Thermostats

How to Turn ON Permanent Hold on Honeywell Thermostat

Honeywell RTH9580WF thermostat displaying its -Hold Options- screen, with the -Switch to Permanent Hold- button highlighted.

Here, we cover how to turn on permanent hold on a typical Honeywell thermostat. Now the permanent hold feature on many programmable thermostats lets the user override scheduled temperature settings for an indefinite period. In permanent hold, you set the temperature manually, and have that setting remain until you release the hold. On the other hand, when a thermostat is following its schedule, it is not on permanent hold. Thus, it changes its set temperature to what its program says at times of day, also dictated by the program. Permanent hold basically lets you suspend the thermostat’s program schedule for as long as you want.

So why would you ever want to turn on permanent hold on a Honeywell thermostat? Because perhaps, your home gets too chilly on extra cold winter nights. So you’d like to stop your pre-scheduled temperature lowering just for that night. Or, maybe you don’t like the temperatures set by the current program, but don’t know how to edit the program. Thus you must wait for your tech savvy child’s next visit to get that done. In cases like these, using permanent hold is a handy solution.

How to Turn on Permanent Hold on Honeywell Thermostat: Step by Step

We show here how to turn the permanent hold function to ON, on our Honeywell RTH9580WF smart thermostat. In this demo, we start off with our thermostat set to Following Schedule. But this same procedure works when temporary hold is in effect. It’s just the name of the Hold button that changes.

1. Go to the Honeywell Thermostat’s Home Screen

Here’s a shot of our t-stat’s Home page shown next. Note that our Honeywell thermostat says that it’s following its schedule.

A typical Honeywell thermostat displaying its -Home- page. Showing the -Following Schedule- status message.

Also note the temperature setting buttons on the right side of the screen, as circled in the next picture.

The -Home- screen. Showing the temperature adjustment buttons.

2. Tap Either the UP or DOWN Temperature Buttons

Tapping either of these buttons brings up the Hold Options screen.

Then, continue tapping these buttons repeatedly until the temperature you want to keep in effect during permanent hold appears. In our example, we set our permanent hold temperature to 77 degrees.

After you set the new temperature, the Hold Options screen looks something like the following.

The -Hold Options- screen. Showing the -Switch to Permanent Hold- button.

3. Tap the Switch to Permanent Hold Button

When you touch the Switch to Permanent Hold button, the thermostat screen changes as follows.

Note that the button that now appears just beneath the large indoor temperature numbers says “Switch to Temporary Hold”. When it says this, then you know that the thermostat is indeed currently in Permanent Hold mode.

The -Hold Options- screen, in -Permanent Hold- mode. Showing the -Done- button.

4. Finally, Tap the Green Done Button to Continue with How to Turn on Permanent Hold on Honeywell Thermostat

Then, the thermostat returns to the Home screen, as shown next. But notice now that the Following Schedule status no longer appears. Instead, we see a button in its place, that says “Permanent Hold (press for options)”. Here the Honeywell thermostat has now running permanent hold, with the temperature set to 77 degrees.

Back to the -Home- screen. Showing the -Permanent Hold- button.