Heat pump condensers (2) both freezing over - Need local HVAC-Talk Pro!

[sktn77a]

Hi all:

I'm having a strange problem with my upstairs and downstairs heatpumps. The house is on Smith Mountain Lake in SW Virginia (humidity?) and when the weather gets cold (freezing or just above) both of our outdoor heat pump condenser units are freezing over. I've posted on that "other" forum and received some good suggestions but none have panned out. I also had a local HVAC company (the original installer of the system) come check it out. He replaced one defrost board and set both to 30 min defrost cycle. No joy. So I'm looking for a Forum Pro that is in the Smith Mountain Lake area. The closest on the HVAC Talk map is over 50 miles away, so I don't think it would be practical to have them come all that way to diagnose (and hopefully repar) the problem. Are there any Forum Pro's that might be closer and able to help?

Thanks,

Keith

[TwincamDave]

Does the unit quit heating when it freezes over or does it still heat? Maybe normal.or sensing bulb isnot in the correct place on the coil or just bad.

[sktn77a]

Hard to tell if it's heating as the auxilliary heat is coming on automatically. Maybe the heatpump is heating but can't keep up and the aux heat is coming on; or maybe the heatpump isn't heating and all of the heat is coming from the resistance strips.

[catmanacman]

do he units stay iced up of do they defrost after a while

[sktn77a]

Unfortunately, we aren't usually there long enough to figure out exactly what's going on (weekends only). It usually corrects itself because the temperatures fluctuate below and above freezin (i's not a particularly cold climate). If we get another cold spell, I'll call out the local HVAC company and have them check the charge (again), the condenser and the evaporator.

[catmanacman]

i would watch them and see if the ice goes away

[ryan1088]

Are we talking ice or frost? Do you have pictures? Strange that both would be doing it also.

[sktn77a]

Are we talking ice or frost? Do you have pictures? Strange that both would be doing it also.

VERY heavy frost - coils and innards complete covered. Not a solid block of ice like I've seen on inside A/C evaporators but enough that I think pretty much all of the heat is coming from the reistance strips (based on last month's bill)!

[timebuilder]

We would need more information.

It is normal for coils to frost. It is not normal for them to fail to defrost.

If the technician set your jumpers for 30 minutes and you can look at that thing for an hour with frost all over it, I would say it needs to be visited again.