“Why is my thermostat blank?”
One of the most common and frustrating things for a homeowner is to notice it’s hot in the house. Immediately you go to your thermostat and find the display blank. Before you make that initial call to us, save yourself some money and discomfort by trying this first:
- Check to make sure the batteries in your thermostat are new. If not, change them to see if that works. If thermostat comes back on, set it to cool and the desired temperature. Wait 5 minutes for the system to turn on but if nothing happens, move to the next step.
- Locate your electrical panel. You usually find this in your garage or home hallway. Once at your panel, open it up and look for breakers labeled Air Handler, Heat, A/H, or Furnace as that breaker is for the inside unit. Ensure the breaker is not tripped by moving the lever all the way to the off position and back to the on position. Do that same process with the breaker labeled Condenser, Heat Pump, HP, or Cond to ensure all breakers are on and nothing as tripped. If you hear a noise or the breaker shifts right back to where you started, give us a call as this is something that you should not look into any further.
- Check near the PVC drain of the inside unit and you should see a device called an overflow safety switch which looks like a little reservoir with a cap on it with two wires coming out. That device works like the ball cock in the back of the toilet. If your drain line backs up, that switch will rise and shut the equipment off. If this happens, pull up the cap where the wires are coming out of it and see if it is full of water. If it is full of water, put the cap back on and use a wet dry vac on the PVC outside to suck the PVC drain line clear. Once completed you should be able to hear the wet dry vac’s suction at the inside unit or simply lift the cap of the safety switch off again to see if there is still water present. If the water will not leave that section and you can’t hear the suction of the vac inside, you will then need to call us as the obstruction will require something stronger to clear it.
- If you went through all of the above and found the PVC drain was clogged and you successfully cleared the drain you must now fill the gravity fed drain up with water again. Get a one-gallon empty jug and fill it with the hottest water your tap will produce and pour it back into the clean out “T” followed by 1 cup of distilled white vinegar and you should be good to go. Just make sure that the overflow safety switch was put back just the way you found it.