BOTH SEASONS, ONE MACHINE
Heat Pump Repair by Technicians Who Speak Heat Pump
Heat pumps get misdiagnosed more than any equipment we take over, and the reason is simple: a furnace technician meeting a reversing valve is a tourist. Our heat pump repair work is done by techs who read defrost logic, superheat, and auxiliary heat behavior fluently, because a heat pump runs twelve months a year and fails in ways cooling only equipment never invented. Heat pump service done as instruments first, flat quotes before work, and every fix verified in both modes before we leave.
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TRIAGE
Reading the Symptoms Before Anyone Arrives
Heat pump symptoms are more ambiguous than furnace symptoms, because half of what looks broken is the machine working correctly. Cool air in heating mode for ten minutes is defrost, not failure. Light frost on the coil in December is physics. Steam rolling off the outdoor unit mid cycle is a heat pump doing its job and alarming its owner. Here is the honest heat pump repair sorting, symptom by symptom:
| Symptom | What it usually is | Urgency |
|---|---|---|
| Heats but never cools (or the reverse) | Reversing valve stuck or its solenoid failed | Book promptly; the season decides how promptly |
| Outdoor unit encased in ice | Failed defrost board, sensor, or fan | Urgent; running it iced strains the compressor |
| Weak heat, bills climbing | Auxiliary strips running constantly, or low charge | Soon; this is the expensive silent failure |
| Blows cool air in heating mode briefly | Normal defrost cycle, not a fault | None; watch that it ends within 15 minutes |
| Outdoor fan silent, compressor humming | Capacitor or fan motor | Shut it off and call; retries cook windings |
| Short cycling on and off | Charge, airflow, sizing, or control fault | Soon; cycles are what kill compressors |
| Loud grinding or screeching | Bearings, blower contact, or debris | Shut down; damage is compounding by the minute |
Two rows deserve emphasis. The ice row: a unit encased in solid ice has a defrost failure, and every hour it runs that way pushes liquid refrigerant toward a compressor that only tolerates vapor. Switch to emergency heat if your thermostat offers it and call. The rising bills row is the quiet one, because nothing looks broken while auxiliary resistance strips run silently behind a comfortable house and triple the heating bill. That failure is invisible until the statement arrives, which is exactly why we test auxiliary behavior on every visit.
THE MOST SEARCHED PROBLEM
Heat Pump Not Heating: Working Through It in Order
“Heat pump not heating” covers four genuinely different failures, and sorting them is most of the repair. Work the list in this order and you will either fix it yourself or hand us a diagnosis that shortens the visit.
First, is it actually not heating, or is it heating differently? Heat pump supply air runs 90 to 105 degrees, warm but not furnace hot, so air that feels lukewarm on your hand may be perfectly normal. The real test is whether the house holds and gains temperature, not how the vent feels.
Second, check the thermostat and the obvious. Mode set to heat rather than auto or emergency, setpoint above room temperature, batteries fresh, filter clean, and both breakers on including the outdoor disconnect. A surprising share of heat pump not heating calls end here, and we would rather you find it than pay us to.
Third, look at the outdoor unit. Is the fan spinning? Is the coil iced? Is anything blocking airflow? A silent outdoor unit with a humming sound is a capacitor conversation; an iced one is a defrost conversation; a spinning one with a warm house rising slowly may simply be a cold day working as designed.
Fourth, watch the auxiliary heat indicator. If auxiliary or emergency heat is carrying the house while the outdoor unit sits idle, the heat pump itself has stopped contributing, and that is a genuine fault regardless of how comfortable the rooms feel. It is also the most expensive way to stay warm, which is why a heat pump not heating on its own power deserves a same week call rather than a shrug and a sweater.
THE THREE SYSTEMS
What Actually Fails on a Heat Pump
The refrigerant circuit carries everything a central AC has plus the parts that make reversal possible. The reversing valve is the signature component: a sliding spool that redirects refrigerant flow to swap heating and cooling, controlled by a small solenoid coil. Solenoids fail cheaply and often; valves themselves stick, usually recoverable, and occasionally fail internally, which is the expensive version. A heat pump not heating while it still cools perfectly is almost always telling a reversing valve story.
The defrost system is unique to heat pumps and responsible for a huge share of winter heat pump repair and heat pump service calls. A board and a coil sensor decide when to briefly run in cooling mode to melt frost off the outdoor coil, and when either component drifts, you get one of two failures: ice accumulation because defrost never triggers, or wasted energy and cold blasts because it triggers constantly. Neither is subtle once you know to look.
The auxiliary heat is the backup, electric resistance strips or a gas furnace in dual fuel systems, and its faults are mostly financial rather than mechanical. Sequencers weld closed, thermostats get configured with lockouts set wrong, and the strips run through mild weather they were never meant to see. Nobody feels cold; everybody feels the bill.
THE VISIT
How a Heat Pump Repair Call Runs
Heat pump repair diagnosis takes longer than air conditioner work, and any company that promises otherwise is guessing faster rather than working better. We measure in both modes: pressures and temperatures in heating and cooling, defrost cycle behavior observed rather than assumed, auxiliary heat engagement watched at the thermostat, and electrical readings across every component in the sequence.
That thoroughness is where money gets saved. The single most common expensive misdiagnosis in this trade is a compressor condemned when the actual fault was a reversing valve, a defrost board, or a charge problem, and it happens because reading a heat pump correctly means watching it change its mind about which direction it is pumping. Ten extra minutes routinely separates a $400 heat pump repair from a $9,000 replacement quote.
Then the flat price, approved before work begins, most repairs completed the same visit from truck stock. After the fix we cycle the system through both modes and record the readings on your invoice, building the heat pump service history that makes every future visit faster and every warranty claim dramatically easier to win.
EVERY SYSTEM
Brands, Configurations, and Second Opinions
We service every major residential heat pump brand and every common configuration: standard air source splits, packaged units, dual fuel pairings with a gas furnace, and ductless systems. Inverter driven variable speed equipment gets particular attention, because its communicating controls throw fault codes that mean nothing without the manufacturer literature, and reading those codes correctly is half of modern heat pump repair work.
Second opinions are a real part of our heat pump repair book, and we offer them free with any scheduled service. The pattern that brings them: a homeowner told the compressor is dead and the system needs replacing, on equipment eight years old, after a fifteen minute visit with no printed readings. Sometimes that diagnosis is correct. Often enough it was a reversing valve, a defrost board, or a contactor, and the difference is several thousand dollars.
Bring the paperwork if you have it. Model and serial numbers, prior invoices, and any fault codes photographed off the control board turn a diagnostic visit into a much shorter, cheaper conversation, and they build the service ledger your equipment should have had all along. The full roster of what we handle lives on the services hub.
STRAIGHT NUMBERS
Heat Pump Repair Costs, Honestly Ranged
Heat pump repair parts price a little above their air conditioning equivalents, and the reversing valve line has no equivalent at all. Here is the landscape:
| Common heat pump repair | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Capacitor or contactor | $150 to $450 |
| Defrost control board or sensor | $300 to $800 |
| Outdoor fan motor | $450 to $1,100 |
| Reversing valve solenoid | $250 to $600 |
| Reversing valve replacement | $900 to $2,000 |
| Refrigerant leak search and repair | $500 to $1,800 plus refrigerant |
| Auxiliary heat strip or sequencer | $250 to $700 |
| Compressor replacement | $2,000 to $4,000 |
The reversing valve deserves its own paragraph because it is where owners get scared. The solenoid, the part that fails most often, is inexpensive. The valve body itself requires recovering refrigerant, brazing in a new valve, evacuating, and recharging, which is why it prices where it does. On a system under ten years old with a good compressor, that repair is usually worth making; past fifteen, it competes directly with the replacement quote, and you get both numbers side by side before deciding anything at all.
Compressor failures follow the same arithmetic as any system: age times repair cost over 5,000 leans replace, and a compressor at year fourteen almost always loses that comparison. Our technicians are not commissioned, so the recommendation follows the math rather than the margin, and plenty of customers hear us argue for the repair.
WINTER SPECIFICS
Cold Weather Behavior: Normal, Annoying, and Broken
Normal: defrost cycles every 30 to 90 minutes in cold damp weather, lasting 5 to 15 minutes each, complete with steam, dripping, a whooshing sound as the valve shifts, and briefly cooler air indoors. Light frost between cycles. Auxiliary heat engaging during deep cold or fast recovery from a setback. All of this is engineering, not malfunction.
Annoying but fixable: auxiliary heat engaging too eagerly because the thermostat lockout temperature was never configured for your climate. That single heat pump service setting is worth hundreds of dollars across a winter, and it ships wrong from the factory more often than not. We check it on every visit and correct it for free, because it costs us ten minutes and saves you real money.
Broken: ice that never clears, defrost cycles that run every ten minutes, auxiliary heat running while the outdoor unit sits idle, or a system that cannot hold temperature at 40 degrees outside. Those are faults, and they are exactly the calls our heating repair team triages by house temperature through the winter.
One winter habit worth adopting: keep the outdoor unit clear of snow drifts and never let it sit in standing water or ice buildup from a roofline drip. A heat pump needs airflow and drainage in exactly the season that conspires against both, and a buried outdoor unit is a heat pump repair call waiting to be scheduled.
PREVENTION
Why Heat Pumps Need Maintenance More, Not Less
A heat pump runs roughly twice the annual hours of a cooling only system, and every wear mechanism scales with runtime. Compressors accumulate starts, capacitors fade, coils foul on both sides of the calendar, and defrost components cycle thousands of times a winter. The maintenance case that is merely strong for air conditioners becomes overwhelming for heat pump service, which is why we schedule it twice.
Our heat pump service visits check everything a standard AC tune up skips: defrost cycle forced and observed, reversing valve operation verified in both directions, auxiliary heat staging tested against the thermostat configuration, and charge measured in the mode that matters for the coming season. Twice yearly is ideal for heat pumps, spring and fall, which is exactly how our maintenance plans are structured.
The payoff is documented across the industry: the Department of Energy’s heat pump guidance puts regular servicing at the center of both efficiency and lifespan, noting that poorly maintained systems can consume meaningfully more energy than well maintained ones for identical comfort. That gap is not theoretical; it shows up on statements every month.
HEAT PUMP QUESTIONS
Heat Pump Repair FAQs
Why is my heat pump blowing cold air in heating mode?
If it lasts five to fifteen minutes and ends on its own, that is a normal defrost cycle and nothing is wrong. If cool air is constant, the likely stories are a reversing valve stuck in cooling, a low refrigerant charge, or a control fault, and all three are instrument diagnosable in one visit.
My outdoor unit is covered in ice. What do I do?
Switch to emergency heat if your thermostat has it, then call. A defrost failure is the usual cause, and running the system iced risks liquid refrigerant reaching the compressor, which converts a modest repair into a replacement conversation. Never chip ice off the coil; fins bend and leaks follow.
How much does heat pump repair cost?
Most calls land between $150 and $900: capacitors, contactors, defrost boards, sensors, and solenoids cover the majority. Reversing valve bodies and compressors are the four figure exceptions. The diagnostic is flat and credits toward the work, and the repair price is quoted before anything is touched.
Why did my electric bill jump but the house feels fine?
Auxiliary heat is running when it should not, and it is the most common invisible heat pump fault there is. Causes: a thermostat lockout set wrong, a welded sequencer, a charge problem making the heat pump underperform, or a defrost cycle stuck on. All are diagnosable, and the fix is often a settings change.
Should I repair or replace a failing heat pump?
Same arithmetic as any system, with one wrinkle: heat pumps accumulate runtime faster, so a twelve year old heat pump is mechanically closer to a fifteen year old AC. Run the 5,000 rule, weigh the current tax credits on new equipment, and get both numbers, which we bring to every aging system call.
Do you repair mini splits and ductless heat pumps too?
Yes, and they are their own discipline: inverter boards, communication faults between indoor and outdoor units, and flare connection leaks dominate their failure list rather than the classic split system parts. Same instruments, different fluency, and our techs carry both.
How often should a heat pump be serviced?
Twice a year, spring and fall, because it works in both seasons and its defrost and auxiliary systems only reveal faults in the cold. Once a year is better than none and is what most owners do; twice is what the runtime actually justifies, and it is priced accordingly in our plans.
Can a heat pump be repaired in winter, or do I have to wait?
Repaired in winter, absolutely, and cold house calls are triaged ahead of comfort calls. Refrigerant work is technically harder in the cold and occasionally means a two step approach, temporary heat now and the full repair on a milder day, but nobody waits out a freeze on our schedule.
Is emergency heat the same as auxiliary heat?
Related but not identical. Auxiliary heat assists the heat pump automatically during deep cold or fast recovery. Emergency heat shuts the heat pump off entirely and runs the backup alone, which is a manual setting meant for when the heat pump is broken or iced. Running emergency heat as a habit is the most expensive way to warm a house, so use it as a bridge to the repair rather than a lifestyle.
What does a heat pump service visit actually include?
Everything a cooling tune up covers plus the heat pump specifics: defrost cycle forced and observed, reversing valve verified in both directions, auxiliary heat staging tested against the thermostat configuration, thermostat lockout temperatures checked and corrected, and charge measured for the mode the coming season will demand. Readings land in a written report the same day.
One Machine, Two Seasons, Diagnosed Properly
Heat pump repair from technicians who test both modes, read defrost logic, and check the auxiliary heat settings quietly inflating your bill. Flat pricing, verified fixes, documented readings.