Heat Pump Maintenance in Ypsilanti and Southeast Michigan

A furnace rests all summer and an air conditioner rests all winter. A heat pump does neither. It is the only piece of HVAC equipment in a Southeast Michigan house that runs through the humid stretch of July, the shoulder seasons, and the polar vortex nights of January, reversing itself dozens of times a day in winter to shed frost. That workload is why heat pumps need maintenance twice a year, and why skipping it costs more than it does on a furnace: a heat pump that drifts out of spec does not usually stop, it quietly hands the house to electric strip heat or the gas furnace, and the first symptom is a DTE bill that doubled two months ago.

Temprasure's fall heat pump tune-up is built around the winter failure points. We test the defrost control board and the defrost sensor, and we watch an actual defrost cycle initiate and terminate. We verify the reversing valve shifts cleanly in both directions. We check the charge against the manufacturer's heating-mode chart, which is different from the cooling chart and which a lot of technicians skip. We test the electric backup strips and their sequencer, or on a dual-fuel system we confirm the furnace is healthy and the balance point on the thermostat is set where the equipment's capacity curve and current rates say it should be. We check the outdoor unit's clearance, its riser stand and its drainage so defrost water will not freeze it to the pad in February.

The spring visit is closer to an air conditioner tune-up with a few additions. The outdoor coil gets washed from the inside out, because a heat pump coil that spent all winter cycling through frost and thaw collects more debris than an AC coil does. The run capacitor is tested against its rating, the contactor is inspected, amp draws are recorded on the compressor and fan, the condensate drain is flushed and the float switch is tested, and the charge is verified by superheat and subcooling in cooling mode. We also check that the thermostat is switching modes correctly, since a dual-fuel thermostat that is still trying to stage the furnace in May wastes gas.

Both visits are instrument-based and both end with a written report of the readings, what is healthy, what is marginal, and a flat-rate price for anything we recommend. We do not replace parts that are in spec. We do tell you honestly when a 14-year-old builder-grade heat pump has a weakening compressor and a reversing valve that is getting slow, so that a replacement with a cold-climate unit and DTE rebates can happen on your timeline. Our service agreement covers both heat pump visits, adds priority scheduling when something fails, and discounts repairs, and most heat pump owners find it the simplest way to keep up.