Derek Cole explains why heat pumps blow cool air in cold weather (they enter defrost mode and switch to AC temporarily) and why you see steam at the outdoor unit. He covers when backup heat strips kick in and offers free guides on common questions and maintenance.
Questions this episode answers
January 20, 2022.
9046-3581-1463-5811.
Chapters
Hey, guys, Derek Cole here with Simmons. One hour heating air and the wintry weather, snow, maybe for Friday, is coming back. The biggest I wanted to jump on because the biggest things we had this last weekend with the storm as it came through is folks having questions about the cold blow or the cold air, because what is their heat pump is in what's called the defrost cycle. With this kind of weather and with these kind of temperatures and conditions, your heat pump is going through what is called a defrost cycle. It actually reverses what you think is happening. So you have a sentinel heat. You have a center on you. Whatever temperature you have it set on, and it times out or senses on the outdoor coal that, hey, I need to defrost this cold and getting too much frost on it, or I might have some ice on it. Something is telling me I need to go through the cycle. It could be a timer, it could be a sensor, depending on your setup. Depends on what's there. So what happens is it actually switches to AC mode from heating mode. So there it's actually blowing the warm air, as in the house, back outside to melt that frost on that coil. But your heat strips come on inside, so you don't get too cold. You might feel a slight cooler breeze or, you know, a slight cooler feeling when it's in that mode. But it's in AC mode to burn that frost off. But the heat strips will come on to keep it warm inside. So when that happens, that is normal. That's fine. You'll also see probably some steam coming from the outdoor unit. The outdoor fan is not gonna be turning when it goes to that cycle, because again, the only, the only heat you have at that point is the backup heat or the auxiliary heat. So when it's in default cycle, you're not going to have the outdoor fan running. But that's completely normal, so nothing to worry about there. But also with these temperatures, your backup strip heat is going to run. If you got your thermostat set to a, you know, the temperature, whatever temperature you think is good for you, you know, whether it be 68, 72, I don't know. It's up to you. But with these kind of temperatures outside and this kind of weather, it does need some help to get to that temperature. So we'll bring the heat strips on. When it gets to the point that it needs a little bit of help. Now, the system, the thermostat, it knows when that is. Okay? So there's nothing you have to worry about. It will just bring it on as needed. But down below this video, I included a couple links to a couple of free PDFs. It's free of charge, no obligation, just name an email. But the top three questions asked I get also include the top 10 maintenance tips for heating. So both these are free, both are PDFs. You can download them, save them, print them, whatever you like. But hopefully that'll answer some more of your questions and help you through this process. But with this weather and heat pumps, I mean, you're going to have defrost, you're going to have the auxiliary backpeders come on to to help. So if you need us, call us or text me. A few people took advantage of that last weekend. You can text me 9046-3581-1463-5811. If you have a question, text me and we'll get you the answer.
