Heat Pump Repair in Southern Indiana
Heat pump blowing cool air, iced over in the driveway, or stuck running emergency heat? We diagnose heat pumps across Clark and Floyd County, put the repair price in writing before any work starts, and fix what can be fixed. No trip charge.
Henry Brothers repairs heat pumps for homeowners across Clark and Floyd County, Indiana. We diagnose the fault first, put the repair price in writing before any work starts, and the price we quote is the price you pay. No trip charge in our service area. Call (812) 994-1008.
What Does a Heat Pump Repair Cost?
The cost follows the part that failed. A contactor or a run capacitor is a small fix, a defrost board sits in the middle, and a compressor that has gone to ground turns the visit into a replacement conversation. We don't publish a one-size number, because a 3-ton unit from 2012 and a variable-speed system from last year do not fail the same way or cost the same to fix. What you get instead is a written quote before any work starts, and the price we quote is the price you pay.
What Is Your Heat Pump Doing?
A heat pump moves heat instead of burning fuel, so it fails in ways a furnace never does. ENERGY STAR's air source heat pump page covers what a certified system is supposed to deliver. Here is what it looks like when one doesn't.
Why Is My Heat Pump Blowing Cool Air in Winter?
Air out of a heat pump register runs around 90 to 100 degrees, cooler than furnace air, so it can feel wrong even when the system is fine. Air that is genuinely cool on a heat call points to a reversing valve stuck in cooling, a refrigerant charge that has dropped, or a defrost cycle that will not end.
The reversing valve is the part that decides whether your system heats or cools. It is a slide inside a brass body, and when the solenoid fails or the slide hangs up halfway, the system keeps running while the refrigerant goes the wrong direction. You get cold air out of every register and an outdoor unit that feels warm to the hand in January. Low charge causes the same complaint a different way: less refrigerant means less heat carried indoors, so the system runs constantly and the backup strips pick up the slack. We put gauges on it and read the pressures against outdoor temperature before we call it either one. A system low on charge has a leak, and under EPA Section 608 that leak gets repaired, not topped off season after season.
Why Is My Outdoor Unit Iced Over?
Frost on the outdoor coil is normal below about 40 degrees, and the defrost cycle is supposed to melt it off every 30 to 90 minutes. A solid block of ice covering the fan or the top of the cabinet means defrost is not happening, and the system is choking itself.
Three things stop a defrost cycle. The defrost board can fail outright, the coil sensor can drift so far out of range that the board never sees frost, or the reversing valve can refuse to swap into cooling for the few minutes a defrost takes. There is a fourth cause that is not the heat pump at all: gutter runoff or a downspout dripping onto the top of the unit. We see that on plenty of southern Indiana ranch homes where the unit sits under an eave. If your cabinet is iced from the top down instead of the coil out, look up before you call. Either way, shut the system off at the thermostat once you see real ice, because running a heat pump against a blocked coil is how a good compressor turns into a bad one.
Why Is Emergency Heat Running All the Time?
Emergency heat shuts the outdoor unit down and heats the house with electric resistance strips alone. It exists so you are not cold while you wait for a repair. It is not a setting to live on, because those strips can run two to three times the operating cost of the heat pump they replaced.
There is a difference worth knowing. Auxiliary heat kicking on during a cold snap is the system working as designed, filling the gap when outdoor temperature drops below what the heat pump alone can cover. Emergency heat running for days means the outdoor unit stopped contributing at all. If your bill jumped and the thermostat has been showing that indicator since a cold morning last week, the heat pump side has a fault waiting to be found. Call and we will tell you what it is before your next bill lands.
Why Does the Outdoor Unit Hum but Never Start?
A hum with no fan motion almost always means the run capacitor lost its charge or the contactor burned its contacts. Both parts live in the electrical panel on the side of the outdoor unit, and both are common failures. Neither is a big repair.
The run capacitor gives the fan motor and the compressor the kick they need to start turning. When it weakens, the motor draws locked-rotor current and hums instead of spinning, and every second it sits there is heat the windings do not need. A contactor fails differently: the contacts pit and arc until they can no longer pass full voltage, or a wasp nest holds the plunger open. We test both under load with a meter rather than swapping parts by age, and we check the amp draw on the compressor afterward, because a weak capacitor and a failing compressor look identical from the driveway.
Why Does My Heat Pump Short Cycle?
Short cycling means the system starts, runs a few minutes, shuts down, and starts again. On a heat pump that pattern usually points to a low refrigerant charge, a failing capacitor, a coil packed with debris, or a thermostat wired to the wrong stage.
Airflow is where we start, because it is the cheapest thing to rule out. Short cycling from a clogged filter or a coil matted with cottonwood seed and grass clippings costs you nothing but a cleaning. The wiring version is sneakier: a thermostat set up for a single-stage furnace instead of a heat pump can bring the strips on at the same moment the compressor starts, satisfy the room in four minutes, and shut everything down. That one shows up most often after somebody swaps in a smart thermostat over a weekend. Every restart is hardest on the compressor, so short cycling is worth fixing the month you notice it, not the season after.
How Does a Heat Pump Repair Visit Work?
Justin Henry runs the heat-pump side of Henry Brothers, and on a no-heat call he puts a thermometer in a supply register and reads the outdoor liquid line before a single gauge comes off the truck. Those two numbers say whether the problem is on the refrigerant side or the defrost side, and they take about four minutes. The rest of the visit runs the same order every time: diagnosis first, number in writing, then the work.
You Tell Us the Symptom
When it started, what the system does, whether the outdoor unit runs, and what the thermostat says. That history narrows the diagnosis before we open a panel.
We Diagnose the Actual Problem
We read the refrigerant pressures, check the reversing valve and defrost controls, test the capacitor and contactor, and watch a full cycle. No assuming.
The Number Goes in Writing
What failed, what the fix costs, and whether we think it is worth fixing. The price we quote is the price you pay. You decide.
We Repair and Verify
If you say go, we do the work, then run the system in heating and cooling, force a defrost cycle, and check the temperature split before we button anything up.
A Heat Pump Works All Year, So It Gets Checked Twice
A Clean and Check℠ visit is $99: coils, refrigerant charge, electrical connections, and a forced defrost cycle we stand there and watch. The Two Seasons Membership puts a spring visit and a fall visit on the calendar for $159 a year on a heat pump running your ductwork, plus 10% off every repair in between. A ductless mini split is billed by the visit instead.
See the Two Seasons Membership →Past the point of repair, or heating a space your ducts never reached?
Towns We Serve
Clark and Floyd County and the surrounding area. No trip charge in our service area.
Common Heat Pump Repair Questions
Why is my heat pump blowing cool air when the thermostat is set to heat?
A heat pump that runs but pushes cool air in winter usually has a reversing valve stuck in the cooling position, a refrigerant charge that has dropped, or a defrost cycle that never ends. We test the valve, the charge, and the outdoor sensors before naming a part, so the quote covers the fault you actually have.
Why is my outdoor unit covered in ice?
A thin layer of frost is normal on an Indiana winter morning, and the defrost cycle clears the outdoor coil every 30 to 90 minutes. Ice that builds into a solid block around the fan points to a failed defrost board, a bad coil sensor, or a low charge. Shut the system off at the thermostat and call us.
My emergency heat light stays on. What does that mean?
Emergency heat means the outdoor unit stopped carrying the house and the backup electric strips are doing the work alone. Your power bill climbs fast when that runs for days. It usually traces to a failed compressor, a defrost fault, or a charge that leaked out, so it is worth a call the week you notice it.
Why does my heat pump keep turning on and off?
Short cycling on a heat pump traces to a few things: a low refrigerant charge, a failing capacitor, a coil packed with cottonwood and grass clippings, or a thermostat wired to the wrong stage. Every restart hits the compressor hardest, so it is worth fixing early rather than living with.
The outdoor unit hums but the fan never spins. What failed?
A hum with no motion almost always means the run capacitor lost its charge or the contactor burned its contacts. Both are small parts that sit inside the electrical panel of the outdoor unit, and both are common failures after a hot summer. We test them under load instead of guessing by age.
How much does a heat pump repair cost in Southern Indiana?
The number follows the part that failed. A contactor or a capacitor is a small fix, a defrost board sits in the middle, and a failed compressor turns into a replacement conversation. We diagnose first and hand you a written quote before any work starts. The Transparent Pricebook™ explains our approach.
Do you offer 24/7 emergency heat pump repair?
We do not run a 24-hour dispatch line, and we will not pretend otherwise. Call (812) 994-1008 and you get a real arrival window, an actual time, not a promise that falls apart overnight. You can also schedule online and we will confirm the earliest opening we have.
Should I repair my heat pump or replace it?
Age and repair cost drive that call. A ten-year-old unit with a burned contactor is a repair. A twenty-year-old system leaking refrigerant through the compressor usually is not. We tell you what we found, what the fix costs, and what ducted heat pump installation would run. Then the decision is yours.
Do you work on mini splits too, or only central systems?
A mini split is a heat pump, so the same faults show up: a stuck reversing valve, a charge that leaked, a control board that quit. What changes is where the parts sit and how we reach them. Mini split and ductless repair has its own page with the details for wall-mounted heads.
What maintenance keeps a heat pump from failing?
Two visits a year is the standard, because the same equipment runs in both seasons. We clean the coils, verify the charge, tighten the electrical connections, and force a defrost cycle to watch it work. The Two Seasons Membership puts both visits on the calendar and takes 10% off any repair in between.
Heat Pump Not Keeping Up?
Tell us what it is doing. We will come out, diagnose it, and put the number in writing before anything gets fixed.