Wyze thermostat malfunctioning or faulty

So I started to have a weird issue w/ my thermostat. It had been working fine for almost a year and almost 5 months on the latest firmware update. When heat is called, either manually by increasing the temp on the unit or the app and the fan mode is auto and the fan activation delay is set to furnace, the heat pump outside will kick on but not the inside fan. I’ve factory reset it and set it up again twice. It will go through the system test just fine. stage 1 heat, stage 2 heat, stage 1 cooling. each time the system (compressor and fan) will work normally. After it’s setup and allowed to work the way it’s designed it will repeat the issue. compressor on, no fan. I had an HVAC come out and inspect it. He found that when we manually turn the fan on from the app, the G wire gets the required ~24volts but when we attempt to allow the system to turn the fan on when the heat or a/c is called, the G wire does not read anything. So, that to me is pretty clear that the function of the thermostat to turn the fan on is faulty. I’ve already requested a warranty replacement. But I wanted to post to see if anyone else has had this problem.

1 Like

I think there is an issue with the programming. I am experiencing the exact same issue. The system works correctly in the cool setting. It also works correctly when the emergency heat is in use. But the fan will not turn on when the heat pump is running unless I manually turn the fan on. I removed the WYZE thermostat and installed another brand Wi-Fi thermostat and everything works perfectly. Hope WYZE will see this thread and correct the issue quickly.

1 Like

I thought so too. But that’s a little strange that the problem would surface all of a sudden after working fine for months. I would expect to see something like that on a firmware update. Maybe something just got worn out or faulty to begin with and it was just a ticking time bomb. Well, we’ll see when I install the replacement they’re sending me next week. Thanks for the reply.

It looks like when wyze fixed their settings for gas furnaces they broke settings for heat pumps. They used to have a toggle to select when to run the fan during a heat cycle in advanced settings, but appear to have removed it completely during a software update. Basically, thermostats should not call for fan during heat cycles when they are connected to oil or gas furnaces, but they should call for fan when they are connected to electric or heat pumps during heat cycles. For some reason, wyze keeps trying to take an all or none approach- they used to call for fan on all heat settings, now they’re not calling for fan on any heat setting.

This is not a broken or faulty thermostat, but rather a fundamental misunderstanding of how a thermostat is supposed to operate on the part of the software design team for wyze.

3 Likes

I think I’m just not going to update the firmware when I get the replacement to see how it works. The latest firmware was working fine but I had not tested it with heat since it was July when the last update was done

1 Like

I recently realized this issue too when I decided to turn on my heat. The heat turned on but unfortunately the fan did not turn on. I decided to call the Wyze customer support to complain and I was told about a feature in the Wyze APP called Fan Activation Delay in the Advanced settings where I could change the time taken for the fan to turn on from the default setting of By Furnace to 15 secs. Fast forward, I changed the Fan Activation Delay to 15 secs and now my furnace fan turns on 15 secs after the heat turns on.
I suggest you guys check your thermostat APP settings if the furnace fan is not turning on with the heat. Hopefully that will solve the issue for you too

1 Like

Well, I’m using a heat pump and I am having the same issue. I tried changing the Fan Activation Delay to 15 seconds like @Phlames suggested but is no feature like that in the app. I tried a factory reset but I still don’t have that feature to change the fan activation delay so I called customer support and I was told that the Wyze developer is working on automatically fixing the bug immediately. Personally, I have no clue what that means so I am waiting to see how that goes. If it is not fixed within the week, the thermostat is coming off the wall.

I’m using the same workaround. I either keep the fan running continuously or set the furnace activation to 15 sec. The problem with that is it’s just a hack and it’s not working the way it’s supposed to or used to. If you have a heat pump you want the fan on immediately when the compressor kicks on. 15 sec of built up pressure is not good for a heat pump system. But I’m with you. If this replacement does the same thing or if Wyze doesn’t fix this ASAP, I’m requesting a refund and going with another brand.

I got the exact issue. Thanks for confirming!

Wyze: I hope you’re reading this and take action. People are starting to turn on their heat and realizing your latest firmware programming is bugged up.

1 Like

For some reason, they removed this setting from the app. It used to be under advanced settings, and looked like this: image

It’s still there for me and I’m on the latest version from the Google play store. 2.25.22

I have this feature in my app and I changed the settings to 15 secs. I think it’s probably only available to users with furnaces.

It’s not there in my app, and I have a furnace (but no A/C).
The latest app version on the play store is 2.25.31, which I have. Maybe they pulled the update when they realized they broke heat pumps, but my app auto-updated to this version. My thermostat firmware is 1.1.8.

Ok the new replacement is doing the exact same thing. Furnace fan does not come on automatically when heat is called. I have to keep the fan on continuously or change the furnace delay to 15 sec. Otherwise the compressor will burn out. And I stayed on the previous firmware 1.1.7. so the only time it was working correctly was the original firmware 1.1.1?

If you have a fan activation delay setting under advanced settings, set it to 0 seconds.

For Fan Activation Delay I get “By furnace” or 15 seconds and up. Doesn’t “furnace fan does not come on automatically” sound like a wiring issue? Or do we need to report a bug?

When your heat source is electric, the thermostat usually controls the fan during operation. When your the heat source is combustion (gas, oil, biomass) based, the furnace usually controls the fan . If their fan works properly in standalone fan only or cooling mode, then I’m assuming wyze has changed operation to turn off heating fan control for all heating sources accidentally, instead of just turning it off for combustion based systems.

3 Likes

I think you nailed it. Firmware x. 7 and x.8 don’t work that way for me. The original firmware x.1 did work properly