Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - heat pump noise

Our problem seems like very similar to the one badtlc having (Odd sound from heat pump..... posted on 10/29/08)

About a month ago we had Amana heat pump installed. When it was cooling it worked fine, but when it was heating it was very noisy and it vibrated the floor above the utility room.
The company changed the inside unit, installed insulted ducts, suspended the pipes so that they don’t touch the ceiling of the utility room (or the floor of the room above).

Now when the heat pump cools, I almost cannot hear that it is running. But when it heats, there is still noise. Much less than before, but not as quite as cooling. It seems like noise is mostly coming from the outside unit, but very hard to pinpoint the origin. I am afraid that this noise is a symptom of something not working properly and heat pump may not last as long as it should.

I very much appreciate your comments.

The vibration is more likely coming from your indoor blower motor than the outside unit. The blower typically runs at lower speed during a heat call than when cooling and can resonate through your ducts at those lower cycles. I would call back the installer to check it out.

If you have narrowed the noise down to the condensor and it only does it in heat mode then yes you should be concerned. A nice quiet compressor in cooling mode that is noisy in heat mode is complaining for a reason, most likely the pressures are not correct in heat mode due to a poor installation and or incorrect refrigerant charge level. I agree that some of the lower end units will exhibit higher noise levels but typically that noise will be in both cooling and heating mode. Someone had mentioned in a earlier post about having the technician give you a copy of his work sheet that indicates the pressures/temperatures and airflows. Post all that plus the unit brand/model and we can kick it around a bit, kinda like a dead horse. Heck who knows we might even solve your problem?:coffee:

Thank you for the replies. The installers think that they found the problem. They said that indoor unit does not match with the outdoor unit. They are going to change the indoor unit in a few days with a matching unit. I will post another reply about the outcome.