Cool air from the vents on a winter morning
A heat pump does not burn anything to make warmth. It moves heat from the outdoor air into the house, so when something goes wrong the first sign is usually a house that will not climb to the thermostat setting, or vents that push out air that feels barely warmer than a hallway. Cold air from the registers in the middle of winter is the complaint that gets people to the phone.
The outdoor unit tells the rest of the story. On a frosty Spartanburg morning it is normal to see a cloud of steam rise off the cabinet for a few minutes while the unit melts frost off its coil, and the fan may stop during that cycle. What is not normal is a coil that stays wrapped in ice all afternoon, a unit that runs for hours without ever finishing a defrost, or ice creeping up the copper line that heads into the house.
If you cannot tell which one you are looking at, call (864) 579-3247 during office hours, Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Emergency service is available after hours and on weekends.
Charge, reversing valve, defrost control and the loop between them
A tech starts with refrigerant, because a heat pump cannot move heat without the right amount of it. Pressures and temperatures are read against what the unit is built to run at. A low reading usually means a leak somewhere, which is a repair, not a top-off to repeat every spring.
The reversing valve is the part that lets one machine run in both directions, and it can stick or leak internally, leaving the unit stuck in cooling mode while the house gets colder. The defrost control and its sensor decide when the outdoor coil needs a melt cycle, and a failed sensor is a common reason for a coil that freezes solid. The outdoor fan motor and the coil fins get checked in the same visit, since a weak fan or a matted coil shrinks the heat the unit can pick up from outside.
Then the parts people forget: insulation on the line set that carries refrigerant between the units, the indoor coil and air handler, and the thermostat. The thermostat also controls the backup heat strips. If those strips run every cold morning because the heat pump is not keeping up, the house stays warm but the electric bill tells on the fault.
Repair it, or put a new one in
Johnson Heating & Air services every brand of heat pump, so there is no need to match the nameplate before calling. A failed fan motor, a bad defrost sensor or a thermostat wired wrong are repairs worth making on a unit that has otherwise been healthy. A compressor failure or a coil leak on an older unit is where the conversation turns to replacing it.
New systems get a free quote, and financing is available. Johnson installs Armstrong Air equipment, and the quote covers more than the outdoor unit: the indoor coil or air handler, the line set, the pad and the thermostat are looked at together so the pieces match. In a mild-winter area like Spartanburg, a heat pump is a sound way to heat and cool a house with one system.
