One of the best and most appealing features of a smart thermostat is the ability to adjust it when you’re not standing next to it.  With some thermostats, the features available to you vary by the interface you’re using.

In this article, we’ll explore which Honeywell RTH9580 (Honeywell Wi-Fi SmartThermostat) features can be controlled from its companion app, which are available on the Honeywell web portal, and which can be accessed via the wall unit itself.

Related: Read our review of the Honeywell RTH9580

What you can do from the Honeywell App

The Honeywell thermostat app (available via Google Play and iTunes) is called “Total Connect Comfort” and it’s available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and all Android devices.

The Total Connect Comfort app offers controls over numerous aspects of your thermostat:

Home Tab

• Set the temperature, and how long to hold that temperature
• Current indoor temperature & humidity
• Current outdoor temperature & humidity (information is retrieved from the Internet, no additional sensor needed)
• 5-Day forecast for your zipcode

System Tab

• Set system to heat/cool/off.

Fan Tab

• Set fan to on/auto/circulate
• Schedule tab
• Set the heating & cooling target temperature for all 7 days
• Each day has four scheduling points: wake, leave, return, sleep. You don’t have to use them all.
• For each point you can choose what you want the fan setting to be (on/auto/circulate), which is a feature most scheduling thermostats don’t give you – this setting can usually only be manually set, not scheduled.

The “remember me” option on the app will remember your email and password.

What you can do from the Honeywell Web Portal

Honeywell’s web portal is called “Honeywell Total Connect”. It is accessed via mytotalconnect.com/comfort (requires free account). The web portal offers more features than the companion app. The web portal offers everything you can do from the app, plus…

• Add additional locations, and add additional thermostat(s) for each location (and set a name for each location & thermostat)
• Edit account information, & add vendor information (such as the installer’s phone number)
• Set notification email addresses (up to 6)
• View a full schedule overview (app only shows you one day at a time)
• Grant access to additional email addresses for certain locations. Example: If you have 2 locations, you could grant a babysitter access to only one of them.

Set optional notifications settings and receive an email if any of the following events occur:

• Temp/Humidity is higher/lower than x for y hours
• Connection is lost between your thermostat and Honeywell’s servers (after x hours)
• A change/command was not received by your thermostat after x minutes
• For any notification chosen, continue to remind me every x hours
• Notify when thermostat conditions return to normal

The website only remembers your email. Many users express a desire for an “auto-login” feature.

What You Can Do from the Thermostat Itself

If you’re standing at the Honeywell thermostat wall unit, you’ve got access to most of the same features as the app with numerous settings and controls specific to the thermostat and your HVAC system.

Home/System/Fan Tabs

Same as the mobile app plus date/time display, except no 5 day forecast.

Menu Tab

• Create/Edit Schedule: Full scheduling control, same functionality as scheduling in the app
• View Schedule Summary: View the schedule
• Vacation mode: Tell it the day/time you are leaving/returning, and desired temperature for this period.
• Color Themes: Choose from 14 presets, or create a custom scheme. The custom colors are in the form of: Color (0 to 359), Shade (0 to 100%), Brightness (0 to 100%), which translates to thousands of color options.
• Preferences: see next section

Preferences Menu

• Reminders to change air filter / humidifier pad
• Utility schedule options
• Backlight (inactivity brightness): After about a minute of inactivity, the thermostat dims to your preferred level, from 0 (off) to 10 (bright).
• Smart Response Technology: When on, thermostat turns on before scheduled time to get it to the desired temp at the schedule time, learns how long it takes to reach it and adjusts accordingly. This “guessing” feature works well, but can be turned off for 100% predictability.
• Restore Default Schedule / Settings
• Equipment Status
• Temporary Schedule Change
• Clean Screen: Disable the screen for cleaning. You get 30 seconds to give it a good scrub (use gentle cleaners and do not spray liquids directly onto the thermostat).
• Security Settings: Prevent unauthorized changes by setting an access password and security level: unlocked (full access), partial (only temperature can be changed), fully locked (no access allowed).
• Advanced Preferences: Programmable (on/off), Fahrenheit/Celsius, System Changeover (Auto/Manual), min/max temp, keypad lockout, 12/24 hour time display, temp & humidity offset (to compensate for humidity sensor issues), Daylight Savings Time, Indoor Display Offsets
• System Setup: Wi-Fi Status & Setup, Language (English, French, Spanish), thermostat name, whether the thermostat controls heating, cooling or both, system type (forced air, heat pump, hot water, or steam), forced air heating system type (gas/oil by default, electric), heating stages, cooling stages, fan control, type of changeover valve, heat pump compressor stages, backup heat (Whew! Did you catch all that? The Honeywell Wi-Fi Thermostat is designed to be compatible with a huge variety of systems).

In Summary

The companion app is for quick day-to-day adjustments, the website is for access control and scheduling, and the unit itself is for advanced preferences and compatibility settings.

Note to readers: Some links on SmartThermostatGuide.com are affiliate links. Read our full disclosure policy here.