Review: Honeywell Lyric T6R wireless thermostat

The Honeywell Lyric T6R is the wireless variant of the Lyric T6 thermostat, with which you can control the heating in your home from the couch – with an app on your smartphone or tablet. Both models are the same, but you can basically place the T6R wherever you want.

Sometimes a product comes onto the market with a confusing description. The Honeywell Lyric T6R is one such product. It is marketed as a wireless thermostat, while a fairly long plug comes out of the back. ‘Movable’ may not sound so good in marketing, but in fact the wireless aspect here means that you can place the thermostat where you want and you are therefore not dependent on where your old thermostat is. So you have more placement freedom.

Content and design

Honeywell will not win a real beauty prize with the design of the Honeywell Lyric T6R. The device is square and has rounded corners and has a gray color that doesn’t really match anything. There are also thick, black edges around the touchscreen, which does not look very appetizing. There are no buttons on the device, so that’s great – all operation is done via the app, while you can still set and find out basic things via the touchscreen. Unfortunately, the viewing angle of the screen is not very large.

In the box, of course, is the Honeywell Lyric T6R thermostat, as well as the Lyric T6R power adapter. There is also a three-pole top plug for the United Kingdom, a two-pole top plug for Europe and there is the wireless receiver, which you place in the boiler or right next to it. There are also some screws and you will find both an installation and a user operation. Keep it there, especially in the beginning, at least during installation. When you are working in the app, you can store the manual again.

Installation and Configuration

The smart thermostat therefore comes with its own receiver. That is a cupboard that you can hang in the boiler or right next to it. The receiver is connected to the boiler and the thermostat to the receiver. This is a normal system: many wireless thermostats, including the ‘dumb’ ones, use such a connection. Honeywell supplies a large sheet with some directions for connecting the device. In the end it is a simple installation process, provided you know what to do and what kind of boiler you have.

In principle, depending on your boiler, you can use the connections that already come out of the boiler. Honeywell does supply its own power cable for the receiver – but if there is already one (in my case this was already one of the same brand), you can remove it and simply replace it with the new one. If you don’t know what kind of boiler you have, try to find out first. And otherwise seek some help. But however you start, the moment you (dis) connect something, make sure that the boiler no longer receives power.

When you have connected the correct cables and switched on the device with the on / off button, you can walk to your smart thermostat. Put it in the place where you want it, so that you can get started right away. Then you set up some basic things and do well to download the application in advance. It takes you through a number of steps – follow them, show some patience, and the thermostat is on. If it takes longer than five or ten minutes to ‘finish’, cancel the installation and start over.

And that’s basically all. At that time, the smart thermostat works like any other thermostat, wired or wireless, and communicates with the boiler. You can adjust the temperature via the app, but also on the large touchscreen. The boiler responds as quickly as normal and will try to set the target temperature quickly. In the app you can also set schedules so that the temperature is at a certain level at a certain time. But you can read more about that in this extensive review of the Honeywell Lyric T6R.

Honeywell Lyric T6R – the application

For example, if you already have a Honeywell camera at home, you do not need to download an additional application. You can use the existing Lyric app and add the thermostat from the menu, just like you add the camera. However, the pairing process is a bit less complicated than that of the camera. You simply follow the steps within the app and if all goes well, the rest is self-explanatory. In terms of design, this part of the app is not special and can even be called bare – but you can achieve what you want with it.

At the bottom you will find the rotary knob that regulates the temperature. Turning to the right means that you want everything at a higher temperature, while turning to the left will turn off the heating. You can also ensure that it maintains a certain temperature at night (something like fifteen degrees). By tapping the calendar icon, you will enter the menu for the schedule. This allows you to set the temperature you prefer per hour or part of the day. You can set this for the whole week or for a day.

The app not only looks simple, but also works very simple. You can effortlessly set the temperature without explanation. You tap a group with hours, set the start and end time, as well as the temperature, and confirm everything. It couldn’t be easier. Of course you can adjust the temperature at any time and even then you get the option to hold that number of degrees until a preset time. If you want to switch back to the schedule, there is also a button for that. In short: simple application for daily use.

Honeywell Lyric T6R – in use

When you dive a little deeper into the settings (ie in the main menu), you get access to functions such as geofencing, warnings and notification and, for example, the optimization mode. With this setting you can indicate that the thermostat should start heating earlier, so that the set temperature is reached faster. In addition, it is possible to activate the holiday mode. You indicate from when to when you are on holiday, set the minimum temperature and confirm everything. Then the device does the rest.

Once the schedule has been drawn up, you don’t have to worry about the device. At the set times, the temperature will rise, be held or lower when it is allowed to get colder. You rarely have the app open (unless of course you suddenly deviate from the schedule) and you hardly ever have to pay attention to the thermostat, since it does all the work. It is nice that when you look at the device, you can see both the temperature and the time at a glance. You can also see a flame.

Such a flame indicates that the heating is active and that it is being fired. When you change something in the app, it is immediately sent to the thermostat, which confirms the information with all kinds of icons and extra times. The first time that can be a lot of information, but you get used to it soon. This allows you to pay attention to the information that matters, such as the desired temperature and until when it is then held. In that regard, the system works very quickly and accurately and is also quite accessible.

However, we have encountered an annoying problem in our daily use. In the first week alone, we were notified three times that the Honeywell Lyric T6R has lost connection to the network, causing the thermostat to be displayed as offline in the app. In that week it happened twice that we could no longer work with the device via the app, so the plug had to be pulled. The third time we got the same notification, but the app and the device worked again.

The connection to the boiler is maintained. So your schedule stays active and your home stays heated. The problem here is that you cannot control the thermostat from a distance, which is exactly the idea of ​​a smart product. If we cannot operate the Honeywell Lyric T6R from a smartphone or tablet, then of course that will ruin the idea behind such a product and you might as well not have to buy it. We have not been able to test whether the regular variant that you hang on the wall also suffers from this.

The connection dropped three times in one week. Twice in the afternoon and once at night. At the times in the afternoon we pulled the plug to reset the Honeywell Lyric T6R, but the third time the problem was solved by the moment we were in the living room in the morning. We spoke with a Honeywell employee about this and they assure us that the thermostat may have this problem, but should also be able to fix it on its own. If not, something else is going on.

Honeywell Lyric T6R Integrations

Fortunately, the Honeywell Lyric T6R supports several types of smart home integrations. There is support for Google Home and the Google Assistant . You can give commands in English and, for example, ask to adjust the temperature up or down, followed by a specific number. In addition, it is possible to request the temperature, so that you do not have to look at your smartphone if you do not have it at hand. You can also do the same when you use Apple HomeKit , in combination with Siri.

If you already use the American Alexa at home, you can also operate the thermostat with the voice assistant from Amazon. All you have to do is download the right skill via the smartphone app, after which you can simply operate the Honeywell Lyric T6R with voice commands via an Amazon Echo device. With IFTTT you get access to about the same possibilities as within the app, but you may get a little more out of the device by also thinking outside the box.

The connection to the boiler is maintained. So your schedule stays active and your home stays heated. The problem here is that you cannot control the thermostat from a distance, which is exactly the idea of ​​a smart product. If we cannot operate the Honeywell Lyric T6R from a smartphone or tablet, then of course that will ruin the idea behind such a product and you might as well not have to buy it. We have not been able to test whether the regular variant that you hang on the wall also suffers from this.

The connection dropped three times in one week. Twice in the afternoon and once at night. At the times in the afternoon we pulled the plug to reset the Honeywell Lyric T6R, but the third time the problem was solved by the moment we were in the living room in the morning. We spoke with a Honeywell employee about this and they assure us that the thermostat may have this problem, but should also be able to fix it on its own. If not, something else is going on.

Honeywell Lyric T6R – conclusion

Honeywell delivers a smart and simple system with the Honeywell Lyric T6R. In this case, the fact that the controls have been made so accessible does not mean that the manufacturer has had to compromise on smart functions. Compared to other smart thermostats, there are hardly any aspects with which Honeywell differentiates, except for design and price. In general, smart thermostats do the same things, but the question is which one you like and how much you are willing to pay for it.

We don’t think the Honeywell Lyric T6R is the most beautiful smart thermostat at the moment, but that is purely personal. It is a very affordable device, especially when you consider that you can place it anywhere you want and you are therefore not dependent on the position where your old thermostat was (although it will not be there for no reason). Wall mounted thermostats of the same price don’t offer that little bit of extra freedom and thus comfort, so that’s definitely something to keep in mind.

In addition to the enormously accessible application, you will also find many options with regard to setting up a schedule, which you can also adjust when you want. That includes new schedule settings, without having to deviate from the old schedule (which can be resumed after the new settings). We are a bit concerned that the thermostat sometimes loses the connection, but fortunately it is also restored itself. And as long as that keeps happening, we can recommend the Honeywell Lyric T6R.