Repairing your Thermostat
Some of the reasons you can identify as to why a thermostat is having problem is due to severe problems such as faulty wirings, slack of connections, when you feel your that your room temperature fluctuates beyond your control while the thermostat itself turns on and off. However, a different model of a thermostat sometimes requires a different kind of maintenance. If you are unable to resolve the problem, you can try to find online help through the internet or request help from a professional through the yellow pages. Meanwhile, the information provided below should be able to help you repair your thermostat.
What you need:
- An artist\’s brush
- A neon tester
- Batteries
- A substitute thermostat
- Tape and pen
- Level or plumb line
- Screwdriver
- Use a wire cutter or stripper
Method:
- Firstly, you need to turn off the electrical power as a safety precaution when dealing with electrical appliances.
- Remove the cover plate of your thermostat and then detach the body of the thermostat from its wired base plate which is held onto the wall.
- Use the artist brush to clean away dust or grime from the thermostat, and proceed with cleaning its base plate.
- You also need to check whether there is any broken wire, worn out, even rusty or wires with loose connections. Tighten any loose connections if you notice any. If there is any worn out wire, you have to use wire cutters to cut and shred it up to 1/2 inch of its insulation. Then, try to reconnect back the wires.
- Next, turn on the power supply and test its operation, plus checking it against the user manual. In order to do a proper testing, it may be appropriate for you to disconnect the thermostat power wire which is red in color and tap it to the terminal (marked as W) using the white wire from the heater\’s transformer.
- For ensuring its cooling functions, you can bypass the thermostat which is the same way as mentioned in step 5 where you can tap the disconnected power (red wire) against the terminal of the cooling system.
- If step 5 and 6 does did not succeed, you need to turn off the power and inspect the thermostat wires on the heating system. You can check its stability using a continuity tester to one wire and penetrating the other wire. If the tester fails to light on then replace the wires with a new one.
Additional Reading:
http://www.helium.com/items/237453-troubleshooting-and-repairing-your-thermostat
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-repair-a-home-thermostat
http://www.remodelguide.com/reports/guides/thermostats.html
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