Battery backup on Waterfurnace?

[wkearney99]

I've got a Waterfurnace unit, one of three, that does not take well to intermittent power outages. I have to power-cycle the circuit breaker to it to restart it when power winks out here. We have a generator that'll kick in after a minute, but that of course doesn't help here.

I'm wondering if having a UPS connected in-line with the controller for it might help. We've had battery-backup units on other devices for years, precisely because of power blinks (computers, DVR, etc). But not on appliances such as this.

I should point out that it has happened on one of the other units as well. These two being separate from the air handlers (one is on the other side of the house, the other in the attic two floors up). The third unit is integrated with the air handler and has never had this problem. It's done this since the start, so it's not some new issue. It just happens infrequently enough not rise to the level of 'do something' about it.

The model on the problematic one is NDZ038A13AC.

Or is there something else I should have checked to eliminate this problem?

I have yet to reach out to our HVAC installer, as I want to get a rough idea of what might be involved first. The system has been completely reliable otherwise, free of any other troubles since it was installed back in 2013.

[Restaurant Mech]

It's probably the compressor trying to start right after an off cycle.
Need some sort of a delay built in for power off situations.
I mostly see these issues with a thermostat that's battery powered.
In those cases I install a delay on make timer

[wkearney99]

It's probably the compressor trying to start right after an off cycle.
Need some sort of a delay built in for power off situations.
I mostly see these issues with a thermostat that's battery powered.
In those cases I install a delay on make timer

I'll have to check but I'm thinking you're on the mark regarding the thermostat and battery power. They're wired Honeywell units (with RF via RedLink for internet and sensors) and do have batteries in them. I'll pull the batteries on the unit and see if that has an effect. It's difficult to reproduce as it takes barely a blip of power loss to disrupt the WF unit. I can't deliberately reproduce it.

I gather the 'delay on make' is a separate hardware item added to the WF unit? I'd call the HVAC folks for that.

I should also point out that the two WF units each have an Emerson Comfort Alert module in them. And I, of course, have not noted what error sequence it blinks during this problem.

But a quick google search on 'delay on make' brought up a few links about the Comfort Alert and some issues with those. I suspect the blips might be triggering problems due to the sequence of outages being too close together. I'm in the "know enough to be dangerous" territory now, heh. Odd this only happens with one of the units though, not both. But I'm guessing it might have more to do with the level of compressor activity during the outages and it's probably different between the two. Though if I was a matter of being active and that causing a problem, I wouldn't pick this failing unit as the problem child. It handles the 2nd floor and is usually configured to be on an unoccupied temperature level (warmer/colder during the day for summer/winter). Versus the 1st floor unit being a constant temp, as that's where I have my home office.

I'll check that the batteries are removed and see how it goes. Though I'd welcome any other advice that might be relevant. Thanks!