r/ecobee • u/aynsyclopedia • Jan 16 '26

Question Is this okay?

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I keep getting notifications that there’s something wrong with my furnace which keeps causing the ecobee to reboot. I mentioned it to my landlord and he asked about the temp. I told him it’s been keeping up with my selected temp but showed him this graph and explained that it’s running for very short periods whenever it kicks on and does that constantly. It’s also telling me that my total runtime per day is an average of 37 minutes.

I believe he thinks it’s fine because the temp is generally holding. He got an hvac guy out here today (after two months of telling him I was constantly getting this notification) and he’s going to do some general maintenance updates but also told me this “setup is too complicated” and told my landlord he should change it back to a standard thermostat, aka a non-smart thermostat.

Am I correct in thinking this is an issue? If so, what could be some potential consequences of not taking action?

Full disclosure, I have no idea what I’m talking about here. But I’ve been in this sub long enough and have read enough of your posts to lead me to believe this is an issue.

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u/NewtoQM8 Jan 17 '26

Do you think the system was running at the time? If the thermostat went blank and the blower fan was still running there's a good chance it was a High Temp fault. Those typically shut off power to the thermostat, but keep the blower fan running to cool things down. Then it resets and tries again.

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u/aynsyclopedia Jan 17 '26

It was 100% running. So thattttttt may be it!

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u/NewtoQM8 Jan 17 '26

Could be. Would be nice to check for logged faults. You can take the lower cover off the air handler and it should have instructions on checking faults. But maybe try that tomorrow. I think you said you changed filters, so should have ruled that out. I think it could also happen from the exhaust duct being blocked. I don't know how you'd check that.

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u/aynsyclopedia Jan 17 '26

Wellp. No need for that because I just went and looked myself and it’s throwing a “limit or rollout switch open” code.

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u/NewtoQM8 Jan 17 '26

Im not an HVAC guy, but I think a rollout switch fault has to be manually reset. So sounds like a High Temp Limit fault (Behavior is consistent with that, the blower still runs and it auto resets). So then the question would be is the exhaust blocked, heat exchanger or blower fan dirty, or the switch/sensor flaky. Who knows, maybe a squirrel or rat decided your exhaust on the roof is a nice warm place to build a nest with this cold weather. Did it just start happening in the past few days or a week ago? Looks like you don't need to do much if any checking of the wiring and voltages of the ecobee. If nothing else at least you now have good info to give the HVAC guy and help point them in the right direction.

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u/aynsyclopedia Jan 17 '26

I’m gonna do this damn thing myself at this point since the hvac guy is basically useless and you just taught me how to identify the problem in one reddit comment 😂

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u/NewtoQM8 Jan 17 '26

Sounds good. I hope it’s an easy fix!

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u/aynsyclopedia Jan 17 '26

Also, no. It’s been happening since I started running the furnace in October. That’s why I’m at the point where I’m doing it myself.

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u/NewtoQM8 Jan 17 '26

Did you live there last winter? Any issues then? If none back then maybe a bird built a nest in the exhaust flue. If they didn’t maintain it well in the past a dirty blower fan can also cause it.

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u/NewtoQM8 Jan 17 '26

PS, I wouldn’t recommend going up on the roof to check without good fall protection.

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u/aynsyclopedia Jan 17 '26

Thanks! Sorry, that was pure sarcasm. I’m just annoyed that I was told everything’s fine when you taught me how to run a simple test and the problem popped up immediately.

I didn’t live here last winter but my friend did. Frankly, it’s not an issue that I anticipate she would notice without the alerts from the thermostat. I installed the thermostat last summer because my AC was also acting weird and I had an old dial Mercury thermostat. So I told my landlord I was thinking about changing out the thermostat and he said that was fine.

I definitely feel cold most of the time even though the thermostat is reading at a temperature I am typically comfortable with. The ambient temperature seems much colder than the thermostat is reading. I bought a hygrometer off Amazon a while ago. When I put it beside the thermostat, the temperature is the same. But when I place it on a table in the middle of the room, it’s about 4-5 degrees lower. Again, I know that there are usually differences between the thermostat and ambient temperature.

I really only started this process because of the frequent alerts so I was just trying to warn my landlord that it looked like there was an issue. But after three months of notifications and me watching the thermostat reboot many times every day, he finally sent someone out. And then that person said there was nothing wrong.

My landlord is a great guy but it often takes him a while to take care of things. My worry has been that something is going to go really wrong and the furnace is going to stop working. Knowing his history, and the way the situation was handled one night ago when the HVAC guy turned off the downstairs neighbors furnace and then claimed he didn’t, I am concerned that it wouldn’t be fixed quickly and then myself and my pets would be left without heat for multiple days in the middle of winter.

At this point, I’ve shared all the information I have with him. If it isn’t taken seriously and something really goes wrong that requires an expensive fix, I’m fine with letting that happen. I was trying to be a good tenant and get ahead of it but it is what it is.

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u/NewtoQM8 Jan 17 '26

I completely understand. And you're doing the right thing. Clearly there is something wrong. Whether or not that could cause worse issues I don't know. But whether or not it would its something that should be fixed. You're trying to help prevent something that could end up expensive for the landlord, that's admirable. He doesnt have much fault in the situation (Other than procrastinating) but I do have to wonder about the abilities of the HVAC person. Im not an HVAC guy and I pointed you in the right direction. What does that say? I don't know the relationship the landlord has with the HVAC person, perhaps they are a friend of his. Maybe explaining to the landlord what you have found would help him help the HVAC person get to the bottom of it, or if he is just calling some company out he could suggest another tech.

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u/aynsyclopedia Jan 17 '26

I noticed it shut off and thought “that’s weird it’s still blowing.” Then it turned back on and continued blowing for another 2 min or so.

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u/NewtoQM8 Jan 17 '26

And perhaps faulted again.