Your heat pump is the best investment you’ve made in your home in a long while, but you’re facing some problems with it. Your evaporator coils just froze, so you looked up what to do, ran the fan but not the air conditioner, and let the ice melt.
That’s it, right? Problem solved? If it were, you wouldn’t be reading this right now. Your heat pump is still acting up, and you’re not sure why. Because you didn’t go through the normal channel of heat pump repairs, it could be encountering these problems.
Your Heat Pump Could Be Facing These Problems
If your heat pump is freezing, it could be from a few different problems. We want to point out that if it froze up enough to stop working, it needs to be serviced, but it’s also important for you to know the causes for future reference.
- Low Refrigerant: Heat pumps use a closed loop system, which means refrigerant runs through a loop and is never truly “spent.” So when you read about refrigerant problems and see the phrase “top it off,” just know that you’re never supposed to top off your refrigerant. It means there’s a leak, however slow it may be, somewhere in your system.
- Bad Airflow: Airflow is critical for any HVAC system. Without sufficient airflow, your evaporator coils can freeze up. Everything else in the AC might be fine, but if you have clogged air filters or other bad airflow problems, it can still lead to freezing.
- Dust Insulation: Air filters help pull contaminants from the air, but their primary function is to prevent dust and debris from getting onto the evaporator coil. With a thick enough layer on top of your evaporator coil, it acts as insulation. The warm air doesn’t transfer to the refrigerant, and things can freeze quickly.
Simply thawing out your unit isn’t enough because it might have endured mechanical damage in the first place. A professional still needs to take a look at it.
What to Do Next
There are three things you can do after your heat pump freezes. We’re working on fixing the problem and preventing these issues from popping up again in the future.
- Call for Repairs: Have a professional inspect your heat pump, determine if there’s any damage, and fix what needs to be fixed in the meantime.
- Schedule Future Maintenance: Get your maintenance appointments set up now. Annual maintenance can prevent a lot of problems from happening in the first place.
- Know What to Look for: Throughout the year, in between maintenance appointments, be aware of what to look out for. Warm air coming from your vents, drainage problems, strange noises, etc.—these all help you spot problems before they cause major damage.
Always Get a Professional Opinion
When your evaporator coils freeze, it’s a sign of something going wrong. Modern heat pumps are strong enough to handle most temperature conditions that they face, but if it’s freezing up, that’s a sign of a bigger problem.
Don’t just let it thaw and run it at a higher temperature. That’s not a solution. Call us today and schedule a technician to come out and handle this problem for you as soon as possible.
Contact Bartels Heating & Cooling today to schedule your heat pump repair and ongoing maintenance as soon as possible.