Derek Cole and Williams Skipper explain why heat pump units freeze in heating mode, the difference between normal frost and dangerous ice buildup, and how defrost cycles and sensors prevent problems. Misplaced sensors or refrigerant issues cause block ice that needs professional service.
Hey, this is Derek Cole along with Williams skipper, and welcome to the Comfort experts. And today we're talking about your unit freezing in heating mode. And I'm not talking about frost. I'm talking about ice on the unit. So, William, we get a call, a lot of, hey, my unit is frozen. It's in heating mode. What's going on with that?
Well, we are obviously talking about a heat pump. If you see ice on your gas pack, it's because it snowed or ice outside.
Right?
Heat pump is typical where you're going to see your ice at. Now, there is a difference, like you said, between frost and ice. Frost is normal on a heat pump. It will frost over. These things come with a defrost capability built into them. What it does is it judges temperature of cold, temperature of outside, and time. Depending on the brand or the style of unit, it could be one of those three or all of those three. So once that unit determines it's time to defrost, it'll come and melt the frost off, and then it will go back into its cycle. Basically, what I'm doing is turning air conditioning on for just a few minutes. It allows your auxiliary heaters to overcome that air conditioning to thaw out the outside coal. We bring in the hot refrigerant outside to melt the ice. Now, if it is a block of ice, there is an issue, and it can be one of the a few things. You got your defrost function as completely malfunctioned defrost sensor, just not sensing the temperature of the coil. Or you could have refrigerant issues. You could have refrigerant issues if it gets to that point. But if you got a block of ice, there is an issue. Frost is normal and okay, but ice is not.
Yeah, we seen a few situations in which the defrost sensor was not really located in the proper place.
That's right.
So by the time it was coming to the sensor, it was already frozen because it was in the wrong spot. So if you need us, call us or go online and check us out. OneHouraircarolinas.com for more information, visit OneHouraircarOlinas.com that's OneHourreCarolinas.com.
