Reviewed by HAI Staff

Aube Deluxe Telephone Controller

The Aube Deluxe Telephone Controller is a very cost effective remote control for your vacation home HVAC system.

Overall Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Features

Whether used for your residence or vacation home, you'll love the convenience the Deluxe Telephone Controller brings. Have you ever forgotten to turn down the heat before you left home? Just pick up the phone and dial a code to put your thermostat into the energy-saving vacation mode. Planning a weekend at your vacation home? Simply make a phone call a few hours before you arrive and program the thermostat to resume normal operation.

The Deluxe Telephone Controller is ideal for controlling other devices, like lights, automatic gates/garage doors and more! Its four-dry-contact relays can be used with a X10 Powerflash Interface to control X10 devices. It can also be used to control up to four standard thermostats. Any "setback" thermostat that can be activated by a contact closure or low voltage signal can be controlled. When used with Aube thermostats, a 12-volt DC power supply will need to be placed in series between the controller and the thermostats, which is easy to do.

The Deluxe Telephone Controller is fully compatible with answering machines. Just call home, let the phone ring once, and hang up. Call back within 30 seconds and the telephone controller will answer on the first ring. Other features include a one-touch key on the front panel to activate or deactivate each output.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Ease of Installation

Installing the Deluxe Telephone Controller is straight forward. The controller connects to the phone line with an included phone cable that plugs into a phone jack, and the power adapter that plugs into a wall outlet. A single twisted pair (20-22 AWG) cable connects from each relay output to the device it's controlling. This is typically a contact closure input on the device. If the device under control requires a low voltage signal rather than a dry contact, the output from a second power adapter (e.g. 12 VDC) will need to be placed in series between the controller and the device. The users manual provided with the controller shows a simple wiring diagram for doing this.

If you're not comfortable making the required connections, any licensed electrician or even a "handy" friend can easily install this device.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Reliability

Because of the relatively low cost, the Aube Deluxe Telephone Controller is a popular product that has been installed by many. Smarthome customers have been very satisfied and give the controller a 4.6 rating out of a possible five stars. This product comes with a 2 year warranty.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10

For more details about the Deluxe Telephone Controller click here.