During the winter season, you might notice ice accumulating on your heat pump. Ice accumulated on your heat pump can influence its efficiency in the winter season. If the whole heat pump frosted during the winter season, it can get damaged to a great extent. In this situation, you should deal with the issue as soon as possible by defrosting the heat pump or calling in a heat pump repair company.

Here is how you can defrost a heat pump manually.

Know What The Real Problem Is

Heat pumps, just like any other equipment, suffer during the winter season. It can accumulate ice when the weather is excessively cold outside. However, heat pumps use a defrost cycle to avoid damage in the winter season.

Once the heat pump gets frosted, the built-in defrost cycle starts, and certain intervals are set by the machine to melt the ice. However, this is not what you are after. You should detect the actual problem when your heat pump gets frosted. That’s because this is the only way to keep the appliance safe in the long run.

Try Turning The Fan On

To start resolving the issue with your heat pump, you should try turning the fan on. The fan will blow air through the appliance, which usually resolves the frosting issue within an hour.

You can set the fan on high setting if the temperature is too low. While the fan might not treat the issue from its roots, it is usually a good step to start with.

Tweak The Sensor

Whenever there is a frost, your HVAC unit will need to work for a longer period of time in order to resolve the issue.

For this step, you can try moving the sensor/thermostat off the heat pump to its outside. You should mark the original position of the thermostat so you might be able to replace it in the right position after the issue has been resolved.

However, the thermostat moving to a new position might cause the heat pump to malfunction for some time. If gone wrong, this step can also stop the defrost cycle. This is not what you would need the machine to do.

Try Manual Defrost

If the heat pump you have had a built-in defrost feature, you should use the feature every time there is a frosting problem. However, the power saving settings on your heat pump might cause the defrost feature to stop functioning properly.

Also, the defrost feature in your heat pump might not be working properly. Usually, the deep roasting cycles in some heat pumps are too short, and this causes the appliance to get frosted more often. So, to avoid the frosting issue, you should set your heat pump according to the instructions of the manufacturer.

Inspect The Appliance For Ice Buildup Daily

If the average winter temperatures in your area stay below 0°C, you should inspect your heat pump for any ice buildup on a daily basis. Usually, heat pumps which are working properly might develop a thin layer of ice on themselves. Thin ice buildup on your heat pump is nothing to worry about. However, if a thick layer of ice starts to build up on the coils and other parts of your heat pump, it will need to be defrosted.

To start the defrosting process, you must first locate the heat pump outside your house.

Let The Unit Defrost Itself

If there is only a thin layer of ice accumulated on the heat pump, the unit can usually defrost itself. Heat pumps come with built-in defrosting systems to help them defrost any amount of ice in the winter season. However, defrosting systems which come with heat pumps only work when the layer of ice is really thin.

Depending on the model of your heat pump, it might indicate when it goes into the defrost cycle. There will be a display in your house where you can see if your unit is in the defrost cycle. The loud noise emitted by the defroster will also let you know when the defrost cycle is underway. In harsh winter seasons, defrost cycle might start after every hour.

This is how you can defrost your heat pump. If this is confusing, take help from heat pump repair services Tyson’s Corner.