Smart technology is useful when it makes life better. More benefits with control and comfort for you as the user. But there are other features of the AirTouch and ZoneMaster range that are clever ideas designed to keep your home’s ducted air conditioning system safe.
Spill Zone is a safety feature on our controllers that is designed to prevent damage to your installation from unwanted pressure building up in your duct in the roof space. Every zone management system theoretically has the ability to turn off outlets so no air can flow which can be a problem if the air conditioner is running. This can cause huge pressure to build up in your ducts which could cause a length of duct to disconnect from a fitting or split. This means conditioned air doesn’t then get delivered to where you want it in your home, and could be expensive to get fixed.
Think of the Spill Zone feature as a safety valve to prevent this: It is a designated zone that if you turn off too many zones or close them off too much, AirTouch or ZoneMaster will open the designated spill zone and send air to it, in order to prevent unwanted pressure building up that could cause damage.
You will know if Spill Zone is active on your touch screen controller because a little S will appear next to the designated zone name to indicate it is on. It is a normal safety feature. When you open up other zones, the S will disappear as Spill Zone will no longer be required.
The system software is always monitoring, and will turn Spill Zone on when required.
28 Responses
I like the idea of Spill as a safety feature, but I’m tempted to disable it because I observe in practice that it is always activated as the system nears its set point. This means a lot of conditioned air gets pumped into the spill zone, which may not be a zone worth cooling (eg if everyone is asleep).
What do you think?
Hi Andrew, it isn’t possible to disable the spill function. It is an important safety feature to protect your AC from unwanted pressure build up. A solution could be to change the zone used for the spill function in your system settings.
How can I change the spillover zone.
Also, does the airtouch 4 console have a temperature sensor itself?
Hi Marcus, the console does have a temperature sensor. Unless you have additional wireless temperature sensors, the default temp sensor is often the AC unit sensor which is in the return air for your system.
Spill Zone stays in forever until you power down the system
Hi Spencer, the Spill Zone will run only when it needs too. If you close off too many zones, the spill with run but will turn off if you open up a few more zones.
Can I change the spill zone to another room??
Hi Vicki, yes you can change the zone used for the spill function. Access through the Quick menu> Settings> Installer settings.
We have this system and what I don’t like is when we close off a room it still comes out of that vent into that room. Why does it do that when it shouldn’t.
Hi Tania, Spill Zone is an important safety feature and can’t be disabled. It is designed to protect your system from a build up of air pressure if too many zones are closed off and the AC unit is left on, outputting conditioned air.
Hi, we just got a new system yesterday. I have turned on two of our 5 zones this morning.
My question is, can I also turn it on to heat a zoned bedroom where the person chooses to sleep all night with their door closed or will it cause a pressure build up of some sort.
Hi Trish, with ducted reverse cycle systems the cooled/heated air from the outlets needs to find its way back to the return air, which is normally a large filtered grille in a common area like a hallway. That is why if you have a zone turned on, you should leave its door open for optimum airflow and for your system to work properly.
Hi there I find the spill zone room is always much colder than the others and never gets up to the temperature we set. Is there anything we can do about this?
Hi Lisa, that may happen if spill is active in that zone. Try opening other zones so spill doesn’t need to run, then you should have better control with the area.
Hi,
By mistake I left 5% restricted (95% heat , 5% restricted) while puting medium heater on at 27% while I was at deep sleep for 3.5 hours. Will it cause immediate damage? I an anxious. Software should be design to overcome error. I have AirTouch 2+. Please reply. It happened just first time.
Thanks
Tejas
Hi Tejas, no need to worry. The Spill is a software feature designed to overcome an error if too many zones are turned off when the system is running.
Our spill zone is always on
We have three zones which are all always open
Can you explain why the spill zone is always active?
Hi Chris, Spill should only be active if too many zones are closed or not open enough. If you need, please raise a ticket via our Support and one of our technicians can help.
Should I be doing anything with the Spill Zone on, Never seen this on before , should I change any settings. Should I be worried. Do I need to get a service person . Dale
Hi Dale, if the Spill has activated it is just a normal safety feature to prevent damage. No need to worry, just open up a few more zones to 100% as Spill will normally just activate when you have closed too many to prevent unwanted air pressure building up in your AC system.
I have 3 zones. Two in small bedrooms and one in the large kitchen, lounge and dining area.
It is ok to have only 1 spill zone ? I want to put it the large kitchen, lounge and dining area as the spill zone.
Usually I only have the kitchen zone active. So will there be an issue if I open have the spill zone powered on most of the time ?
Hi Brendan, 1 Spill zone is fine.
We run two rooms/zones out of 8 at night. The spill zone is set to one of these, the master bedroom. We set both rooms to 22 but the spill activates and the master bedroom goes down to 16 degrees. What is the best fix to this. Do we have to set the spill zone to an unused room. Feels inefficient.
Hi Paul, you can set the spill to go to a different zone to help with this and prevent the master bedroom going to an unwanted temperature. But you do need to have excess conditioned air going somewhere to prevent unwanted pressure building up.
Will reducing fan speed lower pressure and spill zone usage
Hi Paul, give it a try. It could help in preventing an unwanted temperature shift when spill turns on, but the logic for spill coming on is when too many zones are turned off so it may still need to activate. Otherwise you could have an unused room turned on or set to be the spill zone.
I was reading above comments & you mentioned about doors being left open
“That is why if you have a zone turned on, you should leave its door open for optimum airflow and for your system to work properly.”
My 3 kids always shut their doors day & night to keep our dogs out, so will this cause a big problem, while running the aircon ??
Hi Karen, for your DRC system to work properly and efficiently it is generally good practise to leave the internal doors of the rooms you want on open. This is because the conditioned air needs to flow from your outlets and back to the return air grille.