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Repairs a Heat Pump May Need in Winter

Delivering Quality Comfort to the Homes and Businesses of Hartford County and New Haven County
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The best reason to have a heat pump installed for your home is that you receive two comfort systems in one unit: a forced-air heater and an air conditioner. In a place like Connecticut, which enjoys the full range of seasons, you will receive plenty of activity from both modes of a heat pump. This means the system will undergo a great deal of stress over the year, and it’s important to schedule twice-yearly maintenance to make sure that it remains in the best shape and rarely require repairs.

But malfunctions can still happen, and you’ll need to call expert repair technicians to solve them. The repair staff at Dynamic Mechanical Heating & Air Conditioning is ready around the clock to help you fix your heat pump, no matter the time of year. Whatever heating repair in Berlin, CT you need, we can deliver it.

Heat Pump Winter Time Blues: Some Repairs Issues You Might Encounter

Because a heat pump works in the same fashion whether in heating or cooling mode (it circulates refrigerant from the inside to the outside of a house, moving heat from one location to the other), you should not expect problems when turning the system from cooling mode to heating mode when the winter weather arrives. However, there’s a chance that a malfunction developed in the reversing valve during the summer and you didn’t notice it. The reversing valve is a critical component that makes a heat pump different from an air conditioner: it changes the direction of refrigerant flow and allows the heat pump to switch from removing heat from the inside of a home (cooling mode) to removing heat from the outside of a home (heating mode). If the valve breaks or loses its connection to the thermostat, you will end up with a heat pump that will only send cold air—when you want warm air!

Technicians will usually need to change out the reversing valve entirely. This is complex repair, and isn’t something you can attempt on your own by opening up the heat pump cabinet. If your heat pump is locked in cooling mode when winter starts, call for skilled repairs.

Something else to watch for when winter begins is dirt along the outdoor coil. When the heat pump moves into heating mode, this coil begins to work as the evaporator coil, absorbing heat. Dirt along the coil that may have developed over the summer will make the coil struggle with sufficient heat absorption, leaving the refrigerant inside it too cold. This will cause the coil to begin to ice over. (A similar problem can occur with the indoor coil in cooling mode.) This is a serious issue, and should you notice ice on the outdoor coil, call right away for professionals to remove, defrost, and clean the coil. Ice on the coil might also point to other serious malfunctions, such as leaking refrigerant, and it needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.

The technicians at Dynamic Mechanical Heating & Air Conditioning are skilled with home heating repair in Berlin, CT and can take care of whatever ails your heat pump so your cozy indoors is restored in no time. Give us a call today to schedule and appointment.

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