Heat pump repair in Port Charlotte is a year-round job for us, because most homes here use a heat pump for both cooling and those few cold January mornings. The same outdoor unit does both jobs, so it runs more hours than a straight AC.
The reversing valve is the part that makes a heat pump different. It shifts refrigerant flow between heating and cooling. When the solenoid coil burns out or the valve sticks halfway, you get lukewarm air in either mode. We test the coil voltage from the thermostat and check pressures on both sides to tell a stuck valve from a charge problem.
Defrost controls get a workout on the rare cold nights. If the outdoor coil ices over and does not clear, the defrost board, the sensor or a low charge is usually behind it. Backup heat strips in the air handler also quit, often from a burned sequencer or a tripped limit switch, and folks only find out on the first cold morning of the year.
Salt air is hard on heat pump coils the same way it is on AC coils. Homes along the canals of Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda see pinhole leaks in the outdoor coil sooner than homes inland.
We carry common capacitors, contactors, defrost sensors and reversing valve coils on the truck. When a bigger part has to be ordered, we tell you the lead time up front. If your heat pump is near the end of its life, look at our heat pump installation options or read about thermostat installation for staging problems.