Honeywell HZ311 TrueZONE Panel

My old unit lasted exactly 16 years. Bought the exact same unit for simplicity. Plug and play. Note: you do have to press pretty hard to insert the wires.

This review is for the HZ311 since Amazon seems to group different models together in reviews. I bought this panel as a replacement for a Total Zone 4 that was going bad. The HZ311 is a significant upgrade to the older total zone boards. Since I only have 2 zones with 2 dampers each and a single stage gas furnace, this panel was the right one for me. It can actually handle 3 zones if needed. The design is much smaller and more modern than the older one with all circuitry hidden. The swap out was extremely easy as there are no dip switches or jumpers that have to be set for install. All you need to do is hook up the correct wires to the correct terminals and you are done. The terminals are simple push in type requiring no screwdriver and each terminal has two little holes in it that allow two wires to be hooked up to one terminal if needed. I needed this since I run 2 dampers per zone in parallel. Just make sure you verify that the wires are fully inserted into the terminals. There's a little resistance that makes it seem like it may be fully inserted, but then one more little push and you can tell it's now in and locked. I've had this installed for about a week now and so far, so good. I would highly recommend this panel if you need to upgrade yours or to change out an older, failing one like I had.

I bought this because we purchased a house that had a Honeywell MM2 Trol-A-Temp master/slave thermostat controller. We already owned two Nest thermostats that ridiculously does not work with this common setup. (Come on Nest, your thermostats should be able to talk with each other and co-ordinate.) You can bodge one Nest as the master thermostat with a Trol-A-Temp by pushing the heat change-over wire in to the W1 receptacle with the W wire so that the Nest will tell the MM2 to use heat and call for it at the same time (and do the same with the cool change-over wire and Y/Yellow). But then you have to leave the dumb slave thermostat in place and it can only call for heat or cool when the Nest is doing the same. The HZ311 was easy to install and includes a C connector for each thermostat to allow your smart thermostats like Nest to charge without having to call for heat or cool. It does this with a dedicated, required 24V tranformer (not included). This assumes you have enough wires running to your thermostat of course. (I have a Fast-Stat 3-wire to 5-wire on order since I cannot pull new cable to replace the 3 wire cable for zone 2.) Be aware that Nest's trick for sipping power by fast cycling the heat when it needs to charge does not play well with the HZ311. You must find a wire you can use for a C wire. Until my 3-to-5 wire system arrives, I have re-purposed the fan (G/green) wire since the thermostat usually does not need to control that on a modern (last couple of decades or so) system (and I assume the HZ311 would take care of that necessity any way). So I only have the ability to heat from my 2nd zone at the moment. tl;dr Works great with modern connected thermostats. Provides separate power for charging/running smart thermostats without robbing the HVAC or playing games. You must find a wire to use as a C/common wire.

Install is straight forward. Connect like wires to like wires. I HIGHLY recommend needle nose pliers to push the wires in and push the plunger down with your finger at the same time. If the wire doesn't go in the left side of the hole try the right side of the same hole. This worked for me and I only broke off one tab before I started using the needle nose pliers. Equipment to Equipment; Zone 1 to Zone 1, Zone 2 to Zone 2; Transformer to Transformer (I used blue for common); Damper to Damper. I had no DATS connections.

Great product, simple wiring wiring to follow

I had to make an upgrade to my older Temp-U-Trol MM2 zone panel in order to use the newer programable thermostats. Install was easy and everything works great! I love how you can see which zone is calling for heat or cool. I eliminated a star due to my unit missing one of the "buttons" for removing the wires. The wires slide in easily and you press the small button to release them. 1 of these buttons was missing but I confirmed that I can use a small screwdriver if i have to remove that wire. honeywell support was great when i called to confirm my setup.

If you already have one installed, this is a 1:1 install. just push in the pins to release the current wires, move the current wire to the same location on the new board and you can save yourself a lot of money. My HVAC company wanted to charge me over 800usd to install a new unit. They did not mention that the unit already in place, which they installed was still under warranty (5 year). When I mentioned the warranty they got quiet. In any case a re-install is easy, tape your receipt to the unit for a return. Sadly the manufacturer only talks with HVAC people when it comes to support. So..

Very good product

Great controller.