooe! :raising_hand_man:

This is not a good idea, it is a great idea!

The majority of the energy used by any HVAC system, and the majority of the wear and tear that will destroy an HVAC system, is during the initial startup of a cycle. The more startups you have each day, the more energy efficient the system.

You don’t want your system short cycling from off to on dozens of times each day because you have a call for cool at 76 and a setpoint at 75. That is both hard on the equipment and not energy efficient.

The wider you can set the differential, the more energy you will save and the longer your equipment will last.

Your old thermostat had a Differential. By your own description it was a 2° differential. It called for cool 2° above the setpoint and stopped at the setpoint. In doing so, your old thermostat allowed the temp to exceed the setpoint by 2° using the setpoint as one of the bookends for the differential. It was also most likely not adjustable.

The Wyze Thermostat uses the setpoint as the Median of the differential so that in a similar 2° spread, the temperature is always within 1° of the setpoint. An added feature is that the differential range is adjustable to meet customer needs.

If you want it to start to cool at 77° and stop at 75° like your old thermostat, it is a pretty easy setup to duplicate. Set your Differential at 1° and your setpoint at 76°. Problem solved.

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