After a couple of weeks struggling to get the Wyze thermostat to properly activate the Auxiliary heat on my heat pump system when the outside temperature fell below 40 degrees, I finally gave up and reinstalled my old Honeywell thermostat. I told this to the Wyze people who were helping me with the problem, and they finally said that this firmware version DOESN’T USE THE OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE TO TRIGGER AUXILIARY HEAT, AND THAT THE ONLY WAY TO ACTIVATE IT IS TO MANUALLY TURN ON EMERGENCY HEAT. They went on to say that the feature I wanted was being tested in their Beta firmware. This is ridiculous. They shouldn’t sell a thermostat for a heat pump system that doesn’t properly control the features of the heat pump. I have been a big fan of Wyze for several years, but this makes me think they are incompetent.
Wouldn’t you really be better off running your auxiliary heat off of W2, and use an electric ambient interlock thermostat at the outdoor unit to disable W2 in warm weather?
A communicated outdoor air value is not particularly robust in anyone’s system, all the way up to the commercial control systems running the largest buildings in the world. That is my opinion as a control system engineer.
Unfortunately, you have both a B and an O wire, so your system is not compatible with wyze.
Thanks, BillG. What you describe is way beyond my skill/knowledge level. My system does have a temperature sensor outside, but the Wyze thermostat and many other “smart” thermostats don’t use those contacts, relying on the internet for the outside temperature.
What irks me about this is that my first note to Wyze Support said this: “Basically the auxiliary or emergency heat is not coming on when it should. It should come on when the outside temperature is 40 degrees or less. I assume that the thermostat is smart enough to check the weather channel to obtain the outside temperature.”
They should have immediately told me that this feature was included with their current version of firmware.
Another thing that made this problem difficult to troubleshoot is that the “System Test” feature gives you only about 1 minute to detect whether heat is coming from the vents for each stage of heating. Especially with a heat pump system, it can take longer than that to determine whether the heat is coming on.
Thanks for your help, but I have given up on the Wyze thermostat for my application.
Heat pumps are tricky. Some manufacturers have an interface that is not made for the typical heating/cooling thermostat like this, and other manufacturers are made to work with the typical interface. Most mini-split heat pumps won’t work with any thermostat but their own, with a wireless remote that can get lost. And it is even more so with the more modern energy efficient heat pumps with a variable speed fan and variable speed compressor. I’ve got to put two of those in the home I’m moving into, which doesn’t currently have cooling. It sucks, because the home has two nice Nest thermostats, and I won’t be able to coordinate the cooling with the existing fin-tube heating.
Long and short - if any thermostat says it is for heat pump control, some heat pumps are different than others, so it still might not work.
I’m better off with the new Amazon thermostats. Literally, I’m spending very little time now tweaking the thermostat settings. The temperatures in both zones are properly maintained now based on the preferences I programmed. I used to spend a lot of time just to make sure the home is properly heated up. Now zero! That’s what a good thermostat should be. You install and forget!
I wish I could return those to Wyze.
I purchased mine last April for a heat pump installation. It worked fine in cooling mode,. I live in Austin, and our heating season is normally short and mild, but we had about 5 days in January when the temperature was in the low 20’s every night. It would not kick on the auxiliary heat, which is supposed to come on when the outside temperature is below 40 degrees. I had to manually trigger the emergency heat. After several emails with Wyze, they admitted that this feature is not yet active. They are giving me a refund for the thermostat I am returning.
Still waiting for ANY word from Wyze about this. I bought two of these for my home last winter, and as we are approaching the cold season again I have already noticed these issues coming up again.
The biggest issue that I am actually noticing now is one that I have seen several people mention here:
The thermostat will call for heat, and as it is blowing air from the heat pump, I noticed the tstat reading will drop down a degree…stay on for 30min until the heat strips kick on, and then end up 2-3degrees above the set point.
So for example: tstat is set for 74. At 73 it kicks on, and after about 5 min of air blowing, the temperature reading drops to 72. It will then continue to blow lukewarm air for 30min, until the heat strips kick on. At this point you can feel the difference from the register…the air is much hotter. The tstat will continue to run until it reaches 75, but by the time it kicks off (since the heat strips activated) it is now reading 76 in the house.
It’s only 55 outside…the heat pump could have handled this just fine - and when I toss the Honeywell back on, this behavior doesn’t happen.
The wiring is correct.
I’ve read a dozen other stories like this on here. This needs to be addressed!!!
I really think these are abandoned… I could be wrong. I threw mine in the garbage and bought another brand and am very happy with them.
I’m glad I found this. I’ll refrain from making this mistake. I almost did but I figured I’d Google “wyze thermostat heat pump” and see if they work together.
Going by the lack of support for 2 years in this thread, I’m going to assume nothing has changed with it and it still doesn’t work right with heat pumps.
Can anyone confirm this? Just want to be sure I’m doing the right thing and avoiding a huge mistake.
Thanks
Blast from the past! I didn’t even think they still sold them.
Avoid at all costs. Look on reddit and other places and you will see why.
There are much better products for this purpose.
I like other Wyze products, but I feel they come out with these “me too” devices and get overwhelmed and can’t support them.
Two years ago I installed a Wyze thermostat in my new apartment. Turned the power on and instantly saw smoke. Done with that. Wyze makes perfectly serviceable cameras but that Thermostat was a mistake. Looks cool but never functioned correctly and almost burned down my apartment.
I now have a house and use a Nest. Nest doesn’t always have a solid reputation but it just works. I can’t recommend anyone else use a thermostat from Wyze. Cameras or lights, go nuts.