Heat Pump Breakdowns

Once a heat pump or air conditioning unit has broken down, it is not recommended that you try to fix it on your own. Instead, a professional should assist you. However, you can help prevent unnecessary breakdowns with regular maintenance. In this article, we explore the subject of heat pump breakdowns.

Regular maintenance is key to stopping your unit from breaking down early. Although it is recommended that full maintenance checks be carried out by professionals, there are still regular maintenance elements which you can carry out yourself.

Firstly, keep your outdoor area free of leaves and check your unit for debris. This will ensure that your airflow will be clean and unimpeded. The other key factor is filter maintenance. For residential units, reviewing and cleaning your filters yourself is recommended. Regular cleaning will keep your filters working well.

For more information on how to care for your heat pump and clean filters at home, check out our Comfort Series tips.

Alongside the maintenance which you can carry out yourself, it is recommended that you have an annual service maintenance with a trained technician. This will help the technician check for any faults which you may not be able to see.

During the summer months when your heat pump is operating in cooling you may experience dripping water (water leaking) from the indoor unit. This can be caused by a number of different things and a qualified technician will be able to investigate and confirm the cause. Common causes include overflowing drip drays, disconnected drains, drains not having the correct fall to drain or failed condensate pumps.

If your unit isn’t responding correctly to your remote control, try changing the batteries.

If your screen is flickering, fading or generally not responding to your commands, this is also a sign that the batteries should be checked. When the batteries are changed, the heat pump will need to have any programmes/timers reset, as it will revert to its factory settings. If you change one battery at a time, you can avoid this. If the new set of batteries don’t seem to fix the problem, try another set. It is amazing the amount of times our technicians find faulty (new) batteries.

If your heat pump is making gargling or exhaling noises, it likely means that a defrost cycle is running. The heat pump may also stop operating for a time and blow out cooler air. This shouldn’t worry you – but make sure you do not turn your unit off whilst this is happening.

However, if these noises continue for an extended period of time, we recommend calling a trained technician to investigate the problem, especially when it is not cold outside. The Heat Pump People have a number of technicians able to diagnose and repair faults, including part replacements, across a wide range of brands.

Even with regular maintenance, a heat pump may break down. In this case, the best thing you can do is make an appointment with a trained technician, who will be able to identify and address the problem.

The Heat Pump People are passionate about providing the finest in heat pumps and air conditioners to our clients. Our skilled technicians provide fully comprehensive servicing to a wide range of heat pumps throughout Christchurch. If you have any questions about custom heating and cooling solutions or about our services and how we can help you, feel free to contact us today. We are available on phone by 03 366 1823. Alternatively, you can reach us through our online contact form.