Honeywell Home RTH6580WF WiFi 7-Day Programmable Review

The Honeywell Home RTH6580WF thermostat provides dependable and affordable temperature control. Featuring user-friendly physical buttons, it seamlessly integrates with various smart home ecosystems and offers convenient remote access and scheduling via its mobile app and website.

Performance Comparison

Ease of Use

When testing thermostats for ease of use, we consider everything from their user interface, mobile app, fan controls, and hold settings to the clarity of information on their screens. The Honeywell Home RTH6580WF fell below the average for the test group here.

The RTH6580WF has physical buttons that forgo the touch interface on many modern thermostats. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. We found the buttons responsive enough to do their job and easy to read, with their function illuminated on the screen above. Off, Heat, and Cool modes are easily cycled through, and the temperature settings, controlled by an up and down arrow, work as expected. If you want to access its controls remotely, you can use Honeywell's Total Comfort Control app or visit a website in your web browser of choice to adjust settings there. However, these basic interfaces aren't as fancy or feature-rich as those associated with the more premium thermostats. We'd have liked to have seen a temperature slider function and quicker ways to adjust the settings than what was offered on the app and website for this Honeywell.

Fan controls on the RTH6580WF are limited to Auto and On, but we appreciate that they are there and accessible remotely. The fan will run continuously in On mode until the user changes the settings. Similiarly, the Hold function is pretty simple, in that it will just hold the current temperature until the next scheduling event is triggered or the user disengages it.

The basic screen on the RTH6580WF is decent up until about 8 feet away, when it becomes hard to read, depending on your eyesight. The information on the display was too cluttered with button options, and we would have preferred for the current temperature to be displayed front and center. Instead, that is where the clock is located, and the current temperature is off to the left in a larger font, whereas the set temperature is on the right in a smaller font. It can be a confusing interface until you get used to it. Unlike many other thermostats, including some Honeywell products, the RTH6580WF does not display the outside temperature based on your location, but the app does. Screen clarity is good if you're standing close enough to the thermostat and we appreciated that the display lights up on button presses to make it easier to adjust in the dark. The temperature that this thermostat displays is -0.287 degrees Fahrenheit off from the actual relative temperature of the room. This is very accurate, but a middling performance compared to the rest of the group.

DIY Installation

The RTH6580WF was one of the lowest scorers in our installation evaluation, but it was still well within the capabilities of most people who are somewhat handy. While there was a thorough installation video available to follow, there was no in-app guidance like with premium smart thermostats, and we felt that registration and app setup were a bit tedious compared to most other brands.

The included quickstart guide was helpful, letting us know exactly what tools to gather to complete the job. This unit had screw-type wire receivers instead of our much preferred push-in type. As always, we appreciated that the guide reminded us to snap a photo of the old thermostat's wiring so we'd have it to reference later in the installation. However, there was no built-in level or wallplate included, as we saw with some others.

Scheduling

This unit did alright in our schedule testing, but it wasn't perfect. It uses comfort-type settings with functions like Wake, Leave, Return, and Sleep with the ability to schedule 7 days at a time with up to 4 events per day. While it's possible to set a schedule on the thermostat itself, it's tedious and time-consuming to do so, with lots of button pressing and menu hopping. We much preferred the convenience of setting the schedule in the app, where we could make individual changes, sweeping changes, or rely on the setup wizard to walk us through.

Smart Capabilities

The Honeywell RTH6580WF isn't a full-featured smart thermostat, but it does tick a couple of boxes in this metric. Navigating around the basic and outdated-looking Total Comfort Control app is extremely limited compared to more robust smart thermostats. It lacks features like geofencing, maintenance reminders, safety heat, and schedule learning, but it does have rather excellent compatibility with all of the major smart home ecosystems, from the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google, IFTTT, and Samsung.

Energy Saving

This metric is all about energy efficiency features, sustainable practices, and carbon offset. There is little to report for the RTH6580WF, as it altogether forgoes eco modes, energy reporting, and grid-optimized consumption. We could not find any mention of sustainable packaging or carbon offset.

Should You Buy the Honeywell Home RTH6580WF WiFi 7-Day Programmable Thermostat?

If you're in the market for a budget-friendly thermostat with some added smart capabilities, the Honeywell Home RTH6580WF is worth considering for much less. While it may take some patience to set up and schedule, once you're familiar with its features, it reliably performs its job. However, if you're looking for a smarter thermostat, those can be snagged for not much more these days.

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