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Polar Bear Air Conditioning & Heating Inc. Blog

What It Means When Your Heat Pump Doesn’t Switch Modes

Your heat pump does a lot of work. It wears two hats after all–heating and cooling your home is a big job. Since you rely on it for both, when it doesn’t switch to its other mode, it’s quite a cause for concern. Let’s talk about what might be causing that issue.

Your heat pump in Washington DC sounds like it needs a repair call. But before we jump into that, let’s talk about what the problem is so you can better understand how to fix it as soon as possible.

The Air Filters Desperately Need to Be Changed

It’s time to take a look at your air filter. When your air filter is dirty, your heat pump can have a hard time switching from one mode to another. Your heat pump might actually be trying to transition into either heating or cooling, but the lack of airflow simply prevents it.

This is the best-case scenario since you can swap out an air filter on your own. Your air filter should be swapped out every 30-60 days, and once you pull it out and see all the debris, you’ll know why it needs to be that frequent.

It Could Be a Thermostat Issue

If your thermostat isn’t calibrated properly, you could run into a few issues. Your heat pump doesn’t actually detect changes in the air; that’s your thermostat’s job. When it does this, it sends an on or off signal to your heat pump (that’s a simplified way to put it, but it’s essentially what happens).

Then your heat pump turns on, and as the temperature changes, the thermostat sends a signal to stop once it reaches the desired or set temperature. If the problem is with your thermostat, it could be miscalibration (which happens over time and is easy enough to fix), or it could be a problem with its ability to detect the temperature. A technician will be able to tell you more.

The Valve Might Just Be Stuck

This is internal, so it definitely requires a trained heat pump technician to handle it. The valve inside your heat pump, which mechanically switches from one mode to another, may be jammed.

Fixing this doesn’t come with a DIY approach, but thankfully, it’s not the most expensive problem that could happen to your heat pump. But when it can’t physically switch from one mode to another, what else are you to do?

Still Encountering Issues?

Heat pumps can be a bit stubborn at times. After all, they’re doing quite a lot more than most other HVAC systems. If you’re still hitting a wall with your heat pump, that’s okay–we’re here to help you out. There could be a number of other underlying issues, but it’s not something that can be diagnosed over a blog post–contact us today and we’ll come out as soon as possible to help you fix this problem.

Contact Polar Bear Air Conditioning & Heating Inc. today to schedule your heat pump repair as soon as possible.

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