Many people who have purchased one of the newest Honeywell programmable smart thermostats notice that the thermostat is often giving messages that it is in “Recovery Mode.” For many, it is the first time to have a thermostat featuring Recovery Mode. While you are figuring out the benefits for your HVAC system and your utility bill when the thermostat is in Recovery Mode, you’ll prefer to get the thermostat out of this mode until you have clarity on whether you want to use it in the Mode or not. You are now wondering whether it is possible to override the thermostat’s Recovery Mode setting, whether it is for a few days or longer periods – even forever if you decide not to utilize the Recovery Mode feature.
You can override a Honeywell thermostat’s Recovery Mode setting. The thermostat allows you to choose for how long you want to override the feature. You can even set the thermostat in such a way that the feature is disabled only on certain days. If you decide not to use the Recovery Mode feature ever, you can disable it “forever.” And if you change your mind later, the feature can easily be enabled again.
In this article, I’ll explain the steps you have to take to override Recovery Mode on your Honeywell thermostat. Also, if you want to know more about recovery mode, read this article: In Recovery on Honeywell thermostat.
How to override Recovery Mode on your thermostat – general options
In principle, to override Recovery Mode, you have to change the settings of the thermostat. Depending on your Honeywell thermostat’s model, there are various ways of doing this.
Option 1: Option for when you have a wall unit with the display covered
To get to the settings, you must get access to the thermostat’s display window and controls. Some display windows of wall units are covered by a hard case.
Step 1: Get access to the controls
Your first step is to locate the thermostat’s display window and open the hard case. Usually, you only have to pop the cover down.
Step 2: Turn off “Recovery Mode”
When you’ve opened the hard case and have access to the controls on the display window
- go to “Settings,”
- select “Preferences,”
- select “Smart Response Technology,”
- turn off “Recovery Mode,”
- select “Previous Menu,” and
- tap on “Home.”
Now you will be back on the thermostat’s home screen and Recovery Mode will be turned off.
Option 2: Set your thermostat in “Manual Mode”
Some Honeywell programmable smart thermostats have a “Find the display” button. If this is the case with your thermostat, you will have to
- hold the “Find the display” down as you press the “Off” button,
- keep the “Display” button pressed while releasing the “Off” button,
- press the “Up” arrow button quickly while still holding the “Display” button, and then
- let go of all the pressed buttons simultaneously.
If you’ve followed these steps, you’ve set your Honeywell thermostat in Manual Mode and thus, you’ve succeeded to override Recovery Mode.
If this procedure has not been successful, it might be that your thermostat is a new version. You can check the internet for your Honeywell thermostat model to see how you can get access to the control keys for an override.
Option 3: Using the temperature arrows on your thermostat
With this option, you can override the Recovery Mode by setting a “permanent” new temperature. You can use this option if your Honeywell thermostat allows you to set the temperature with setting arrows.
After selecting a new temperature with the arrows, press the “Hold” button. If you’ve followed this procedure the Honeywell thermostat will stay at that temperature, and you’ve successfully overridden the Recovery Mode.
However, you can get your thermostat back to Recovery Mode easily if you want to. All you have to do is to click on “Run.” This will cancel the override and you will know it is back on the Recovery Mode when the word “Hold” disappears from the display screen.
Option 4: Schedule the Recovery Mode to only work on certain days
You always have the option on Honeywell thermostats equipped with the Recovery Mode feature to schedule the Recovery Mode to be active only on certain days. For instance, you can schedule the Recovery Mode to work on weekdays but to be off over weekends.
If you don’t want to schedule the Recovery Mode because the days and times you want it to be overridden differ from week to week, you can just override the Mode as described above and again activate it when you need it on.
What is Recovery Mode on my thermostat?
Although you now know how to override (and re-activate) Recovery Mode on your thermostat, you still might wonder what exactly is Recovery Mode. Many homeowners are not sure how they can benefit by using this feature because this Mode is a relatively new function offered by programmable Honeywell’s smart thermostats.
It is a helpful and efficient feature
It is actually a very helpful and energy-efficient feature. When your Honeywell smart thermostat indicates that it is in Recovery Mode, it is telling you that it is in a mode that always prepares your home to have the right preset temperature at the chosen time according to your set schedule.
In layman’s terms, it simply means that the thermostat will turn on the HVAC system before the preset time to start heating or cooling your home to reach your set temperature at the scheduled time.
Example of how recovery mode works
This is a very efficient way to, for example, ensure that the inside of your home is at the right temperature when you arrive home from work at 6 pm. If you want your home to have a temperature of 70 degrees when you arrive and your thermostat is in Recovery Mode, it will activate the HVAC system before 6 pm. and slowly either cool down or heat your house so that the 70 degrees temperature has been reached at 6 pm.
More energy efficient than other methods
You may ask why you can’t only preset the temperature to be at 70 degrees by 5 pm. Then the thermostat will turn the HVAC system on at 5 and by 6 the right temperature will be reached. However, depending on the weather, the 70 degrees might be reached by a quarter past 5 already and then you are wasting energy by keeping that temperature unnecessarily for nearly an hour.
If the thermostat is in Recovery Mode it will calculate when to activate the HVAC system to get the home at 70 degrees at 6 pm. Less energy will be used.
Conclusion
While Recovery Mode is a good thing, especially for energy efficiency, not all homeowners like it. They have different reasons why they don’t want their thermostat to go into Recovery Mode.
Fortunately for them, you can override – and re-activate if needed – Recovery Mode very easily at any time.
I hope that the different options I’ve highlighted in this article will help you to override the Recovery Mode whenever you want it to be inactive.
Comments are closed.