Resideo PROWLTOUCHDM Charging LEDs Are No Longer Used

During beta testing of the Resideo and Honeywell Home PROWLTOUCH touchscreen keypad, the PROWLTOUCHDM desk mount and charging stand offered an LED on top to show when the keypad was properly connected and charging. Resideo removed this feature, apparently in 2020, without informing users.

Of course anything we say about the Honeywell Home PROWLTOUCH is also true of the Resideo PROWLTOUCHC. Both keypads are compatible with the PROWLTOUCHDM. The only difference between the two keypads is the branding shown on the front of the product. Honeywell Home products are marketed toward residential use while Resideo branded products are marketed for commercial use.

What makes this situation somewhat perplexing is the fact that the PROWLTOUCHDM still has the LEDs and the ribbon cable internally that would allow the LEDs to be connected to power. There's just no connector on the power board, so the LEDs can never be successfully utilized.

When we first encountered this issue, we thought we'd found a manufacturing problem. We received several different PROWLTOUCHDMs in our office, and they all looked the same inside. All the bits to make it work, minus that all-important connector.

We reported our findings to Resideo technical support. They had no record of a product change. They escalated the inquiry to the product manager and that's how we all found out about the decision to remove this feature, which took place in April, 2020! Any PROWLTOUCH manufactured after April 2, 2020 will not have a working LED indicator.

The date code for this product is only located on the packaging that it comes in. You can see a date in the first image above. There is no date code on the PROWLTOUCHDM itself. So, if you have one of these and you've already thrown away the box, there is no way to check a date code. If you're just buying one, it's likely that it will have been manufactured after April 2, 2020.

You don't lose much with the removal of this feature. It can be a little tricky to mount the PROWLTOUCH to the PROWLTOUCHDM so that it's lined up correctly to properly charge the keypad battery. The LED was nice for allowing the user to be sure it was properly mounted. Otherwise, users likely won't miss it. What are your thoughts on this feature removal? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.