Odd Heat Pump Behavior

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solidlines

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I think my heat pump may be acting funny, but I was hoping someone could help me confirm before calling out a tech to take a look. It’s about 8-9 years old and it’s a Concord Air unit.

When the heat comes on in the house, the outdoor heat pump unit kicks on like normal and the fan inside of it runs at the normal speed. Maybe about 10 minutes or so into running, the fan will slow down significantly but continue to turn. During this time, the air handler inside continues to run and it appears as though it’s heating normally. Then after about another 5-10 minutes, the heat pump fan will go back to normal speed for a little awhile before turning off when the desired temp is reached.

The heat turns off and on when it should, so it is maintaining the temperature on the thermostat. If I wouldn’t have observed the heat pump unit itself, I wouldn’t have questioned whether it was working. We just had our blower motor replaced on the air handler though, so I’ve been watching everything closer than normal. I’m not sure if that repair could cause this behavior in the heat pump, maybe it was doing it before, but I wanted to see if this is normal behavior or not?

We have another separate heat pump for the upstairs of our house and it's not acting this way.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you.
 

Smooky

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Some models of heat pumps are equipped with variable-speed or dual-speed motors on their indoor fans (blowers), outdoor fans, or both. The variable-speed controls for these fans attempt to keep the air moving at a comfortable velocity, minimizing cool drafts and maximizing electrical savings. It also minimizes the noise from the blower running at full speed.

http://energy.gov/energysaver/heat-pump-systems
 

solidlines

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Thank you for the response.

I'm not sure that the outdoor fan is variable though, I've never witnessed this behavior until now, so I was thinking something in it was failing.
 

Dana

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Got a model number?

Concord Air make both single an two stage heat pumps in their current line-up.
 

solidlines

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MODEL #

2SHP14LE118P-1

Also, I was able to capture a short video of the heat pump running in the slower mode. Again, the fan will slow down like this about 15 minutes after running at full speed, then it slows down for 10 min, and speeds back up again.

 

Dana

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The specs indicate that it's a single speed R22-refrigerant heat pump, but it's a single speed, so either the motor windings, the wiring, or the controls are suspect.
 

WorthFlorida

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Try it in A/C mode and probably you'll see the same thing, however, it looks to me the start or run capacitor is bad. It should not be making that buzzing noise. With not enough airflow over the coils the pressures gets out of tolerance and the compressor starts working hard. If you have an electric heating element for supplemental heating (AUX) it must be on since your are getting to temperature. The thermostat can be set to turn on the electric heating elements if the set point is more than a few degree than the actual room temp or on all the time with the heat pump. I have mine set to be on all the time with the heat pump, otherwise it has a hard time getting the house temp up.

Call a tech out, the compressor maybe working too hard and shorten its life. Even if it was a two speed fan it would not spin that slow.
 
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