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

Honeywell Thermostat Waiting for Equipment

The Honeywell thermostat waiting for equipment condition sometimes happens on these smart thermostats. So these include the Honeywell RTH9580WF which we demo in this example.  This state can appear when the thermostat 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.

This shows that the thermostat will not run the the HVAC unit until it goes away.

So why do they show this?  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: How to Clear This

So, for max protection for your HVAC, Honeywell gives no way to clear the   Waiting for Equipment   notification.  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 this 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 warning shortly went away.  And finally, our thermostat again turned on our system.  It then showed its  Cool On   state — not flashing, but solid ON.  Shown in the next picture.

Picture of the RTH9580WF WiFi thermostat, showing its -Cool On- message highlighted after the Honeywell thermostat Waiting for Equipment cleared.
RTH9580WF WiFi thermostat, showing its -Cool On- message highlighted after the Honeywell thermostat Waiting for Equipment cleared.

Again, once the  Waiting for Equipment   condition times out, normal heating and cooling resumes.

Other Posts About Honeywell Thermostat

    1. Honeywell RTH9580WF WiFi Setup Instructions
    2. Change WiFi Network on Honeywell Smart Thermostat RTH9580WF
    3. How to Change Honeywell Thermostat Temperature Setting
    4. Change Time and Day on Honeywell RTH9580WF Thermostat, How To
    5. Connecting Amazon Echo Dot To Honeywell Thermostats 

References for Honeywell Thermostat Waiting for Equipment

    1. Honeywell Thermostat Official Home Page
    2. Where to Buy a Honeywell Thermostat