Home Heat Pump Issue

[Rarefied]

I live in the south and naturally have an air-conditioning pump that also doubles as a heat pump in the winter. Last couple weeks have been on the colder side and heating has been working fine up until today and I noticed that it was just cold air blowing for an hour when it’s well warm enough for the heat pump to work. Turned unit off, went outside to watch and turned back on. The line is freezing up almost immediately, at the expansion valve. ChatGPT says it’s almost certainly a stuck/failing valve. What do you think? Anything to do before I call a technician out? Photo below.

 

[Daleandee]

Stuck valve or low freon would be my guess ...

 

[Bob Noel]

I would expect that low coolant would be detected by the system, so if it isn’t throwing an error code, it probably isn’t the the coolant level

 

[Fiveslide]

I would expect that low coolant would be detected by the system, so if it isn’t throwing an error code, it probably isn’t the the coolant level

Many people, myself included, have older heat pump systems that just quit working, and do not tell us why with error codes. I wish it were that easy to diagnose our system, lol.

 

[WDD]

1) Frost / icing is an indication of a bad valve or low freon. I had a new AC unit that had the heat exchanger/evaporator ice up on the inside; they replaced the valve unit under warranty. Tech said it must have been defective from the manufacturer.

2) How old is the heat pump? I ask because you may or may not be able to get replacement refrigerant for your "flavor" of system. They've changed / banned certain refrigerants a few times over the years. Net net, ask your repairman / tech what refrigerant availability you have, remaining life expectancy of the unit, etc.

3) Sounds like you don't have a back up heating system. My friend has a heat pump, but his back up is electric. A bit expensive, so he's looking at getting a propane bottle fed gas back up (rural area).

You're going to need a tech to measure the freon pressure and go from there.

 

[Rarefied]

Many people, myself included, have older heat pump systems that just quit working, and do not tell us why with error codes. I wish it were that easy to diagnose our system, lol.

I mean it makes sense, but I didn’t even know there were residential systems that give error codes. I’ve never seen one.

1) Frost / icing is an indication of a bad valve or low freon. I had a new AC unit that had the heat exchanger/evaporator ice up on the inside; they replaced the valve unit under warranty. Tech said it must have been defective from the manufacturer.

2) How old is the heat pump? I ask because you may or may not be able to get replacement refrigerant for your "flavor" of system. They've changed / banned certain refrigerants a few times over the years. Net net, ask your repairman / tech what refrigerant availability you have, remaining life expectancy of the unit, etc.

3) Sounds like you don't have a back up heating system. My friend has a heat pump, but his back up is electric. A bit expensive, so he's looking at getting a propane bottle fed gas back up (rural area).

You're going to need a tech to measure the freon pressure and go from there.

I saw the same saying if it’s a stuck valve, it could be covered under warranty likely. It’s only a three year-old unit so that would be nice. I need to verify how long of a warranty the unit came with but parents just replaced their unit and theirs comes with a 10 year warranty so hopefully similar. I do have backup heat strips, but my Nest thermostat doesn’t like to turn it on unless absolutely necessary and I pay enough attention to my system to know when it’s not putting out heat. When I confirmed the issue, I told my nest to just use the heat strips until the heat pumps resolved.

Sounds like I’m calling a tech today.

 

[Clip4]

I live in the south and naturally have an air-conditioning pump that also doubles as a heat pump in the winter. Last couple weeks have been on the colder side and heating has been working fine up until today and I noticed that it was just cold air blowing for an hour when it’s well warm enough for the heat pump to work. Turned unit off, went outside to watch and turned back on. The line is freezing up almost immediately, at the expansion valve. ChatGPT says it’s almost certainly a stuck/failing valve. What do you think? Anything to do before I call a technician out? Photo below.View attachment 146826

Usually heat pump warranty on parts is 10 years.

 

[Skip Miller]

1) Frost / icing is an indication of a bad valve or low freon. I had a new AC unit that had the heat exchanger/evaporator ice up on the inside; they replaced the valve unit under warranty. Tech said it must have been defective from the manufacturer.

You're going to need a tech to measure the freon pressure and go from there.

This! Freezing up is quite often caused by low Freon (or other refrigerant). Odds are you have a leak…

-Skip

 

[Stewartb]

I live in the south and naturally have an air-conditioning pump that also doubles as a heat pump in the winter. Last couple weeks have been on the colder side and heating has been working fine up until today and I noticed that it was just cold air blowing for an hour when it’s well warm enough for the heat pump to work. Turned unit off, went outside to watch and turned back on. The line is freezing up almost immediately, at the expansion valve. ChatGPT says it’s almost certainly a stuck/failing valve. What do you think? Anything to do before I call a technician out? Photo below.View attachment 146826

Are you sure your thermostat wasn’t changed to “cool” function?

 

[Stewartb]

It’s a legit question. Heat pumps don’t work with “auto” thermostats. You have to pick heat or cool, and where I am? We change it back and forth nearly every day this time of year.

 

[Daleandee]

Heat pumps don’t work with “auto” thermostats. You have to pick heat or cool, and where I am? We change it back and forth nearly every day this time of year.

Not quite accurate. I have a thermostat unit that lets the user set a heat & cool temp. The requirement is that what ever temps are set there must be a 4º spread between heat and cooling e.g. heat at 72º and cooling at 76º. A wider spread can be set but 4º is a close as is allowed. Our thermostat will select heat, cool, or auto ...