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Frozen Heat Pumps

It’s been raining all night and the temperature is dropping, the forecast for this weekend says most of us are going to get a lot of ice, so some of you might end up with frozen heat pumps.

How Much Frost or Ice Is Normal?

If there is a thin layer of frost and It’s not covering the entire unit, your unit is probably fine, it’s probably due to the cold weather and how cold the coils are getting trying to heat up your house. However, if you go outside and see your unit frozen in a cube of ice like a cartoon, you may have a serious problem. Or if your system has thick ice covering most of the outdoor unit, you should probably call an HVAC technician. Here are a few examples of frozen heat pumps: If your unit looks like this, it’s okay as long as it is still keeping your house warm.

If your unit looks like this, please call us asap!
If your unit is only a little frozen, but still running, wait a few hours and checking on it every hour. At some point, your unit should start its defrost stage and melt off all that frost.

What Can I Do to Get Ready for The Tech When He Gets Here?

Well the technician can’t do much to your unit while it’s frozen, so after you call for service, go ahead and turn your unit to emergency heat, this will turn on your inside gas or electric furnace and keep your outside unit from freezing anymore and also keep your house warm. So hopefully some of the ice will melt off before he gets there.

What If It’s Not Frozen Up, But It’s Making a Lot of Noise?

Well, if your unit is outside rattling and making all kinds of noise, maybe it sounds similar to a washing machine that’s not level. Your fan blade probably has ice on it, as minor as it sounds, this can cause a lot of problems. On top of the obvious problem of putting a lot of extra stress on the fan motor and wearing it out, it can also shake things lose and wear things down, breaking all kinds of parts that you’ll have to pay someone to replace. If this is the case, and it is just ice on your fan blades, turn off your heat pump (or switch it to emergency heat) and get a pitcher of hot water. When the blades aren’t spinning, pour the hot water on it and do that until the ice melts. You should be able to turn it back on now, but if the sound persists, you should go ahead and give us a call.
Stay safe and warm this weekend and if something goes wrong, don’t hesitate to call us! We’ll still be out and about.

1 thought on “Frozen Heat Pumps”

  1. Well the technician can?t do much to your unit while it?s frozen, so after you call for service, go ahead and turn your unit to emergency heat, this will turn on your inside gas or electric furnace and keep your outside unit from freezing anymore and also keep your house warm. So hopefully some of the ice will melt off before he gets there. I agree with you.Thanks for sharing this

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