Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - Aux Heat-Defrost Cycle Question

Ed, Scott or anyone else that may know the answer to this.

In regards to the “noisy fan” problem, wanted to let you know that we found that it was a bad bearing in the motor.

Now I have another question. How often should a heat pump “defrost”. It seems that ours is doing this a lot lately. Could just be my imagination since the “noisy fan” situation but, is there something to look for in order to tell if your unit is “defrosting” more than it should?

Perhaps this is just one of those, depends on how cold it is outside questions but, you know more about this than I do.

Thanks!

It should defrost when need be if ever thing is right with the defrost board. Like does it look like it should need to defrost with ice when it does. On some you can set the defrost run time . Its all in temp and humidity outside.

ED ;)

Ed...
I haven’t noticed any “ice” from the outside of the unit. Where would I be looking for the “ice” or “frost”?

When your unit is running for heat the outdoor unit is just like the AC in summer. The big copper line hot. Now if its cold out and damp the ice can build up on the outside coil there. If it get to much then the unit turn back to a AC and the outdoor coil gets hot to melt the ice off. thats when you are in defrost.

ED ;)

Ed:

While the Aux. light was on, I went out and checked the copper line that’s about 3/8” in diameter and it was warm/hot.

I looked down into the unit, the fan was not running and I could not see any ice or frost. Around part of the inside of the unit, against the wall casing, is an aluminum foil looking matter. Sorry, that’s the best way I can describe it. Is this what I should be looking for ice/frost on or will it be somewhere else?

It sure sounds like you should get a tech to check out the defrost board. The big copper line was cold and wet at this time Right???? When it runs on heat is the big copper line hot then.Are you low on freon? Lots of ifs still here.

ED ;)

Defrost thermostats close and start the clock running around 30 degrees so if it is anywhere near the 30 degree mark outside then it will go into defrost when the clock says to.

You can look at the defrost control in the outdoor unit and it might tell you when the timer is set for. 30 45 60 90 minutes. typically there is a wire comming from the control board with a connector attached to a small pin that has numbers that coinsides with the times or a small black jumper block that connects two pins together. Here in wilmington we set them on 60 inland and 30 on the coastline because there is much more humidity.