Plenty of Middle Tennessee homes run a heat pump for both cooling and heating. That equipment works hard in sticky summers and still has to make heat on the cold nights. When a heat pump short-cycles, ices, or blows lukewarm air, call the shop.
Eskimo Brothers Air Conditioning diagnoses reversing valves, defrost, auxiliary heat, and the same capacitors and contactors that fail on straight cool systems. We install replacements when repair is the wrong spend.
Spring Hill dispatch: 220 Town Center Pkwy Ste 140. Columbia dispatch: 610 N Garden St Basement. Same phone for both: 931-682-6969. Ask about the 10% repair discount for military and senior customers, and 5% off a new unit changeout.
How a heat pump behaves in Middle Tennessee winters
A heat pump moves heat instead of making it, so it does most of its work in the mild and cool days that make up much of a Tennessee winter. When the temperature drops hard, the system leans on backup heat strips or a gas furnace. That is normal. What is not normal is backup heat running all day in mild weather, which usually points to a refrigerant, defrost or thermostat problem and shows up on the electric bill.
Normal frost versus a real problem
- Normal: light frost on the outdoor coil on a cold, damp morning, and a defrost cycle every so often where the fan stops and the unit steams for a few minutes.
- Not normal: a solid block of ice on the coil, ice that never clears, or a unit that stays iced after a defrost cycle. Turn the system to emergency heat and call.
- Not normal: lukewarm air for long stretches, constant short cycles or a loud clank when the reversing valve switches.
Keeping a heat pump healthy
Heat pumps run in both seasons, so they log more hours than an air conditioner that rests all winter. Keep leaves, mulch and snow clear of the outdoor unit, change the filter on schedule and have it checked before both the cooling and heating seasons. If you are replacing a heat pump, ask us about sizing for both summer humidity and winter heat, since the right answer has to cover both. Estimates and second opinions are free, and new unit changeouts take the 5% offer.
Where we service heat pumps
We repair and replace heat pumps from both shops: Spring Hill for the Williamson County side, Thompson’s Station and Franklin, and Columbia for Mount Pleasant, Santa Fe, Culleoka, Hampshire and the rest of Maury County. Rural homes on larger lots are often all-electric and depend on the heat pump through the whole winter, so a fall check is worth the visit.