“Honeywell” – is a name synonymous with every household in USA, as they have a wide range of home automation products for different purposes. If you recall correctly, Honeywell was the #1 market leader in “thermostats” 10 years ago (for a very long period), until the arrival of Nest and Ecobee. Unlike new generation companies like Nest & Ecobee, Honeywell has a very wide range of thermostat models – serving line voltage heating systems and low voltage systems alike. They also have thermostat models suitable for different budget, starting from as low as 30 USD (basic programmable thermostat). In this guide, we are reviewing “Honeywell RTH9585WF” – which is one of the best selling WiFi thermostat model suitable for low voltage (24 volts) systems like central furnace, boilers or heat pumps.
A little background story!
Honeywell RTH9585WF is actually a newer version of its best selling predecessor Honeywell RTH9580WF, with some added features & a better display. The old version RTH9580WF is still available in the market for purchase, but we believe it would be wise to choose the new version RTH9585WF (Honeywell might withdraw the old version in future). Lets go deep into the features of Honeywell RTH9585WF.
Honeywell RTH9585WF Thermostat – Review
The key highlight of Honeywell RTH9585WF is its big sized touchscreen display – where you can see the weather data quiet visibly. The big display also facilitates easy on-device programming. Apart from this highlight feature, RTH9585WF incorporates all essential features of a smart thermostat except “self learning” or “auto programming”.
This best selling model has all essential features like #energy savings – where you can expect an annual savings in the range of 10% (on energy usage bills), #WiFi enabled control – where you can control this thermostat from anywhere in the world using mobile app (you can change temperature, programs, create new schedule, get energy reports and more), #voice control – where you can control the device with your voice through smart hubs like Apple Homekit, Amazon Alexa, Google Home and other popular smart home devices.
Honeywell RTH9585WF has an inbuilt learning technology named “Smart Response” – which controls energy usage very well and keeps your home in a comfortable atmosphere. This algorithm learns from heating/cooling cycles and adjusts itself. This technology also ensures pet safe temperature & operation of the thermostat.
The Design
Popular thermostat models like Nest (T3 and E) and Ecobee (4 and 3 Lite) follows an intuitive design – where they just blend into your room interiors. They are sleek, minimal in size – where one can easily catch the modern, trendy gadget design principles in Nest & Ecobee models. However, our model Honeywell RTH9585WF follows a very conventional design approach – with a box style design, big in size and has a big touchscreen display. The big touchscreen is a plus as it helps people with vision problems to program the device easily. The display background color can also be changed (choose from preset colors ) to match your interiors.
The Touchscreen Display
The display home screen has temperature and humidity (indoor & outdoor separate), time, and temperature change option (up & down arrows). You can change the temperature setting by touching the up/down arrow. The display has other screens (tabs) namely Fan, Mode & Settings – all of which can be accessed using touch. The display also has an option to see full day weather forecast (5 day forecast is available on mobile app).
Its really a matter of individual preference when it comes to choosing the design. I personally know homeowners who switched from Nest to Honeywell RTH9585WF just because of the bigger display (his wife had vision problems and she preferred a bigger display). If you prefer sleek, minimal design go for the Nest or Ecobee models, whereas if you prefer bigger screen – go for RTH9585WF.
Compatibility of RTH9585WF Thermostat
The golden rule one should keep in mind while shopping a thermostat is ” Check compatibility with your home HVAC system before you add to cart” Any thermostat model, be it Nest or Ecobee or Honeywell is not compatible with all types of HVAC systems. There are different types of HVAC systems in use, where the most common ones are single stage or double stage central furnaces, boilers or heat pumps ( generally known as 24 volt systems or low voltage systems). Read our comprehensive guide on Single stage and Multi stage HVAC systems to gain better understanding.
Note: We’ve crafted a Thermostat compatibility guide – where we cover detailed compatibility data of different popular thermostat models.
Apart from the popular low voltage systems, there are also line voltage systems (running on 120 volts/240 volts). Our model Honeywell RTH9585WF is not compatible for line voltage systems.
The Features of RTH9585WF
As we’ve seen the most important points about Honeywell RTH9585WF, let’s dig deep into all the features of RTH9585WF quickly.
#1 WiFi Enabled – You can control this thermostat using your home WiFi and mobile app (from anywhere in the world). The thermostat should be connected to your home WiFi network or a smart home hub (like Apple Homekit or Amazon Alexa) to facilitate mobile app based control.
#2 Smart Response Technology – is an inbuilt learning algorithm in RTH9585WF, which learns heating/cooling cycles and adjusts itself to serve the right temperature to home inmates.
#3 Voice Control – works well with voice based smart home hubs like Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple Homekit. Voice based control of RTH9585WF is possible, if you interface the thermostat to any of of the smart home hubs.
#4 Weather Forecast – Daily weather forecast is available on thermostat display screen and 5 Day forecast is available on mobile app.
#5 Auto Alerts – for extreme temperatures, replacement of filters and other essentials.
#6 Password Lock – enable partial/full lock to protect your schedule settings from accidental changes by children or guests in your home. A “Full Lock” ensures nothing changes and a “Partial Lock” allows change of temperature only.
#7 Energy Savings – we’ve already mentioned this above. You can expect an annual savings of 10% or more on energy bills (for heating/cooling).
#8 Auto Updates – for day light savings, 12/24 hour time format and multi language supports.
#9 On Screen Help – The help button on screen helps you solve your problems without surfing over Google.
#10 ENERGYSTAR Certified – which means RTH9585WF is designed on energy saving principles documented by Energystar – the US government backed agency for energy certification.
Comparing RTH9585WF vs RTH9580WF
As I wrote above, Honeywell RTH9585WF is the successor of its best selling WiFi thermostat model Honeywell RTH9580WF (which is still available for purchase). The predecessor is more bulky, follows a conventional boxed design (not sleek, curves are not smoothed); whereas the newer model RTH9585WF is sleek, with smooth design on edges. The key highlight is pricing – where the newer model (RTH9585WF) is available for a better price (with discount offers), where as the older model has no discounts available. Apart from design part, and pricing, all other features are same for both RTH9585WF and the older model RTH9580WF.
Emerson Sensi ST75 vs Honeywell RTH9585WF
Emerson Sensi ST75 – is a great WiFi thermostat model, comparable to Honeywell RTH9585WF by all means. Sensi ST75 follows a much better design approach compared to RTH9585WF, as the model is trendy, stylish, more minimal and sleek than RTH9585WF. The pricing (list price) is almost same for both models, where the discounts offered may vary from time to time.
When it comes to features, Sensi ST75 is the clear winner as it provides “geo-fencing” feature. RTH9585WF has no “geo-fencing” feature. Also, Sensi ST75 claims to provide energy savings in the range of 13% to 23%; whereas RTH9585WF claims nearly 10% energy savings. Sensi ST75 has an HD touchscreen display, whereas RTH9585WF comes with a normal touchscreen display.
Though Sensi ST75 seems to win over Honeywell RTH9585WF, we consider both thermostats are equally good. Honeywell has a high reputation as one of the market leader in thermostats. They make different models of thermostats and serve different types of heating/cooling systems. Emerson, on the other hand has no wide range of thermostat models like Honeywell. Sensi ST75 is their best seller and they keeps on going with it.
