Centralite Pearl Questions

I just installed 2 Centralite Pearl thermostats (1 white and 1 black). I noticed that neither thermostat shows a battery indicator icon. Is this normal? Every picture I see of the Pearl shows a battery icon. Does it only display when the battery is low? Also, for those that have this device, does the battery level report properly? Both show battery levels at 80%, even after installing fresh batteries.

Mine does not show battery on thermostat display, and mine is at 80% also. Batteries were new when installed and has been on ac power since installed 5-6 months ago.

Pull the batteries and put them back in. I had a similar issue on one of two of mine, and it went away with a battery change even though it was reported the batts were ok and they were practically new.

1 Like

That didn't do anything. Both still report 80% with new batteries. I may try some lithium batteries to see if that makes a difference.

Sorry to hear that.

All,

I am looking at the Centralite Pearl Thermostat as a possible replacement for a failing 2nd Gen Nest thermostat that I have. My Nest is calling for AUX Heat all of the time now for some reason. I think the base plate might have a short in it. I'd rather not pay $100 for a new base plate when I can get two Pearl T-Stats for the same price!

I am curious... Does the Centralite Pearl support a heating/cooling Mode of "Auto"? In other words, I want to specify both a Cooling and Heating setpoint and let the thermostat automatically switch between COOL and HEAT modes automatically. I don't see that option in any of the documentation that I have read.

Thanks!

I don't have the Pearl, but just did a fairly detailed comparison of 5 zwave and zigbee thermostats to find a replacement for my ecobee3.

My notes indicate the Pearl doesn't support an Auto mode.

1 Like

Just waiting for mine. The user manual only shows:
MODE button cycles between system modes: HEAT/COOL/E-H*/OFF
*E/H stands for emergency heat mode – this mode uses second-stage heat as a supplemental or back-up heat.

1 Like

Do you have any thermostat recommendations? I was also looking at an Ecobee3 Lite which I can get through my power company for $89 right now. Curious about the Ecobee Pros and Cons?

I do not control/schedule my thermostat via Hubitat. I do like having the data in Hubitat so I can log it to InfluxDB/Grafana.

I prefer Zigbee over Z-Wave. In fact, I am down to only one Z-Wave device left in my house other than Iris 3210-L Outlet Z-Wave Repeaters. WiFi thermostats are fine as well (e.g. Nest or Ecobee).

I do like the option of an App on my phone to control the thermostat independently of my home automation hub, but that is more of a want than a true requirement.

I wan to be able to control the required temperature difference from setpoint required for the HVAC system to turn on. The Nest value for this is too high and cannot be adjusted.

1 Like

Yes, I've read through all of the Pearl documentation I could find. I was hoping that the docs are out of date compared to the actual firmware on the tstat.

2 Likes

I have these. But even when that feature exists I do not use it. I'm very picky about the mode so I wrote an app that replaces the native thermostat app. As far as I can tell, though, the Pearl doesn't have the heat and cool range setting.

In my app, btw, the mode is set by the trending temperature outdoors, not the temperature at the stat.

The Pearl does not have the ability to "Auto" switch between heating and cooling. I ran mine for a couple of days, but decided to switch back to my 3rd gen Nests. The Nests are obviously much better quality and provide easier control for the rest of the family. Plus, I realized that I used the history feature and the monthly usage reports way too much to give them up.

2 Likes

My choice came down to two (Edit: that both support Auto mode):

  • The Zen zigbee thermostat
  • The Honeywell T6 Pro z-wave+

They support similar features. The Zen would have required me to install a sequencer, because it doesn't have enough terminals for my HVAC equipment (2-stage HP with 2 AUX sources; the Zen only supports 1 AUX). The Honeywell supports my equipment without any modification, so I'm going to install that later this month.

I PMed you.

1 Like

One minor thing I want to mention.

I have a 2 transformer system, with separate boiler and AC. I have no C wire, so I need thermostats that either rely on batteries or can scavenge power to charge like the Nests. The 2 Pearl thermostats I installed reported either 80% or 77% battery level, depending on which driver I used, with 2 brand new sets of batteries. That didn't sit well with me. Plus, I realized that I just don't want to be bothered with having to change batteries every so often.

I have the Honeywell T6 WiFi thermostat and my wife absolutely hates it. I would have rather replaced the WiFi device with the Zwave one but I couldn't convince her to spend more money on what would be to her, the exact same thing.

1 Like

Sad thing is, I generally like my ecobee3. But, their cloud goes down too often for my liking. And recently, one of the solid state relays has started sticking.

Edit - we'll see how this goes for a month or two. I'm not throwing the ecobee3 out.

1 Like

The ecobee was elegant looking. My experience was the same. If you want to integrate it to HE, it's awful due to their unreliable cloud. I gave them away to a friend who is very happy just letting them do their thing with very little integration.

1 Like

Does the T6 Zwave device use the Honeywell app in any way? One thing I do like about the WiFi stat is that I get a monthly report on how much time the furnace ran, how it compares to the previous year and generally the average outside temperature differences between the two years. I will hold on to it as well.

1 Like

No mention of the app in the manual, so I'm guessing it doesn't. I like the monthly runtime data as well. More motivation to install Grafana + InfluxDb

1 Like

@ogiewon I'm not sure how this pertains to the question, but reading further in the manual I found this under programming the thermostat.
00 - Cool Only
01 - Cool with reheat
02 - Heat Only
03 - Heat with reheat
04 - Full Auto
05 - Full Auto with reheat (default)

1 Like