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We've noticed several times this summer that the heat pump suddenly quits making cool for an hour, or so then gets back in gear and is fine after these spells. Some times I will shut it all down for 20mins and that does the trick. The outdoor coils look fine.
I had the hvac tech (a great guy, I trust him) service all 6 of my units this spring and everything was up to snuff.
I had him out just after the most recent event -yesterday- and he said he could not find the problem. The outdoor unit fan is running quiet and not hot, I can hear the air handler running well, the pressures on his high-tech gauges are 'awesome'.
Being uninformed about the components and workings of a heat pump with heat strips, I am trying to simplify in my mind the basics of how they work and what might cause this. I can get the brand and model if that's important.
My understanding:
A compressor squeezes the refrigerant, resulting in heat which is vented outside the building in summer.
The compressed refrigerant enters the building through the insulated copper or brass pipe into the air handler unit in the attic.
It is then released through an orifice into the evaporator I guess?, and expands, which chills it.
The air handler runs household air past this radiator and picks up the cold, venting it through the ducting.
There is a circuit board on both the outside and inside units.
There are likely refrigerant valves controlled by these boards.
There are probably sensors that shut off the pump when their is an excess of pressure or temperature.
The thermostat sends on & off signals to the boards.
I did not see the 'refrigerant pump' so I can't be sure it is running and not overheating - is it inside or out; is it normally visible and how to confirm it's running during these episodes?
Its 25yrs old running R22 so maybe it is time for a new one but I have older ones that are doing fine so I hate to spend thousands when a simple fix has not been ruled out.
I had the hvac tech (a great guy, I trust him) service all 6 of my units this spring and everything was up to snuff.
I had him out just after the most recent event -yesterday- and he said he could not find the problem. The outdoor unit fan is running quiet and not hot, I can hear the air handler running well, the pressures on his high-tech gauges are 'awesome'.
Being uninformed about the components and workings of a heat pump with heat strips, I am trying to simplify in my mind the basics of how they work and what might cause this. I can get the brand and model if that's important.
My understanding:
A compressor squeezes the refrigerant, resulting in heat which is vented outside the building in summer.
The compressed refrigerant enters the building through the insulated copper or brass pipe into the air handler unit in the attic.
It is then released through an orifice into the evaporator I guess?, and expands, which chills it.
The air handler runs household air past this radiator and picks up the cold, venting it through the ducting.
There is a circuit board on both the outside and inside units.
There are likely refrigerant valves controlled by these boards.
There are probably sensors that shut off the pump when their is an excess of pressure or temperature.
The thermostat sends on & off signals to the boards.
I did not see the 'refrigerant pump' so I can't be sure it is running and not overheating - is it inside or out; is it normally visible and how to confirm it's running during these episodes?
Its 25yrs old running R22 so maybe it is time for a new one but I have older ones that are doing fine so I hate to spend thousands when a simple fix has not been ruled out.
