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Review: Honeywell's $199 Lyric Round Thermostat Features a Nest-Like Design With HomeKit Support

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Some of the more interesting types of smart home devices are thermostats, which can help save energy by optimizing scheduling, automatically sensing when the home is occupied or vacant, and more. One of the early entrants into the field on the HomeKit side is Honeywell, which has introduced several different smart thermostats, starting with the second-generation Lyric Round, which debuted early last year.

honeywell_lyric_round_contents.jpg

I've been using a Lyric Round for quite a while now, and I've come to appreciate its integration with HomeKit and its ease of use, while Honeywell has continued to improve its function and stability over time.


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Article Link: Review: Honeywell's $199 Lyric Round Thermostat Features a Nest-Like Design With HomeKit Support
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/review/honeywell-lyric-round-thermostat/
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For those that are irked by the idea of Google owning Nest -- perhaps this will be a competitive alternative?
 
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I’ve fallen out of love with Nest. They are not very long lived, and warranty replacements (even for reoccuring problems) is limited. Not to mention no native HomeKit support.

A Honeywell HomeKit compatible thermostat sounds great. Unfortuantely this one us FUGLY!
 
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^ Yes, also a fan of Ecobee.

Nice review, and seems to have more advanced interface than my pre-HomeKit ecobee 3. I'd definitely consider this one in the mix, before Nest as well.

BTW, who was the clown builder who put in a junction box for the old 'stat? That's just wacky - never seen that despite multiple houses/apartments where I've installed smart-stats.
 
Fall Under Cerulean Kites said:
I’ve fallen out of love with Nest. They are not very long lived, and warranty replacements (even for reoccuring problems) is limited. Not to mention no native HomeKit support.

A Honeywell HomeKit compatible thermostat sounds great. Unfortuantely this one us FUGLY!
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I've had a Nest for 4 years and never had an issue. And I couldn't care less about HomeKit support.
 
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I have this Honeywell thermostat, works great but requires a c-wire connection to properly work with the HomeKit app , other wise you have to use the Honeywell app which is pretty good also ....
 
I have this thermostat. It works like a charm and doesn’t look cheap on my wall. Especially how it illuminates blue or orange in the proper setting while it’s cooling or warming. Requires a C wire to interact with Siri and HomeKit though. The app works flawlessly and everytime I go out of range it shuts off to save power. I love it
 
Nest + homebridge to enable HomeKit support is currently the best option IMO. It's a shame Nest won't enable native HomeKit support, and probably never will since they're now owned by Google. It's by far the best looking thermostat and I've really grown to love having the outdoor weather + forecast display on the screen as I walk by. I've had 2 generations of the Nest over the years and never had any major issues. The Lyric looks like a toy and just looks awful; I would never put that up on my wall.
 
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jocamero said:
Nest + homebridge to enable HomeKit support is currently the best option IMO. It's a shame Nest won't enable native HomeKit support, and probably never will since they're now owned by Google. It's by far the best looking thermostat and I've really grown to love having the outdoor weather + forecast display on the screen as I walk by. I've had 2 generations of the Nest over the years and never had any major issues. The Lyric looks like a toy and just looks awful; I would never put that up on my wall.
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It doesn’t look like a toy but everyone is entitled to their own opinions. It’s a dial just like the nest. I think it looks great on my white walls.
 
jocamero said:
Nest + homebridge to enable HomeKit support is currently the best option IMO. It's a shame Nest won't enable native HomeKit support, and probably never will since they're now owned by Google. It's by far the best looking thermostat and I've really grown to love having the outdoor weather + forecast display on the screen as I walk by. I've had 2 generations of the Nest over the years and never had any major issues. The Lyric looks like a toy and just looks awful; I would never put that up on my wall.
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Bridge? No. Nope. The only thing I want in my home to bridge HomeKit is my 4th Gen AppleTV. If a product has to use it's own bridge or hub to use HomeKit, I just look elsewhere.
 
"A Nest-like design..."

Slivka you're not that young. Honeywell round thermostats were the standard back in the day. Next copied Honeywell and they went to court over the design of which Honeywell lost (as they should have)


I don't see myself spending over 150 dollars for a thermostat. They just aren't that exciting anymore. I had an Ecobee 3 which I liked and left with my home when I sold it. I now have a Honeywell Lyric T5 which works just fine.

I'd buy a Nest based on its looks alone. I've found that I don't really need HomeKit support at the therm. I'd rather have more local temp sensors that engage something like fans to cool specific areas.
 
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I have the Honeywell Lyric Round and my wife and I both Love It! The only thing not mentioned in the article is if you're using a Heat Pump or Heat Exchanger. I overlooked this step when I installed the Lyric and my system started heating instead of cooling! Thankfully all it took was a quick call to support who walked me through a menu option that basically internally reverses a relay.

It's been great since then, and we LOVE the Siri/HomeKit functionality.
 
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I've had one for a very long time now. The plastic materials do not look as nice as Nest metal and glass. However, it looks better in real life than in the pictures. I've received multiple compliments on how it looks. There are color shifts to indicate mode and the display automatically lights up if it senses you in front of it, with fade in/out effect.

Beware that there are Lyric Rounds out there that are not Homekit compatible. They look exactly the same and have exactly the same name but are old stock. The only difference is the part number. I have an old one. They cannot be upgraded for Homekit compatibility. Buy from any major retailer and you are fine. If you buy from some random seller on Ebay or Amazon, you might be getting old stock.
 
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Anyone know if these require an Internet connection for the smart functionality? I've been looking for a smart thermostat that is configured entirely over the local network, without depending on the manufacturer's servers. I've had no luck.
 
yg17 said:
I've had a Nest for 4 years and never had an issue. And I couldn't care less about HomeKit support.
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Congratulations.

I’ve had three Nest thermostats for 4 years and have had four issues. (All three thermostats are generation 2.) One Nest is in a vacation home and I’ve had no problems with it. The other two have each had the same two issues.

I’ve had two issues with the rotational dial becomming “sticky” where it no longer turns as freely as before. The motion becomes tight and notchy. I’ve also had two instances of the backplates failing with “wiring fault” error codes. Nest will honor a warranty claim only once for a problem. I’m all out of warranty replaceaments for either of these two issues for either nest at my primary home.

During my last support call, they did offer to sell me v3 thermostats at a discounted price in lieu of a warranty replacement. That’s actually a good deal, although I declined to spend any more money on these. Once I have another issue, I’ll likely replace the Nests with another brand.
 
pittmvp said:
I’m about to join the HomeKit party with a new thermostat. This was very informative.
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All you really need to know is Ecobee. Fantastic thermostats and great customer support.
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nuckinfutz said:
I'd rather have more local temp sensors that engage something like fans to cool specific areas.
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How do you cool specific areas without a multi-zone HVAC system. No thermostat can regulate vents in a zone individually. It's all or nothing for every vent on that zone. All the sensors do is average out the temp.
 
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yg17 said:
I've had a Nest for 4 years and never had an issue. And I couldn't care less about HomeKit support.
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I've had a Nest for a few years, and I've only had one issue with our wireless ssid (which was in unicode characters). It's been very reliable, and I really like how it looks (unlike the Honeywell one, ugh!). It actually looks like goes with our decor, which is very different than everything else I could find.

That said, HomeKit support would be awesome. Unfortunately, when I tried HomeKit stuff when it first came out, HomeKit was VERY unreliable and annoying. It's likely better now, but I've already bought a lot of smarthome stuff.

One thing to note, though, is that you really need a power wire for these to work reliably. If the Nest trips to "sip" power from the other wires, it's VERY likely to screw things up.
 
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To balance out my the temperature differential in various room, I have the thermostat run only the fan 15 minutes every hour. Perhaps one could have a rule if a certain room is more than 2º off of the average house temp only the fan runs until the temperature in various rooms balance out?

These 'smart vents' look interesting: https://keenhome.io/smart-vent

Chupa Chupa said:
How do you cool specific areas without a multi-zone HVAC system. No thermostat can regulate vents in a zone individually. It's all or nothing for every vent on that zone. All the sensors do is average out the temp.
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