Which direction should dampers be in order for the air to flow down? I bought a new house and all the hot air seems to be upstairs while it's freezing in the basement.

Dampers in the basement should be opened.

Check the fans are all working ok and make sure there isn't a louvre closed in the duct

You need to have someone evaluate the ductwork for the home. With all zones calling, there should be an even balance of airflow. And when only one zone is calling, there should not be the tornado effect you describe.

The dampers feeding each zone may be of the wrong size. It also sounds as though you are also having a problem with your bypass damper. This damper is designed to bypass excess air when only one zone is calling. It is operated typically off the airflow alone.

Have it check out. You definitely have a problem. I would recommend getting it looked at by a company other than the installing company to remove any bias judgment or diagnosis.

Hi, let me try and help you locate this filter. They put them on the return side of the system. Depending on the size of you're home, you may have up to 3 or more.Normally, they put them in the ceiling to clean the air as it is drawn back to the blower fan motor.Check through out home to see if they are in the ceiling. If not, go to the unit upstairs.If the blower motor is an up flow with motor above, you should be able to see the filter above the motor.If it is a down flow, the filter should be laying below the blower motor.To sum this up, which ever way this motor is blowing the air would be the supply air flow, and the filter will or should be before the air heading out.It should have an arrow showing the direction of the supply air on the blower housing.The return is the air coming back to the heater, where the filter should be located to catch the dirt and start the cycle again.It could have a grill in the wall next to the furnace, or on the face of the furnace it self.Some will be marked on the furnace and will say return filter excess.It could be that the owner before you removed it, and never installed a new one?There will be some way, grill, in furnace for the air to go back to the blower section. Use a good light to look inside.This loud squealing, sounds as though you have a belt drive blower motor that is worn out.They are on split systems, the older ones.That would be the squeal you hear, go to the furnace upstairs, and by removing panels, you will find the belt and more then likely, the filter section.The belt will have a number on it like, 4L330, 4L460, or even A-37 ect.Easy to remove and replace.A direct drive motor has no belt.It also sounds as though this home has a zone control, using hot water that circulates by the use of a water pump in line somewhere in the system so when it calls for heat, this pump starts sending hot water through out different heating zones in this home, more like a commercial system would have.Gas would heat this water, and flow through pipes to VAV boxes in the ceiling, or maybe your supply vents are on the floor, I don't no this. As for the 9 degree difference in the upstairs and down, could be many causes, as the way this heating system is designed, and what type thermostat controls this unit. It will always be warmer upstairs, as you know heat rises, but you can check the way that the duct work has been installed, and see if indeed this is a hot water zone controlled system.You could have dampers in the duct work controlling the amount of air to different parts of the home that may be shut of causing this much of a differential.Take care of the belt, which you can buy at most hardware stores, keep searching for the filter or filters as they are somewhere on the return side, you may hear or feel the air being sucked back to the unit, that is the return side.Find out by looking for a boiler hot water supply if you have a basement, attic and so on.You will be able to solve a lot of these problems by getting familiar with the way this system is set up. I would like to hear back from you on this.Sincerely,
Shastalaker7

Tell them to get it out and do what you are paying them to do. If it is routed to supply a outlet register than there is no reason they should just say oh well.

i had a similar problem, and a six inch duct and inline booster fan didnt help, the room was just to far away from the furnace and ac. to save energy, i use an oil rad in the winter, and a portable ac in the summer, it works great.my house is a back split, so its a common problem. in the summer, all downstairs dampers should be closed to push the cold air upstairs ,as it will come back down anyway and the basement is cooler as it is. so if you have 4 flores, you close the bottom 2. bungalow you close the basement

A good heating guy should be able to balance your dampers to increase the airflow upstairs. Keep in mind heat rises. 2nd floors are the hardest to cool. You may need to add more returns to pull the heat down the the evaporator so it can be cooled. If you are lucky you may be able to adjust your blower up to a higher speed. You may have to even add some more supply airs. Check with your local building inspector. He may be able to give you a list of contractors in your area that would be good for this type of problem. Good luck>>>

is the system zoned? if so maybe the zoning control board to the damper motor is wired improperly. when a system freezez its because of 1- restricted air flow across coil, (maybe dirty filter) or 2-low refrigerant charge. again could depend on how its zoned.

Some of this depends on where the air handler/furnace is located. Most often in two story houses, it's in the attic upstairs, or in a closet upstairs. A duct routes air from the furnace to the downstairs supply duct, so it is a distance from the air handler.
When the unit first initiates a heating cycle, that duct is going to be full of cool air, and the duct itself will be cool. So the furnace has to run long enough to push the cool air out, as well as warm the duct up, before your going to feel warm air at the registers downstairs.

Keep in mind, heat rises. And, your thermostat only monitors the immediate area where it's located. In your case, upstairs.
Two story houses are problematic because of this. And one way around it is to have a damper system installed that distributes the air upstairs or downstairs based on a thermostat located in those spaces. There would be 2 dampers, and 2 thermostats (one upstairs, one downstairs). Each stat would control a damper, and the call for heat or cooling.

Let me know if you would like to consider a system like this, and I can point you to components to use. I've put several system like this in.