Ruud EcoNet vs Pixel Mapper xModel
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ruud EcoNet
Manage your home's heating, cooling, and hot water systems remotely. Optimize energy usage, set custom schedules, and receive important alerts for maintenance and potential issues. Enjoy enhanced comfort and potential savings on utility bills.
- Smart HVAC control
- Smart water heater monitoring
- Energy consumption tracking
- Custom scheduling
- Remote system access
- Maintenance alerts
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EcoNet®: Smart Control for Your Home’s Comfort Take complete control of your home’s comfort and energy efficiency. EcoNet provides seamless smart control over your HVAC and water heaters from the Rheem family of brands (Rheem, Ruud, Friedrich, Richmond, Sure Comfort, Russell by Rheem, Durastar). Experience the convenience of managing your home’s climate and hot water needs right from your smartphone. Features: - Smart Control: Easily adjust your heating and cooling settings to maintain the perfect indoor climate. - Smart Monitoring: Monitor and control your water heater’s performance for optimal efficiency and comfort. - Smart Savings: Track your energy consumption and receive tips to improve efficiency and save on utility bills. - Utility Programs: Enroll in utility programs in your area to maximize your savings. - Custom Schedules: Set personalized schedules for your HVAC and water heater to match your lifestyle and maximize energy savings. - Alerts & Notifications: Get real-time alerts and notifications for maintenance reminders, system updates, and potential issues. Quickly share these alerts with your contractor when contact info added at account creation. - Remote Access: Control your home’s systems from anywhere, ensuring comfort and peace of mind whether you’re at home or away. Download EcoNet today and transform the way you manage your home’s comfort and efficiency!
Pixel Mapper xModel
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Pixel Mapper turns your iPhone or iPad into an automatic layout tool for xLights. Point your camera at your light display, and the app lights each WS2811 / WS2812 pixel, finds it in the camera image with computer vision, and builds a ready-to-import xLights Custom model — no manual clicking pixel by pixel. Perfect for Christmas light displays, props, matrices, megatrees, and any irregular pixel layout that's painful to map by hand. HOW IT WORKS 1. Target — enter your controller's IP and pixel count. Output goes over DDP or sACN / E1.31, the same protocols xLights and FPP already speak. 2. Scan — choose a mode: • Fast (base-3): every pixel lights in every frame, colored by one base-3 digit of its index, so all pixels are identified in only ~log3(N)+2 frames (about 500 pixels in 8 frames). Two checksum digits reject misreads. • Sequential: light one pixel at a time and find the single bright blob. Slower, but dead simple and rock solid. Both modes subtract a black reference frame to ignore ambient hotspots. 3. Review — see the detected layout over your photo, drop bad points, tap to place or move a node, and re-scan individual pixels. Zoom and pan to fine-tune. 4. Export — save a standard xLights .xmodel file that imports into both old and new versions of xLights. WHY PIXEL MAPPER • No more mapping hundreds of pixels by hand. • Works with the gear you already own — any DDP or sACN/E1.31 pixel controller. • Fast base-3 scan maps large models in seconds of capture. • Checksum-protected so misread pixels get rejected, not placed wrong. • Best results in a dim room; the app locks camera exposure and focus where the device supports it. REQUIREMENTS • A WS2811 / WS2812 (or compatible) pixel controller reachable on your network. • The controller set to receive DDP or sACN / E1.31. • An iPhone or iPad on the same Wi-Fi network as the controller. Pixel Mapper is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the xLights project. xLights is a trademark of its respective owners.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Pixel Mapper xModel at 3 against Ruud EcoNet's 1. Pixel Mapper xModel also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Ruud EcoNet | Pixel Mapper xModel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (2.3K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 17.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2.3K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rheem Manufacturing Company | S&B Designs |
Bugs and requests
Ruud EcoNet
Reported bugs
8 issues- Geofence not working correctly since iOS 18.4.1 update
- App constantly has to be hard closed and re opened
- Cloud based reliability is pretty abysmal
- WiFi connection crashes repeatedly
- Can't change WiFi
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- Scheduling issues
- Losing connection to devices
- Disappearing water heater from the app
Requested features
4 requests- Show operating status of furnace and AC units
- Allow more schedule time slots
- Integrate with Apple Home/HomeKit
- Show current temperature in the tank
Pixel Mapper xModel
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Ruud EcoNet
No in-app purchases
Pixel Mapper xModel
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Ruud EcoNet free?
Is Pixel Mapper xModel free?
Do Ruud EcoNet or Pixel Mapper xModel have ads?
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