That HVAC guy on Reddit was right about the $40 smart thermostat

Came across a post from some HVAC tech in Phoenix saying cheap smart thermostats screw up compressor timing. Ignored it, bought a $40 one off clearance at Lowe's. After 3 months my electric bill jumped $28 and the AC short-cycled like crazy. Swapped back to the old manual one and the bill dropped the next cycle. Anyone else get burned trusting a deal over a pro's warning?

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thomas8623d ago

Same thing happened to me with a $35 off-brand unit I grabbed on sale. Spent two weekends fighting with it, thought the wiring was wrong until I realized the compressor was kicking on and off every couple minutes. My unit was fine before, now the blower sounds rough and I'm pretty sure the constant cycling did some real damage. Pros know that cheap boards skip the delay timers and anti-short-cycle protection for a reason. Swapped mine back too and the next bill looked normal again. That was a hard lesson, but at least my AC still works and I learned to stay away from those bargain thermostats forever.