In Central Florida a heat pump is the default system. It is an air conditioner with a valve that lets it run backwards: in summer it moves heat out of the house, and on the handful of cold mornings we get, it reverses and moves heat in. Very few homes here have a furnace. If your outdoor unit both cools in July and heats in January, it is a heat pump.

That matters when something goes wrong, because a heat pump has parts an air conditioner does not, and because our short heating season lets faults hide for months. A heat pump that stopped heating properly in February often is not noticed until the following winter, or worse, is never noticed at all while the backup heat quietly runs up the power bill.

The reversing valve

This is the part that makes a heat pump a heat pump, and it is the one most commonly misdiagnosed. When the valve sticks or its solenoid fails, the system gets stuck in one mode. The classic symptom is a system that cools perfectly all summer and blows cold air when you call for heat, or the reverse. It is a repairable fault, and it is regularly used as the excuse for a full replacement quote.

The defrost control

On a cold, damp morning a heat pump will periodically reverse itself to melt frost off the outdoor coil. It looks alarming, steam pouring off the unit, and it is completely normal. What is not normal is a defrost board or sensor that has failed, leaving the coil iced over or cycling the system constantly. In this climate the defrost function runs so rarely that a dead board can sit undetected for years.

Compressor and capacitor

A heat pump works year-round rather than seasonally, so its compressor accumulates far more run hours than one in a northern climate. Capacitors are the cheap, common failure and a genuine same-day fix. A failing compressor is the expensive one, and it is exactly the diagnosis worth getting checked twice before anyone signs off on a new system.

Refrigerant charge

A heat pump is more sensitive to charge than a cooling-only system because it has to perform in both directions. Undercharge often shows up first as poor heating, months before anyone notices weak cooling. Topping it up without finding the leak is not a repair, it is a scheduled return visit.

Airflow and ductwork

A restricted filter, a collapsed flex run or an undersized return will make a perfectly healthy heat pump look broken. We check the distribution before we condemn the equipment, because in Central Florida the ducts are often the real constraint. Our ductwork services cover inspection, sealing and correction.

The expensive failure almost nobody notices

Every heat pump has backup heat, usually electric resistance strips in the air handler, sometimes called auxiliary or emergency heat. It costs several times more per unit of heat than the heat pump itself.

Here is the failure mode that costs real money. When the heat pump loses its ability to heat, because of a stuck reversing valve, a failed defrost board or low charge, the thermostat simply falls back to the strips. The house still gets warm. Nothing rattles, nothing drips, no alarm sounds. The only symptom is a winter electric bill that is suddenly much larger than it should be, and most people put that down to the weather. If your bill jumped in a cold month and the house felt fine, that is worth a diagnosis rather than a shrug. It is one of the most common things we find, and it is almost always a repair.

Heat pump maintenance

A heat pump runs in both seasons, so it accumulates roughly twice the run time of a cooling-only system. A real service visit covers the things specific to it: verifying the changeover actually works in both directions, confirming the defrost cycle initiates and terminates correctly, checking that the backup heat engages only when it should, and measuring charge and airflow rather than guessing at them.

The changeover test is the one most often skipped. A technician who visits in July and never calls for heat cannot tell you whether your heat pump will heat in January. We test both modes on every visit. More on what a proper visit includes is on our maintenance and tune-ups page.

Heat pump installation and replacement

When a heat pump genuinely is finished, sizing it correctly matters more here than almost anywhere. Central Florida’s problem is humidity as much as temperature. An oversized system cools to setpoint quickly, shuts off, and never runs long enough to pull moisture out of the air, so the house reads 74 degrees and still feels clammy. Going bigger makes that worse.

We size from a load calculation that accounts for the actual house: square footage, orientation, insulation, window area and shading, and where the ducts run. Matching the tag on the old unit is not a load calculation, it just repeats a decision someone else made years ago. If you are weighing a variable-speed system that modulates continuously rather than cycling on and off, see our inverter heat pumps page, or start with select your comfort system.

Replacing or modifying heat pump equipment requires a mechanical permit. We pull it as part of the job. A contractor who offers to skip the permit is telling you something about how they work.

Before you approve a heat pump replacement

Compressor and reversing valve diagnoses are where replacement quotes get written, and they are the two most worth a second look. Bring us the quote. We will diagnose the equipment ourselves and give you three numbers: what the repair costs, how much life that repair realistically buys, and what replacement costs installed. You decide with all three in front of you rather than one. Much of our work is on systems another company already said were finished, which is the whole idea behind our second opinions.

Common questions

My outdoor unit is steaming on a cold morning. Is it broken?
Almost certainly not. That is the defrost cycle melting frost off the outdoor coil. What is worth a call is ice that never clears, or a system running defrost repeatedly in mild weather.

Why does the air not feel hot?
A heat pump delivers heat at a lower supply temperature than a furnace, typically warm rather than hot to the hand. That is normal and it is how it achieves its efficiency. If the house is holding temperature, the system is working.

What is the difference between auxiliary and emergency heat?
Auxiliary heat runs automatically alongside the heat pump when it needs help. Emergency heat is a manual setting that shuts the heat pump off entirely and runs on the strips alone. It is for when the heat pump has failed, not for cold weather, and leaving it on is expensive.

How long should a heat pump last here?
Ten to fifteen years is typical in Central Florida, shorter than the national average because the equipment runs close to year-round. Sound ductwork and regular service push it toward the top of that range. A failure well before then is usually a part rather than the system.

How fast can you get here?
We run 24/7 emergency service. Call 407-405-2658 and we will tell you honestly when we can be there rather than quoting you a window we cannot hold.