Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - I keep having to push the red reset button

I have a Ruud Heat Pump that I had installed about 4 years ago.

To get the compressore to run I have occasionally had to push the little red reset button once a year or so in the past, but over the last 4 weeks I've had to push it half a dozen times.

Tonight, I had to push it around 11pm, and then 5 minutes later I noticed the compressor had already stopped. I just reset it again.

One other piece of info is I had to have my Freon refilled this summer because everything had froze up.

Any suggestions about what is going wrong?

FYI: The predicted low tonight is 33, so assuming the compressor quits again I hope the electric backup can keep up.

Thanks
Greg

Let's start with the basics, 1st, is your filter clean, is your blower clean, and last but not least is your indoor coil clean? All these things will affect the pressure switch outside at the condensor unit. Another possibility is when you had the system charged last summer, they could have overcharged the system.

Your e-heat should keep the house warm when it's 33 temp. outside. You might not be able to run around in shorts and t-shirts but you will be comfortable.

Thanks for the info.

Last night was as cold as it will be for the next week at least and the house did not get below 65, so my urgency is gone.

I just called the company that did the installation to send out some one to give it a good cleaning as you suggest.

Thanks again,
Handy, but not as cold as I feared

Dont forget .You should change the air filter every 30 to 90 day when unit is on. That helps a lot. We dont use over a MERV 5 for a filterin the units.

ED;)

why no more than Merv5?

Above a MERV 5. They do a very good job thats why. They do slow down the air and make the poor blower motor work a lot harder. We have just found that the Merv 5 works best . It also helps to put a little filter spray on the intake side of the new filter. The big box stores have the filter spray that you can use.

That little red button on your condenser is a High Pressure Reset switch. It is a manual reset because it is trying to tell you something. If it is tripping in the summer it would be because the condenser coil is clogged and sky rocketing the pressures up around 400 I believe is where Ruud trips out at.

During the winter the two main reasons it would trip would be it was overcharged when it was last topped off, or you have a restriction in the lineset or filter drier. If it runs for a good while before tripping out, I would think it is slightly overcharged. Then again the last time I had a problem like yours it was because the home owner had too small of a discharge line and it was jacking the pressures up.

3/8" and 3/4" should be what size copper lines you have if you have a split system. Either way without putting some guages on the unit it is gonna be hard to guess what is wrong with it. Keep us posted.

Resticted liquid line won't cause this. Could be a leaking reversing valve though. Mostlikely overcharge buy the tech that serviced it during the summer.

Did they fix the leak?

I've been busy the last couple of weeks and it has not been that cold, so I've just been letting the backup electrical take care of the heat.

I've played telephone tag with my Heat & Air guy, but he has not come by yet.

Today I had some spare time so I changed the filter and examined the inside coils and blower. I found the coils and blower look clean, but there were several air gaps that were allowing ambient air to get sucked in and bypass the filter and heater coils. One in particular was caused by a missing screw that was allowing a large amount of air in.

I've installed the missing screw and put metal tape over any other air openings I could find.

The behavior is the same. The compressor runs for only 2 or 3 minutes each time I press the little red reset button. It is only 60 degrees out right now, so the behavior seems to be indepedent of temperature as long as the heat is on.

I'll call my Heating & Air guy again tomorrow morning. Hopefully he can get over here fairly soon.