Analysis of time-resolved anisotropy of transient absorption enabled determination of room temperature ground and excited state rate constants for intramolecular double hydrogen transfer in two similar porphycenes, one of them with symmetric and the other, with asymmetric character of a double minimum potential for hydrogen motion. The perturbation preserves a quasi-symmetric minimum in S₀, but the rate decreases approximately two times. In S₁, the perturbed potential becomes strongly asymmetric, and the downhill hydrogen transfer occurs with a rate higher than that observed for a symmetrical compound.