In this video I Want to talk about a few reasons why you might have a thermostat that has gone blank. And when I say blank I mean you're used to it lighting up when you touch it or you push a button and right now it's doing nothing, It's dead. Let's talk about a few things that you might be able to do, but in the end you might have to call Pro if these things don't fix it. But first, before we dive in.

if you don't know me, my name is Josh I host the HVAC guide for homeowners YouTube channel We'd love for you to subscribe for more heating and air tips. So let's dive into this. reasons why your thermostat might be blank. The first one is, you might have a float switch that has killed power to that thermostat And what I mean by that is.

When we install heating and air systems, there are literal switches that are on that system that will open or turn off if there is a problem. So some of these float switches might be mounted, say, on a drain pan. Some of them might be actually mounted in the line of the drain itself. Some of them might become connected, to, say, a condensate pump.

Different types of float switches out there, but no matter which type you have, if there's an issue, it is meant to shut the system down. For example, if you have a drain pan full of water and there's a problem and that flow switch has stopped power to that system, that's a good thing. You don't want that drain pan overflowing and then you've got water coming through your ceiling or somewhere else. You want that flow switch to shut things down so that thermostat being blank may be a good thing.

The second thing that might cause your thermostat to go blank is a high voltage power issue. So if you had some sort of issue with the high voltage going into your HVAC system, maybe a tripped breaker? Maybe some sort of problem with the disconnect? Maybe a blown fuse? Maybe a breaker that's gone bad? Something to do with the high voltage. A lot of folks will sometimes call us after they've had a power outage and then when things turned back on, something happened. Now that system might have a high voltage power issue.

So aside from maybe resetting the breaker I Know some pros will caution homeowners against that. I Think that if you feel comfortable turning a breaker back on and you've done it before and you understand the risks because there are a few, then you can reset a breaker. If you're the homeowner, it's your house. But if that breaker were to trip again I would not continue resetting it.

There's a problem. There's a reason it keeps tripping and you want to get that problem resolved before you just keep resetting. Breakers The third reason your thermostat may be blank is a low voltage power issue. So let's say you were weed eating outside and you nicked the thermostat wire going to your outdoor unit.

There's a chance that you could have shorted out the low voltage wiring and now you've got a blown fuse. or even worse, a Transformer has failed. Some sort of low voltage power issue is maybe causing that thermostat to go blank. I Would say most issues that fall into this category: low voltage power issues.

You really do want to get a pro in there. Most of this stuff is not necessarily DIY Friendly and you could cause more problems if you get in there and try to solve these issues yourself. So if you do have a low voltage power issue, if for some reason you're not getting power to that thermostat and it's not one of the issues we've already discussed, chances are you may have a low voltage issue, you might want to get a pro in there. The fourth reason you might have a blank thermostat is the thermostat.

Batteries have now failed. I Do want to caution you if you don't currently have batteries in that thermostat a lot of times, it's good to leave them out now. I Know some pros out there will say well, if the batteries go dead and the power goes out and you lose programming on the thermostat, that's a whole nother topic there are thermostats that that is a risk. but I Think in general if you're not usually using batteries and it's not something you're in the habit of replacing and that system typically runs off of the hard wired part of the thermostat, Adding batteries is in a lot of cases, not going to fix your issues.

We've had customers call us and say yeah, My thermostat was blank and I pulled it off the wall and I noticed there were no batteries in it and so I put batteries in it and now the thermostat lights up. but my system still don't work a lot of times. If the thermostat is blank and there's no batteries in there, you adding batteries and making that thermostat now run off of those is not usually going to fix your issue. But if you've got a blank thermostat, you pull it off the wall.

It does have batteries in there. You replace those batteries that should get you going again as long as the thermostat isn't too corroded up from the acid from the batteries or something like that. We've seen batteries that have seen better days and they're corroding the inside of that thermostat and unfortunately, the damage may be done. But again, replacing those batteries May fix your issue.

And then finally, the fifth reason that you may have a blank thermostat is is a thermostat failure or some other component that has failed, so the thermostat itself may have gone bad. Another component in that system we already talked about Transformers when they fail, your thermostat will go blank. There's a number of things we just had the other day: an issue where the voltage came into the system, the air handler. It went through the heat kit and then it went over to the Transformer which then stepped the voltage down.

The heat could had failed and so everything after that just wasn't receiving power. A major component failure. Unfortunately, you're probably going to need to get a pro in there. You're going to have to spend a little bit of money to get that repaired correctly, but when folks call pros, at least you know you're going to get a professional job.

You're going to get a fixed rate you hope, right and replace that component that has now failed. So that's the big five on why your thermostat may be blank. Did I miss one? Please comment down below. We'd love to hear about that.

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