Ecobee??

Harvey Ramer

Anyone having any Ecobee issues?

My thermostat, Ecobee EMS, started having issues. Random reboots, blank screens sometimes, turning equipment on and off without reaching setpoint, ect...

For the last 2 days i have been unsuccessful getting through to tech support. The last time I called they were so busy it prompted me to leave a voicemail.

Jay_at_ecobee

Hi Harvey, sorry you've had issues. I work for ecobee. If you see rebooting, it's usually a power issue - meaning that the 24v power source is either failing or not providing enough power. You need 3-5 VA (watts) for consistent operations. The other issues you mention sound like power issues as well.

As for the support delays, we apologize. We had such a HUGE success selling thermostats around Thanksgiving that the result is a LOT of people calling our support line and overwhelming them. We even added lots of new support people prior to the sales but the demand is greater than anticipated. We have even been having other staff in the office assist to try to address as many issues as possible. Certainly the call wait times will drop back down to the normal 2 minutes or less.

For future support, you can email them at support@ecobee.com, or if you are on the phone hold, you can leave a voicemail which keeps your place in line. Once your call time comes up, they will get your voice message and will call you right back.

Harvey Ramer

Thanks Jay!!

I will check out my power supply and see if I can get to the bottom of the issue. Might be a degraded transformer. If that checks out ok, would the backup battery being dead create any issues?

That makes total sense regarding your call volume. I guess a lot of other people love your product as much as I do.

Harvey Ramer

I'm happy and embarrassed to announce my thermostat is working again.

It was as Jay said, a power issue. See the check valve was partly clogged and it couldn't get enough power. Bet you didn't know thermostats have check valves. I don't think they do. My clogged check valve was in the condensate pump. It still pumped water but it pumped slower than the humidifier was filling it back up. So it would trip the safety switch which knocks out power to the thermostat. Pump would keep running and 10 minutes later drop the water level to the point where the safety switch remade contact and rebooted the thermostat. Repeat. The unit also has a fan delay which is why I heard it running sometimes while the thermostat had a blank screen.
I remember now, when I wired in the safety switch, I set it to knock out the power to the thermostat so it would stop both the humidifier in the winter and the ac in the summer. Maybe I will wire in a 24v double pole relay so the safety switch can disable both the humidifier and the compressor individually without disabling power to the thermostat. That should throw an alert on the thermostat when the safety switch trips.

I'm happy that everything is working, embarrassed that I didn't do my due diligence before looking for help. Some days I can't get out of my own way. Life.

John Mills_5

One other thing along these lines: some furnaces, Bryant & Carrier for sure, have boards that when a thermal limit opens, it drops 24v to the stat. Fine in the old mechanical days but modern stats don't appreciate that. Float switch on the c-pump does the same thing. So anybody else reading this, if your electronic stat is dropping out, check your filter or anything else that might cut 24v to the stat.

ChrisJ

My Weil-Mclain EG series came with the Hydrolevel probe interrupting the +24V to the thermostat as well.