Ecobee makes one of the best smart home thermostats on the market. It comes fully ready to work with both Alexa and HomeKit. It also comes with all the features you’d expect from a modern smart thermostat.
Even with all these features, many users have been struggling to get their HVAC fans under control when they install an ecobee system. You can quickly stop your fan from running day and night by adjusting the right settings in ecobee’s menu.
Odds are, your fan's problem are caused by your settings. There are a variety of options in your ecobee’s settings that can cause your fan to run constantly (try setting it to 0 minutes per hour, to turn it off completely). If those settings aren’t to blame, then there is a wiring problem somewhere between your thermostat and your HVAC fan.
What is Ecobee?
Ecobee is a smart home thermostat that can fully integrate with existing smart home systems as well as your current HVAC setup.
These thermostats boast a 23% reduction in heating and cooling costs. They also offer models that come with sensors included in the box that can help keep your home at a more consistent temperature. Like many smart thermostats, Ecobee is capable of learning your routine to better serve your heating and cooling needs.
While EcoBee does offer some pretty great features, it can still experience issues around HVAC fans that just seem to never turn off.
Why Your HVAC Fan Keeps Running
Your HVAC system relies on a fan to push heated or cooled air throughout the ventilation ducts in your home. This fan is both a part of your HVAC system and its own, separate thing. You can even run this fan separately from your HVAC system.
This means that there is a chance that your fan will just keep running even if you wanted it to turn off. EcoBee’s smart thermostat gives you plenty of options for controlling this fan, but one of the first things to check is the HVAC system itself.
Problems with Your HVAC System
Your fan usually responds to commands from your thermostat to tell it when it needs to run and when it needs to shut down. If your fan is constantly running, it might be a sign that there is a wiring problem somewhere along the way.
One of the first things to check is the relay between your thermostat and your fan. If there is a problem with this relay, your fan could get stuck in the “on” position constantly. There are also broken relay switches, faulty fan motors, and other wiring problems that could be the cause of your fan troubles.
If your Ecobee settings are all correct and your thermostat was wired correctly, it might be time to call an HVAC tech to take a look at your fan. Until they arrive, here are the Ecobee settings you can change to take control of your fan.
Troubleshooting Your Ecobee
The Ecobee smart thermostat is one of the best smart home technologies out there, but all of these fantastic features can come with a few puzzles for us to solve.
If your fan is always running, but the problem isn’t with your HVAC system, we’re going to have to troubleshoot our Ecobee thermostat.
Most of these problems can be quickly addressed with a few changes to the settings, but some are buried in more complicated menus and submenus. Ecobee is feature packed and while that is usually a good thing, it does make troubleshooting a little more exciting.
Let’s take a look at a few features you can change that might stop your runaway HVAC fan.
Ecobee and Wiring
Our first stop is less a feature of Ecobee and more of a question about how it was installed in the first place.
There have been several reports from users that tell the tale of wires being crossed during the initial Ecobee installation that cause the HVAC fan to run constantly. One user even reported that their Auto and On fan controls were inverted!
If none of the other troubleshooting tips in this guide help get your fan under control, it might be worthwhile to do a clean reinstall of your Ecobee just in case some wires were crossed during the original installation.
Hopefully, this won’t be the case and one of these quick troubleshooting tips will help.
What is the Smart Recovery Feature?
Ecobee is a smart home thermostat so, of course, it’s packed with smart features. These features “learn” your habits and heating preferences, so you have to do less work adjusting your system.
The Ecobee thermostat can use information like when you are home, your schedule, and your temperature preferences to create a profile that keeps our home at an ideal temperature without needing input.
One downside to this is that if Ecobee misses the mark, you can have an HVAC fan that runs more than you need it to. If you’ve been struggling with a runaway fan, it might be the Smart Recovery setting that you need to adjust.
This one is an easy change. It’s one of the options that are easy to access through the “Preferences” menu. Simply click on “Smart Recovery” and turn it off:
You can always try it again at a later date if it turns out to not be the problem.
Check Your Hold Settings
Your Ecobee has a few more features beyond being able to fully automate your HVAC controls.
If you want to set an exception to your automatic heating and cooling schedules, you’re going to need to set a hold in Ecobee’s scheduling. This can be to adjust for a heatwave or just to change up your normal routine.
One of the holds you can put in place involves running your fan. There are a few reasons why homeowners would want to keep their fans running without having the rest of the HVAC system on. Ecobee gives you this option by allowing you to set a hold for leaving your fan running.
You’ll be able to see any active holds in your Ecobee home screen. The fan hold options are new as of the latest firmware update which makes problems slightly more likely. Luckily, fixing this setting error is quick and easy.
All you need to do is to head into your Quick Changes menu and select the new option for “Fan Holds.” You’ll be able to set holds as short as a few minutes and as long as forever. You can also deactivate any fan holds that might have been set by mistake.
Heat Dissipation Settings
Your fan typically runs for a few seconds after your HVAC system shuts off. This is because even after your system turns off, there is still residual heat that can be pushed out into your home. Using this residual heat saves you money in the long run by making the most of your HVAC dollar.
In order to do this, Ecobee has a heat dissipation setting that allows it to use this leftover heating. This setting usually only runs the fan for an additional 30 seconds after your HVAC system shuts down, but it can be on for up to 900 seconds! Here’s how to bring that number back down if it got set too high.
The setting for heat dissipation is a little buried in the menu.
- Go to “Settings”
- Select “Installation Settings”
- Find the “Thresholds” menu
- There will be an option for “Heat Dissipation” that you can change
You can set the heat dissipation time to anything you want. It’s worth keeping in mind that this setting can not be responsible for a fan that is always running. This setting can only keep the fan going for up to 900 seconds, which is a pretty long time when you consider how often your system activates throughout the day.
There is another setting that can get your fan stuck on all day and night.
On vs Auto
This is a common problem with Ecobee and other smart thermostat systems. If this setting isn’t switched to “auto,” your fan could be stuck running all the time.
With the fan in “auto” your system is going to automatically run the fan whenever it needs to adjust the temperature of your home. The fan should quickly turn off after that based on your heat dissipation settings and the Smart Recovery options you’ve chosen. This usually means only a few minutes where the fan is running without your system.
The “on” setting, on the other hand, does exactly what it sounds like. This setting has your fan running constantly. This even runs your fan when you are not at home! So, what’s the fix?
Head into your Quick Settings menu and choose the “Fan” option. You should be able to toggle between auto and on in this menu. Simply switch back to auto, and you are good to go!
