Honeywell Thermostat Waiting for Equipment Messages

Honeywell RTH9580WF thermostat, displaying its -Waiting for Equipment- message, highlighted.

The Honeywell thermostat waiting for equipment messages sometimes appears on Honeywell smart t-stats. So these include the Honeywell RTH9580WF we demo in this example. These messages can show up when the t-stat has just turned off the HVAC . But then, sudden temp changes call for HVAC to come back on right away. These changes happen due to…

- Someone changing the set temp on the thermostat.
- The room temp changing a lot because someone opens a door or window.

These messages show that the t-stat will not run the the HVAC unit until it goes away.

So why do they display these messages? It’s to protect your HVAC. A compressor in the compressor in these systems can lock up and burn out if started too quickly after shutdown. So, Honeywell builds this delay into its t-stats. This safeguards the HVAC from burnout due to too-rapid off-on shifts.

To prevent “vapor lock” in the HVAC, it’s best not to start them up again right after they shut off. Waiting a time allows the pressures between the tail input and head output of the compressor to equalize.

If you start up the HVAC before this happens, its motor cannot turn easily. It sees heavy push-back when moving the pistons that move the Freon around inside. Sometimes, it cannot turn the pistons at all. We refer to this stoppage as the motor “locking up”. Motor lock-up makes excess heat in the motor windings. So if done too many times in too short a time, this motor can burn up. The compressor then shorts out. Costly to repair if shorting occurs.

Honeywell Thermostat Waiting for Equipment Messages: How to Clear

So, for max protection for your HVAC, Honeywell gives no way to clear Waiting for Equipment messages. Indeed booting the t-stat does not clear it either. What happens is that each time the HVAC turns off, a count-down timer starts. Then, the HVAC does not come on again until this timer runs out — around three to five minutes.

So in our tests, the only way to get past these messages is to simply wait it out. We waited five minutes on our RTH9580WF t-stat to clear it and power up our HVAC once more. Then the messages shortly went away. And finally,k our t-stat again turned on our system. It then showed its Cool On message — not flashing, but solid ON. Shown in the next picture.

RTH9580WF WiFi thermostat, showing its -Cool On- message highlighted after the Honeywell thermostat Waiting for Equipment messages disappeared.

Again, once the Waiting for Equipment messages time out, normal heating and cooling resumes.