"snow on heat pump"

[daaw]

I live in the southeast and noticed a possible problem this morning. My home was completed in June and I have two Bryant heat pumps. Last night the temp. dropped to approx. 35 degrees. This morning I noticed one of the outside units (condenser?) had several bands of "snow" along the fins. There were 3 bands approx. 4 inches tall that seemed to run around the whole unit. I called the installer and was told that this was not unusual and that the unit had some type of defroster on it. I was told that as long as it wasn't ice I was OK. The system seems to be heating the house OK but was just wondering if I need to get someone out to look at it before it starts to get too cold. <br />This evening when I got home the unit was on and the bands were still there. Nearly as soon as the unit cut off, the band disappeared. <br /><br />Any thoughts?? <br /><br />thanks in advance

 

[craze1cars]

Re: "snow on heat pump"

Normal. They frost up all the time, and occasionally they'll kick into a defrost mode to melt off the frost before it accumulates into an ice block.<br /><br />As long as it's not a massive cube of ice, it's working as designed.

 

[Ben Konopacky]

Re: "snow on heat pump"

this is the norm with heat pumps.high humidity that condence on the evap coil (rev. for cooling)The unit will defrost auto by temp or press..this will allow hot gas (ref.)to cycle thru the evap.to melt the frost. Hope this helps.