Frozen System Turned Into a Zoning Nightmare…

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]I earned it today.

[00:00:02]Let's go.

[00:00:16]Hi Maisie. I'm Justin. So, what's going on?

[00:00:21]Our unit is back in there. Okay.

[00:00:24]Basically, um You can step outside if you want to.

[00:00:28]>> When we came home Mother's Day, uh we were gone for like 4 hours and then we came back um and we noticed that our thermostat upstairs, it was on like 77. Um but we had it set usually to like 69. Okay. Um and then so we tried to put it on like a different mode just to get the like to see if we could get the unit to start running and then feel if there was any like cold air, but we couldn't feel any air like coming through the vents at all.

[00:00:55]Okay. And it's been like that since Since Mother's Day? Yes. So, do you know if the outdoor unit was running or you just said no any air coming out at all?

[00:01:04]It's It'll run for like a minute and then it stops. Yeah, okay. It doesn't run continuously like it normally does.

[00:01:10]>> Yeah, okay. Um have you had any issues out of it before or do you know? No. You You lived here since it was built?

[00:01:16]>> Mhm. So, okay. Mhm. Well, um do you mind if I come inside? I want to start in the attic, actually. Is that okay?

[00:01:23]>> And um just show me where your thermostats are. Do you have two of them or you have one? Uh yeah, we have two.

[00:01:29]One downstairs and one Yeah, so so it's probably zoned. So, I want to turn both thermostats on and then go into the attic and I'll start up there and then I will go outside and look at the side wall. Is that okay? Yes. And my name is Justin, so We have lots of toys in our attic, so Hey, I have I have a 6-month-old and I have a 2 and 1/2-year-old, so I'm I'm going on 7 hours of sleep the last 2 days, so I understand. It It's life is tough right now. My wife and I keep joking, we're going to get a uh t-shirts made that says it gets better cuz I sure hope it does.

[00:02:00]Yeah, you have one four year old. So so we're I understand completely. Toys, my house is destroyed when I get home every day.

[00:02:09]All right. Okay. It won't bother me at all.

[00:02:13]Our first thermostat is right there.

[00:02:14]>> Okay.

[00:02:18]Hi.

[00:02:21]Gosh.

[00:02:24]Has your thermostat always been like messed up like you said the screen is kind of messed up?

[00:02:30]>> Yes.

[00:02:32]I'm going to see if I can get this covered under warranty for you.

[00:02:36]Cuz that is not normal.

[00:02:50]Do you know if I need a ladder to get into the attic? There's a little one.

[00:02:55]one on bump it down.

[00:03:01]Okay.

[00:03:04]And then this is Fantastic.

[00:03:11]ladder >> [screaming] >> All righty and if I need to come in and out is that okay? Yes. If you need to move anything around just feel free. We should be good, okay?

[00:03:23]>> Okay.

[00:03:24]Let's see here.

[00:03:34]Okay, so we got may not actually move this stuff.

[00:03:48]Let me set my tool bag down.

[00:03:56]>> I don't want to move this if I don't have to.

[00:04:06]I'm just going to shine my light and see if I can uh see any water in that drain pan.

[00:04:13]And I do.

[00:04:14]There's water inside that drain pan.

[00:04:21]And there's some rust. I don't know if y'all can see that. There's some rust, so that's there's been an issue for a while.

[00:04:32]Um I know you're going to have a hard time seeing.

[00:04:39]So, either one or two things is happening.

[00:04:41]I'm kind of suspecting it's freezing up.

[00:04:50]I don't see a media filter or anything.

[00:04:56]There, y'all can kind of see that better.

[00:04:59]But, we're going to get that water out of that pan.

[00:05:05]But, since I'm kind of suspecting it's freezing, I'm going to go right outside and hook my gauges up.

[00:05:18]Just to see cuz I cuz you see I don't want to really move all this right now.

[00:05:26]So, let's go outside.

[00:05:33]Hopefully, there's no leak.

[00:05:38]But, we're going to find out why there's water in that drain pan.

[00:05:42]>> [sighs] >> It wasn't full. It was like half full. So, I don't know if the float is keeping it off.

[00:05:51]I don't know if the overflow drain is draining water out. I can't really get to it to look.

[00:06:02]But, there's dog poop.

[00:06:45]There is an overflow drain, and water is not coming out of there.

[00:06:52]There's no evidence of any water besides maybe right here.

[00:07:02]So, you can see some water stain on the concrete right here.

[00:07:07]So, it's been going on for a while.

[00:07:10]Don't know if the drain's clogged or what.

[00:07:14]I'll have to figure that out.

[00:07:23]This unit should be on.

[00:08:33]>> 145 This is R410A.

[00:08:55]240 That drain right there is probably for the water heater.

[00:10:48]>> This unit needs to run for about 10 or 15 minutes to kind of equalize and see what uh the refrigerant pressures are.

[00:10:56]But you need to see my my suction pressure and my um my saturation temperature that 31.8° is dropping, so that is not a good sign.

[00:11:22]While this is uh running, just going to make sure we get we do have some air flow. Make sure both zones are open.

[00:11:31]Cuz cuz cuz dropping pretty pretty quick.

[00:11:39]I'm going to go start feeling some air flow.

[00:11:44]Also, I'm going to go out front and look to see if I can figure out where that drain comes out.

[00:11:57]>> [panting] >> I didn't feel any air coming out of that one supply that I put my hand on.

[00:12:14]I don't see that drain.

[00:12:25]There's no air flow.

[00:12:29]There's no air flow coming out of those vents downstairs.

[00:12:35]Um There's none coming upstairs as well.

[00:12:57]>> [sighs] >> This filter is really dirty.

[00:13:03]All right, I got to get up into the attic.

[00:13:11]I've replaced a ton of X13 blower motors for carriers, particularly, but normally it's a static pressure issue.

[00:13:24]This filter is a pretty dirty.

[00:13:28]But, we're going to move some of this stuff.

[00:13:35]In the attic to to access that unit.

[00:13:53]I'm going to try to step over this cuz >> [snorts] >> I don't really want to move all this to be honest with you.

[00:13:59]I can't It's It's It's It's not It's not pretty hot up here and It's not very convenient.

[00:14:14]But I think I can uh safely uh step over this.

[00:14:46]So, this motor is running.

[00:15:00]Yeah, look at all this.

[00:15:03]All this water.

[00:15:20]This duct work is awful.

[00:15:28]Dampers are closed.

[00:15:40]Look at this ductwork.

[00:15:46]Look, two distribution box.

[00:15:53]Another distribution box.

[00:16:06]All right.

[00:16:07]So, we know the blower is running. I can audibly hear it.

[00:16:16]I'm going to check power.

[00:16:22]These uh Honeywell zone Man, this is terrible. These Honeywell zone uh motors are normally open power closed.

[00:16:47]This is This is terrible.

[00:16:56]So, that's your outdoor. That's my outdoor.

[00:17:05]They have that wired in with the equipment.

[00:17:20]>> Okay.

[00:17:25]Some of the quality of work that we see on new construction houses are really, really bad.

[00:17:35]26 volts are the C. So, I got power on my uh EcoBee thermostats. Got a call for cooling, 24 volts on Y.

[00:17:52]24 volts on Y on both zones. So, both thermostats are good and they're calling.

[00:17:57]So, we know we have power to my equipment because my outdoor unit came on, fan's blowing. So, my zone board's good.

[00:18:16]This is a discharge temperature sensor.

[00:18:21]So, why am I zone my uh motor's not opening?

[00:18:40]Zero volts.

[00:18:44]This one's got 24. So, they're remember the power closed normally open. So, this blue and this black that is this one.

[00:18:59]They have a little arm.

[00:20:15]>> My GoPro is probably going to start overheating soon because this attic is probably right around 100°, 105°.

[00:20:51]So, they are powering my zone board from a transformer. So, that's good.

[00:20:58]From a uh transformer just for my zone board, which you don't typically see on this kind of stuff.

[00:21:19]>> Like I said, these dampers should be normally opens.

[00:21:33]I'm going to at least hook up these other two wires to the M4 terminals so I can get an LED on these.

[00:22:06]All right, my GoPro actually overheated.

[00:22:09]I just want to go ahead and knock this back.

[00:22:22]All right, so this is my upstairs zone.

[00:22:29]This motor right here, and you can see this red light means it's closed. So, I'm going to double check my thermostats well, I can check them right here.

[00:22:54]Both stats are calling for sure.

[00:23:06]>> You can wire these up either way you want, but I chose to wire it to Something's going on strange with that.

[00:23:15]I chose to power wire up three wire to both power, so they're both power open.

[00:23:23]So, now that they're powered open I have 24 volts on that one and zero on the There's zero on this. So, for some reason this one is not opening.

[00:23:41]But now Mhm.

[00:25:29]>> Now zone two is not calling and it should. There's something weird going on with this zone board.

[00:25:49]But this zone two should be running.

[00:26:03]Let me climb over.

[00:26:06]Let me climb over this stuff again.

[00:26:36]So now upstairs is running.

[00:27:02]>> So both of these zones 100% should should be running.

[00:27:06]I forced my upstairs one on because it is Uh I had 24 volts between common and open.

[00:27:18]So [snorts] I forced that damper on. We're having an issue with >> [sighs] >> that board for sure because it's not telling the downstairs to come on.

[00:27:33]So that's faulty.

[00:27:41]Downstairs should still be calling and it is.

[00:27:48]But I'm not getting a call on zone.

[00:27:54]Let's go back up here cuz they're calling the Okay, so they're calling the downstairs zone zone two and upstairs zone zone one.

[00:28:10]So we got a bad zone board.

[00:28:14]Because zone two is not calling and it should be.

[00:28:18]I got 24 volts on my thermostat.

[00:28:27]24 volts. So there is something weird that happened uh when I that I noticed whenever I left uh to go to lunch.

[00:28:35]I was talking to the customer and since that dog was barking I couldn't really have a conversation with them inside their home. So I asked them to step outside their home and I noticed the heat pump was running in heat mode.

[00:28:49]So, it's got me a little It's got me scratching my head a little bit.

[00:28:58]I'm starving.

[00:28:59]I'm going to go to lunch and think about this, but that zone board I'm going to I'm going to grab a zone board um while I'm at lunch because they're calling zone two is the downstairs zone. Zone one is the upstairs zone.

[00:29:19]On both zones I have a I have 24 V on on Y, which is my compressor uh it's my signal for my compressor to run.

[00:29:29]But, my downstairs zone motor is is staying powered closed all the time and it should be powered open.

[00:29:41]So, we're going to replace that I'm going to replace that zone board.

[00:29:46]Um I kind of think I'm probably having an issue with my dampers as well, but I think I know for certain this zone board is bad, so we're going to start here.

[00:30:00]I'm going to grab some dampers as well.

[00:30:02]I have a um one that I know that works on my fan that I took out of my house when I replaced my system. It's the same exact uh dampers, so we'll we'll test um to see the the damper operation, but I know the dampers will actually open and closed that that's inside the duct. It's just the motors um are having some weird stuff going on, too. So, this one's got me scratching my head right now. So, I'm going to go to lunch, think about it, uh grab some parts, and we'll see what happens.