House heater quits then comes back on.

[pgilmore7]

The heater on my house works good but sometimes after running for a bit the unit outside shuts off and the air starts to blow cold, after about five minutes it comes back on and it's fine. Is this normal or is it a problem? It's happened in the past a few times. I live in Florida so the heater doesn't get used that much, so I tend to forget about the issue one the weather warms up. The unit is from 1998 I just need a few more season out of it because we're going to be building a new house. Any help would be appreciated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[theoldwizard1]

Could be a problem, although not serious.

When it is very, VERY cold up here (<10F), mine furnace does the same. It is hitting the over temp limit switch.

If you are moving, don't worry about it.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

How long does it stay off before the burners fire back up,have you checked the furnace filter?

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

How long does it stay off before the burners fire back up,have you checked the furnace filter?

2XX. Or any other obstruction in the ducts.

 

[Toofast28]

I learned the hard way once, always check the thermostat batteries first, or just replace. If it's not pushing at least 24V, stuff goes inexplicably haywire. May not be the problem, but it's a great/cheap place to start.

 

[Ohmthis]

He says the outside unit shuts off but the blower is still running. That is the defrost cycle. A heat pump essentially runs backwards, as in it blows the cold air outside and the warm air inside. The coils outside get very cold and with moisture freezes. The defrost (usually set by a sensor or probe on the coil) shuts off the outside fan and runs the unit in AC mode to warm the outside coil and melt the ice. This is very common and since you don't use the heat very often you don't notice it. But, I will say that when in defrost mode the inside unit should kick in its back up (heat strips, furnace) and still give you heat. Hope this helps

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

He says the outside unit shuts off but the blower is still running. That is the defrost cycle. A heat pump essentially runs backwards, as in it blows the cold air outside and the warm air inside. The coils outside get very cold and with moisture freezes. The defrost (usually set by a sensor or probe on the coil) shuts off the outside fan and runs the unit in AC mode to warm the outside coil and melt the ice. This is very common and since you don't use the heat very often you don't notice it. But, I will say that when in defrost mode the inside unit should kick in its back up (heat strips, furnace) and still give you heat. Hope this helps

I was guessing he had an outdoor package unit of some kind,It could definately be a heat pump though.

 

[pgilmore7]

Thanks for the info, I did notice it only happens on very cold mornings. The filter in side is good and so are the batteries in the thermostat. It has a heat pump. I'll see how it does hopefully it's just a defrost mode. Thanks again, it's an old unit so it makes me worry sometimes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pgilmore7]

I did forget to mention it's off for like 5 minutes and I can still hear something going on in the out side unit just the fan is off and I can feel some heat coming off of it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dreasoner]

With a heatpump they will periodically go into defrost. The condenser fan shuts off, the reversing valve switches to cooling to melt any ice on the outdoor coil. If you have electric backup, it should come on until the defrost cycle terminates. There could any number of reasons you feel cold air instead of warm air.

 

[fastbike02]

Look under the cover to the unit, it should have an led blinking a trouble code... find the code and google it, mine was a flame sensor had went bad.

 

[sms1974]

thats a heat pump in defrost cycle, the aux heat strip should come on when its in defrost to keep the air blowing inside warm. you might have an issue with the aux heat strip or it might not be connected i've seen that more times than i can count. it sounds like normal opperation.