This is the time of the year when you’ll probably appreciate having a heat pump to take care of both your warm and cool weather comfort needs. As the weather swings back and forth during spring, you can simply switch your heat pump between its two different modes—heating and cooling—with only a single adjustment on the thermostat. No reason to think about having to shut down a heater for the year, and your thermostat programming doesn’t have to change much.
But what if the heat pump won’t turn over into cooling mode? This is one of the more common troubles a heat pump can run into, and it’s also one our technicians are familiar with fixing so the heat pump can go back to work.
We’ll take a brief look at what might be going on with a heat pump stuck in one mode.
Thermostat Trouble
One of the more surface-level reasons for a stuck heat pump is the thermostat has lost its connection to the reversing valve. (A bit more on the reversing valve later.) A thermostat uses different wire connections to turn different parts of the heat pump on and off, and if the thermostat can’t operate the reversing valve, the heat pump will stay in one mode.
Another possibility is the heat pump isn’t accurately sensing temperatures and is recording temperatures indoor as lower than they are. This will prevent the thermostat from turning the heat pump over to cooling mode unless the temperature is extremely high indoors, or the thermostat is set too low. A technician can recalibrate the thermostat to solve this.
Broken Reversing Valve
The reversing valve we just mentioned is the key component of a heat pump that makes it different from a standard AC. The reversing valve controls the direction refrigerant flows after it leaves the compressor, and depending on which direction the refrigerant moves, the heat pump will be in either heating mode or cooling mode.
Since the reversing valve is a mechanical component, it can wear down or become stuck, and when this happens, the heat pump can’t switch between modes. This can require a larger repair: in most cases, the technicians must replace the valve with a new one.
If the air is cooler, but not cool enough…
If the heat pump seems to be putting out cooler air than in heating mode, but it’s not cooling down the house, the trouble could be a clogged air filter or the heat pump is short-cycling (turning off before it finished a cooling cycle). If replacing the filter doesn’t improve the situation, then call for a technician to get to the bottom of the situation and see what needs to be fixed.
To schedule service for a heat pump in Lake City, FL, whether a repair, routine maintenance, or a replacement for an older system, call us any time of the day or night, 365 days a year. We provide complete service for heat pumps and all types of air conditioners, including ductless mini split heat pumps.
Call Touchstone Heating & Air Inc 24/7 for exceptional customer service! Serving the Communities of North Central Florida since 1998.