HAI Omnistat 2 failure

[Mike P]

Hi,

I had two Omnistats die on me at the same time. I was wondering if anybody else has had this happen to them. I have a total of 4 installed. Let me explain what happened, I was getting ready to run new cables to my dining room thermostat to start converting the remaining existing thermoststs to my Elk M1. I had the thermostat off the wall when my wife complained it was cold. I twisted the two wires together(simple two wire heat only zone), got the heat going. Later walked upstairs to our bedroom, passed the Omnistat on the way to the bathroom and noticed it did'nt detect me and lightup. I stepped back to look at it and it was dead. Went to the other Omnistat on the second floor and it was dead also. Both as well as the other two that remained working have be installed for over a year with no problems. I know that simulating a switch closing by twisting two wires together should not cause a problem, but it did! Did I touch the wires together and cause an arc, maybe. But should that take out two Omnistats? I have replacements, but I am reluctant to install them until I figure this out. Has anybody ever seen this before, is it a weakness of the omnistat(All power off when making any connections).
Any insight would be great, before I install and loose two more omnistats.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[tmbrown97]

I knocked mine out once by blowing the fuse inside the air exchanger in the attic. I accidentally touched the WRONG two wires together. Have you confirmed you still have power and that the tstat really is dead?

 

[Dogman]

Hi,

I had two Omnistats die on me at the same time. I was wondering if anybody else has had this happen to them. I have a total of 4 installed. Let me explain what happened, I was getting ready to run new cables to my dining room thermostat to start converting the remaining existing thermoststs to my Elk M1. I had the thermostat off the wall when my wife complained it was cold. I twisted the two wires together(simple two wire heat only zone), got the heat going. Later walked upstairs to our bedroom, passed the Omnistat on the way to the bathroom and noticed it did'nt detect me and lightup. I stepped back to look at it and it was dead. Went to the other Omnistat on the second floor and it was dead also. Both as well as the other two that remained working have be installed for over a year with no problems. I know that simulating a switch closing by twisting two wires together should not cause a problem, but it did! Did I touch the wires together and cause an arc, maybe. But should that take out two Omnistats? I have replacements, but I am reluctant to install them until I figure this out. Has anybody ever seen this before, is it a weakness of the omnistat(All power off when making any connections).
Any insight would be great, before I install and loose two more omnistats.

Thanks,

Mike

I am on my third omnistat 2. I have never even integrated them. I have just used them as a dumb thermostat. I am finally getting ready to crawl under the house to fish in the cat 5 so i can finally use it as a communicating thermostat. I was a little annoyed that the thing keeps failing as I really like the design. HAI has been excellant in replacing them, however, because my most recent replacement was a couple of months out of warranty but they went ahead and replaced it any way. So I suspect they are aware of their Quality issue with their Chinese manufacturer and are working it.

 

[mikejrc]

wow you guys got me all scared. I hope this will not happen to me. I only have one Omnistat2 so far working flawlessly but I noticed how it would be easy to short something on the circuit board so I made sure no wires were touching that board until I was ready to land each one to its proper terminal by taping the ends. also I used good ol' electrical tape and taped the circuit board so if any wire comes loose by accident it will touch the tape not the circuit board directly. Also only strip the exact amount of insulation from the wires. Leaving exposed copper could short anything on the board its a very tight clearance in there. I also made sure all the slack is not inside the thermostat but in the wall so when you finally snap both sections together the wires wont get pinched or in the way.