The Hunter 44550 Auto Save costs about $40 and the Lux Products TX500E Smart Temp is slightly cheaper at $38. Since these two programmable thermostats have similar prices it is natural to make the assumption that they are therefore similar in functions and programming ability. This is not the case. This post will look at the differences between the Hunter 44550 and the Lux Products TX500E.
The most important difference is that the Hunter 44550 is a 7 day device, whereas the Lux Products TX500E is only a 5+2 device. To explain, the Hunter 44550 provides the user with a different program for each day of the week. The Lux TX500E has only 2 programs – one to control weekdays and one to control the weekend. The key issue with thermostats is their ability to let the user avoid heating or cooling an empty house. If a person keeps regular hours both during the week and at the weekend then the Lux Products TX500E is adequate. If on the other hand a person varies the times he or she gets up, comes home from work and goes to bed during a 7 day period then the Hunter thermostat is clearly preferable.
The thermostats being compared share a number of useful functions. They both have a temporary hold and a vacation mode. Moreover they both have swing control to let the user set up a range around the set point temperature in which the thermostat doesn’t activate the HVAC systems. They both also have a keyboard lockout.
The Hunter 44550 and Lux Products TX500E have displays that show time, set point temperature as well as battery and filter status. The main problem with the Lux Products TX500E digital display is that it doesn’t have a back light.
Important functions found on the Hunter 44550 and not on the Lux Products TX500E are smart recovery and auto change-over. The former tracks heating and cooling times to make sure the room temperature is at the right point at the beginning of a program. The later detects the changing seasons and switches automatically between cooling and heating (or the other way round).
Both thermostats are suitable for a wide range of single stage heating and cooling systems. They both have Energy Star approval and a one year warranty. It is clear from this review that for the extra few dollars the Hunter 44550 is clearly the better value device as it is more powerful and has more programming flexibility.