What could be wrong w/my HEAT PUMP Sys?. It is frosted over outside and sound louder than normal.?

Question

It is above freezing outside. But the unit looks like a block of ice. So far it is still warm in the house but this frozen unit worries me. I would like to know if I have a large repair coming my way soon.

Answer 1

NOOOO!!

There is usually a defrost cycle timer on the unit outside. Some units may have some type of cycle timer selector that allows you to choose (typically) between 30, 60, 90 minutes.

Personally, I keep mine at 90 the entire year and ONLY when the weather forecast is to be freezing rain, I then switch to the 30 minute cycle. The dew point has a lot to do with your exterior unit freezing over. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_point) The higher the moisture content in the air at higher relative temperatures will freeze coils faster.

Remember that a heat pump, for ease of explanation, extracts heat from the exterior of your house and sends it to the interior (in the summer time it is the reverse). The lower the outside heat - the lower the amount of heat to extract.

With all this said... check the owners manual for the heat pump. Look for defrost cycle or something similar. Lowering the time of this cycle will melt off the natural ice formation sooner letting the heat pump run more efficiently

Answer 2

Sounds like your defrost timer\board has gone bad. Turn your unit over to emergency heat and use that until you can have your heat pump checked out. Make sure your air filter is clean and that the air is moving inside at the registers. If not, your inside unit may have ice in it too. Turn unit off and set fan from auto to on position for a couple of hours if needed until it thaws then back on to emergency heat.

Answer 3

Don't really know, but if the humidity is up outside, this could be cause for the ice. It is also possible that your auxiliary heat (either gas or electric which ever you use) is off for some reason. The noise also might be ice related such as on the fan or belt.

These are all guesses but may be should be checked out. if nothing else, it will give you something to tell the tech when you call him.

Answer 4

i'm slightly rusty in this because it relatively is been to three years on the grounds that I worked on them (26) yet there replaced right into a administration outfitted into the device to close the warmth pump right down to maintain it from freezing up. while the temperature gets to low outdoors (40) it won't artwork. while the pump is going right into a opposite cycle to warmth the residing house the evaporator coil interior the residing house acts like the condenser coil outdoors does interior the summertime time, it supplies off warmth and that heats the residing house. Your electric furnace is used to warmth the residing house interior the wintry climate. warmth pumps are no longer used or should not be used interior the northern climates. i might recommend which you examine the e book that got here with the unit, it relatively is going to clarify how the device works. And by using now you are going to be thoroughly puzzled.

Answer 5

Most likely cause is that you have lost part of your refrigerant charge. You will need a qualified technician to find and fix the leak, and add refrigerant to bring the charge back to the specified level. That is not usually a huge bill because there are not parts involved other then freon gas.

Don't let this continue, you will wind up with a damaged compressor.

Answer 6

Mine just acted the same way last week.
The repair man has come and gone. My thermostat/ defrost timer board and another part have to be replaced. My bill will be $450. the parts must be ordered.

Best of luck

I used Sears.com to schedule and make my repair.

Answer 7

I do this for a living!!!! First off have the coils checked to see if they need to be cleaned this is the first thing to cause a freeze up! do not delay a iced over system can cause more costly problems. coil cleaning an tune-up should be about 60 bucks