Heat Pump Repair in Hot Springs, AR
Homes here need heat from November through April and cooling from May through September. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Garland County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eleven months of run time in Garland County
Your heat pump works almost year round here, heat from November through April, cooling from May through September. That leaves it only a few weeks of rest, and the constant cycling wears on the compressor and the reversing valve that switches it between the two jobs.
Winter nights averaging 33°F sit right in the range where a heat pump has to defrost itself often, and a failing defrost board or a stuck reversing valve shows up fast as ice building on the outdoor unit and a house that won't get warm. Summer afternoons near 90°F push the compressor hard on the cooling side, and a system that's losing capacity there struggles to keep up during the hottest part of the day. With 61 damaging wind events recorded here over the past ten years, the outdoor unit also takes a beating from debris, and a bent fan blade or a damaged coil fin can throw the whole system off balance.
- 6 months
- November through April, your system heats
- 5 months
- May through September, it cools
- 33°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 90°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Arkansas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The state issues the license to the contractor, not to this one repair. It covers the business, and it stays with them from job to job. Counties and cities in Arkansas are not allowed to require their own separate HVAC license on top of it.
Repairing a heat pump usually means opening the refrigerant side of the system. That part of the job falls under a separate federal rule. Anyone who opens the refrigerant side of a heat pump, in Arkansas or any other state, has to hold EPA Section 608 certification. So the work on this page answers to two things at once. The state license stands behind the contractor. The federal certification stands behind whoever handles the refrigerant.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- Why is my heat pump blowing cold air?
- In heat mode, your heat pump moves warm air from outside into your house, and that air can feel cool coming out of the vents even when the system is working right, since it's usually a good bit cooler than your skin. If the air feels truly cold, not just cool, check the outdoor unit for a coil caked in ice or covered in leaves and debris. A dirty air filter can also choke off airflow enough that the air coming out never picks up heat. If the outdoor unit looks clogged or frozen and the problem doesn't clear on its own, a licensed contractor should take a look.
- Why is there ice on my heat pump?
- A heat pump goes through a defrost cycle in cold weather, so a light frost on the outdoor coil during winter is normal and should melt off within an hour or so. A thick layer of ice that doesn't go away is different. That usually means the defrost cycle isn't kicking in, airflow across the coil is blocked, or the refrigerant charge is off. With winter nights here averaging 33°F from December through February, the outdoor unit works hard enough that a stuck defrost cycle shows up fast as solid ice rather than frost. A contractor licensed in Arkansas will need to check the defrost control and refrigerant level to sort out which one it is.
- Why is my heat pump running but not cooling?
- If the outdoor unit and indoor blower are both running but the air coming out isn't cold, the most common cause is low refrigerant, usually from a leak. It can also mean the outdoor coil is dirty or blocked, which stops the system from releasing heat outside the way it needs to for cooling to work. Check that the outdoor unit has clear space around it and the air filter isn't clogged, since both cut off airflow the system depends on. On a 90°F afternoon here, a system that's low on refrigerant or short on airflow will run long and still not keep up. A licensed contractor will need to check the refrigerant charge, since handling refrigerant isn't something a homeowner can do.