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borisswort

Heat Pump - Time between defrostings

borisswort
11 years ago

About 5 years ago I had a Goodman heat pump installed. The installer initially set it to defrost every 30 minutes. After about 3 years I figured out I could change it to only defrost every 60 minutes. About February of this year I noticed that even at 60 minutes it never frosted at all, so I changed it to 90 minutes between defrosts and still never had a problem with frost. Could I damage my heat pump if it gets iced up and tries to run? I live in the Seattle area.

I know - I should have gotten a heat pump with demand defrost, but I did not know about that feature when I bought it.

Comments (8)

  • tigerdunes
    11 years ago

    Yes, you could possible damage your heat pump but considering your location and relatively mild winter climates, the chance is small.

    Your bigger issue might be losing efficiency and costing you more to operate. If you get a rare, hard snow or ice storm, then the timed defrost method most likely would be completely overwhelmed and unable to defrost completely. Here the best solution is to go to emergency heat until weather moderated.

    I hate timed defrost and encourage homeowners depending on location to purchase new HP systems with electronic demand defrost. It eliminates nuisance, unnecessary, and expensive defrost calls.

    IMO

  • borisswort
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    My heat pump changes over to my gas furnace whenever the outside temperature is under 35 degrees, so is there a way to just eliminate the defrosting? Or, should I still just keep it defrosting every 90 minutes?

  • tigerdunes
    11 years ago

    With DF being the case, I would just deactivate the defrost function. I assume you are only the seeing the defrost function under 40 degrees. Correct?

  • borisswort
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I think it defrosts every 90 minutes of running time no matter the outside temperature.

    How do I disable the defrost function? I figured out how to change it from 30 to 60 to 90 minutes, but there are no other jumpers to switch it to. Do I just disconnect the jumper?

  • SaltiDawg
    11 years ago

    borisswort,

    I do not believe my Carrier defrosts if either the backup or emergency heat is activated... and of course it does not defrost in cooling mode. :-)

    I would think the designers would cause this to be the norm.

    Are you sure your unit defrosts when in backup heat or emergency heat mode?

  • borisswort
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    No, my heat pump never defrosts when it is below 35 degrees out because my gas furnace is working then. There has been times when my heat pump gets a few inches of snow on it because it does not run for a few days because of the outside temperature. I have missed seeing what happens when the outside temperature goes above 35 degrees and there is still a pile of snow on the heat pump.

  • brickeyee
    11 years ago

    "defrosts if either the backup or emergency heat is activated... "

    Since the heat pump is no longer operating to pull the outside unit (now an evaporator) below the frost point, why would it?

  • SaltiDawg
    11 years ago

    brickeye,

    Re-read my post... I never suggested it would "defrost if either the backup or emergency heat is activated..."

    I was in a non-confrontational manner indicating, " I do not believe my Carrier defrosts if either the backup or emergency heat is activated..." and going on to ask if the OP was sure it did defrost in those modes... as he had previously stated.

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