Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - Heat Pump Blows Cold??

Hello Everyone,

I am having a problem with my heating system. I think it is a heat pump. It is an Amana Hi Efficiency Remote Heat Pump. There are two units-one upstairs and one downstairs. I replaced the upstairs unit last summer and still haven’t finished paying for it. The downstairs unit connects to a large metal box under the house. I am having problems with the downstairs unit. Sorry, I don’t know much about this stuff.

Okay, here is my problem. The heat comes on and works fine for a while, usually one full cycle. Then the air shuts off inside but the unit outside continues to run. The unit outside is really loud. It sounds like a diesel engine. When the heat inside does come back on, the air from the vents is cold. I read the other posts about the air from these units not being as warm as the heat from oil or gas furnaces but my air is not warm at all. If I go to sleep and let the unit run all night it is freezing downstairs in the morning. The frigid air meets me on the stairwell!! Every once in a while, if I flick the thermostat on and off it will fix itself for a while.

I talked to a couple of people at Lowe’s and a local HVAC store and got conflicting advice. One man said it sounded like a thermostat problem and another said that it had nothing to do with the thermostat. I would just like to get an idea of what is going on before I call a technician out to my house? Could a faulty thermostat cause all of this? Are these problems hard to trace? I have a brother who is pretty handy around the house but I am not sure if this kind of troubleshooting is best left to professionals?

Any advice is appreciated. It is getting cold!!

first. Inside blower on--all the time??outside fan on compressor on---any ice on outside units---- What do you get if you put the tstat over to EME --AUX???? When running is the big copper line hot at the outdoor unit????
Out door fan run???

Sorry! :) Okay, I am not sure what is running. There is air coming out of the vents and the fan is blowing outside. The heat happens to be working right now but I don’t know how long it will last. There is no ice outside and I don’t have an EME—AUX on the thermostat? It would be on the front of the thermostat, right? Down by the heat/cool switch??

The metal line at the base of the unit is hot. :)