Whats going on with the heater/AC

[vrbaba]

The thermostat has two settings - one for heat/cold/off, other for Fan on/off.

Fan is always set at Auto. I turned the Heat on for a bit, and there was this crackling noise, like your wires touching the cpu cooler fan (but ofcourse, on a larger scale). I was like wtf, and turned the fan to on and back to auto quickly. That took care of the noise.

Now the thermostat has no effect. I turned the heat off after a bit, and the fan is still on. There is another switch in the closet where the unit is - like a wall switch - and I turned it off to turn the fan off.

I think its one of those units which does the water heating too...so I might have to turn it back on.

Anyone heard of this? anything Im missing before the technician needs to be called out?

 

[bctbct]

Sounds lke your tstat got fried. The other switch you turned off was the unit disconnect.

 

[vrbaba]

grrr.. anyway to figure out if its really fried or not?

 

[skyking]

thermostat is just a simple switch. disconnect the thermostat wires and turn that other switch back on. IF the fan starts running again, the thermostat is not the problem.
It is a relay problem at the heater itself.

 

[Captante]

Could be a mouse inside it ...

 

[Erock]

Originally posted by: Captante
Could be a mouse inside it ...

We had a mouse in ours last year. The fan took care of him but bits of em were getting kicked around by the blades. Bummer, what a way to go...

 

[NoShangriLa]

If the sound come from the heatpump/compressor then it could be that the system is iced up due to low refrigerant/air bubble in refrigerant line/failed high limiter. If the sound come from the blower/fan then it could be that the blower needed service (need grease or bent/crack blade). Also check the ducting to see if something in there is creating the problem.

Turn up the heat and keep it there to see what happens, and have the system service if the problem persist. A good practice is to check/clean/replace the filter and have a look at the blower/belt.

PS. It is easier to diagnose the heatpump system in cooling mode than heating mode.

 

[vrbaba]

Originally posted by: NoShangriLa
If the sound come from the heatpump/compressor then it could be that the system is iced up due to low refrigerant/air bubble in refrigerant line/failed high limiter. If the sound come from the blower/fan then it could be that the blower needed service (need grease or bent/crack blade). Also check the ducting to see if something in there is creating the problem.

Turn up the heat and keep it there to see what happens, and have the system service if the problem persist. A good practice is to check/clean/replace the filter and have a look at the blower/belt.

PS. It is easier to diagnose the heatpump system in cooling mode than heating mode.

Wow, i dont understand half the things you said. Plus, I rent the condo, so I guess I'll just tell the owner about it. I just wanted to know if there is something obvious that I might be missing, in case its a common problem with an easy solution.

Thanks for the help guys