20 Best Temp Control Wire (2022 Updated)

Looks good BUT straight out of the box doesnt even work. Tried to return but they said its past 30 days. Its brand new (supposedly). Thought it was my thermostat,so I bought another one. When it didnt work I tested the adapter.

Looks perfectly fine. But its TOTAL GARBAGE !!.

So simple to install, and works exactly as I hoped. This is the product you need to convert old two wire round thermostat to a smart app controlled thermostat. With this you do not need to run new wire or make any changes at your furnace.

My one tip. be sure to make the whole in the wall large enough to set in the relay. Recomended highly!.

Rather than for a venstar product I bought this unit to supply a C wire for and erickson Sensi thermostat that was heat only so it didn’t require the relay, only the 24 volt AC transformer. That being said the transformer supplying the 24 volts to the thermostat works fine.

The unit worked perfectly for my situation. I am using it for a HVAC duct booster fan. Note for this situation I used the digital controller’s ‘cooling mode’ while the furnace is in heating mode. The duct booster is essentially ‘cooling’ the hot air in the duct by energizing the booster fan.

The controller is very easy to program and the actual and the set point temperature display is very easy to read.

Accurate, cost effective, seems well built. Simple to use but has options which can be daunting at first glance. Very small but adequate red lights show which relay is on if either. Labels on device faint so I used tape to make more legible labels.

I used a cup of coffee to observe how it functions. I did buy a second unit.

I salvaged an old Excalibur dehydrator from its death throes and saved myself over $300 since I didn’t have to purchase a new one. You need a little bit of electrical knowledge to hook it up unless you want to follow the simple instructions and throw a “hail Mary”.

The instructions are simple if you have an idea of what you are looking at when you open the dehydrator or any other thermostatically controlled device, whether it is a heating or cooling device. You can also find some instructional material on You Tube.

The Rancor made my dehydrator a better unit than it was originally. It now has a wider temperature range than the new expensive models. You have to use common sense when selecting a temperature, as it could be set to go over 200 degrees and may burn up the heating element or the food you are dehydrating.

Stick with the advised temperatures if you use it for a dehydrator.

These temperature controllers are great. Very accurate and affordable. The only reason I did not give five stars is because of the terminal blocks for hooking up your power cable and output line. The design made it very difficult to hook up my wires.

As usual, Supply House was great.

Very easy to program. Wiring instructions were easy to follow and applied to my application. Was able to cut the probe wire and extend it into my house adding 20 feet of two conductor wire to the probe.

Using it to control my outdoor wood burning stove, and works like a charm! Able to easily reprogram set temp and differential when outdoor temperature fluctuates. I would recommend this thermostat controller to anyone who uses a hot water heating unit.

I do not have any negative remarks about this product.

I use this on an outdoor coal furnace. It allows much greater control over the draft by providing independent control of the blower and damper. It also provides for a much smaller differential. A coal fire requires only very subtle changes in draft.

No more going out on those warmer days and no more boiling over on those colder days. I have seen some negative comments on longevity. So far so good. I did purchase a spare but so far it has not been needed.

Very easy to use website and super fast shipping. ! The controller (for my wood stove) had easy to understand instructions making the replacement very simple. I would definitely purchase from them again.

This aquastat was a replacement for one on my geothermal heat pump system. I first ordered the wrong one. Customer service quickly issued me a return label and shipped out the correct item. They immediately credited my account for the price of the incorrect item as soon as they received it.

Great, friendly customer service! The new aquastat works perfectly.

For my needs, EXCEPTIONAL! I have a Camplite 11FK travel trailer camper with a gas furnace and a fan. Until today, I had the original Atwood analogic thermostat installed. I swapped it out for this digital thermostat.

Easy installjust two wires, a “white” and a “red. ” Before removing the two wires from the former thermostat, I identified each with the two labeled tabs provided in the LuxPRO box. After mounting the unit, I turned on my LPG and set the thermostat to 65.

The thermometer read 44. In short time, the temperature in my small camper was 65. Shortly after reaching it, the heater and fan turned off. When I increased the desired temperature, the furnace and fan turned on again.

By the way, my ceiling-mounted A/C is independent. This thermostat is rated at 24V and is operated by two AA batteries. It worked very well on my 12v camping system. I recommend it for RV installation where you have only a furnace and a fan.

Super easy to install. My home furnace didn’t have a fan so I just left that connection empty. I just had a two wire system, so I threw the other 2 wires on the other 2 connections (doesn’t matter which wire you put on which connection) and put the faceplate on.

Turned on the power and boom, worked instantly. I replaced an old Honeywell dial thermometer which was very inaccurate that caused my furnace to go out frequently. This LuxPRO is much much more accurate and works much better at maintaining the temperature and keeping the furnace lit.

I bought this to regulate a heat mat for my ball python’s enclosure as recommended by many hobbyists even though that is not what it is marketed for. it is simple and easy to use and very effective and a great alternative to more expensive reptile thermostats.

The suction cup that attaches the probe did not stick for me but I’m sure it could be cheaply replaced and I just stuck it on with duct tape to the mat itself and that worked for me. It shipped well and I will be buying more as I expand and get more cold blooded pets 🙂 great product!.

Didn’t look exactly like the one in the picture, I’m assuming I got the older “Jump Start” model. Nevertheless the product works like a charm and I highly recommend it. I use it for my undertank heater in my snake enclosure.

It’s easy to use, easy to set, and completely digital. Only reason I gave 4 was because it wasn’t the better looking one that was pictured.

This product is perfect. was only going to get the 10×20 mat and so glad I got the larger. I could fit 4 10×20 trays on my bottom shelf to germinate and them move trays up to top shelf once they poke their heads up from the soil.

Had better then 95% germination in an unheated garage in Zone 6 with the mat set for 80 deg. Awesome!!.

This seems to be the one Nest thermostat that doesn’t have the C wire issue like the previous one I bought had. I have an older heating system (35 years old) that doesn’t have a common wire. I tried the Google Nest power connector to simulate a C wire and I couldn’t get it to work.

So back it went. I was thinking of using Google’s recommended HVAC company, but after talking to my normal HVAC guy he mentioned that Nest had a later generation thermostat that didn’t require a C wire.

I googled smart thermostats that don’t have the C wire issue; found this one on a blog and Walmart had the cheapest price on it. Works much better and no C wire issues like on the previous one. For example, I noticed on my previous Nest thermostat, the display didn’t come on upon approaching it.

On this one, it works correctly. The overall fit and finish on this one is superior to the older cheaper one I bought from my gas company. As is so often the case, it pays to spend a little more money to get the product that works right.

DON’T BUY THIS!!! Definely not even worth one star based on my experience! The product was so bad out of the gate. It didn’t work upon arrival. After countless hours with their India support team, still couldn’t get it to work.

Finally after hours of frustration, we determined the replacement base was defective. So I got a replacement. Problem still not over. The replacement had a defective faceplate. in order to make it work, I had to use one working base and a faceplate from the first device.

So then, after properly installing it, I realized product’s wifi doesn’t work. The app will not connect. After year the faceplate is now not charging anymore. I called support so any times I’ve stopped trying.

I have reset this product at least 50 times since I’ve owned it. Otherwise I’m left without an AC and I live in hot weather. Just a complete failure of a product. I had a Honeywell $30 thermostat in here for 12 years that worked like clockwork before this garbage Google product.

I’m not surprised to see so many one star reviews. I imagine they’d all be ZERO stars if Google allowed it. The product absolutely sucks.

Called today to try and get support or help for this. After an update, it just stopped working. It only has a white screen. Support determined that it is “broken”. Support suggested I try to contact the store I bought it from to obtain a purchase date.

I am not sure exactly when I bought it. If it is over 2 years ago I was basically told I wasted my money. SO if this is 3 years old— Google says “oh well it’s broken and by the way, you can’t just buy the screen you have to replace the whole thermostat.

“The expected lifetime of this unit was at least 10 years, but 2 to 3 years in it can fail and Google has no support or help for a customer. I know the company doesn’t care. But if you are considering trying the nest thermostat because you believed, like me, it would be easy or save you money then look at other devices.

This has been the biggest letdown.

I bought 2 Honeywell Thermostats and the first one I bought was able to function my A/C when it was installed it but, when winter came, my heating wasn’t kicking in. I bought another Honeywell thermostat and the same problem occurred.

My home didn’t have the C wire that caused the issue for both thermostats not to work. Had to put the original thermostat back on. My furnace was working fine for winter and when I switched to A/C mode, it wasn’t kicking in.

My HVAC guy didn’t rewire the thermostat correctly and I was losing it!!! The summer has been brutally hot over the last 2 weeks. I saw the Google Nest Thermostat on sale and before I decided to purchase it, I watched some videos that inspired me to try and install this device on my own.

I also bought the trim kit and performed a DIY. I missed a step when I snapped the the thermostat to the base as I wasn’t seeing any power to the thermostat. I didn’t realize there were 2 batteries that needed my attention where I had to remove a sticker.

Once the thermostat powered up, I followed the instructions and it conducted a test. I heard my A/C compressor kicking in and my furnace fan going on. The Wi-Fi connection was also a success and I was jumping for joy!!! It’s amazing that I’m also able to control the temperature anywhere from my mobile device and that it goes into eco mode when nobody is home with presence sensing.

I regret not buying this thermostat a few years back. It’s pure brilliance and I’m loving it!!!.

Very happy with the performance of the device and the interaction with my smart home ecosystem. Price is high, but with the rebates from my town and state, it isn’t much more than a typical thermostat.

The main downside for us was two issues: 1 – we don’t have a common wire in the locations our thermostats are located and can’t use the adapter sold separately, so we had to pay an electrician to run new wire.

The only reason for a common wire is to power the more hungry Nest. Not sure why they couldn’t just include a rechargable battery or even have one as an add-on. 2- We have radiant hydronic floor heating in one room and this Nest is not compatible with the Tekmar control system which regulates that room.

While I realize these are different brands and compatibility is not required, it would be nice if they could work a software patch that would allow the Nest to interact. The patch could be sold for a reasonable price with the proceeds getting split between the manufacturers.

One other annoyance is we wish we could set each thermostat to respond to individuals not being home. Currently if everyone isn’t home, it will go into ECO mode and stop heating/cooling according to the temperature range you set.

However, my teenage daughter has her own thermostat and it would be great if that one thermostat would shutoff the system when she left for work or school.

I installed the Nest about a year ago and it worked fine, up until three weeks ago when it would short cycle my AC. My AC unit would click on and off constantly, sometimes it would turn on and be fine other times it would continue the short starting pattern.

When my AC repair person came out, he told me Nest are only good for about a year – two years, then something like the issue I am having will happen. I thought he had an axe to grind with Nest so I shrugged off his comment and stuck with the Nest after he did his routine maintenance.

It worked or about two weeks and then the issue came back. I decided to put my old thermostat back on and it worked, no problems. For anyone wondering, I had all the proper wires, it was running 27 volts, no coolant leaks, and the coils weren’t frozen.

The issue was the Nest. I contacted customer service and they told me that I wasn’t eligible for a refund but they would send me a base replacement unit. Maybe that would solve the problem, but should a thermostat really only be good for two years? What if this happened during a snow storm? What a liability this could be for them.

I’m disappointed in Nest as I had hoped for a better outcome but just another example of a bigger company getting away with a poorly made product. I know Nest’s are trendy but please save the 200 dollars and go with another system.

I have a large 5 zone heat only system, the 2 wire thermostat wire was wired when the house was built and goes through very small holes and is stapled to the wood framing. I purchased a roll of 3 wire 18 gauge, I was able to re-wire two zones on the first floor, but unable to re-wire the 2nd floor and one zone that is the other end of the house.

Using the old wire to pull new wire through would not have worked, as the old wire is stapled to frame and the holes are just enough to feed the wire through and not enough to feed a joined wire through.

It would have been expensive to start cutting the wall board to get to where I needed to drill. I purchased 3 of these common makers and they worked flawlessly, even the one that is the other side of the house.

Very simple to wire, lots of different wiring options depending on your system. I now have 5 Ecobee Smart Thermostats hooked up replacing the 20 year old ones. Worth every penny just in not having the stress of feeding wire where it would need a professional.

We have an old house with traditional 2 wire electrical, and despite many thermostat makers who say or suggest that it may be possible to install their product where there is a two wire system and no C wire, it simply will not work if the unit is to be connected to the internet, requiring power for that connection.

This product was beyond my ability to figure out how to connect to the furnace before t I had it installed when I had the yearly service for the furnace. Easily installed and might be more simple for others.

It works great and we are very happy with the result.

So far, it works as advertised. I replaced a “dumb,” 2-wire (red, white), heat-only thermostat with an Ecobee 3 “smart” thermostat that required a 3rd C wire. I had an HVAC tech install the Common Maker, as it involved connecting the receiver to a zone valve controller in the basement.

I’m withholding a 5th star since I’ve only had the Common Maker working for about a week and I want to see how reliable it’s going to be in the long run — I know these gadgets that work via PLC (power line carrier) can sometimes be a bit flaky.

After carefully considering several similar products, I chose this one because it does not require the addition of a diode at the thermostat itself. However, the trade-off is that the use of this product requires your smart thermostat to be equipped with a K-terminal.

This module allows the K-wire to carry signals that would have previously been carried by separate Y- and G-wires, but it will only work if your thermostat has a K-terminal to accept this combined signal.

(This consolidation of two wires into one frees up a wire to be used as the C-wire which is required to power the smart thermostat. ).

C-wire adapter has done its job and is working great. I did not have a c-wire on my thermostat end I followed the directions included and now one of the wires that’s already at the thermostat can be used as a c wire.

Plugged in my new T9 and it’s working great. Only knocks it gets are for ease of install. The instructions are consistent with wire label names which caused me a bit of a headache but I was still able to get it going in under an hour.

No HVAC experience; moderate electrical and handyman experience.

My old thermostat did not use a C-Wire and my furnace was not wired with a C-Wire. This little adapter was the perfect solution for upgrading my old thermostat to a smart one. Installation was easy. just YouTube the Honeywell device and you’ll see multiple examples of the install.

Took me about 20 minutes to install and it has made my smart thermostat function without issues. Cheaper than hiring a person to run a C-Wire.

This was installed for me by a SCE contractor. I had an old (ancient) thermostat, old house, and no common wire. This product is ingenious! Now I have a smart thermostat that I can operate from anywhere.

Very happy.

This device allowed me to purchase and use an updated network thermostat and forget about batteries. A nice, practical product with great support. It’s pretty straight forward to install. I did have a small problem but I called did a live chat session, sent a couple pictures and they discovered a wiring error on my part.

Made the correction and everything is working perfectly. Well worth the cost.

Instructions very clear, no issues installing. Google Neat doesnt accept stranded wires, however, it doesnt recognize any signal coming from the two new wires and diode. Waste of money.

This is the way to go when installing a new smart thermostat that need 5 wires (really they need the common for the power). It is easy to install and works perfect! My thermostat is a Honeywell 9000, and my AC only had an older 4 wire control (programmable with batteries, yuck).

Installed/mounted the whole system in about 30 minutes.

Bought this add a wire for power issue with a NEST thermostat 3rd gen. It was great because it was easy to install and everything was included to complete the installation. Great video on youtube to show how to install.

I can’t think of any that wasn’t great about it. Maybe price wise was a bit expensive.

I bought this to control a heated parts soak tank in my shop. I needed a controller that would keep the temperature at a steady rate and could be programmed to one second intervals. This RANCO ETC-111000-000 Single stage unit works perfect for this application.

I have a outdoor furnace that I use for multiple heating systems. For my radiant floor heat I used a propane water heater that I converted to heat from an exchanger from the outdoor furnace. To trigger the heat exchanger pump I used another brand of thermostat that would not always turn on the heat exchanger pump, or sometimes not turn it off.

This resulted in a very unsatisfactory heating system for the radiant floor heat. This thermostat has operated perfectly and I am extremely pleased. At the price that I paid for this thermostat, I could replace it every year and still be satisfied, as long as it lasts a full year.

My HVAC guy told me to get this to run a ‘hot room’ bypass in my living room (full-sun facing). And it’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing. Triggers the fan when the temperature gets +2’C over target at the ceiling (23’C), and shuts off when that temperature is equalized to the rest of the house (21’C).

Had to splice into the temperature sensor cable to lengthen it, and that went without a hitch. Easy to program and 1-button adjustments (hint hint, Mr. Honeywell) and it just does exactly what it’s supposed to.

This is a wonderful device. Keep one in your service truck for repairs. I have personally used on grain dryers, milk tank and after cooler for compressors. It has a easy switch to go from heat to cool displays the temp and has a replaceable probe.

I bought this item as a replacement for an old Penn thermostat for a Vendo Coke machine. Though somewhat larger than the thermostat it replaced, this item was easy to install and seems to work very well.

It has several advanced settings and functions that weren’t needed for my purposes, but the digital readout is clear and helpful. I checked the temperature with a thermometer, and it was very accurate.

I struggled to give this unit a 5 star rating, but in the end it is an industrial grade temp controller that is sold without wires because of the multiple applications the unit can perform all requiring different wiring schemes.

I am using to manage a kegerator. I read some of the reviews here on Home Essentials Direct before purchasing, and most described the wiring diagram as simple and easy. I managed hooking it up correctly but it took some time and concentration.

One pit-fall I could see happening to someone is the use of a ground (don’t use a 2 wire lamp cord) use a 3 wire cord. The wiring diagram doesn’t show any ground wires. Your fridge must be grounded so I connected the grounds inside the unit but I didn’t see anyway to bond the unit to ground.

Another helpful hint, you need to cut a small jumper wire to go from the line side terminal block to load terminal block. I hope this doesn’t scare anyone off from buying this unit because once it is setup it has some great options for controlling heat or cooling and the LCD display adds a level of comfort that things are working as they should.

There is also an LED light that indicates when there is power going to what ever you are controlling. I was also concerned about the units memory and set points in the event of a loss of power. I tested this and the unit does not lose the settings, I left it unplugged for ~24 hours and it picked right back up with no settings lost.

After installing all the wires I hooked it up to a drop light in the garage, stuck the thermostat probe in the freezer just on the off chance I had screwed up the wiring, this way I’m only out a shop light not a fridge compressor.

Sous vide is a cooking technology that has come into popular use within the past decade. It might also be described as a fresh food preservation technique. My family really needed this, as it allows my teenage sons to cook for themselves with lower cost, less wastage, and better flavor and health prospects than they can get from fast foods.

I combined the Johnson Controls A419 with an aquarium air stone to turn a simple 7 qt. Crockpot into a circulating water bath cooker that compares well with home sous vide controllers that are priced between $350 and $500.

I combined the Johnson Controls A419 with a water heater element ($6 on EBay) and the air stone to turn a 28 qt. Coleman cooler into a high capacity sous vide cooker that can easily precook 100 entrees per day.

The A419 relay output has been durable for me under heavy loads that are rumored online to do damage to the typical PID controller. The 1 degree F hysteresis of the A419 sounds like trouble to PID controller users who fool themselves into believing their water baths are accurate to 0.

1 degrees, but it turns out that only the average temperature matters, as demonstrated by the excellent flavors of the prepared meats.

This unit is just what you need if you want to convert a chest freezer into a kegerator. The instruction manual that comes with it is very good. I bought mine without cords and added a heavy duty, 12′ power cord from Home Depot.

I made a jig to use a small router to make the exact-sized hole for it to fit into, on the front of the wooden extension (waist high) that all kegerators have. It looks sharp. The manual tells you how to program the lowest temp, highest temp, and anti-short-cycle delay.

The temperature controller was purchased about 18 months ago, and it is working great.

I have a deep well as a water supply for my home. I installed this in my pump house to activate the devices I have always switched on and off manually to avoid frozen pipes. This makes it super easy, when it gets colder than 38 degrees all the devices are receive power and become active.

I added a light to give me an indicator that everything is on. Now I can just look out the window for the light and I don’t have to go out in the cold to switch it all on.

I tested the regulator in my freezer for 20 minutes, hooked up a light bulb and it lite up as expected. After warming up, the regulator shut off the light bulb as expected. I hooked up the regulator to a heat lamp in my well pump house and it works as expected.

Shuts off at about 50 degrees outside. Works as expected. I hope it last a long time. Saves on heat lamp bulbs!.

If this had worked right would have been exactly what I needed. Plugged in on porch with thermostat, temp 35 degrees, light turned on after cooled down. Then it warmed up and turned off, would not turn on even though 35 degrees.

Put in freezer and started working when took out and has been working ever since. Want to use with heat tape on water pipes, not confident that it will work?.

I absolutely hate Google thermostat!!!! It was installed in the apartment units where I live and I know it is only there to spy on people, hence “GOOGLE”, but not only that-it CONTROLS when it shuts off and comes on!!! I DON’T appreciate that!!!!! Who are you to turn the heater on when I don’t want it on??!!! I have ASTHMA and HEAT exacerbates my condition!!!! And when I turn the thermostat to a certain temperature for the A/C, GOOGLE turns it up or off!!!!! So then it gets HOT in my apartment!!! Then Google will turn it on early in the morning when I don’t want it on because it’s NOT hot enough, now I’m TOO cold -when I NEEDED it on at night to sleep BETTER!!! I had to reset it a couple of times, but Google STILL HAS CONTROL and I WISH I CAN SUE THEM for making my ASTHMA WORSE and making me UNCOMFORTABLE in my living space!!!! Who are you to turn the A/C off a few minutes later after I turn it on??!!! UGH!!!!😡 I want the thermostat that I CAN CONTROL !!!!!! I ABSOLUTELY HATE GOOGLE THERMOSTAT!!!!!!!! Let’s see if you KEEP this review “on/up” since you have ALL the CONTROL!!!!🤬😰🤒.

I purchased this thermostat after buying a new home. I had one previously in a condo and it worked well enough for what I needed then in a tiny home. I enjoy the features of being able to change the temperature from my phone.

It’s been useful when coming home from a long trip and being able to have my house cooled before arriving or even changing the temperature from another part of the house. However, I honestly have come to HATE these Nest thermostats.

I have owned the original Nest as well as three of these models. I purchased two of these in October of 2020 to replace our upstairs and downstairs thermostats. By January 2021, the upstairs thermostat would not connect to hardwired power and could only be charged with a micro USB.

It then dropped all WiFi communication which is the main reason I wanted the thermostat. I had to call Google and replace it under warranty. The downstairs unit was even more of a nightmare. I learned a long time ago that the “learning” feature is garbage for me and my family.

I had a simple schedule set up in the app. The thermostat stopped using the schedule and kept switching itself to eco mode even though I was always home and had all learning/eco settings switched off.

It constantly had a mind of its own and tried to change the temperature. It didn’t even recognize me as being home even though I had the location services settings enabled. I reset it, ensured the schedule was how I wanted it, etc.

but it did not respond. Now, the nest will only run the air conditioner at night and will not control the unit during the day. I got so frustrated with it, I ripped it out of the wall and re-installed the junky 20 year old thermostat that came with the house.

The only reason I give this unit 2 stars is for the WiFi/app features. I loved that. Other than those two things, Nest can pound sand and enjoy sitting in the landfill. Worthless and a waste of money.