diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c8f0bc1..8b0c15e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,27 @@ those changes.
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+
+- `omars_properties` and `is_omars` now reject a design that leaves a factor at
+  the middle level in every run. The check that each factor is genuinely
+  three-level tested only that the factor reaches the middle level at least
+  once, which catches a two-level factor (constant quadratic `1`) but not the
+  mirror case of a factor the design never varies (constant quadratic `0`).
+  Both are inestimable, and the second was being reported as a valid OMARS
+  design whose main-and-quadratic model matrix is rank deficient.
+
+  This also removes a bias in the `min_second_order_correlation` selection
+  criterion of `generate_omars`. `max_second_order_correlation` skips constant
+  columns, so a factor pinned at the centre removed its own quadratic and all
+  of its interactions from the comparison and improved the score. The criterion
+  therefore had an incentive to produce exactly the degenerate designs the
+  verifier was failing to catch, and did: in a sweep across three to six
+  factors it returned one, including a spurious perfect `0.000`, in roughly a
+  third of cells. With the verifier corrected those candidates are rejected
+  during the search, and two sizes that previously yielded no usable design at
+  all (three factors in nine runs, five factors in thirteen) now yield one.
+
 ### Added
 
 - Minimum moment aberration (Xu, 2003) for two-level designs, as
diff --git a/src/process_improve/experiments/designs_omars.py b/src/process_improve/experiments/designs_omars.py
index c85fbb8..96bd261 100644
--- a/src/process_improve/experiments/designs_omars.py
+++ b/src/process_improve/experiments/designs_omars.py
@@ -157,10 +157,13 @@ def omars_properties(matrix: np.ndarray, *, tol: float = _DEFAULT_TOL) -> dict:
     is_three_level = bool(np.all(np.abs(matrix - nearest) <= tol) and np.all(np.isin(nearest, (-1.0, 0.0, 1.0))))
 
     # OMARS factors are genuinely three-level: each must take the middle (0)
-    # level at least once, otherwise its pure quadratic is a constant column
-    # and cannot be estimated (as in a two-level factorial).
+    # level at least once and an outer level at least once.  A pure quadratic is
+    # a constant column, and so not estimable, in either degenerate case: the
+    # factor never sits at the middle (x^2 == 1, as in a two-level factorial) or
+    # it never leaves it (x^2 == 0, a factor the design never actually varies).
     uses_middle_level = np.any(np.abs(matrix) <= tol, axis=0)
-    quadratics_estimable = bool(np.all(uses_middle_level))
+    uses_outer_level = np.any(np.abs(matrix) > tol, axis=0)
+    quadratics_estimable = bool(np.all(uses_middle_level & uses_outer_level))
 
     column_sums = np.abs(matrix.sum(axis=0))
     is_balanced = bool(np.all(column_sums <= tol))
diff --git a/tests/test_experiments_omars.py b/tests/test_experiments_omars.py
index e761b00..7db97a4 100644
--- a/tests/test_experiments_omars.py
+++ b/tests/test_experiments_omars.py
@@ -64,6 +64,40 @@ def test_full_factorial_is_not_omars(self) -> None:
         assert props["is_omars"] is False
         assert is_omars(ff) is False
 
+    def test_factor_never_leaving_the_middle_is_not_omars(self) -> None:
+        """A factor pinned at the centre has a constant quadratic, so it is not OMARS.
+
+        The mirror of :meth:`test_full_factorial_is_not_omars`: a two-level factor
+        gives the constant quadratic ``1``, and a factor the design never varies
+        gives the constant quadratic ``0``.  Neither is estimable.
+        """
+        # x3 sits at the middle level in every run, so its main effect and its
+        # quadratic are both identically zero.
+        pinned = np.array(
+            [
+                [1, 1, 0],
+                [-1, 1, 0],
+                [1, -1, 0],
+                [-1, -1, 0],
+                [0, 0, 0],
+            ],
+            dtype=float,
+        )
+        props = omars_properties(pinned)
+        assert props["quadratics_estimable"] is False
+        assert props["is_omars"] is False
+        assert is_omars(pinned) is False
+
+        # The failure it stands for: the main-and-quadratic model is not estimable,
+        # even though every other OMARS property is satisfied.
+        n_runs = pinned.shape[0]
+        model_matrix = np.column_stack(
+            [np.ones(n_runs), *pinned.T, *(pinned**2).T],
+        )
+        assert np.linalg.matrix_rank(model_matrix) < model_matrix.shape[1]
+        assert props["is_balanced"] is True
+        assert props["main_effects_orthogonal"] is True
+
     def test_main_effect_aliased_with_interaction_fails(self) -> None:
         """A design whose main effect correlates with an interaction is not OMARS."""
         # x3 deliberately equals x1*x2 on the non-zero rows -> ME3 aliased with x1:x2.