Honeywell RLV310A Non Programmable Digital Thermostat Review
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012I recently purchased two of the Honeywell RLV310A non programmable digital thermostat for the electric baseboard heaters used around my home. At a cost of approximately $30 from Lowe’s home improvement center, I thought that they priced this unit reasonably. The RLV310A is much quieter (no clicking sounds as it turns the heaters on and off), as this digital thermostat utilizes an all-electronic switching mechanism (a triac) to switch on and off the 220 volt supply to my 2500 watt resistance baseboard heaters. Here are my impressions of this Honeywell digital thermostat.
Benefits Of The Honeywell RLV310A Non Programmable Digital Thermostat
- Honeywell’s supplied installation instructions were easy to follow and straight forward.
- Installation of the RLV310A took under a half hour and required only a Philips screwdriver since I was just replacing an existing thermostat instead of installing a new one from scratch.
- The RLV310A has just two black wires that you hook up as you would a regular light switch into one side of the electric heater supply line.
- No ground terminal is provided, as the RLV310 is packaged in an all-plastic case; including its mounting plate. This further simplifies installation.
- Since there were no programming instructions included, as the Honeywell RLV310A digital thermostat is not programmable, the operating instructions are thus, quite easy to understand.
- With just two buttons (to raise and lower the room temperature set point), the RLV310A is quite simple to operate.
- The RLV310A responds immediately when you change the temperature set point, and immediately turns on the heater full blast when you raise the temperature, and turns it completely off when you lower the temperature, until the room temperature falls to the new set point.
- In terms of comfort, I like the tight temperature control of the RLV310A, as it allows no more than a plus or minus 0.35 degree temperature swing in the room, before actuating the heater (turning it on or off).
- As the RLV310A limits the size of the temperature swings in the room, the users guide says that savings in heating bills should be significant. This is important when paying for electric baseblard heating, as each room costs a few dollars per day to keep warm as it is.
What I Dislike About The Honeywell RLV310A Non Programmable Digital Thermostat
- I was disappointed that the Honeywell RLV310A automatic thermostat is not at least a little programmable. It would have been nice to be able to adjust the span between the turn-on and turn-off temperatures.
- The RLV310A offers a very narrow and non adjustable temperature span of approximately 0.7 degrees. That is, when the room temperature falls 0.35 degrees below the set point temperature, this Honeywell digital thermostat turns the heater it controls on. Then, when the temperature rises to 0.35 degrees above the set point, this thermostat turns the heater off. This means that the heater comes on and off several times per minute, which can be distracting when all else in the room is quiet.
- My particular heaters hum, ping, and clank each time they’re activated. So while I may have eliminated the clicking noises in my old electro-mechanical thermostats by replacing them with the RLV310A, I have exacerbated the noise problem from the heaters themselves. Beware of this if you decide to upgrade to a digital thermostat like the Honeywell RLV310A.
- As is true with so many consumer electronics devices these days, no audio indication is given on the RLV310A when the UP and DOWN temperature buttons are pressed, which can complicate use of this digital thermostat by the blind and vision impaired population. However, since the UP and DOWN temperature buttons are the only two controls to operate on the RLV310A, the absence of sound when pressing the buttons appears to be no big deal.
- I wish the temperature display on the RLV310A was back lit, so it could be viewed without having to turn on another light in the room.
Overall, though it’s non programmable, I’m quite pleased with the Honeywell RLV310A digital thermostat. The unit works exactly as described in the accompanying operation manual, and has revealed that I have very noisy heaters. This just may be the excuse I’ve been looking for to upgrade my cheap heaters to the quieter hydronic units I’ve seen at the stores.